Legos-The empire I built
I am going to build an empire. When I was a small child, those were the words that kept rolling through my mind. My dream at first was to rule a city, then I wanted to rule a country, then when I realized that there was a universe, I wanted to rule that, too. But, I was only a small child, I ruled nothing, I had nothing to control. But that all changed. October 19, 1985, my sixth birthday, I received a Lego airport. An airport!! I could rule an airport with an airplane and a helicopter now!!! But that was only the beginning. Today, I own a city made of 20,000 bricks.
All this I can attribute to Ole Kirk Christensen. He founded Lego inside a small workshop in Billund, Denmark. His toys were small wooden blocks that attached to each other. These blocks got the name LEGO in 1934. Christensen got the name from two Danish words "leg godt" which means "play well", or in Latin, "I put together". Today's plastic bricks first came into being around 1947. In the 50's, Lego became a word, they began selling internationally, and the patent for the current brick design was granted. Unfortunately in 1960, the Lego factory burnt down, and it was decided that LEGO would discontinue its line of wooden products and concentrate on plastics. From there Lego would grow. In the 60's wheels, roofs, the 4.5-volt train, and DUPLO bricks for small children would come into being. The 70's noted the beginning of Legoland playsets, in the 80's products with flashing lights and siren noises made the market, and today, LEGO sets are so specialized that now there is a LEGO product for all types of children, and recently, Lego signed an agreement making building sets themed to Star Wars. So why is this special? \par \pard\tab Legos are used worldwide by kids who play and learn. Legos are great toys for those who want to be future architects or engineers, plus build ability with spatial relations and motor skills. There are 189 billion Legos as of January so it is likely that some of you in this room are reaping these benefits. LEGO, Incorporated is one of the largest companies in the world.
LEGO has many sets of toys under twelve themes. As always there are the town, space, and medieval times themes but today there is much more. Under the adventurers theme, you can buy toy sets that explore Egypt and discover tombs of great pharaohs, or you could by insectoids, space vehicles shaped like spiders, mosquitoes, and crickets that make sounds, you could buy UFO's, robots, aqua zone under water explorers, sets that make old western villages, sets that impersonate extreme sports, sets that travel through time, sets that portray life in the outback, and premiering July 1--ninjas, that's right, ninjas. Legos that portray life in the ancient orient. These Lego men can do taek-won-do.
Lego also has two amusement parks and one in the making. The first park, Legoland Billund in Denmark contains the world's largest collection, while Legoland Windsor, just minutes away from Windsor Castle near London, and has many shows and more Legos. But for those of us who don't have the money to fly to Europe, there is another park, opening next spring, Legoland California. Another park filled with Legos, it will provide a full day's worth of entertainment. This park is located in Carlsbad, CA, a few minutes north of San Diego.
Now as for my own collection of nearly 20,000 Legos, I have a stable, a fire station, police headquarters, coast guard center, city hall, mall, medical center, library, historic district with wild west fort, a waterfront area, time machine center, a combo speedway-raceway auto racing track, a visitor center, a two terminal airport with space shuttle pad in the middle, a playhouse theater, an arena and a super large stadium. Have I built an empire, or what!!!!!