Billund, Denmark – Thousands and thousands of individuals around the globe immediately acknowledge the look, the texture – particularly below foot – and even the sound of LEGO. The plastic blocks have formed childhood reminiscences for generations.
On the firm’s house in Denmark, many years of these experiences are captured inside a secret museum that solely LEGO workers can entry. CBS Information, nonetheless, obtained a uncommon look inside that little-known museum, the place it was attainable to hint the evolution of one of many world’s most recognizable and beloved toys.
The museum sits subsequent to the unique house of LEGO’s founder, Ole Kirk Kristiansen – a reminder of the toy big’s humble beginnings. The model’s identify displays its philosophy: “LEGO” comes from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” or “play nicely.”
Contained in the museum are among the very first LEGO bricks, together with items that date again to the Fifties. Among the many earliest creations housed there’s the primary LEGO “system” that was ever assembled – a small city that laid the inspiration for every little thing the corporate would go on to construct.
That system — the concept each LEGO brick, no matter when it was made, can join — dates again to 1955, when the corporate assembled that first play city. Over the many years, LEGO creations have developed from medieval villages to mind-blowing architectural feats.
The gathering options classic units that proceed functioning as they had been designed to, many many years later, together with a working drawbridge fortress from the Nineteen Seventies. However there’s been no scarcity of evolution, both. From the early designs, LEGO’s builds have grown more and more formidable and complicated.
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Together with the classics, the museum showcases intricate creations starting from miniatures of iconic landmarks such because the Eiffel Tower to LEGO flower bouquets. Different items have developed from LEGO’s personal sub-brands. A lot of right now’s dad and mom will probably be acquainted, for example, with armies of tiny characters from the trendy youngsters’ TV fantasy superhero present Ninjago.
Inside Lego Home
CBS Information additionally obtained a glimpse inside LEGO Home, a virtually 130,000-square-foot monument to the toy, full of some 25 million LEGO bricks, together with these of the 6 million-plus that make up the placing “Tree of Creativity.”
Standing practically 50 toes excessive, it is the most important recognized LEGO construct on this planet. Every department is filled with element, a feast for the eyes.
Behind all of the creations is LEGO’s personal in-house military of creatives.
“There are about 700 designers right here,” André Doxey, the LEGO Group’s first American Head of Design, instructed CBS Information.
Doxey mentioned creativity, not technical talent, has been key to LEGO’s enduring attraction.
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“You do not have to be a designer,” he mentioned. “You simply should be courageous, artistic and curious, and provides it a attempt.”
Doxey believes LEGO’s exceptional enduring reputation is owed largely to the liberty it gives.
“We all know folks like to create, youngsters like to create,” he mentioned. “Our system is a artistic medium. It permits them to think about something they wish to think about.”
LEGO: Not only for the youngsters — however primarily for the youngsters
And LEGO has discovered that the attraction extends nicely past childhood. Nostalgia performs a robust function on the firm, and so-called AFOLs — Grownup Followers of LEGO — symbolize a major and rising market.
However Design Grasp Milan Madge is aware of the viewers nicely, and whereas not denying the rising reputation of extra complicated, grown-up builds, he mentioned youngsters stay the corporate’s precedence.
“They’re our first inspiration,” he mentioned. “We attempt to act like youngsters and see the world by their eyes.”
Whereas trendy designs are sometimes created digitally to streamline manufacturing, Madge mentioned he nonetheless prefers working with bodily bricks.
“There’s an actual connection between the thoughts and the artistic course of whenever you’re doing hands-on work,” he mentioned.
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That easy tactile connection — brick by brick — has helped make LEGO the top-grossing toy firm on this planet. Households construct collectively. Mates collect round shared creations. Communities type, united by the sound of bricks rattling in a field.
“Everybody is aware of that sound,” Doxey instructed CBS Information. “You shake it, and you understand precisely what it’s.”
A beloved toy, with a plastic drawback
Past all of the creativity and the nostalgia, nonetheless, the LEGO Group can also be grappling with a elementary difficulty in a world going through what a majority of scientists say is a local weather disaster: The corporate’s empire remains to be constructed nearly completely on plastic, and one of many key elements in most moldable is fossil gasoline.
Each ton of LEGO produced requires about two tons of petrochemicals within the manufacturing course of, in response to the worldwide sustainability info and information platform, illuminem. LEGO makes roughly 60 billion bricks per 12 months, and based mostly on illuminem’s information, among the firm’s largest units would require the equal of over 60 kilos of petrochemical equal to provide.
Regardless of formidable local weather pledges, the corporate has thus far did not discover a sustainable path for its toys.
LEGO deserted a “bottles to bricks” initiative in 2023 after discovering the proposed recyclable materials it hoped to make use of would, the truth is, improve emissions in comparison with its present supplies.
“LEGO bricks are made for kids, so they have to meet extraordinarily top quality and security requirements,” the corporate instructed CBS Information in an announcement. “They need to even be sturdy, and are precision-engineered to accuracy of lower than a hair’s width so {that a} brick made right now nonetheless matches one made 60 years in the past.”
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The corporate mentioned it has examined greater than 600 completely different supplies for its LEGO bricks, together with some derived from “sustainable-soruces sugarcane” and recycled supplies from synthetic marble kitchen counter tops.
“Different supplies have proven potential, however haven’t met our strict high quality, security and sturdiness necessities, or wouldn’t have helped cut back our carbon footprint,” the assertion mentioned, including that the corporate is on observe for “60% of the supplies we purchase to be produced from sustainable sources” by the top of the 12 months.
Even in spite of everything these years, LEGO continues to evolve.
