FREE BUILDING A HISTORY: THE GROUP PDF

Sarah Herman | 272 pages | 29 Jun 2012 | Pen & Sword Books Ltd | 9781844681259 | English | South Yorkshire, United Kingdom Building a History: by Sarah Herman

The began in in a Danish carpentry workshop and continues into the 21st century as a popular and very profitable line of construction toys and related products and services, including Lego board gamesretail stores, Lego video games Building a History: The Lego Group, Lego filmsLegoland theme parks, and consultant services, with a Building a History: The Lego Group impact on various areas of popular culture. Despite its expansion, the company remains privately held. InChristiansen purchased a woodworking shop in Billund, which had been in business since The workshop burned down in when a fire ignited some wood shavings. When the Great Depression hit, Ole Kirk had fewer customers and had to focus on smaller projects. He began producing miniature versions of his products as design aids. It was these miniature models of stepladders and ironing boards that inspired him to begin producing toys. On 10 August[4] Ole Kirk's shop started making wooden toys such as piggy banks, pull toys, cars and trucks, and houses. The business was not profitable because of the Great Depression. Farmers in the area sometimes traded food in exchange for his toys; Ole Kirk continued producing practical furniture in addition to toys to stay in business. In the mids, the yo-yo toy fad gave him a brief period of increased activity until it suddenly collapsed. To reduce waste, Ole Kirk used the leftover yo-yo parts as wheels for toy trucks. InOle Kirk held Building a History: The Lego Group contest among his staff to name the company, offering a bottle of Building a History: The Lego Group wine as a prize. Following World War IIplastics became available in Denmark, and Lego purchased a plastic injection molding machine in InOle Kirk and Godtfred obtained samples of interlocking plastic bricks produced by the company Kiddicraft. They had several round "studs" on top, and a hollow rectangular bottom. They would stick together, but not so tightly that they could not be pulled apart. Inthe bricks were given a new name: Lego Murstenor "Lego Bricks. Plastic products initially were not well received by customers, who preferred wooden or metal toys. Many of Lego's shipments were returned, following poor sales. InGodtfred had become the junior managing director of the Lego Group. Godtfred's conversation with an overseas buyer struck the idea of a toy "system," with many toys in a line of related products. Godtfred evaluated their available products, and saw the plastic bricks as the best candidate for such a "system. The building bricks were moderately received but had some problems from a technical standpoint: their "locking" ability was limited, and they were not versatile. In the bricks were improved with hollow tubes in the underside of the brick. The company patented the new design, as well as several similar designs to avoid competition. died that same year, and Godtfred inherited the leadership of the company. Another warehouse fire struck the Lego Group inconsuming most of the company's inventory of wooden toys. Godtfred decided that the plastic line was strong enough to abandon the production of wooden toys. As a result, Godtfred's brothers Gerhardt then head of wooden toys and Karl Georg left the Lego company and began a separate company, " Bilofix. InLego wished to expand sales to North America but did not have the logistical capabilities to do so. Lego made an arrangement allowing Samsonite to begin producing and selling Lego products in the United States and Canada. Also, during this time, the Lego Group introduced toys targeted explicitly towards the pre-school market. Incellulose acetate, the material used to create Lego bricks, was replaced by the more stable acrylonitrile butadiene styrene ABS plasticwhich is still in use today. ABS is non-toxic, is less prone to discolouration and warping, and is more resistant to heat, acids, salt, and other chemicals. Samsonite manufacturing in North America did not switch at the same time, and still used some degree of cellulose acetate in its Lego products. One of the Lego Group's most successful series, [ citation needed ] the Lego train systemwas released in The original train sets included a 4. On 7 Junethe first Park was opened in Billund. This theme park featured elaborate models of miniature towns built entirely from Lego bricks. During the next 20 years, the theme park grew to more than eight times its original size and eventually averaged close to a million paying visitors per year. Sales of Building a History: The Lego Group sets reached more than eighteen million units in Inthe Duplo system went on sale. Duplo bricks are much larger than Lego bricks, making them safer for young children, but the two systems are compatible: Lego bricks can be fitted neatly onto Duplo bricks, allowing a seamless transition to the Lego system as children outgrow their Duplo bricks. During the last three decades of the 20th century, Lego expanded into new areas of toy making and marketing. InLego began to target girls by introducing furniture pieces and dollhouses. InLego added boat and ship sets, with floating hull pieces. During this same period, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen's son, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansenjoined the managerial staff, after earning business degrees in Switzerland and Denmark. Building a History: The Lego Group of Kjeld's first achievements with the company was the foundation of manufacturing facilities, as well as a research and development department that would be responsible for keeping the company's manufacturing methods Building a History: The Lego Group to date. Human figures with posable arms made an appearance in in "Lego family" sets, Building a History: The Lego Group went on to Building a History: The Lego Group the biggest sellers at the time; the next year, an early version of the "minifigure" miniature Lego person was introduced, but it was not posable and had no face printed on its head. In"Expert Series" sets were introduced, geared towards older, more experienced Lego builders followed by the "Expert Builder" sets in Building a History: The Lego Group The technical sets featured moving parts such as gearsdifferentialscogs, leversaxlesand universal joints and permitted the construction of realistic models such as automobiles, with functional rack and pinion steering and lifelike engine movements. In the Lego " minifigure " was added. These small Lego people have posable arms and legs, and a smile. The figure was used in many varieties of Lego sets, allowing construction of towns populated with the smiling minifigure Lego citizens. Lego also expanded into space with the creation of sets with astronaut minifigures, rockets, lunar rovers, and spaceships, and in the medieval territory with the Castle theme. InLego introduced the Scala series, featuring jewelry elements marketed towards young girls. also became the president of Lego that year. Since the s, educators had seen Lego bricks' productive potential as being an invaluable asset in helping children to develop creativity and problem-solving abilities. Teachers had been using Lego bricks in the classroom for a variety of reasons. Inthe Lego Group established the Educational Products Department eventually renamed Lego Dacta, into expand the educational possibilities of their toys. A packing and assembly factory opened in Switzerland, followed by another in Jutland, Denmarkthat manufactured Lego tires. Between the s and '90s, Lego worked with Royal Dutch Shell in allowing Shell branding on certain items. Inthe second generation of appeared. As before, these were available in either 4. The "Expert Builder" series matured inbecoming the "Technic" series. In Building a History: The Lego Group following year, the Duplo system was expanded to include sets for even younger audiences, particularly infants; new sets included baby rattles and figures with movable limbs. The year after, citizens gained a realm of knights and horses, with a redesign of the Castle theme. Also that year, the Lego Group's educational division produced the Technic Computer Control, which was an educational system whereby Technic robots, trucks, and other motorized models could be controlled with a computer. ManausBrazil gained a Lego factory in this year, as well. Inthe Technic line was expanded with the addition of pneumatic components. In August38 children from 17 different countries took part in the first Lego World Cup building contest, held in Billund. That same year, Lego Canada was established. The Lego line grew again in with the release of the theme, which featured a variety of pirate Building a History: The Lego Group, deserted islands, Building a History: The Lego Group treasure. The Lego Group's Educational Products Department was renamed Lego Dakta in this year; the name comes from the Greek word "didactic," which roughly means "the study of the learning process. Seymour Papertfrom the Laboratory of Computer Learning, was named "Lego Professor of Learning Research," after his ongoing work in linking the Logo programming language with Lego products. UntilLego minifigures only came in yellow-skin color with a standard smiling face, though early prototypes had a variety of skin colors and facial expressions. That year the Lego Group expanded the array of facial expressions adding them around the standard Building a History: The Lego Group of two eyes and smilewith beards and eye patches, sunglasses, lipstick, and eyelashes, mostly for the minifigures in the newly launched Lego Pirates theme, and occasionally Lego CastleLego Cityand Lego Space. Some older collectors resented the new facial expressions, saying they looked too "cartoon-ish" or "kiddy," and preferred the simplistic nature of the two eyes and smile. Particularly for Lego Pirates, these more complicated faces, in combination with Building a History: The Lego Group torso, headgear either a helmet or hairand accessories, allowed for the creation of specific characters and an accompanying backstory. InLego released a new series designed for advanced builders. Three Model Team sets, including a race car and an off-road vehicle, featured a level of detail and realism not previously seen in any Lego series. Where Technic was mechanically accurate, Model Team was visually and stylistically accurate. The Lego Group became one of the top 10 toy companies that year; it was the only toy company in Europe to be among the top Also that year, Legoland Billund reached more than one million visitors for the first time in its history. Lego Malaysia was also established in Inthe Lego Group standardized its electrical components and systems; the Trains and Technic motors were made 9V to bring the systems into line with the rest of the Lego range. Intwo Guinness records were set using Lego products: Building a History: The Lego Group castle made fromLego bricks, and measuring 4. Duplo was Building a History: The Lego Group with the addition of the Toolo line featuring a screwdriverwrench, nutsand bolts ; the Paradisa line, targeted towards girls, brought a variety of new pastel colors into the Lego system and focused around horses and a beach theme. In a Duplo train and a parrot-shaped "brickvac" that could scoop Lego pieces up off the floor were released. In the late s, the Lego Group brought out a series of new and specialized ranges aimed at particular demographics. Inthe Lego Group introduced a completely new system, Clikitsaimed at girls and consisting of customizable plastic jewelry and accessories. Much like Duplo, a Quatro brick is four times the dimension of a regular Lego brick and is compatible with the Duplo brick. Also that year, they created the second line of Knights Kingdom themed product. Lego's profits had declined since Around oraccording to designer Mark Stafford, the Lego Group retired many LEGO Designers who had created the sets from the late s to the mids, replacing them with 30 'innovators' who graduated from the European design colleges around Europe who knew "little specifically about toy design and less about LEGO building". At the time, sets could take over a year to progress from the design stage to store shelves. Bythere was a resultant change in the design direction of products, as set details were sacrificed for decreased building times with fewer pieces and increased playability features, but this shift drew mixed reception from hardcore Lego fans used to the meticulous construction required of "classic era" sets of the s to mids. Lego Pirates, which had a strong run since its launch inwas promptly killed off, with being its last year of production. The LEGO Group History - The LEGO Group - About us - US The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks accompanying an array of gears, figurines called minifiguresand various other parts. Lego pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways to construct objects, including vehicles, buildings, and working robots. Anything constructed can be taken apart again, and the pieces reused to make new things. The Lego Group began manufacturing the interlocking toy bricks in Movies, games, competitions and eight Legoland amusement parks have been developed under the brand. The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen —a carpenter from BillundDenmark, who began making wooden toys in These bricks were based on the Kiddicraft Self-Locking Bricks, which had been patented in the United Kingdom in [12] and released in Lego had received a sample of the Kiddicraft bricks from the supplier of an injection-molding machine that it purchased. The Lego Group's motto, "only the best is good enough" [15] Danish : det bedste er ikke for godtliterally "the best isn't excessively good" was created in ByChristiansen's son, Godtfredhad become the junior managing director of the Lego Group. Godtfred saw the immense potential in Lego bricks to become a system for creative play, but the bricks still had some problems from a technical standpoint: their locking ability was limited and they were not versatile. The Lego Group's Duplo product line was introduced in and is a range of simple blocks whose lengths measure twice the width, height, and depth of standard Lego blocks and are aimed towards younger children. InLego produced the first minifigures, which have since become a staple in most sets. In Maythe largest model ever created was displayed in New York City and was made of over 5 million bricks; a scale model of an X-wing fighter. In FebruaryLego replaced Ferrari as the "world's most powerful brand. Lego's popularity is demonstrated by its wide representation and usage in many forms of cultural Building a History: The Lego Group, including books, films and art work. It has even been used in the classroom as a teaching tool. Lego pieces of all varieties constitute a universal system. Despite variation in the design and the purposes of individual pieces over the years, each piece remains compatible in some way with existing pieces. Lego bricks from still interlock with those made in the current time, and Lego sets for young children are compatible with those made for teenagers. Each Lego piece must be manufactured to an exacting degree of precision. When two pieces are engaged they must fit firmly, yet be easily disassembled. The machines Building a History: The Lego Group manufacture Lego bricks have tolerances as Building a History: The Lego Group as 10 micrometres. Primary concept and development work takes place at the Billund headquarters, where the company employs approximately designers. The company also has smaller design offices in the UK, Spain, Germany, and Japan which are tasked with developing products aimed specifically at these markets. The average development period for a new product is around twelve months, split into three stages. The first stage is to identify market trends and developments, including contact by the designers directly with the market; some are stationed in toy shops close to holidays, while others interview children. The second stage is the design and development of the product based upon the results of the first stage. As of September the design teams use 3D modelling software to generate CAD drawings from initial design sketches. The designs are then prototyped using an in-house stereolithography machine. These prototypes are presented to the entire project team for comment and for testing by parents and children during the "validation" process. Designs may then be altered in accordance with the results from the focus groups. Virtual models of completed Lego products are built concurrently with the writing of the user instructions. Completed CAD models are also used in the wider organisation, for marketing and packaging. SinceLego pieces have been manufactured from a strong, resilient plastic known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene ABS. The software allows the parts to be optimised by way of mould flow and stress analysis. Prototype moulds are sometimes built before the design is committed to mass production. It is then injected into the moulds at pressures between 25 and tonnes, and takes approximately 15 seconds to cool. The moulds are permitted a tolerance of up to twenty micrometresto ensure the bricks remain connected. According to the Lego Group, about eighteen bricks out of every million fail to meet the standard required. If the plastic cannot be re-used in Lego bricks, it is processed and sold on to industries that can make use of it. Manufacturing of Lego bricks occurs at several locations around the world. According to an article in BusinessWeek inLego could be considered the world's No. In Decemberthe BBC's More or Less radio program asked the Open University 's engineering department to determine "how many Lego bricks, stacked one on top of the other, Building a History: The Lego Group would take for the weight to destroy the bottom brick? Private tests have shown several thousand assembly-disassembly cycles before the bricks begin to wear out[48] Building a History: The Lego Group Lego tests show fewer cycles. InLego announced that Building a History: The Lego Group will be using bio-derived polyethylene to make its botanical elements parts such as leaves, bushes and trees. Since the s, the Lego Group has released thousands of sets with a variety of themes, including spacerobotspiratestrainsVikingscastle Building a History: The Lego Group, dinosaursundersea explorationand wild west. Some of the classic themes that continue to the present day include a line of Building a History: The Lego Group depicting city life introduced in and a line aimed at emulating complex machinery, introduced in Over the years, Lego has licensed themes from numerous cartoon and film franchises and even some from video games. Although some of the licensed themes, Lego and , had highly successful sales, Lego has expressed a desire to rely more upon their own characters and classic themes, and less upon licensed themes related to movie releases. One of the largest Lego sets commercially produced was a minifig -scaled edition of the Star Wars Millennium Falcon. Designed by Jens Kronvold Fredericksen, it was released in and contained 5, pieces. It was surpassed by a 5,piece Taj Mahal. A redesigned Millennium Falcon retook the top spot in with 7, pieces. Lego also initiated a robotics line of toys called 'Mindstorms' inand has continued to expand and update this range ever since. The roots of the product originate from a programmable brick developed at the MIT Media Laband the name is taken from a paper by Seymour Paperta computer scientist and educator who developed the educational theory of constructionismand whose research was at times funded by the Lego Group. The programmable Lego brick which is at the heart of these robotics sets has undergone Building a History: The Lego Group updates and redesigns, with the latest being called the 'EV3' brick, being sold under the name of EV3. The set includes sensors that detect touch, light, sound and ultrasonic waves, with several others being sold separately, including an RFID reader. The intelligent brick can be programmed using official software available for Windows and Mac computers, and is downloaded onto the brick via Bluetooth or a USB cable. There are also several unofficial programs and compatible programming languages that have been made to work with the brick, and many books have been written to support this community. There are several robotics competitions which use the Lego robotics sets. The earliest is Botballa national U. FLL uses Lego-based robots to complete tasks. FLL participants build models out of Lego elements. In its season, there were 16, FLL teams in over 55 countries. In its season, there were 2, Jr. The international RoboCup Junior football competition involves extensive use of Lego Mindstorms equipment which is often pushed to its extreme limits. The capabilities of the Mindstorms Building a History: The Lego Group have now been harnessed for use in Iko Creative Prosthetic System, a prosthetic limbs system designed for children. Designs for these Lego prosthetics allow everything from mechanical diggers to laser-firing spaceships to be screwed on to the end of a child's limb. Iko Building a History: The Lego Group the work of the Chicago-based Colombian designer Carlos Arturo Torres, and is a modular system that allows Building a History: The Lego Group to customise their own prosthetics with the ease of clicking together plastic bricks. Designed with Lego's Future Lab, the Danish toy company's experimental research department, and Cirec, a Colombian foundation for physical rehabilitation, the modular prosthetic incorporates myoelectric sensors that register the activity of the muscle in the stump and send a signal to control movement in the attachment. A processing unit in the body of the prosthetic contains an engine compatible with Lego Mindstorms, the company's robotics line, which lets the wearer build an extensive range of customised, programmable limbs. The definitive shape of the Lego bricks, with the inner tubes, was patented by the Lego Group in CoCo was ordered to cease manufacture of the products, publish a formal apology and pay damages. First launched inthe Lego website has developed over the years, and provides many extra services beyond an online store and a product catalogue. There are also moderated message boards that were founded in My Lego Network is a social networking site that involves items, blueprints, ranks, badges which are earned for completing certain tasks, trading and trophies called masterpieces which allow users to progress to go to the next rank. The website has a built in inbox which allows users to send pre written messages to one another. The Lego Network includes automated non- player characters within called "Networkers", who are able to do things which normal users cannot do, sending custom messages, and selling masterpieces and blueprints. The site also has modules which are set up on the user's page that give the user items, or that display picture compositions. Before My Lego Network, there were Lego Club Pages, which essentially held the same purpose, although the design lacked complex interaction. Lego operates so-called "Lego Store" retail shops. The opening of each store is celebrated with weekend-long event in which a Master Model Builder creates, with the help of volunteers—most of whom are children—a larger-than-life Lego statue, which is then displayed at the new store for several Building a History: The Lego Group. Since aroundthe Lego Group has been promoting "Lego Serious Play", a form of business consultancy fostering creative thinking, in which team members build metaphors of their organizational identities and experiences using Lego bricks. Participants work through imaginary scenarios using visual three-dimensional Lego constructions, imaginatively exploring possibilities in a serious form of play. Lego branched out into the video game market in by founding Lego Media International Limitedand Lego Island was released that year by Mindscape. launched inwas a series of Lego-themed board games designed by Cephas Howard and Reiner Knizia [84] [85] in which the players usually build the playing board out of Lego bricks and then play with Lego-style players. Examples of the games include "Minotaurus", in which players roll Building a History: The Lego Group to move characters within a brick-build labyrinth, "Creationary", in which players must build something which appears on a card, or "Ramses Pyramid", in which players collect gems and climb up a customisable pyramid. Like many board games, the games use dice. In Lego Games, the dice are Lego, with Lego squares with symbols on Lego studs on the dice, surrounded by rubber. The games vary from simple to complex; some are similar to "traditional" board games, while others are completely different. Several other straight-to-DVD computer animated sequels and Hero Factory movies were produced in the following years. In Juneit was reported that Warner Bros. A television series of Lego City has Building a History: The Lego Group been announced. Lego has an ongoing deal with publisher Dorling Kindersley DKwho are producing a series of illustrated hardback books looking at different aspects of the construction toy. The first was The Ultimate Lego Bookpublished in Ina revised edition was published. Although no longer being published in the United States by Scholasticbooks covering events in the Bionicle storyline are written Building a History: The Lego Group Greg Farshtey. Bionicle comics, also written by Farshtey, are compiled into graphic novels and were released by Papercutz. Building A History The Lego Group ( edition) | Open Library

At the time, Billund was an obscure village, and Ole Kirk Christiansen was just a simple carpenter with ambition. As a young man, Christiansen turned his love of whittling and playing with wood into a business and, inhe opened his own shop. But injust as he was looking to expand his successful business, his sons accidentally set a pile of wood chips in the shop on fire. Inside the original Lego workshop when it was producing wooden toys. Others might have given up with a total loss, but Christiansen saw the fire as an excuse to simply build a larger workshop. Tragedy continued to strike, however. Bowed by personal and financial disaster, Christiansen laid off much of his staff and struggled to make ends meet. Since times were so hard, Christiansen made the hard decision to use his wood to create inexpensive goods that might actually sell. Among them were cheap toys. Christiansen actually slid into bankruptcy, but refused to stop making toys when his siblings tried to make it a condition of a bailout loan. But his love of toys pushed the company ahead, even when it limped. Christiansen may have been a good ironing-board builder, but it turned out he was a brilliant toymaker. He refused to cut corners for the toys his company produced. Building a History: The Lego Group, his prototypes for ingenious models of cars and animals and his adorable pull toys gained a national fanbase. His bestseller, Building a History: The Lego Group wooden duck whose beak opens and closes when pulled, is now a coveted collectible. But by then, he was established enough to not only bounce back, but to be forward looking. As a result, many manufacturers looked to advances in plastics to create cheap alternatives. Among them: plastic-injection molding, in which melted plastic is forced into the cavity of a precise mold. However, due to materials shortages the Danish government forbade its commercial use until Inhe was finally allowed Building a History: The Lego Group use it for goods he could sell—and bythe company was creating a plastic product called the Automatic Binding Brick. The toy was inspired by a set of self-locking bricks invented by a British company, Kiddicraft. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, President of the Lego company in Denmark, explains the Lego building toys to children, Christensen and his son, Godtfred, made improvements on the British design and began selling plastic bricks in That means that any LEGO block produced since can interlock with any other. Today, that decision means big business. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile Building a History: The Lego Group most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. This Day In History. History at Home. The Birth of Lincoln Logs.