February 1, 2008

Happy 50th Anniversary Lego!

Back in January of 1958 Ole Kirk Christansen settled on a design virtually identical to the plastic bricks used today in Lego sets. You may ask, "What do Legos have to do with story telling?" but I think that they have quite a bit.

First, Lego has created sets to help children come up with their own stories in space, cities, the wild west, with pirates, castles, adventurers, vikings, dinosaurs and hosts of other character types in many settings.

Second, they recently have branched out in creating their own worlds with backup and ongoing stories such as their Bionicle and Exo-Force lines.

Third, Lego has allowed children to continue well known stories on their own. These have included Spider-man, classic monster-types (such as a werewolf, a mummy, and a vampire and a Frankenstein's-monster type creature), Harry Potter, Star Wars, and now even Indiana Jones. A couple of years ago they even did a series of sets based on some of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales as part of an anniversary celebration in Denmark.

I am sure Legos will come up in future posts, but in the meantime, if you haven't seen what they has available currently, visit the Lego website. You can read more about the company's history and this anniversary as well.

Play well!

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