VilaWeb - Diari escola: Lego: Playing While Creating

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divendres, 26 d'abril de 2024

> 'Leg godt': Play Well

> Legoland: Theme Parks

> Thirty Years of Minifigures

dimarts, 5 de febrer de 2008

Lego, one of the world's leading toy makers, is celebrating its birthday. It was exactly 50 years ago (on 28 January 1958), that Lego started producing its famous interlocking plastic bricks that have become the defining symbol of the Danish company.

Small children and youngsters all over the world have put their imagination to work using Lego's little pieces to create all manner of shapes and objects, including small figures, vehicles, castles, robots and even entire cities. Today, fifty years later, there are no fewer than 2,400 different Lego pieces. Lego sets are sold in more than 130 countries at the astonishing rate of seven every second.

However, it wasn't long ago that the Lego Group went through a difficult period financially as a result of an increase in competition in the toy industry and the appearance of new types of leisure activity. This led to the sale of the Legoland theme parks and the relocation of part of the production to reduce costs.

Lego is currently the fifth-largest toy maker in the world after Mattel, Hasbro, Bandai and MGA Entertainment.

+ Joguina Segura: programa europeu d'informació a consumidors, pares, educadors i infants sobre la seguretat de les joguines.

'Leg godt': Play Well

+ Modern design of Lego bricks dates back to 1958.

Although the modern design of Lego bricks dates back to 1958, Lego was founded in 1932 by Danish carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen. In fact, it was not until 1934 that Christiansen adopted the name Lego, derived from the Danish expression 'leg godt', meaning 'play well'. In the same year the slogan 'Only the best is good enough' was chosen for Christiansen's workshop in the city of Billund (Denmark). During the early years, Lego made wooden toys and it was not until fifteen years later that it switched to plastic. In 1949 Lego started to make the first pieces that looked like bricks, a precursor of the bricks it makes today.

Legoland: Theme Parks

+ Visitors to Legoland can see reproductions of famous places and monuments.

The popularity of Lego led to the opening of Legoland Billund in 1968, a theme park with attractions made from the famous bricks. This was followed by the setting up of three more theme parks: Legoland Windsor (Windsor, England), Legoland Deutschland (Günzburg, Germany) and Legoland California (Carlsbad, USA). Amongst other attractions, visitors to Legoland can see reproductions of famous places and monuments from throughout the world. In January 2005, Lego sold all four parks to Merlin Entertainments.

Thirty Years of Minifigures

+ Lego has made nearly 4 billion minifigures of all types.

Lego is also marking another important anniversary this year: thirty years ago it introduced its minifigures, also made of plastic, with a yellow face and movable arms and legs. Since then, Lego has made nearly 4 billion minifigures of all types: astronauts, explorers, knights, footballers, pilots, pirates, firemen, Santa Claus, Spiderman, Harry Potter, etc.

MATERIALS

Lego
Format:Web
Pàgina oficial d'aquesta companyia danesa de joguines.
Legoland
Format:Web
Accés als quatre parcs temàtics propietat de Merlin Entertainments.
Brickwiki
Format:Web
Enciclopèdia 'wiki' de Lego.
LDraw.org
Format:Web
Programa per a crear models i escenaris Lego virtuals.
Lugnet
Format:Web
Xarxa internacional d'usuaris de Lego.

QUE HO SABIES?

At the start of the 21st century, the US magazine Fortune named Lego 'Toy of the Century'.
It received the same award from the Toy Retailers Association of Great Britain, which named Monopoly as the best game.
Almost 36,000 Lego pieces are made every minute.