10 facts about LEGO bricks 6d3g55

Surely you must have already played with the fun building blocks from LEGO ever in your life, right? Whether for children or adults, this fantastic and practical toy has allowed thousands of people around the world to bring their imaginations to life and explore their creativity by creating fun and, at the same time, genius works. 4o1y2j

LEGO bricks have become such popular toys that in 1998 LEGO and its bricks were featured prominently in the National Toy Hall of Fame from United States. However, did you know that colored blocks have more history than you think? In this article we will know 10 curiosities about the blocks of LEGO.

Who invented LEGO blocks? g3b6r

LEGO bricks were invented by the Danish and master carpenter Ole kirk christiansen in 1932. The original story tells that Christiansen built houses and furniture for farmers in the region where he lived, but, due to a fire that destroyed his workshop, he decided to invest in the creation of miniatures of his original models to reduce his production costs during the time. of the Great Depression. Making these smaller-scale models, such as ladders and ironing boards, inspired Christiansen to invest in toy manufacturing.

However, initially Christiansen did not use mortise blocks and the pieces were made of wood. It was not until 1947 that Christiansen and his sons obtained samples of plastic parts that had fittings, and began to use this pattern in the production of toys. 

In subsequent years, Christiansen's children took over their father's legacy and expanded the production of LEGO blocks, investing in sets with different themes for all audiences: children, youth (such as kits mindstorms) and even for adults (such as the kits Brand inspired by famous buildings around the world). Colorful LEGO bricks are so practical that they are part of a “universal system” that allows you to connect a 2021 brick with a 1958 brick without any problem.

Origin of the name “LEGO” 1v426z

Probably one of the biggest curiosities surrounding the history of the blocks is where the name came from. The word LEGO was created using the first two letters of the Danish words "Leg" e "Godt", which means “play well”. Interestingly, LEGO is not a noun, it is an adjective, as in LEGO bricks, LEGO products and LEGO sets. Also, the company was originally called “Automatic Binding Bricks” (Automatic Connection Blocks, in Portuguese) and, contrary to what many think, the plural of the word does not take an “s” and is also “LEGO”.

LEGO blocks do not decompose 51725x

As they are made of plastic, LEGO bricks take a long time to decompose naturally. Plastics like those used in grocery bags take about 100 years to decompose in nature. However, colored blocks are made from a special type of plastic called ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene). Because it is a thermoplastic polymer with unique properties, it requires extreme temperatures or large amounts of ultraviolet light to initiate the degradation process.

For this reason, this thermoplastic is also commonly used in 3D printing. The big problem is that ABS plastic takes 1.300 years to decompose by natural processes! Considering the ecological impact that producing such a tough plastic has on polluting the environment, LEGO is working on ways to reduce the problematic environmental impact of colored bricks.

The yellow LEGO minifigures 6w6l3u

Initially, LEGO didn't have minifigures to represent people in their toy sets. That way, people in LEGO bricks didn't have facial expressions, gender, arms or even removable legs. However, in 1975, the company released the yellow mini-figures that have already become a hallmark of LEGO.

However, what many people wonder to this day is why the minifigures are yellow. The hue would have been chosen because yellow is considered a racially neutral color (at least at that time). Currently, by default, most LEGO minifigures remain yellow, although they come in other colors as well, such as sets inspired by famous franchises like Star Wars, Harry Potter e Marvel, which have the original skin tones of their respective characters.

LEGO produces more tires than Goodyear 4h2f3o

Amazingly, LEGO produces around 318 million of plastic tires per year, with a daily production of 870 thousand units. This impressive amount manages to sur (a lot) the 2 thousand tires produced daily by the Goodyear in Mexico, one of the company's largest and which exports to all of America.

Of course, it is necessary to consider that, relative to their reduced size when compared to real tires, the proportion of LEGO tires will always be greater than that of tires used in real vehicles. Still, it's impressive to think that LEGO produces these little ones 24 hours a day, every day of the year!

The Millennium Falcon ship is the most expensive LEGO set 4w3u6w

Until today, the set of the famous nave Millenium Falcon de Star Wars It's the most expensive LEGO kit ever. The set has more than 7 thousand pieces and costs about US$ 800! Considered a collector's item, this kit is only for those who are LEGO and Star Wars aficionados and wish to have a virtually perfect replica of Han Solo's ship on a prominent shelf in their living room. The set of Millenium Falcon it is so large and intricately detailed that it can take hours to build the complete ship.

To date, the fastest time the kit has been built is 2 hours, 57 minutes and 17 seconds by Johannes Roesch, Kathi Stutz, Ralf Johannes and Gabriel Cabrera Parra in 2019.

In of sales, the best-selling LEGO set in the world is the Taj majal, which has almost 6 thousand pieces! The kit reproduces the Indian temple-mausoleum in impressive detail. Finally, in of assembly difficulty, the title goes with the LEGO set from Torre Eiffel from Paris. Even having only 3.428 pieces (much less than the Millenium Falcon or the Taj Mahal), the tower's structure is so complex that you'd have to do more work assembling the monument than actually having fun.

There is a house made entirely of LEGO 2k4236

Probably one of the first creations that many make when they have several LEGO pieces at their disposal is a house or building. But if you've ever dreamed of building a house made entirely out of life-size LEGO blocks, know that someone has already done this crazy feat. The British television network BBC documented the step-by-step process of building a functioning home for the show. toy stories.

The person responsible for the work was a citizen named James May, who lives in Surrey, UK. About 3,3 million LEGO blocks were used for the construction! In addition, the unusual property included a functional bathroom with a hot shower and a very comfortable bed. LEGO tried to take this “unusual residence” to the LEGOLAND from Windsor, its giant theme park, but the costs and logistics of moving the structure proved so high and complex that the house still remains in Surrey, where it was originally built.

LEGO blocks are one of the favorite pieces of artists 6u1j39

Anyone who thinks LEGO is a toy just for children is sorely mistaken. In addition to the company producing lines and sets aimed at young and adult audiences, LEGO blocks are used by countless artists, sculptors and painters to bring their imaginative creations to life.

Realizing that the artistic market was a segment in which LEGO blocks could be used in the most varied and creative ways, the company recently invested in a product line aimed at adults that recreates posters in the pop art with LEGO blocks. Called Lego art, the brand has four distinct products with particular themes, including a recreation of the “Marilyn Monroe” de Andy Warhol, of Beatles, Iron Man and even characters from Star Wars , the Darth Vader e Darth Maul, with each kit having between 3 and 5 thousand pieces.

A boy created a braille printer out of LEGO 123o1g

At just 13 years old, the young Shubham Banerjee used the set Lego mindstorms to create a fully operational braille printer for the blind, called braigo. Banerjee utilized the kits' unique assembly and automation capabilities Mindstorm LEGO together with technology Intel Edison to program the printer.

The creation of Banerjee was so successful that he is currently the founder of the company. braigo labs inc. The young man's printer cost a fraction of the price of a conventional Braille printer (about 2 thousand dollars) and represented an important step towards the availability of equitable access to education for thousands of blind children and youth around the world who cannot afford the high costs of teaching materials.

Almost infinite and super strong LEGO blocks 6a4y1x

There are currently more than 400 bilhões of LEGO blocks around the world. The amount is so gigantic that if you stacked the blocks one on top of the other, you would be able to build a tower of almost 4 million kilometers tall! This distance is equivalent to 10 times the distance from Earth to the Moon. There are so many possibilities with LEGO blocks that two eight-point-fitting blocks, like those seen in the image below, can be combined 915 million in different ways.

In addition, LEGO blocks are extremely resistant (no wonder it hurts a lot when you step on one of them). Each LEGO brick can withstand a force of more than 4 thousand Newtons, that is, almost half a ton of weight. According to current estimates, there are 80 LEGO blocks for every person on the planet and 2012 was the year in which the company produced the most parts, creating 45,7 billion blocks (with 5,2 million being produced per hour). Since 2014 LEGO has become the largest toy company in the world, suring even the giant Mattel.

And you, reader, did you like the curiosities about LEGO blocks? Leave in the comments which fact about LEGO you found most interesting and tell us about your experience of assembling, playing and letting your imagination run wild with these fantastic colored blocks!

Sources: Interesting Engineering, HuffPost