10 facts about LEGO toys

1. LEGO toy blocks are made from a plastic known as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene. During the creation process, this plastic is heated to a temperature of 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. The Lego Group, the company that makes and owns LEGO toys, has estimated that 400 billion LEGO blocks have been made in the last 50 years.
3. Ole Kirk Christiansen is the original inventor of LEGO building block toys. He was a carpenter who started making wooden toys in 1932 in Denmark.
4. In 1934, Christiansen names his company LEGO, but it wouldn't be until 1947 that the company began making the famous plastic building blocks.
5. LEGO was not the first company to make plastic building blocks. That honor goes to Hilary Harry Fisher Page who began selling his Kiddicraft Self Locking Bricks in Britain after the Second World War. In 1981, LEGO gained the rights to Kiddicraft.
6. The modern LEGO bricks were not perfected, patented and sold until 1958. Since then, all LEGO building blocks are compatible. LEGO blocks made today will connect with and work with LEGO blocks from 1958.
7. Duplo building blocks, made by the Lego Group for younger children, are in all dimensions twice the size of regular LEGO toy blocks.
8. LEGO blocks have gone digital! The Lego Group has released software called the Lego Digital Designer, free for Windows and Mac platforms. With this software, users can build constructions onscreen using digital LEGO blocks. Users can even go to the Lego Design by Me website, upload their digital LEGO block design and then order it from the Lego Group.
9. Also, LEGO toys entered the video game age in 1997 with the release of the Lego Island video game, playable on Windows 7 and Windows Vista. Since then, LEGO video games have grown in popularity, and there are nearly 40 LEGO video games.
10. Did you know there are actually four amusement parks based upon LEGO toys? They are called Legoland. Where are they? There's one in Windsor, England; on in Gunzburg, Germany; another in Billund, Denmark; and one in Carlsbad, California.