Good morning everyone, I'm Mimi Fotz, and this is Hello from the Van. As we begin today's podcast, just a reminder: this is not an ad. I just had questions, okay? This is not a sponsored post. I just wanted to know some things. You see, after becoming the unsuspecting victim of a pile of Legos on the staircase in the middle of the night, I had questions. The question was, who makes these things? And why is there a pile of them on my staircase and why is there now a hole in my foot? The answer is the Lego Group, a Danish company founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen. And today we'll be talking about a brief history of these interlocking bricks and how they've taken the world and my staircase by storm. The word Lego is a combination of two Danish words, le and go, meaning to play well. Christiansen was a carpenter who started with wooden toys and with the help of his son would go on to create this interlocking plastic brick system, motivated to go into plastics mainly because of, well, the wooden toy factory burned down. Twice. But the design that was patented in 1958 for the plastic bricks has stood the test of time. In the 60s, the Lego group would adopt the Lego Constitution, or the 10 characteristics of Lego, whatever you want to call it. And basically these were guidelines for the company, for their toy production, and for play. The Lego Constitution includes things like the toys should support endless hours of play. They should incorporate imagination, creativity, and development, but also things like the more Legos someone owns, the greater play value. After the Lego Constitution became a key part of the company, they continued to expand. A decade later in the 70s, Lego Technics and minifigurines were added to the company lineup. And with that, various changes and additions would happen over the next 30 years, each with advantages and disadvantages to the company. Some things would help the company and some didn't. You see, they started to stray from the Lego constitution and it cost the company dearly. By the early 2000s, the Lego company was under severe financial stress. They had diversified a little too close to the sun. They were building theme parks and investing in that wing of the business, expanding clothing lines and toys that were simply too complex to be appreciated. And by 2003, they were over $800 million in debt. So how did they get out of it? They simplified. They went back to that Lego constitution and the humble brick. They sold assets, they got a new CEO, who just happened to have a PhD in economics, was Danish, and was a lifelong Lego lover himself. It was the perfect trifecta to bring the company back to life. They went back to their roots. They focused on bricks and bionicles. The Lego company has made a complete turnaround and does an estimated yearly profit of over 10 billion dollars. Yes, with the B. To put that into perspective, in the time it takes you to listen to the podcast today, about 10 minutes, the Lego company will make about $200,000. To put this into a daily total, the company makes over $7 million a day. It's time to play Lego by the numbers. The Lego Company produces a lot of bricks every day. If you had to guess how many bricks, just singular bricks, the Lego company produces each second. So 11,000, how many bricks were made in that amount of time? Go ahead and give it a guess. The answer is 1,100 bricks per second. They produce 68,000 bricks per minute. If you had to guess how many minifigurines are in existence, how many would you guess? Let me give you a hint. They are the world's largest population. The answer is 4 billion. Yes, there are 4 billion minifigurines in existence, making them the world's largest population. Legos are so plentiful that if you distributed them evenly all across the entire world, there are over 80 bricks for each person alive today. But what's the cost? As any Lego purchasing mom knows, Legos are expensive. With high profit margins on each set, Lego is the world's strongest and most valuable toy brand. The most expensive Lego set is the Ultimate Collector Series Death Star, set 75419, which costs $999.99 and has 9,023 pieces. The most expensive resale set was also a Star Wars set called Lego Cloud City in the original sealed packaging. It sold for $12,500 at auction. If you're wondering what the most expensive single brick is that's ever sold, it was made of solid 14 karat gold. And if you're wondering, oh, it's just the gold value, no, no. The gold value was only $2,100. You see, what made this singular brick so valuable was that there are only about 10 examples of this brick to exist. Between 1979 and 1981, the Lego company produced a handful of solid gold bricks and presented them as special gifts to employees at their factory in Germany, employees who had done things like worked for the company for more than 25 years. The value of the brick's gold content wasn't very much. It was the extreme rarity that sparked the bidding war. It eventually sold for $19,580. Now, if you have not so silently been screaming at your device, it's Lego, not Legos. I'm here to give you some more information on that subject as well. In some adult circles, it is considered a faux pas to refer to more than one Lego brick as a group of Legos with an S. For some adults, the plural of Lego is Lego. Like, look at all these Lego I have. I have multiple sets of Lego. Kind of like how a grain of rice is called rice and a cup of rice is also just called rice. If you find this confusing, you are not alone. I did a lot of research for this episode, and by far the most heavily debated and divisive controversy around the Lego brand is how to refer to more than one piece of Lego. Here's what I found when researching this particularly heated controversy. You see, it's like pineapple on pizza. It's very polarizing. You're either for it or against it, apparently. So let me give you some history of these terms. Referring to the plural of Lego as Legos is a very American thing to do. It is part of the American vernacular. Vernacular just means local language. It's very colloquial. The word Legos is a part of standard American English, but not British English. This is due to British English having different rules around words used for groups of items. The Lego company has been using the plural Legos with an S in their American marketing materials since 1973. The word Lego wasn't even added to the dictionary until 1979. So if you've heard that Lego themselves say the word Legos is incorrect, well they've also used it. And let me explain why. The company currently prefers to avoid using Legos because they need to protect their trademark. It has less to do with grammar and more to do with the legal ramifications of adding the S. They prefer not to use the word Legos to protect their brand, Lego. They don't want Legos to refer to building blocks in general, but to their specific brand. And I'm here to tell you, uh guys, it's a little late for that. Because when someone says Lego, I don't imagine some company. I imagine a brick. So does it matter if you say Lego or Legos? Absolutely not. The word Lego is made up. And it's Danish in origin. It's it's a made up Danish word. Who says you can't make up a word Legos? And if someone continues to argue, tell them you simply made a contraction of the word Lego and bricks. Legos. Basically, do what you want. Just follow your heart when it comes to the plural of Lego. And if anyone tries to tell you you're wrong, you can just say that you're playing as Ole Christiansen intended, with your imagination. Christiansen even said, our products must exist on children's own term. You want to know why kids don't care? Because they're too busy playing with the Legos. And I don't know about you, but I have never once been corrected about Lego versus Legos by a child. It has always been by an adult. So remember, in the words of Ole Kirk Christiansen, life is a gift, but it's more than just that. Life is a challenge. I'm Mimi Fotz, and this has been another episode of Hello from the Van. And now to cite our sources. Our sources today are 2024 Brand Reports, Lego Group, Legoland Discovery Center.com, Legos and Their History, Encyclopedia Britannica, Lego Entry, Wargamer.com, Most Expensive Lego sets, Lego.com, the Lego Group History, Dictionary.com, Lego, Legos, Just Collecting.com, World's Most Valuable Lego brick sold for almost $20,000. And finally, Reddit. Yeah, I said what I said. I had to go to Reddit for this episode. And I hated it. That's all. Anyway, I'll see you next week.