Nerd Tutorial Podcast: Episode 74: Lego Tutorial

Topic: Lego Tutorial

This week, we look at the tiniest building material ever, and the rather huge empire it’s spawned as a result. Both myself and mom have fond memories of this toy, and so what better discussion than Legos!

History of Legos

History starts in 1916, when Ole Kirk Christiansen purchased a woodworking shop that had been in business for 30 years prior, primarily building furniture and aiding building houses. By the time of the Great Depression, he was working smaller projects, but in working on those projects, he was inspired to create toys. Christiansen held an internal contest to name his company, and Lego was chosen.

Lego, a contraction of Leg Godt, or ‘Play well’ in Danish. It was later learned that in Latin, it’s loose translated to ‘I assemble’ or ‘I put together’.

After World War 2, with Plastics becoming available in Denmark, Christiansen purchased a plastic injecting molding machine, and set about creating toys with it. While the idea of an ‘interlocking building cube’ wasn’t a new concept, Christiansen improved it by making it hollow and locking. They weren’t initially well received, as many preferred wooden or metal toys, and those that did sell well were not well received because the locking mechanical element wasn’t ideal. Christiansen later added cylinders inside the hollow space to increase the friction with the studs on top, creating the modern 2x4 Lego Brick. Christiansen would die that 1958, but his son, Godtfert, took over the company in his stride.

Years earlier, Godtfert had developed the idea of a toy that was based off a system rather than a standalone toy. This meant that any prior or new toys would continue to work with one another. Seeking to gain market share in the US during the early 60s, they partnered with Samsonite to produce and sell Legos in the US.

1966 saw one of the most popular toy sets come out, the Lego Train, which included tracks and a 4.5v motor for the train. By 1969, Duplo were introduced for a much younger children. ‘Duplus’ in Latin meaning double, as it was double the size of a normal Lego brick.

By the 1970s, Lego expanded drastically until the early 90s. Human figures were added, followed by the standard Mini-figure we know today. The ‘Expert Builder’ series, later known as ‘Technic’ was added as well, featuring gears, differentials, cogs, levers, axles, etc, which allowed for more realistic models, and aimed toward an older audience. Various themed sets were also begin to be introduced as well, including Space, Medieval Castle, Pirate, along with their Town Series.

However, by 1992, profits began to decline. A change in designers in the mid 90s saw the retirement of many senior Lego Designers and new talent brought in, but this new talent didn’t under toy design, and even less about Lego. This led to longer development time for sets, and less challenging sets to put together, something that fans were disappointed in. 1999 was also the first time Legos sets themed around licensed properties were being seen; but they too were a double edged sword, as the sets were more expensive due to the licensing agreements, and once the franchises died down, the sets were forgotten as well.

Lego rationalized that they continued to operate the company as though it were growing, rather than looking toward trends in the market, such as: declining child birth in the west, less play time for kids, and not sufficiently interesting toys. By 2004, the company was almost in bankruptcy.

Lego refocused their efforts on their core brands and began looking for ways to expand their brands. One way was to venture in to video games, where Lego in North America saw licensed Legos as a big seller over other markets. They also began moving their production to other countries to minimize the cost of production.

2014 saw the release of the Lego Movie, which was a huge success, receiving unanimous praise for it’s quality and storytelling. 2017 saw a spinoff in Lego Batman Movie, which was also well received as a parody of Batman itself. 2019 also saw the sequel to the Lego Movie, but it was not as well received.

2019 was also the year that Lego purchased the Bricklink, a website devoted to Lego Fans. Bricklink offers an amazingly detailed parts list of ever known brick created by Lego, along with all the various sets ever created by Lego, internet forums, and a hub for e-commerce as it sells individual bricks. A person can design or purchase plans for a set, and order the individual parts from Bricklink and make it themselves.

What Are Legos?

Legos as we commonly know them, are plastic, interlocking bricks and pieces that are designed to be connected with one another. Typically, one buys a package that contains enough bricks to build something out of it, which could be anything from a vehicle, dwelling, creature, or even a setting. These packages are often called Sets. Each Set comes with a set of instructions and all the pieces, including a few extras, intended to make the thing displayed in the packaging.

The pieces can be used by themselves to make other creations as well, and are often suggested for alternative creations to make from the instructions or packaging. The real beauty is that Lego pieces from one set can be combined with any other Lego Set ever created, so the possibilities to make things are relatively endless. Lego sets from the 70s and 80s will still work with sets from the modern sets.

Most Lego Pieces come in a variety of colors and shapes, with the standard, most well known, piece being the standard 2x4 brick. Further square bricks include 2x2, 2x1, 1x1, 4x1, and many more. Some sets include specialty pieces that are only available with that set or its theme. There have been various themes over the years, from Medieval and Pirates, to space and underwater exploration, along with traditional towns and city construction. These sets also include the classis Mini-figure, a type of yellow skinned figure meant to represent people in the toys. Early versions only include a simple smiling face, but as sets have gotten more complex over the years, the mini-figures have gone on to reflect and represent various people as well.

In 1977, saw introduction of the Technic Series of Lego, then known as Expert Builder. These pieces were less brick like and featured rods and tube shaped connectors, along with various gears and other mechanical parts intended to build more advanced items. These often build more advanced models that featured more complex technical functions intended for an older Audience. On the flip side were Duplo, a pre-school aged version of Legos that was meant to bridge the gap for younger children. Both Duplo and Technic Legos can be used with original Legos.

Using the knowledge of Legos and their endless possibilities, one can create just about anything out of Legos, and many have. Some use traditional bricks to make pixilated sculptures and/or art of people, places, or things. Some use the Legos to recreate various vehicle and items, especially from Tv, Film, Video Games, Comics, and Books. Some use Lego sets to recreate whole scenes or locations, such as a lego set meant to recreate an amusement park.

Themed Sets

Legos primarily took off during the early 60s as part of a system of toys, meant to include various toys together in to a play set. Since this development, various themed lego sets have been released over the years, with different generic themes being introduced. By 1999, sets based off licensed properties were also introduced to Lego’s catalog of sets.

Traditional Lego Theme Sets:

Town – Modern Suburban Life

Castle – Medieval Castles, Knights, Dragons

Space – Featuring space exploration and bases

Technic – Expert/Older mechanic sets

Train – Focused on train sets

Pirates – ARRRRR, Pirates…

Aquazone – Underwater Exploration

Mindstorm – Technic + Robotics

Ninja – Ninjas….

Architecture – Building real life buildings / landmarks

Duplo – For Children under 5.

Licensed Theme Sets:

Star Wars

Harry Potter

Toy Story

Marvel

MineCraft

Disney Princess

Jurassic World

Batman

Spiderman

Overwatch

Frozen

Super Mario

Stranger Things

Mickey Mouse

Thomas the Train

LegoLand

Built originally in 1968 near the Lego Factory in Billund, Denmark, the original Legoland was intended to be a park that visitors could visit to see new and upcoming Lego products. The original genesis of the idea was due in part to the Lego Factory getting nearly 20k visitors a day, each wanting to see the new sets that would be coming out soon. The park was intended to celebrate Lego’s toy history, but also showcase Lego’s various sets and creations, including human size sets and creatures. The park was an instant success, and over the years, has expanded and added rides and water parks to the original park, but also opened other theme parks around the world, including the US, England, Malaysia, Dubai, and Japan.

Spin Off Media/Games

Lego is not just a simple company anymore, and has branched off in a number of directions.

Lego Video Games

Lego games have been available since the mid 90s, with a number of games taking advantage of the building aspect available to computers, and creating various stand alone games. Many games were released for the Game Boy and other Nintendo handhelds, along with some titles for major consoles.

What changed Lego games was Lego Star Wars, which instead of building stuff, you were actually playing through the Star Wars stories as Lego Versions of the characters and world. It was unique in that it tended to joke around with the Lego nature of the world, with you collecting Lego bits to eventually build bridges or remove obstacles in your way. Other games were eventually released in a similar format, all based off licensed properties, including Batman, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, and more.

Movies

In the 2000s, Lego released various Bionicle movies, based off the same toy franchise, but ramped up development in the 2010s, when Warner Animation Group was created. Warner Animation Group was taking up the mantle of Warner Bros previous 2d Feature Film division, with their first movie being the Lego Movie. Much like the Lego Video Games, Warner Animation Group uses the Lego worlds themselves as stand alone worlds where the people know they are legos, but exist within it.

The Lego movie tells the story of one Mini-figure that is intended to be the chosen one to save all Lego people from being divided and segregated from other sets. The Movie was a major success and spawned other Lego movies, including Lego batman, which also received wide spread acclaim.

Spin Off Brands

Ker-o

Close in quality to Lego, with outstanding sets like Transformers and Star Trek

Mega Contrux

More closely focuses on Licensed Sets, like Pokemon, Call-of-Duty and Halo

Mega Blocks

More similar to Duplo, but intended for Preschool age children.

K’Nex

Rather than Lego-ish bricks, it’s more closer related to Erector Sets perhaps, using various rods, connectors, gears, wheels and other components to build various models.