In 1932 carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen founded his company in Billund, Denmark with the purpose of encouraging imaginative play and ingenuity among children. The company began by manufacturing stepladders. However the Great Depression forced him into a more flexible business model. He switched his focus on the manufacture of toys, and created one of history’s most beloved brands.
Christiansen was a nimble thinker and quick to adopt new materials and technologies. In 1947, he became the first company to acquire a plastics injection molding machine in the world. This greatly increased the capabilities and range of Lego products. The machine let him experiment and create the Lego brick. The bricks were equipped with pegs on top and hollow bottoms that interlocked with each one another, allowing children to build complex structures that went beyond those possible with the wooden blocks of the past.
The 1950s were a time of expansion for the company. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen’s daughter Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen joined the management team and began to modernize the manufacturing process of the company. This expansion saw the introduction of a dollhouse line and why play with lego furniture for girls, and also the first individual figures known as Minifigures. In 1979 the company expanded into space, with sets that included astronaut minifigures, rockets, lunar rovers and spaceships in addition to medieval territory with a Castle theme.
In 1990, the company launched three Model Team Sets that were designed for builders with advanced skills. The sets comprised small components like levers, axles gears, and other parts. They were the first Lego sets to provide the realism and precision.