Ole Kirk Christiansen, founder of the LEGO Group, patented the LEGO brick in Copenhagen on 28 January 1958, and consequently laid the foundation stone for the global success story of the colourful building element. Children’s rooms all over the world are now practically unimaginable without LEGO bricks, which have accompanied generations of children in their journey to adulthood.

Towards the end of the 1940s, Ole Kirk Christiansen discovered plastic as the ideal raw material for toy production and developed the prototype of the LEGO brick. In 1958 he perfected it with the stud-and-tube coupling system, which is still the basis today of the 2,400 LEGO building elements that now exist. The bricks can be combined, taken apart, and put back together again in an infinite diversity of combinations, and there are no limits to the LEGO builder’s imagination. With six 2 x 4 bricks there are more than 915 million combinations possible!

On average, every single person on the planet owns 62 LEGO bricks. In addition to providing great fun, LEGO bricks also promote motor, cognitive and creative skills – one of the many reasons parents have put their faith in LEGO products for decades. And of course it’s not just children that are crazy about these building blocks: countless numbers of adults find inspiration in them – be it art, architecture, engineering, landscaping or furniture design. All of the above factors combine to make the LEGO brick the “Toy of the Century”, as it was voted by Fortune Magazine in the US and the British Association of Toy Retailers just before the turn of the millennium.