The Bizarre Chaotic History Behind the World’s Most Creative Toy | by Shenbaga Lakshmi | Jul, 2022 | History of Yesterday

2022-07-16 01:50:40 By : Mr. Xiangwen Kong

O nce upon a time, in the early 20th century, there lived a small-time carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen. He built ladders, cabinets, ironing boards, and other home goods. But Christiansen felt his life had a bigger purpose. He wanted to achieve something that people would talk about long after he was gone.

He was ambitious, courageous, and full of energy.

So, in 1916, Christiansen saved enough money to buy an old workshop. He hoped to expand his business and become a successful entrepreneur.

Initially, he named his company ‘Billund Maskinsnedkeri’, but later renamed it LEGO, derived from the words Leg Godt, meaning ‘Play Well,’ and got down to business.

Coincidentally, in Latin, the phrase meant ‘I put together.’

It was a match made in heaven.

However, like most small business owners, Christiansen also faced several challenges. He endured economic, personal, and societal issues to build his business.

But Christiansen would not give up.

He started making cheap toys and trinkets out of wood to stay afloat.

And it wasn’t easy selling those trinkets in that economic setup. I mean, how can you sell a toy to someone who hardly has money to buy a proper meal?

So, Christiansen reached out to his family for help. And his brothers agreed on one condition: He stopped making toys and found a more profitable venture.

This suggestion broke Christiansen’s heart. After all, if your family doesn’t believe in you, then who would?

Eventually, Christiansen rejected his brothers’ offer and continued to fight against the odds. He racked his brains to develop innovative toys, something novel for the 20th century.

He came up with the wheeled duck, which became the company’s first hit toy.

In 1940, when Christiansen’s company was picking up, World War II also picked up.

Life became challenging once again. Christiansen had to adapt to the new regime, build connections, and learn to stay in business in the new economic conditions.

But before he could do all that, his workshop burned down again.

By the time Christiansen rebuilt his business, the Allies had liberated Denmark. They also reversed the ban on the commercial use of plastics.

So, to keep up with the trend, Christiansen shifted his production from wood to plastic. He hoped things would be a lot better from then.

However, the postwar economic conditions weren’t in his favor. Just when he began plastic-toy production, the government banned the use of plastic on non-essential items, which included toys.

His venture was failing again, and he shifted his focus to the wooden toys.

Yet, he would not give up.

Soon, the economic conditions improved, and the ban on plastics was lifted.

Now, toy-making devices were expensive, but Christiansen planned well. He worked hard to save money and bought the all-powerful plastic injection machine.

He began experimenting with prototypes and developed a tractor set that became a superhit toy.

However, the success of the tractor set put another toy in focus. It was the Automatic Binding Bricks, with which children could play with tiny bricks and build massive structures.

The novel idea became a tremendous hit, and by the 1950s, Christiansen had sold over 100,000 sets.

The company’s new business model was booming, and things were looking up for LEGO.

Christiansen’s superhit LEGO block wasn’t some out-of-the-world idea he came up with. A British business executive, Hillary Fisher Page, already patented the same concept.

Page’s design had four studs on the top of the block that could be interlocked itself with other bricks.

It was, by all means, the predecessor to LEGO bricks. And it led to some intense legal battles.

Now, it’s still unclear if Christiansen stole Page’s idea or not.

On the one hand, LEGO maintains that Page’s company, Kiddicraft, allowed it to use the design.

But Kiddicraft insisted LEGO stole their patented idea. They claim that their founder, Page, didn’t even know about LEGO before he died in 1957.

The dispute went on for years, and in 1981, LEGO officially bought the patent from Page’s family for 45,000 pounds, roughly equivalent to $200,000 in today’s valuation.

In 1958, Christiansen’s son, Godtfried, became the head of the company, and he wanted to revolutionize the business.

With his idea of a brick system — the LEGO System in Play.

Godtfried wanted to ensure that LEGO remained a classic. He envisioned a system where a brick created in the 1950s would perfectly fit with a block designed in 2050.

By all means, it was a brilliant plan.

Imagine missing a piece. Without Godtfried’s plan, the entire set would have been a waste. But now, you can merely substitute the missing piece with another block.

Sales after Godtfried’s idea increased manifold. Since you can continue using old blocks, people kept buying additional sets to expand their creations. A model of a single man became a group of friends, then a village, a city, and so on.

The development was so profound that, as of 2020, the company has produced 62 LEGO bricks for every person on earth.

In 1978, the last of LEGO’s patents expired, and this led to stiff competition.

Companies like Tyco Industries and Mega Bloks challenged LEGO with their competitive designs, prices, and marketing strategies.

Although LEGO fought several patent disputes worldwide, it knew it was losing its position in the market.

Everyone wanted a piece of LEGO, and there was nothing much it could do.

These unstoppable lawsuits and patent battles posed heavy losses to the company, and it announced its first significant loss in 1998.

The company was forced to fire one-tenth of its workforce, and that caused even more chaos.

By the 1990s, the company faced yet another challenge — the rise of video games, theme parks, and other entertainment channels.

Yet, instead of fighting the shifting trend, LEGO started adopting them.

In 1999, the company released its first-ever Star Wars-themed block set. A few months later, it released the Winnie the Pooh set.

They were both massive successes.

While the company suffered losses and faced heavy criticism, these licensing deals and wildly successful video games dampened the effect.

It even helped them get back to profitability, albeit small.

Of course, success never lasted in LEGO, for it came crashing down. Again.

Up into the mid-2000s, LEGO was still combating losses. And in 2004, the company declared a loss of over $70 million.

The top management blamed the company’s unrealistic expectations, shifting market, innovation inefficiencies, and rigidity in their business models.

Things got so bad that Godtfried’s son handed over the company to its first non-family executive, Jorgen Vig Knudstorp. But later, he handed the reins back to the Christiansens, and LEGO is now headed by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.

The new management outsourced its production units to cheaper countries to reduce costs. They also focused on the movie entertainment business and theme parks.

This idea led to the 2014 megahit, ‘The LEGO movie,’ which grossed over $500,000 worldwide. Legoland Parks welcomes about 15 million visitors every year.

The shift in strategy gave the company a much-needed boost, and the numbers are looking better. The management now hopes to build on this success and achieve greater heights.

While the company’s track record is not so promising, it has persevered. So, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

From the times that the pyramids were raised to the end of the cold war in this publication you will find it all. This is a publication that has been created to tell the stories of forgotten battles and fortunes that have crafted the world that we live in today.

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