LEGO

LEGO is the best toy ever. No question. No debate.

LEGO is not a single toy, but a system of play comprised of small, interlocking plastic bricks. A handful of six, eight-studded LEGO bricks can be combined 915,103,765 million ways, allowing a child to a make anything he or she imagines. It was one of the first toys to be inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998 and named “Toy of the Century” by Fortune magazine in 1999. In 2012, the company earned over $970 million, making it the most valuable toy company in the world. It is currently estimated to be worth of over $14.6 billion and is still privately owned by the Kristiansen family who founded it in 1932.

Just six, eight-studded bricks can be combined over 900
million ways!

So much has been written about LEGO already there is little point in duplicating it here. So this post will just concentrate on the basics, highlight some little known facts and share some amazing toy pics.

History

Humble Beginnings

Ole Kirk Christiansen and his family lived the small village of

Billund, Denmark. Pictured here is his original house that has

since been turned into a museum.

LEGO’s history begins in 1932, when the Great Depression forced earnest carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen to shut down his wood working business. With a warehouse full of wood scraps and four sons to feed, Ole decided to make brightly colored wooden toys with the hope that people would buy them despite their economic woes. Ole was right that people would like his toys, but wrong to think that people would pay for them. More often than not, Ole found himself trading his toys for food, just so his family could survive.

One of LEGO's first logos, introduced in 1939

After two years of slow but steady sales, Ole managed to convince his relatives to lend him enough money to start his own toy company in 1934. Not wanting to use the family’s name, Ole put up a bottle of his own homemade wine as first prize in a local contest for the best name. In the end, Ole decided his own entry, “LEGO”, was the best. “LEGO” was Christiansen’s abbreviation for the words “leg” and “godt” which mean "play well" in Danish. Years later, Christiansen discovered that LEGO also means “I assemble” or “I put together” in Latin.

This wooden duck is an example of

one of LEGO's very first best sellers

From 1934 onwards, LEGO made a small annual profit. This was, no doubt, due to the quality of the toys LEGO produced. Guided by the motto "only the best is good enough" (sound familiar?), LEGO's seven employees made the nicest wooden boats, airplanes, toy buggies and yo-yo’s available in Denmark.

Ole Kirk Christiansen at his

management desk in the 1950s

By 1945, LEGO had grown from a seven man workshop to a 15 employee factory. While all four of Ole’s son’s helped with the business, it was Godtfred (his third eldest) who chose carpentry as his trade. Already at the age of 12, Godtfred was working alongside his father when he started making toys in 1932. By 1937, Godtfred was designing his own toys and managing the workshop operations. Godtfred became junior managing director 1950 and director in 1958, when Ole died.

The Birth of the LEGO Brick

This fish, designed by Godtfred Kirk
Christiansen, was one of the first
plastic toys produced by LEGO

By 1947, Ole was secure enough in LEGO’s future to invest twice the previous years’ profits into an injection molding machine. Even though Ole believed that wooden toys would remain the company’s mainstay, he foresaw that plastic toys could be a profitable sideline. By 1949, LEGO was selling plastic baby rattles, teddy bears and farm animals alongside its more traditional wooden toys.

A box of the first LEGO "Automatic Binding Bricks'

The 1949 product line also included the first LEGO bricks – or “Automatic Binding Bricks” as they were called back then. These first bricks had the distinction of being one of the few LEGO products not designed by Ole or Godtfred. Instead, they were replicas of demo samples given to Ole when he purchased the injection molding machine. These demo bricks were designed and produced by Hilary Fisher Page, director of the British Kiddicraft toy company.

Kiddicraft's original building beakers,
inspired by Russian stacking toys

Page originally founded Kiddicraft in 1932 to import and sell Russian wooden toys. These toys sold poorly and Kiddicraft soon went bankrupt. In an effort to improve his product, Page visited nursery schools in southern England to watch children playing naturally with their toys. Through these observations, Page concluded that paint was not a particularly safe or durable toy finish. So Page experimented with newly developed plastic materials to see if he could make a toy that was more hygienic and attractive.

The original packaging for Page's first
Interlocking Building Cubes

By 1937, Page was ready to introduce a new range of toys to the British market made entirely of plastic. These toys included replicas of Kiddicraft’s previous Russian toys, as well as new models that fully exploited the plastic molding process. These new toys included the Interlocking Building Cube, which Page patented in 1940.

Hilary Page's original building cubes stacked easly, but had no
system for sticking together, so children's creations would easily
fall apart.

By the end of World War II, the plastics industry had exploded and most of Page’s toys were flying off the shelves. But not his Interlocking Building Cubes. These cubes had stiff competition from other construction toys and never became strong sellers in the UK. While Page was aware that the Christiansens had seen his designs (in fact, Page may have physically given them to the Christiansens), it is unlikely that he knew LEGO was planning on selling them. However, it is also unlikely that Page would have cared too much, because he was busy expanding Kiddicraft’s range of miniature replicas at the time.

Kiddicraft's replicas of vodka, gin and
other spirits

Unfortunately, Page overextended Kiddicraft’s commitments and by the mid 1950’s, Kiddicraft was once again on the verge of bankruptcy. Unable to cope with the pressure, Page committed suicide in 1957. Kiddicraft managed to carry on until it was sold to a US toy conglomerate in 1977. LEGO then purchased the rights to Page’s original patents in 1981.

In 1952, LEGO dropped

the name "automatic

binding brick" and marketed

the bricks simply as LEGO

"Mursten"or LEGO bricks.

Although Page had patented the original building cube, LEGO had already made substantial changes to it by the time of his death. This was because the original bricks did not sell well in Denmark either. The bricks’ original poor reception was likely due to bad marketing, but also due to the fact that the bricks did not really stick well together.

The original LEGO patent for the "stud and
tube system". The tubes on the inside give
the bricks their "clutch power".

Despite these problems, Godtfred had faith in the bricks and worked hard to make them better. Between 1952 and 1955, Godtfred changed their scale and expanded the models to include a base plate, round and square bricks and crossbeams. By 1955, LEGO was marketing the bricks as part of an integrated town system that included a play mat, gas pumps and other HO scaled toys. By 1958, Christiansen had patented an entirely new brick based on his “stud-and-tube system”, that gave the bricks the “clutch power” to stick together. This design was sufficiently different from Page’s original cube that LEGO could successfully file patents in both Denmark and England.

A System of Play

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen
became junior managing
director in 1950 and intro-
duced the LEGO system of
play in 1955

One reason Godtfred Christiansen had faith in the LEGO brick is because he believed it lent itself to a “system” of play. The idea of a play system was inspired by a chance conversation with the toy buyer Troels Petersen on the ferry crossing to the London Toy Fair in 1954. Petersen was the chief buyer for Copenhagen’s largest department store and complained to Christiansen that the problem with most toys was that they were typically produced as one-offs – i.e. not part of any integrated or imaginative play system. Christiansen was immediately struck by this idea and developed ten principles he thought such a play system should have. These ten “Principles of Play” now underpin every aspect of LEGO toy development.

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen and his children playing with
the LEGO system

LEGO's 10 Principles of Play

1. Unlimited play potential
2. For girls, for boys
3. Fun for every age
4. Year round play
5. Healthy and quiet play
6. Long hours of play
7. Development, imagination, creativity
8. The more LEGO, the greater its value
9. Extra sets available
10. Quality in every detail

LEGO introduced its first play system
in 1955

After determining the principles, Christiansen reviewed LEGO’s entire product line to consider which toys were the most suitable for a play system. Despite their poor sales, Godtfred decided that the LEGO bricks had the best potential. It is likely that it this decision ultimately made LEGO the best selling it is today.

International Success

BILOfix was the name LEGO originally gave to its line of
construction toys made out of wood. In 1960, Godtfred's
three brothers left LEGO to sell wooden toys under the
BILOfix name.

In 1960, LEGO’s entire wooden toy inventory was lost in a fire that destroyed the Billund warehouse. With this loss, Godtfred decided to stop wooden toy production all together and concentrate on marketing the bricks worldwide. Godtfred’s brothers were opposed to this decision, however, so left LEGO to manufacture wooden toys under the name of BILOfix. BILOfix lasted until 1972, when the Christiansen brothers sold it to another Danish toy distributor.

The Billund Airport was built in the mid 60's on the LEGO
company's original airstrip. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen
was instrurmental in helping Billund complete the project.
The airstrip pictured is a miniature version of the Billund
airstrip made for Legoland.

With the departure of his brothers, Christiansen lost no time in marketing the LEGO bricks globally. Already by that time LEGO bricks were selling well across Europe. By the end of 1960, LEGO toys were being sold throughout the UK, Ireland and Australia and by the end of 1961, throughout the USA. By 1966, LEGO bricks were being distributed in 42 countries worldwide.

Throughout the 60’s, Christiansen (with the support of Futura – LEGO’s development group) continued to expand and refine the LEGO play system. Important innovations introduced by Godtfred Christiansen included:

1961: Wheels as part of the LEGO system

1963: ABS plastic instead of cellulose acetate
for manufacturing the bricks

1964: Instruction manuals with all LEGO sets

1966: The first electric train set

1969: LEGO DUPLO for children aged 2 to 4

1971: A dollhouse system for girls

Kjeld Kirk Christiansen

Three generations of Christiansen's in 1951 at Ole's 60th birthday.
Kjeld spells his last name with a K because of a misspelling on his
birth certificate.

In 1977, Godtfred Christiansen’s son Kjeld Kirk joined LEGO’s management team and further expanded the product line to include themed sets and minifigures. The themed sets dramatically increased LEGO’s profits and by 1990, LEGO was listed as one of the top ten toy companies in the world.

Between 1977 and 2000, Kristiansen introduced the following best-selling sets:

1977: LEGO Technic , involving gears, pneumatics
and electric motors

1979: LEGO Fabuland sets with animal minifigures

1978: LEGO Castle & LEGO space. These sets also

included the first LEGO minifigures.

1986: Computerized LEGO Technic
robot sets for classroom instruction

1989: LEGO Pirates

1998: LEGO Minstorms, involving computer hardward
and software to make customized robots

1999: LEGO Star Wars, involving LEGO's first licensing agreement
with an entertainment company -- LucasFilms.

Diversification, disaster and three moments of truth

The LEGO watch system was introduced in 1996. LEGO
discontinued the watches the early 2000's, but re-intro-
duced them in 2009 as theme park exclusives

Between 1960 and 1990, LEGO’s toy production was based on one simple strategy: every toy must be integral to the entire LEGO system. In other words, it had to be based on the brick. Kristiansen began to question this strategy, however, when he saw that other successful toy companies offered a more diverse range of products. So throughout the 90's Kristiansen gradually started to expland LEGO's product line. By 1998, LEGO was selling children's clothing, watches, video games and computer software -- and managing three theme parks. But for the first time in LEGO's history, the company was losing money.

The LEGO Bionicles series was introduced in 2000. Bionicles
were action figures based on a series of science fantasy
stories, introduced in annual installments between 2000 and
2010.

Concerned that LEGO's focus was still too narrow, Kristiansen stepped down as CEO and put Poul Plougmann in charge. Plougmann had recently improved Bang and Olufsen’s profits by expanding their stereo products and Kristiansen had hoped that he could do the same for LEGO. By 2003, LEGO was offering action figures (Bionicles), a stop motion kit and musical baby toys alongside their themed sets. But by then, LEGO was almost bankrupt.

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen
used 800 million DK of
his personal funds to pay
off LEGO's debts in 2004.

So Kristiansen did an about face. He kicked Plougmann out, paid off LEGO's debts and sent LEGO newcomer, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, out to find out what went wrong. Knudstorp’s verdict was that LEGO had lost sight of its core product and first principles. In other words, it was time to get back to the brick.

Jørgen Vig Knudstorp started his career
as a McKinsey consultant and joined
LEGO in 2000 at the age of 32. By 2004,
Knudstorp was named CEO of the LEGO
Group.

So that’s what Kristiansen did. He sold the theme parks, discontinued the less profitable toys and expanded the themed sets. He also put 36 year old Knudstorp in charge so he could focus on his role as owner of the LEGO Group.

In 2009, LEGO introduced minifigures
independently of sets, on a "blind
box" basis. This means that the
buyer does not know what toy he
or she is buying, until he opens the
box. The value of the toys vary,
based on their frequency in the
collectable series.

Under Knudstorp’s leadership, LEGO made a stunning recovery, showing a substanstial profit already by 2007. Innovations introduced by Knudstorp included the expansion of LEGO's licensing agreements and the highly popular minifigure collectible series. Knudstorp also introduced three “moments of truth” to LEGO’s 10 principles of play:

1. When a LEGO toy is advertised, does it make a child say 'I want this'?
2. Once the child opens the box, does it make the child go 'I want more of this'?
3. One month later, does the child come back to the toy, rebuild it and still play with it? Or does the child put it on the shelf and forget about it?

In 2010, LEGO was estimated to be the most valuable toy company in the world and has held this position ever since. It is estimated that LEGO is currently worth $14.6 billion.

What Makes LEGO Great?

Educational Value

Toys with vitamins in them

Google co-founder Larry Page attributes his understanding

of mechanical devices to many hours of LEGO play during his
childhood. Years later, Page and Brin famously used LEGO

bricks to build a storage unit for their first Google server.

Education is at the heart of LEGO’s core principles. LEGO bricks have the distinction of being able to teach children important principles while encouraging their imagination and creativity. One of the keys to LEGO’s success is its flexibility, providing limitless opportunities for play. Indeed, there is no one way to play with LEGO.

LEGO’s flexibility also ensures that it is is developmentally appropriate for children of all ages. Very young children develop fine motor skills when putting Duplo bricks together and pulling them apart. Older children learn key principles of math and physics when creating buildings, vehicles or animals. Children learn these principles at their own pace, either by experimenting with the bricks on their own or by following the manual, which is included with all LEGO sets.

LEGO actively supports child learning through LEGO Education (established in 1980), which develops products for use in classrooms as part of teaching curriculums. LEGO also has its own learning institute that conducts research on children’s play to inform the ongoing development of all LEGO products. Quite recently, LEGO announced that it will open its own school in Billund that will emphasise inquiry based learning.

The LEGO Friends Controversy

A LEGO advertisment targeting girls
from the 1970's

Historically, LEGO has strongly supported gender-neutral play through its second play principle: for boys, for girls. This is clearly seen in the first LEGO sets that featured pictures of boys and girls playing together. This changed in the early 70’s, however, when LEGO marketed its first dollhouse set to girls. LEGO decision to target girls directly was based on market research suggesting that boys were LEGO's primary users. The dollhouse set was LEGO's first attempt to reach out to girls specifically.

LEGO sales figures consistently suggested that their toys were

more appealing to boys than girls. In the mid 1980's, LEGO

took advantage of these findings by designing and marketing

toys specifically for boys.

Unfortunately, the dollhouse and other “girl” sets that followed were never particularly strong sellers. But “boy” sets continued to do well. In fact, LEGO found that the more masculine the toy – the better the sales.

LEGO Belville was a play system designed for girl in the 1990's.

The dolls are feminine, but not particularly beautiful.

In 2007, LEGO made a concerted effort to fix the “girl problem” by conducting an in-depth market research study with girls in the USA, Europe and Asia. What they discovered is that girls on all continents placed a high value on the “beauty” of the toy and did not think the boxy minifigures were very pretty. So in 2012, LEGO launched the Friends series featuring “mini-dolls” that were more glamorous and fashionable than previous LEGO toys.

LEGO friends are similar in size to the minifigure, but
have a more feminine figure and fashionable clothes

The backlash to the launch of Friends was unprecedentedly strong and vicious, however. Feminist groups proclaimed that LEGO was shamelessly pandering to little girls’ “princess” phase and petitioned LEGO to change its marketing strategy. One group even nominated LEGO Friends as “worst toy of the year”.

LEGO Friends sets involve scenes in suburban settings involving
food and animals

Despite these protestations, LEGO Friends sold well because little girls absolutely loved the new series. Within the first six months of the series' launch of, LEGO’s global sales went up by 25%. Market research in the USA also suggested that the Friends series nearly tripled the number of girls owning LEGO sets.

Entertainment Value

Legoland

Wooden hangers
designed by Dagny
Holm in the 1930's

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen first became aware of LEGO’s ability to entertain when he noticed the positive attention LEGO’s promotional models received at toy fairs and the LEGO factory. These first models were designed by Godtfred’s cousin, Dagny Holm, who joined LEGO in the early 60’s. Dagny was a trained sculptress who quickly understood the limitless potential of the LEGO brick. While LEGO’s original designers were modeling houses, train stations and boats, Dagny introduced a chicken on wheels.

Dagny’s realistic, yet humorous designs resulted in over 20,000 requests to visit the factory a year. In an effort to minimize the disruption caused by these visits, Godtfred decided to install a permanent outdoor display. One thing led to another and by 1968, LEGO was opening its first theme park in Billund. At that time, the park was only three acres and only included Miniland, a driving school, the LEGO train, a puppet theater, Fort Legoredo and the beginnings of an antique toy museum.

Miniland was one of the first attractions when Legoland first opened
in 1968. Miniland was inspired by the popular Madurodam miniature
park in Holland.

The Billund park has since expanded to 45 acres and includes several fast paced rides. There are now six Legoland theme parks worldwide: Billund, Windsor (UK), California, Florida, Germany and Malaysia. Each park has an averge of 1.5 million visitors a year.

Licensing arrangements

In 1998, LEGO entered its first licensing agreement with an entertainment company, Lucas Films Ltd., to manufacture Star Wars themed sets. Prior to then, LEGO resisted offering licensed products because they felt they limited children’s play options to a specific theme. In this respect, LEGO was concerned that licensed sets would violate the company's first principle of play: unlimited play potential.

The LEGO Star War series was also controversial because it introduced complex weapons into the play system. Although the weapons were clearly fantasy objects, some felt that they explicitly conflicted with LEGO's anti war philosopy and principles promoting healthy play.

Themed sets based on popular movies, such as Toy Story,

have introduced weapons to LEGO sets

The success of Star Wars series meant there was no returning to first principles, however and now themed sets based on licensed characters are amongst LEGO's best selling items. LEGO has also reconsidered its policy against guns and weapons, stating now that it recognizes that conflict is a necessary part ofchildren’s play.

Children frequently use LEGO bricks to make their own toy
guns despite LEGO's pledge not to produce modern day
weapons. It is also possible to purchase modern weapons
compatible with minifigures from LEGO "customizer" toy
companies.

“In the LEGO Group, we acknowledge that conflict in play is especially prevalent among 4-9-year-old boys. An inner drive and a need to experiment with their own aggressive feelings in order to learn about other people’s aggressions exists in most children. This in turn enables them to handle and recognize conflict in non-play scenarios. “

Video games and movies

In 1997, LEGO released its first video game. LEGO Island, for play on personal computers. Since then, LEGO has released 45 video and computer games compatible with various platforms. The majority of these games feature characters and settings offered through LEGO's themed sets.

The first LEGO movie -- set to be released in 2014 --
involves an ordinary Lego mini-figure trying to stop an
evil Lego tyrant from gluing the universe together

In 2003, LEGO collaborated with Miramax to offer a series of direct-to-video films based on their Bionicles characters. LEGO has since collaborated with other entertainment companies to produce movies based on the Star Wars theme, as well as its own Hero Factory and Clutch Powers characters. LEGO is also currently working with Warner Brothers to complete the LEGO Movie for theatrical release in 2014.

Cool Factor

Not just for children

LEGO is not just for children. Recently Cambridge Ph.D.
student Daniel Strange used LEGO bricks to build scientific
instruments to test his research on medical implants.

LEGO is undeniably cool. The bricks look like they were designed by a de Stijl artist and the ease with which they come apart and go back together makes it possible to create cool looking things within minutes.

LEGO’s intrinsic coolness is also no doubt the reason why many adults collect and play with LEGO. In fact, adults are now the fastest growing segment of the LEGO market, accounting for nearly 10% of LEGO’s annual sales.

LEGO Ambassadors are adult volunteers recruited by

LEGO to provide input to the development of LEGO

products. There are currently 88 ambassadors

worldwide.

LEGO supports their adult fans (commonly referred to as AFOL’s or Adult Fans of Lego) through websites and contests that promote idea sharing and collaborative learning. AFOLs also organize themselves through their own fansites and conventions, such as Brickfest in the USA and LegoWorld in Zwolle, the Netherlands

LEGO as art

In 2009, BBC television presenter James May (Top Gear)
organized 1,00 volunteers to build a livable house out of
3.3 million plastic bricks.

One of the reasons why LEGO is so popular with adults is because the little bricks lend themselves well to adult activities. For example, architects and community planners routinely use LEGO bricks to experiment with designs and develop town layouts.

In 1996, Polish artist Zbigniew Libera created a series of fake LEGO
sets to artistically explore conditions in Nazi concentration camps.

LEGO bricks are also popular with artistis. There are now a growing number of ‘brick’ artists who use LEGO to create sculptures for museums and art galleries. These artists include Zbigniew Libera who commissioned grey bricks from LEGO to create seven sets depicting scenes from Nazi concentration camps.

Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has convinced LEGO to donate over three tones of white bricks to his Collectivity Project, which invites passerbys to build their ideal community in cities around the world.

LEGO stop motion

LEGO is extremely popular with stop motion animators. From 2000 to 2002, LEGO collaborated with Steven Speilberg to offer the “MovieMaker” set which provided children with the basics for making their own stop motion videos. Movies produced through this set formed the basis for the Brickfilms website and there are now over 550,000 videos on YouTube carrying the LEGO tag. The White Stripe’s 2002 “Fell in Love with a Girl” video by Michel Gondry is a famous example of the potential LEGO bricks have for telling an interesting story.

LEGO photography

The Last Supper by Marco Pece

LEGO is also very popular with photographers. There are currently over 6,000 LEGO groups on the Flickr sharing website. Photographers in Singapore can also attend courses featuring the use of LEGO bricks in still life photography. Famous LEGO photographers include Brendan Powell Smith, who has used LEGO to recreate scenes from the Bible and Marco Pece who recreates famous works of art with LEGO bricks and minfigures.

Hot Factor

It is estimated that there are 62 LEGO
bricks for every person in the world.

Since the 1960’s LEGO toys have been at the top of most children’s Christmas list. It is estimated that over 75% of all Western households own at least one LEGO product and that an average of 62 bricks exist for every single person on this earth. Figures like this suggest that LEGO is possibly the hottest toy in the world.

LEGO Ninjango is currently LEGO's second
best seller. The series features fighting
Ninjas and fanciful weapons.

However, it is very clear that some LEGO toys are hotter than others. Historical best sellers include The Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System, LEGO Castle and LEGO Pirates. Current bestsellers include LEGO Star Wars, Ninjago, LEGO CITY and LEGO Friends.

Minifigures are also extremely popular with collectors. These small toys are released in "blind box" series of 16 with specific figures ranging in freqency. The most rare figures are traded hotly over the internet. For example, Mr. Gold from Series 10 is currently listed for $1,000 on eBay.

When it comes to collecting LEGO,

older toys are not always more valuable.
The 2007 UCS Millennium Falcon Star Wars
set is currently the most expensive LEGO

toy on eBay, with a "buy it now" price
of $12,500.

Vintage LEGO sets also command high prices, especially if they are in an unopened box and are from a popular series. Case in point: an unopened UCS Millennium Falcon set from the 2007 Star Wars series currently lists for the "buy-it-now" price of $12,500 on eBay. Other valuable sets include LEGO Taj Mahal, LEGO Statue of Liberty and LEGO Harry Potter. More information about investing in LEGO can be found at brickpicker.com.

Timelessness

The life cycle of most toys generally goes like this: conception, development, growth, plateau, decline and . . . eventual death. The reason for this cycle is multifold: strong competition, market saturation, new technology and after a while, the toy just goes out of style.

Matchbox cars are still sold today, but never regained
the popularity they had in the 60's after losing a
significant portion of their market share to Hot Wheels.

Even when a toy is very popular, a rapid spike in sales is usually followed by a rapid decline. This certainly has certainly been the case for many highly popular toys, including Barbie, Matchbox and Hasbro's Transformers. While these toys will probably never die, it is unlikely that they will regain the magic that sky-rocketed them to success in the first place.

But then there's LEGO. Like the proverbial phoenix, LEGO toys became even hotter after they went into their first spiral of decline. While analysts will forever debate the reasons for this stunning recovery, I believe its all down to one simple truth: there will always be a demand for toys that put children in charge.

For the last 80 years, LEGO has made children masters of their own universe through toys that provide them with endless possibilities for play. While each of LEGO's ten play principles contribute to the company's ongoing success, I believe that three features in particular make LEGO toys stand out:

1. Quality: When it comes to kids' toys, it is very true that only the best is good enough. While its nice to believe that this is because children deserve the very best, on a more fundamental level parents and children will ultimately reject toys that do not do what they are supposed to do. LEGO toys never fail in this respect. They stick together when you want them to, but also come apart -- over and over and over again.

2. Inspiration: While LEGO values the importance of open-ended play, the company has also come to recognise that children want their toys to inspire them. I believe this is the secret behind LEGO's most recent success. LEGO's licensed sets give children opportunities for open-ended play in settings that they find exciting and with characters they are enthusiastic about.

3. Dedication: Few toy manufacturers have worked as hard as the Christiansen's have to create toys that are both highly desirable and intrinsically good. Essentially, the LEGO story is about a company doing the right thing for the right reasons. So its good to know that, as of this writing, the history of LEGO is a story with a very happy ending.

The LEGO Photo Gallery

Brick artist Nathan Sawaya does some absolutely amazing sculptures with the LEGO brick:

Brick artist Sean Kenny has also produced some wonderful things:

Gorton's Fishermen by Sean Kenney

There are also over 1.6 million photos on the Flickr photsharing website with the LEGO tag on them. Below are a few of my favorites.

Some of the best LEGO photography on the web is by Brendan Powell Smith. Here are some of the best from his Flickr set, but I also highly recommend buying his book.