America's favorite toy, Lego, became a favorite worldwide. Lego ® began in 1932 when Ole Kirk Christiansen had a small business in the town of Billund, Denmark. Ole Kirk Christiansen was master carpenter and joiner. Established his company made wooden toys, ironing boards and stepladders. In 1934 the company adopted the name LEGO ® for their products, formed from the Danish words "LEg GOdt" or "play well". Later on it was realized that in Latin the word mean’s "I study" or "I put together" an ironic coincidence that follows the toy through the years. The small firm of only a dozen employees continues to turn out the popular toy - but in 1942 a tragedy struck - the entire LEGO ® factory burned to the ground. Unwilling to give up, the factory was rebuilt and the assembly line restarts soon after.

In 1932 Ole Kirk Christiansen was master carpenter and joiner, and started a small business in the village of Billund in Denmark. He manufactured wooden toys, ironing boards and stepladders. LEGO was conceived to describe the toys made in 1934. Lego comes from the Danish words "LEg GOdt" or "play well". It was discovered also that “lego” in Latin means "I study" or "I put together"; a description that follows the toy still today. Lego only has dozen employees that continues to make the popular toy, a plastic brick. In 1942 fire burns the entire LEGO factory to the ground. The factory was rebuilt and is still running today.. Soon after World War II the LEGO company was the first company in Denmark to buy a plastic injection-molding machine for making plastic toys. At there were are no LEGO bricks, only approximately 200 different varieties of plastic and wooden toys. The first plastic brick similar to that of today was created under the name of Automatic Binding Bricks and could only be bought in Denmark.

Godtfred Kirk Christiansen - son of the original founder of LEGO is appointed Junior Vice President in 1950. He has worked with the company from the beginning, going into the factory at the age of 12 and quickly learning the business from the ground up. By 1951 plastic toys account for half of the company's orders, signaling the subtle shift from the familiar wooden toys to the new and more popular plastic. Because of this the Automatic Binding Bricks are renamed "LEGO Mursten" or "LEGO Bricks" - the familiar term we all know them by today. Eventually the "LEGO System of Play" is released. It signaled a revolution in the toy world allowing the owner to expand and create without a strict set of guidelines to follow. After a few years the actual stud and tube coupling system the toy uses is patented this new advancement making the models more stable and safer. More and more variations of bricks are released, letting youngsters build more and more creative interpretations of their imaginations.

In 1958 Ole Kirk Christiansen dies and Godtfred Kirk Christiansen becomes head of the company. Later on in 1950 the original wooden toy warehouse is destroyed in a horrible fire with the resulting decision to discontinue all wooden toy production and to focus only on the plastic creations that are quickly becoming more and more popular around the world. LEGO remains a family business to the present, with grandson Kjeld Kirk Christiansen currently the owner. As the years go on more and more developments add to the versatility and strength of the LEGO block. Cellulose acetate is replaced by acrylonitrile butadiene styrene in 1963 - making the new bricks brighter with better color quality and stronger for a longer life in toy boxes everywhere. Millions of Lego’s are being produced now. In 1967 LEGO released the DUPLO brand - a larger version of the familiar block but for children under five years old. In 1969 it is released internationally and takes off like a rocket as parents everywhere take advantage of the opportunity to let their children play with the safe and creative toys. In the next twenty years LEGO will move into the realm of robotic models and small, movable people. Suddenly LEGO sets are everywhere, from Star Wars to workable robots to Ninjas and Western themes. Entire theme parks exhibit vast recreations to the public, while computer programs exist to play with your own set of virtual LEGOS and create in cyberspace.


Robot Bionicle and the Lincoln Log are not even close but Clikits are still Legos

Lego Toys are for all Ages!

Doc Ock or that Bionicle is only Building Block

You can buy the MINDSTORMS RIS (Robotics Invention System) at the stores listed below (presuming they have it in stock), and many fine toy outlets. Also available are RIS extension kits. Also available are two other, less capable, MINDSTORMS sets: RDS and DDK.

LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ lets you design and program real robots that do what you want them to. With the Robotics Invention System 2.0™, the core set of the LEGO MINDSTORMS product range, you can create everything from a light-sensitive intruder alarm to a robotic rover that can follow a trail, move around obstacles, and even duck into dark corners.

Lego Knight's Kingdom : Classic battle playset mounts siege engine against imaginary kingdom's castle walls with mini figure of kingdom

Lego toys, games, bionicle -- where LEGO® enthusiasts of all ages find information, and ideas.

Lego Mindstorms is the first affordable, mass-market robotics lab! For decades, LEGO has provided snappable, stackable plastic bricks for creating vehicles, buildings, or whatever else your imagination can produce. MindStorms adds a computerized brick, motors, sensors, and a set of software "bricks" that are snapped together on a PC screen and transmitted to the smart LEGO brick with an infrared beam. MindStorms also includes comprehensive training sessions in which the concepts of logic and design are explained and illustrated.

Students and hobbyists have been making autonomous robots (including LEGO-based ones) for years, but for the more casual robot tinkerer, there really wasn't much available. The new LEGO MindStorms Robotics Invention System is easy enough for kids, but powerful enough for high school and university-level students to make impressive use of it. Now you can create programmable robots that navigate obstacles, follow trails, or react to changes in light detected by its sensors. No programming experience is necessary; LEGO's intuitive software helps you along the way. Clearly, LEGO isn't just for kids anymore.

LEGO Mindstorms has been nearly 15 years in the making. It comes through a collaboration between LEGO and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Fred Martin, an MIT research scientist, helped develop much of the microprocessor technology ultimately used in MindStorms, and it was Dr. Seymour Papert's vision to stuff a computer inside a LEGO brick. Papert, a pioneer in artificial intelligence and the creator of the Logo programming language, worked with LEGO to put his Logo into LEGO bricks.

TYPES OF LEGO

train is that the Metru Nui

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SHOULD I JUST get legos?
Mindstorm for the Knight Kingdom can try Brickshelf

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Lego at the Lego.com  

Adult Lego
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legoland lego bionicle toys

Lego trains

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Lego Toys

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