Billund, Denmark – Tens of millions of individuals all over the world immediately acknowledge the look, the texture – particularly below foot – and even the sound of LEGO. The plastic blocks have formed childhood recollections for generations.
On the firm’s house in Denmark, a long time of these experiences are captured inside a secret museum that solely LEGO workers can entry. CBS Information, nevertheless, bought a uncommon look inside that little-known museum, the place it was potential 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 title displays its philosophy: “LEGO” comes from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” or “play effectively.”
Contained in the museum are a few of the very first LEGO bricks, together with items that date again to the Nineteen Fifties. Among the many earliest creations housed there may be the primary LEGO “system” that was ever assembled – a small city that laid the muse for every part 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 a long time, LEGO creations have developed from medieval villages to mind-blowing architectural feats.
The gathering options classic units that proceed functioning as they have been designed to, many a long time 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 bold 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 in the present day’s mother and father might be acquainted, as an illustration, with armies of tiny characters from the trendy children’ TV fantasy superhero present Ninjago.
Inside Lego Home
CBS Information additionally bought a glimpse inside LEGO Home, an almost 130,000-square-foot monument to the toy, crammed with some 25 million LEGO bricks, together with these of the 6 million-plus that make up the putting “Tree of Creativity.”
Standing practically 50 ft excessive, it is the biggest recognized LEGO construct on the planet. Every department is full of 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, advised CBS Information.
Doxey mentioned creativity, not technical ability, has been key to LEGO’s enduring attraction.
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“You do not have to be a designer,” he mentioned. “You simply must be courageous, inventive and curious, and provides it a strive.”
Doxey believes LEGO’s exceptional enduring reputation is owed largely to the liberty it presents.
“We all know individuals like to create, children like to create,” he mentioned. “Our system is a inventive medium. It allows them to think about something they wish to think about.”
LEGO: Not only for the children — however primarily for the children
And LEGO has discovered that the attraction extends effectively past childhood. Nostalgia performs a robust position 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 effectively, 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 means of 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 inventive course of while 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 the planet. Households construct collectively. Associates collect round shared creations. Communities type, united by the sound of bricks rattling in a field.
“Everybody is aware of that sound,” Doxey advised CBS Information. “You shake it, and precisely what it’s.”
A beloved toy, with a plastic drawback
Past all of the creativity and the nostalgia, nevertheless, the LEGO Group can also be grappling with a elementary subject 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 totally on plastic, and one of many key elements in most pliable is fossil gasoline.
Each ton of LEGO produced requires about two tons of petrochemicals within the manufacturing course of, based on the worldwide sustainability data and information platform, illuminem. LEGO makes roughly 60 billion bricks per yr, and based mostly on illuminem’s information, a few of the firm’s largest units would require the equal of over 60 kilos of petrochemical equal to supply.
Regardless of bold local weather pledges, the corporate has up to now 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, in actual fact, enhance emissions in comparison with its present supplies.
“LEGO bricks are made for youngsters, so they need to meet extraordinarily prime quality and security requirements,” the corporate advised CBS Information in a press release. “They have to even be sturdy, and are precision-engineered to accuracy of lower than a hair’s width so {that a} brick made in the present day nonetheless matches one made 60 years in the past.”
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The corporate mentioned it has examined greater than 600 totally 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 scale 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 tip of the yr.
Even in spite of everything these years, LEGO continues to evolve.
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