In 1932, carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen founded his company in Billund, Denmark with the aim of encouraging creative play and ingenuity in children. He began by producing stepladders. However, the Great Depression forced him into an adaptable business model. He switched his focus to the manufacturing of toys and developed one of the most popular brands.
Christiansen was a forward-thinker and quick to embrace new materials and technologies. In 1947, he became the first company to purchase a plastics injection molding machine in the world. This greatly enhanced the range of capabilities and options for Lego products. The machine allowed him to explore and create the Lego brick. The bricks were hollow on the bottom and had pegs at the top. They interlocked to allow children to build intricate structures that were far more intricate than those built with wooden blocks from previous generations.
The 1950s saw a period of expansion for the company. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen’s daughter Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen joined the company’s management team, and she began to modernize the company’s manufacturing techniques. The expansion also included the introduction of a line of dollhouses and furniture for girls, and also the first minifigures that were sold as individual pieces. In 1979, the company widened its range of products to include sets of astronaut minifigures and rockets. They also introduced lunar rovers, spaceships and spaceships.
In 1990, the company introduced three Model Team sets that were made for advanced builders. These sets introduced tiny parts such as axles, gears and levers, as well as an amount of realisticity and accuracy that was unprecedented in the Lego series at the time.
