Lego Facts
Lego Facts

48 Interesting LEGO Facts

Karin Lehnardt
By Karin Lehnardt, Senior Writer
Published August 9, 2017Updated September 7, 2019
  • The plural of LEGO is LEGO.[6]
  • According to the LEGO Group, the word “LEGO” is not a noun; rather it is an adjective, as in LEGO bricks, LEGO products, LEGO universe, etc.[7]
  • The word “LEGO” is from the first two letters of the Danish words “Leg” and “Godt,” which means “play well.”[7]
  • Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891-1958) created the LEGO Group in 1932 as a way to use old wood from his failed carpentry business. He patented the now famous interlocking LEGO blocks in 1949.[6]
  • Ole Kirk Kristiansen, founder of the LEGO Group, actually didn’t invent LEGO bricks. A British man named Hilary Fisher Page (1904-1957) invented the first bricks, but he died before he could discover that LEGO had “borrowed” his invention.[6]
  • If laid end to end, the number of LEGO bricks sold in one year would reach over 5 times around the globe.[4]
  • There are 86 LEGO bricks for every person on earth.[8]
    • Fun LEGO Tyre Fact
    LEGO produces 318 million tires a year, or over 870,000 each day (Luca_Daviddi / Getty Images)
  • LEGO sells over 400 million tires each year, which makes LEGO the largest tire manufacturer in the world.[6]
  • There are over 4 hundred billion Lego bricks in the world. Stacked together, they would be 2,386,065 miles tall, which is ten times higher than the moon.[7]
  • One LEGO can bear up to 4,240 Newtons of force, or over 953 pounds.[2]
  • A single LEGO brick can support 375,000 other LEGO bricks before buckling. This means that a person could build a LEGO tower 2.17 miles high before the bottom LEGO brick would begin to break.[2]
  • LEGO bricks are part of a universal system, which means that a piece made in 1958 would fit with a piece made today.[6]
  • LEGO is one of the few commercial toys that are not manufactured in China. There are LEGO plants in Denmark, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.[7]
  • There are more than 3,500 different types of elements and over 60 different colors of LEGO.[4]
  • In 1999, LEGO licensed its first-themed LEGO set, Star Wars.[6]
  • The motto of LEGO is Det Bedste Er Ikke for Godt, which means, “Only the best is good enough.”[6]
    • Only the best is good enough.

    - Ole Kirk Christiansen

  • Boba Fett from the Star Wars Cloud City LEGO set is one of the most rare and most collectable LEGO minifigures in the world.[7]
  • In 2003, NBA Basketball minifigures were the first to be based on real people, such as Kobe Bryant.[6]
  • In 2009, James May in Surrey, Great Britain, created the first full-sized LEGO house with 3.3 million bricks. It included a working toilet, shower, and a bed, which were all made out of LEGOs.[7]
  • Most LEGO pieces are made of ABS plastic, which means they will never decompose.[6]
  • LEGO created the first minifigure in 1978. Since then, LEGO has created over 4 billion minifigures, making it the world’s largest population group.[4]
  • The largest LEGO set ever sold is the Taj Mahal, with 5,922 pieces.[6]
  • “Afols” is an acronym for “adult fans of LEGO.”[6]
  • Approximately 86% LEGO minifigures are male.[8]
    • Weird LEGO Fact
    Most LEGO figures are male (labsas / Getty Images)
  • The first LEGO figures in 1978 had yellow skin, two black dots for eyes, and a wide smile to represent people from anywhere in the world. In 2003, the LEGO group gave minifigures realistic skin tones, facial expressions, and modeled hair.[6]
  • Approximately 20 billion LEGO elements (bricks) are made every year in the LEGO factory in Billund, Denmark. This is about 2 million elements every hour, or 35,000 every minute.[4]
  • Historically, each LEGO minifigure was exactly 4 bricks high without a hat. In 2002, the Yoda minifigure became the first to be a different height.[6]
  • Over 8 quadrillion possible minifigures could be made from all the parts that have been produced over the last 30 years.[5]
  • The first LEGO minifigure was a police officer and was part of the LEGO “Town” theme in early 1978.[6]
  • The most expensive LEGO minifigure is the 14k gold Star Wars 30th Anniversary C-3PO, which is said to be worth at least $200. LEGO made only two of these special characters.[7]
  • The LEGO molding process is so accurate that just 18 elements in every million do not pass the company’s high quality standard.[7]
    • Crazy LEGO Fact
    Sorry, Barbie (Ekaterina Minaeva / Getty Images)
  • In September 2014, Lego passed Hasbro to become the world’s second biggest toy maker, behind Mattel (who creates Barbie, Fisher-Price, and Hot Wheels).[8]
  • There are over 915 million ways to combine 6 LEGO bricks.[4]
  • Globally, children spend 5 billion hours a year playing with LEGOs.[4]
  • An “evil” LEGO figurine in the LEGO Alpha Team set is name Ogel, which is LEGO spelled backwards. He represents the exact opposite of the brand's love of play and fun.[6]
  • There are a total of 3,863,484 unique virtual LEGO bricks in the 2014 The Lego Movie. However, many of those bricks were reused to create some of the film’s other scenes. To recreate the entire movie would take 15,080,330 virtual LEGO pieces.[1]
  • Quirrell from the Harry Potter LEGO set is the first minifigure to have a double-sided head. He has a swivel head that can spin from a good side to an evil side.[7]
  • Alfred Molina who plays Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 is one of only two actors to become a LEGO minifigure twice. His other minifigure is Satipo in the Indiana Jones series.[7]
  • Most LEGO heads don’t have noses so that the facial graphics remain as clean as possible.[6]
    • Interesting Lego Fact
    Most LEGO figures don't have noses (Luca_Daviddi / Getty Images)
  • The world’s tallest LEGO tower stands over 114 feet tall and is made from 550,000 bricks. Thousands of children helped build the tower in Milan, Italy.[3]
  • The LEGO figurine Jar Jar Binks was the first minifigure to have a specially molded head.[6]
  • LEGO minifigure heads are empty with small holes on either side of the head. The holes make it less likely for a child to choke in case a child swallows the head.[7]
  • In 2000, LEGO beat out the common Teddy Bear and the Barbie doll as the “Toy of the Century.”[7]
  • Because the founder of LEGO, Ole Kirk Christianson, didn’t want to make war attractive to children, there are no LEGO sets that directly appeal to war.[6]
    • Random LEGO Facts
    Playing with LEGO can help children with autism
  • Because LEGO blocks offer a repetitive and structured form of play, they help autistic children develop several skills, such as nonverbal and verbal communication, sharing and teamwork.[11]
  • LEGO bricks were originally called “Automatic Binding Bricks.”[7]
  • The Internet dating site “Plenty of Fish” devotes a section of their site to “Users Interested in LEGOs” to make it easier for Lego lovers to find each other.[10]
  • Artist Antonio Toscano recreated shot-for-shot the trailer for the 2015 movie Fifty Shades of Grey—all with Legos.[9]
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