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Lego is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks accompanying an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. Lego pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways to construct objects, including vehicles, buildings, and working robots. Anything constructed can be taken apart again, and the pieces reused to make new things.
Bob the Builder is a children's animated television series created in Britain by Keith Chapman. In the original series, which aired from 1998-2011, Bob appears in a stop motion animated programme as a building contractor, specialising in masonry, along with his colleague Wendy, various neighbours and friends, and their gang of anthropomorphised work-vehicles and equipment. The show is broadcast in many countries, but originated from the United Kingdom where Bob was voiced by English actor Neil Morrissey. The show later used CGI animation starting with the spin-off series Ready, Steady, Build!. British proprietors of Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine sold the enterprise in 2011 to US toy-maker Mattel for $680 million.
This article lists notable events and releases in the history of the Lego Group.
Legoland Windsor Resort, also known as Legoland Windsor, is a child-orientated theme park and resort in Windsor, Berkshire in England, themed around the Lego toy system. The park opened on 17 March 1996 on the former Windsor Safari Park site as the second Legoland after Legoland Billund in Denmark. In common with the other Legoland Resorts across the world, the park's attractions consist of a mixture of Lego-themed rides, models, and building workshops. The park was acquired by Merlin Entertainments in 2005, which now operates the park, with the Lego Group retaining part ownership (30%). The facilities are mainly targeted at children between three and twelve.
The History of Lego began in 1932 in a Danish carpentry workshop and continues into the 21st century as a popular and very profitable line of construction toys and related products and services, including Lego board games, retail stores, Lego video games, Lego films, Legoland theme parks, and Lego Serious Play consultant services, with a significant impact on various areas of popular culture. Despite its expansion, the company remains privately held.
Lego System A/S is a Danish toy production company based in Billund. It is best known for the manufacture of Lego-brand toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The Lego Group has also built several amusement parks around the world, each known as the LEGOLAND Resorts, and operates numerous retail stores.
Lego Trains is a product range and theme of the construction toy Lego, which incorporates buildable train sets. The Lego Trains theme became a sub-theme of Lego City in 2006. Products in the range have included locomotives, tracks, rolling stock, stations, signal boxes, and other track-side buildings. The theme is popular among adult fans, as well as children, and has spawned international associations and conventions. The train system is sometimes referred to as 'L-gauge' among fans, in reference to traditional model railway scales. Lego trains use a nominal gauge of 37.5mm, 5.5mm wider than O gauge, derived from a centreline gauge of 40mm.
Lego Creator is a Lego theme for generic models. Creator sets have few specialized bricks to create buildings, creatures, vehicles, and robots. Some sets featured instructions for three different possible builds from the bricks included and most sets in recent years have used the 3-in-1 label. Creator is also a parent theme to Lego Creator Expert, a Lego subtheme for adolescents and adults featuring advanced building techniques and large piece counts, mostly known for Modular Buildings and detailed vehicles. Creator also has had several other subthemes such as X-Pods and mosaics.
Nathan Sawaya is an American artist who builds custom three-dimensional sculptures and large-scale mosaics from popular everyday items and is best known for his work with standard LEGO building bricks.
BrickCon is a LEGO convention and exhibition in North America. It is held annually for adult fans of LEGO and hobbyists in Seattle, Washington. BrickCon runs 2-4 days, generally Thursday through Sunday, and is usually held the first weekend in October. The event brings together the fan community that has evolved as a result of the Internet and helps them explore and develop their LEGO hobby. BrickCon is not affiliated to the LEGO company. BrickCon is made up of two parts: the private convention and the public exhibition.
Modular Buildings is a series of Lego building toy sets introduced in 2007 and new sets are usually released annually. Created in response to feedback and suggestions from the Adult Fans of Lego (AFOL) and Teen Fans of Lego (TFOL) communities, the sets in this series are generally intended for more advanced builders. Most sets contain more than 2,000 total pieces and make use of unorthodox building techniques not usually utilized in previous official Lego sets. In contrast to most Lego sets aimed at children and adolescents, the suggested age of most sets in the Modular Buildings series is 16 years or older. The Modular Buildings sets have been received with positive reviews and are considered by Lego designers and fans as "toys for adults".
James May's Toy Stories is a UK documentary television series created and presented by James May, and produced by Plum Pictures for the BBC. The programme focused on bringing some of the most notable toys conceived in the past into the modern era to a "new generation of children", by putting each toy into a complex, large-scale project involving the nature of the toy. The projects, often ambitious, required an extensive team of experts, and in some cases required a large group of volunteers to help achieve the project's goal.
The acknowledgement of Lego in popular culture is demonstrated by the toy's wide representation in publication, television and film, and its common usage in artistic and cultural works.
A Lego clone is a line or brand of children's construction blocks which is mechanically compatible with Lego brand blocks, but is produced by another manufacturer. The blocks were originally patented by The Lego Group in 1961 as "toy building bricks", and the company has since remained dominant in this market. Some competitors have moved to take advantage of Lego brand recognition by advertising their own products as compatible with Lego, with statements such as "compatible with leading building bricks".
BrickFair is a Lego convention and exhibition held annually in the Eastern United States. It was first held in 2008 at Tysons Corner, Virginia by Todd Webb, and in subsequent years, the Virginia convention has been held in Chantilly, typically during the first weekend of August. BrickFair is a four-day event, operating generally Thursday through Sunday. The convention displays Lego models, displays and trains, most often covering more than 100,000 square feet of convention space. BrickFair conventions are also held in New England and the Southeastern United States, with the advent of BrickFair Alabama in 2012 and BrickFair New England in 2013. BrickFair operates in every season and in four East Coast states. BrickFair is believed to be the largest Lego convention in the United States and one of the largest in the world. The Virginia convention has had up to 22,500 attendees in its public hours.
Gabriella Michelle Henderson, known professionally as Ella Henderson, is an English singer and songwriter. She competed in the ninth series of The X Factor UK in 2012, and finished in sixth place despite being a strong favourite to win. She signed with Syco Music shortly after, and released her debut studio album, Chapter One (2014), which reached number one in the UK. The album spawned the chart-topping single "Ghost", as well as the top 20 singles "Glow" and "Yours". Henderson subsequently recorded successful collaborations: "Glitterball" with Sigma, "Here for You" with Kygo, "This Is Real" with Jax Jones and "We Got Love" with Sigala, two of which reached the top 10 in the UK.
"Everything Is Awesome" is the theme song to the 2014 Warner Bros. Pictures film The Lego Movie. It was written by Shawn Patterson, JoLi, and The Lonely Island. The single and pop version featured in the end credits of the movie was produced by Mark Mothersbaugh and performed by Tegan and Sara in collaboration with The Lonely Island.
Brickfête is a Lego fan convention held annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It became the first Canadian Lego convention for adult fans of Lego at its inaugural event in 2011. It was created by volunteers and organized by the Ontario Brick Builders (OBB). The main focus of the convention is for Lego fans and hobbyists bring their creations to display and share with fellow enthusiasts. Brickfête's mandate is to offer any fan, regardless of skill level or size of collection, a place to display their creations and to promote their revered hobby to new potential fans. Like other fan conventions, it offers workshops, presentations, special events, contests and challenges.
Lego Masters is a British reality show in which teams compete to build the best Lego project. It is hosted by Melvin Odoom and judged by Lego designer Matthew Ashton and structural engineer Roma Agrawal and Fran Scott. Lego Masters premiered on Channel 4 on 24 August 2017.
Ryan McNaught, also known as The Brickman, is a Lego designer as the only Australian Lego certified Professional. In 2019 he joined Channel Nine's TV show Lego Masters Australia, as the main competition judge alongside host Hamish Blake.
References
- ↑ "Live Company to acquire leading brick model building company Bright Bricks". Youtube. Proactive Media. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
- ↑ Trotman, Andrew (6 Nov 2014). "Is this the best job in the world? Bright Bricks builds giant Netto dog from Lego". The Daily Telegraph .
- ↑ Carter, Brea (3 December 2015). "Event TV: Lego's Christmas train in action". Event Magazine.
- ↑ "Inside Lego at Christmas". Documentary. 26 December 2015. Channel 4.