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Hey there, tiktakers, and happy holidays!
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Although this year the situation is a bit sad for all of us, we can never lose hope…
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and we are still very happy because we are celebrating Christmas!
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What presents did you get?
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We are thinking of a great gift that almost never disappoints: Legos!
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But do you know about their origin?
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The Lego Group is a Danish company founded by Ole Kirk Kristiansen.
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He set up a carpentry workshop in 1916, but a series of unfortunate events led him to change the course of his business.
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First, two of his sons accidentally set his shop on fire, making him lose everything.
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Afterwards his wife passed away.
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And later on he was strongly affected by the Great Depression, which led him to fire all of his employees.
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Ole then started making miniature versions of his furniture – that was a way for him to have sample work without spending a lot of money.
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Doing that gave him the idea to start making toys.
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His four sons loved them, so he thought he could be successful doing that.
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And although his business wasn't booming as he expected, it did start gaining traction.
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At first he made ducks and other animals out of wood, and then cars… they all had an exquisite quality that really made his work stand out.
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However, he needed to do marketing as well, and give his business an attractive name.
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And from the Danish words Leg Gadt, which means to "play well", came the name "Lego".
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Doing this helped increase his sales, and his little wood models started to be sold more and more.
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At that time the world was plunged in the middle of World War II, and Denmark was invaded by the Nazi army.
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Godtfred Kirk Kristiansen, the son of Ole Kirk, instead of studying in Germany became a manager for Lego.
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Meanwhile, the Lego factory kept on growing, reaching 40 employees.
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In 1946 the manager discovered a machine for molding plastic at a fair in Copenhagen.
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To test it out they used a few small plastic bricks, making him come up with a new idea:
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He bought the machine, and at first they just used it to make conventional toys… but that would change pretty soon.
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His son re-designed those pieces, and those bricks (Lego Mürsten) became fundamental.
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Thus, the production of plastic products was now sharing space with the production of wooden products.
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In 1956, when Ole Kirk went on a business trip, a commercial about the toy industry made him realize that the toys at the time were missing something – they needed a system.
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He wouldn't stop pondering about it until he thought of a solution, giving place to the first Lego set.
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The set was so popular that it was exported to many other countries, the first one being Sweden.
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In that moment, Godtfred Kirk had a high management position in the company.
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However, after the passing of his father in 1958, he had to take the lead and become Lego's president.
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On February 4th 1960, part of the carpentry section of the Lego factory burned down.
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This terrible event led Godtfred to make the decision of focusing solely on producing plastic products.
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The Lego bricks were becoming popular in Europe, and so he decided to focus on them.
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Moreover, they also thought about a union system using tubes which would make the Lego sets didactic and pretty fun.
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If something was maintained during the next generation was their effort to keep producing high quality products, as well as sticking to Lego's philosophy.
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The company kept growing, and expanding all over the world.
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The next one to take over the company was Ole Kirk's grandson Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, who directed it until 2004.
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During his management, the production lines were diversified.
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From then on they not only produce their flagship building toys, but also create a wide variety of related products: Board games, video games, and theme parks such as Legoland!
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In 2004 Kjeld handed over the company's presidency to Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, in order to focus on his other management roles within the group.
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And tiktakers, the most incredible thing is that all the different Lego pieces are built using an universal system: Despite the design and purpose variations the blocks have had over the course of the years, all the blocks are still compatible to a very high degree:
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The Lego blocks made in 1958 can still fit with the blocks being produced nowadays!
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Isn't that fascinating?
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Lego knew how to reinvent itself without losing its essence, which has kept their sets of plastic blocks at the top of the toys of the world.
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Now tiktakers, how old were you when you got your first Lego set?
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Let us know in the comments!