LEGO Brick Turns 50

The LEGO brick celebrated its 50th birthday in January 2008. Here we take a look back at how the plastic building block came to be: LEGO began in 1932 in Denmark, when Ole Kirk Christansen founded a small factory for wooden toys in the unknown town of Billund in the south of the country. To find a name for his company he organized a competition among his employees. In the end, he himself came up with the best name: LEGO -- a fusion of the Danish words "LEg" and "GOdt" ("play well"). Fifteen years later, Christiansen discovered plastic as the ideal material for toy production, and bought the first injection moulding machine in Denmark. In 1949, he developed the LEGO brick prototype, which 50 years later, continues to excite countless children and adults. Over the years, he perfected the brick, which is still the basis of the entire LEGO game and building system today. Of course there have been small adjustments in shape, color and design from time to time, but today's 2,400 variations of LEGO bricks still fit bricks from 1958. Happy 50th birthday LEGO!