Hey everybody welcome back to explain the come five. The podcast we take the questions you always wanted to ask and talk about them in a way That's easy to understand. We are your hosts. I'm Tim and I'm Kevin.
So Kevin today We're talking about something that most five-year-olds would be very familiar with and that is Legos. Ah, yes Legos I love Legos. It's such a great company and such a great invention You know in fact the name Lego is derived from the Danish words lego which means play well Did you also know that Lego is the world's largest toy company? Oh, yes, that sounds correct It is the largest toy company by revving you at least it was correct as of the first half of 2015 when Lego sales hit a Total of US two point one billion dollars Surpassing Mattel which only had US one point nine billion dollars in sales of that year So here's a practical question which you can explain.
How is it that Lego bricks do not lose tension or force through repetitive play? Oh, well actually Tim they do as materials wear out But it just takes a lot of repetitive play to wear out a lego piece and the whole design of these Lego bricks It's such as meant to counter this as much as possible the shapes They click together so that the least amount of the plastic is kind of abraded away So if you stick them together straight up and down rather than breaking them apart by weakling them side-by They'll last even longer it is incredible how they've kept high quality across the decades absolutely remarkable Lego has insane quality control considering it's meant to be you know a kid's way right and the difference in size of blocks is really really tiny You can basically pick up a Lego brick from 1958 and it'll fit nicely with one body yesterday That's some serious design foresight and also a lot of money in R&D So are you saying in all this time the bricks themselves haven't evolved very much? Well, they're not exactly staying still and people notice some Lego fans have complained about the change in composition like bricks today 30% less plastic than previous generations another factor is the height of the little button or a cylinder that clicks together with the other side of the Top lock that's also been altered over time the taller the cylinder the longer the piece lasts and of course Lego They also listen to the customers in January 2014 a semi-year-old Charlotte Benjamin sent a handwritten letter to Lego complaining that there were more Lego boy people and barely any Lego girls So in June 2014 Lego announced a new research institute collection featuring female scientists which sold out within a week So just now you mentioned 1958 and I'm wondering is that when Legos were first invented? Oh, yeah, sort of actually so the Lego company was founded in 1932 by someone named Olé Kirk Christensen And he was a carpenter whose primary business of producing household goods had suffered due to great depression in 1949 Lego began making an early version of the now familiar interlocking bricks actually calling it back then automatic binding bricks So not and not really meant for a creative footplay with that wasn't it his son who invented the modern-day Lego?
That's right. That's right. So by 1954 it was Christians and son Goughford that had become the junior managing director of the Lego group and he had a conversation with an overseas buyer that led to the idea of turning Those automatic binding bricks into this toy system. So that's how we get to 1958 and that's when the modern brick design was developed It took five years to find the right material for it They use what's called an ABS polymer and they found a patent application for the modern Lego brick design in January 1958 so if they had a patent on the design why are there other companies who also make similar bricks?
Well, they don't anymore actually so the last standing Lego patent expired in 1989 And since then a number of companies have produced interlocking bricks that are similar to the Lego bricks But they're just you know, they're not quite the same the toy company Ticotoys do such bricks for time And you might have also heard of something called mega blocks and best lock You know Lego They don't really like their competitors though They've gone to court with mega blocks and there are some reports that Lego used to bury its used molds in the concrete foundations of buildings to prevent them from being reused and You know, competitor products are typically compatible with Lego bricks and are often marketed at a lower cost than the real Lego sets Well, that was gonna be my next question. Why are Legos so expensive? Ah, yeah, it's really all about quality Lego bricks are very consistent so consistent in fact They measured that only 18 bricks out of every one million made are considered effective and the design and manufacturer bricks It's also consistent enough to allow bricks manufacturer today to interlock with those originally manufactured over back in 1958 That'll make sense. So the Lego group as you mentioned is also famous for I think a motto around high quality Mm-hmm.
Their model is only the best is good enough which you've had since 1936, you know, this model which is still used today So there are lots of Legos which are collect the sets and there are some pretty large Lego sets out there What is the largest? Oh, yes, yes, it keeps changing and there's really fun lists and top 10s on YouTube I think it used to be the Star Wars Millennium Falcon, you know, that was released in 2007 and contained 5,195 pieces But then you know, it was surpassed by the toggle hall 5,922 pieces only to be surprisingly reclaimed With a redesigned Millennium Falcon that took retook the top spot on 17 with its grand total of 7,541 pieces other fun other big ones were the Titanic and the architect Colesim I think took the lead after that and now today It is the Lego art world map at 11,695 pieces Wow, that's a lot of pieces out there in fact that begs the question. How many Lego pieces are there out there in the world right now? Oh, so Lego themselves said in 2015 that more than six hundred billion Lego parts had been produced and 75 billion bricks are sold annually in over 140 countries So our final question since we're on numbers and because this also speaks to the power of why Legos are so important How many ways can you combine six 2x4 Lego bricks of the same color?
So six bricks of 2x4 studs can be combined in the total of 915 million ways Did you learn something new if you did and especially if you are a regular listener of your life, I please give us a rating on iTunes It only takes 10 seconds and it helps other people to discover our podcast, so we really appreciate it As always, thank you to the community at r-flash.com 5 and we'll see you all next week