Uncommon look inside the key LEGO Museum reveals the system behind a toy large’s outstanding longevity

Billund, Denmark – Hundreds of thousands of individuals around the globe 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, many years of these experiences are captured inside a secret museum that solely LEGO staff can entry. CBS Information, nevertheless, bought a uncommon look inside that little-known museum, the place it was doable 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 large’s humble beginnings. The model’s title displays its philosophy: “LEGO” comes from the Danish phrase “leg godt,” or “play properly.” 

Contained in the museum are a few of the very first LEGO bricks, together with items that date again to the Fifties. Among the many earliest creations housed there may be the primary LEGO “system” that was ever assembled – a small city that laid the inspiration for all the things the corporate would go on to construct. 

That system — the concept that 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 many years, LEGO creations have advanced from medieval villages to mind-blowing architectural feats.

The gathering options classic units that proceed functioning as they have been designed to, many many years later, together with a working drawbridge citadel from the Seventies. However there’s been no scarcity of evolution, both. From the early designs, LEGO’s builds have grown more and more bold and complex. 

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 advanced from LEGO’s personal sub-brands. Lots of at this time’s dad and mom will probably be acquainted, as an example, 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, a virtually 130,000-square-foot monument to the toy, full of 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, informed CBS Information. 

Doxey stated creativity, not technical talent, has been key to LEGO’s enduring attraction. 

“You do not have to be a designer,” he stated. “You simply must be courageous, artistic and curious, and provides it a strive.” 

Doxey believes LEGO’s outstanding enduring recognition is owed largely to the liberty it presents. 

“We all know individuals like to create, children like to create,” he stated. “Our system is a artistic medium. It allows them to think about something they need to think about.”

LEGO: Not only for the youngsters — however primarily for the youngsters

And LEGO has discovered that the attraction extends properly past childhood. Nostalgia performs a robust function 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 properly, and whereas not denying the rising recognition of extra advanced, grown-up builds, he stated youngsters stay the corporate’s precedence. 

“They’re our first inspiration,” he stated. “We attempt to act like youngsters and see the world via their eyes.”

Whereas trendy designs are sometimes created digitally to streamline manufacturing, Madge stated he nonetheless prefers working with bodily bricks. 

“There’s an actual connection between the thoughts and the artistic course of while you’re doing hands-on work,” he stated.

That easy tactile connection — brick by brick — has helped make LEGO the top-grossing toy firm on the planet. Households construct collectively. Buddies collect round shared creations. Communities kind, united by the sound of bricks rattling in a field. 

“Everybody is aware of that sound,” Doxey informed CBS Information. “You shake it, and you recognize precisely what it’s.”

A beloved toy, with a plastic drawback

Past all of the creativity and the nostalgia, nevertheless, the LEGO Group can be grappling with a basic subject in a world dealing with what a majority of scientists say is a local weather disaster: The corporate’s empire remains to be constructed nearly fully on plastic, and one of many key parts in most pliable is fossil gasoline.

Each ton of LEGO produced requires about two tons of petrochemicals within the manufacturing course of, in response to the worldwide sustainability info 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 didn’t 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 reality, improve emissions in comparison with its present supplies.

“LEGO bricks are made for kids, so they have to meet extraordinarily top quality and security requirements,” the corporate informed 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 at this time nonetheless suits one made 60 years in the past.”

The corporate stated 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 stated, including that the corporate is on monitor for “60% of the supplies we purchase to be produced from sustainable sources” by the top of the yr.

Even in spite of everything these years, LEGO continues to evolve.