Do Go On - 137 - The History of Lego

Episode Date: June 6, 2018

This week's episode is all about the history of Lego! A company founded by a carpenter in Denmark that ended up taking the world by storm with their little bricks and their system of play! But it wasn't a smooth ride, there were (multiple) fires, deaths and financial difficulties along the way... but (spoiler alert) they're still going strong today!Support the show and get rewards like bonus episodes:www.patreon.com/DoGoOnPodCheck out our brand new website! (including MERCH!) : dogoonpod.comSubmit a topic idea directly to the hat: https://dogoonpod.com/submit-a-topic/Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] AND FURTHER READING:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDU_BBJW9Yhttps://www.history.com/news/the-disastrous-backstory-behind-the-invention-of-lego-brickshttps://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/lego-group/the_lego_historyhttp://mentalfloss.com/article/19400/early-history-legohttps://www.thoughtco.com/lego-toy-bricks-first-introduced-1779349http://blog.logomyway.com/history-of-lego-logo-design/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates.

Welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnocky and I am sitting here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart also sitting. Ooh. Oh, we are. It's so good to be sitting here with you too. Why has it taken us this long to get chairs? Oh, we know, we're modern, modern podcasters are at our standing day. Exactly. Good for the lower back, is that correct?

Yes. Or upper back. All the back. All the back. Mid back, your side obliques. Oh, yes. I don't know fully know what that means, but I remember seeing that in an advertainment, infomercial. There we go. At some point. I find that entertaining.

It really works your side obliques. And I'm like, that sounds sick. I think it's like your side abs. Yeah, it's basically trying to give you like a 19 pack. Yeah. Which I got. I bought the product, obviously. That would annoy the shit out of it.

It would really piss you off. Yeah, where's the odd-numbered pack? Is it in the middle somewhere? Yeah, you've only got... Under your belly button. You've got five side obliques. Very strange. That's so annoying.

And I'm with you, Jess, either get rid of one or get one extra. Yes. Which is an option. Just work out harder, Jess. No, I'd add one. 20 pack. Great. Good value.

20 pack for the price of 19. Love it. Love it. Hey, do you want me to ask the question that gets us under the topic for today's topic? Fuck. Podcasts? Yes, which is what we do here in the studio.

Yes. We're in the studio here. Yeah, I'm sitting in the studio. On a chair. So I've written two questions in case the first one's too hard. Let's see how we go. That's condescending. Doesn't have much faith in us, does he?

I go straight to the question two. Yeah, I definitely want to get. Question one is, in 2016, which company sold over 75 billion individual units? $206,000. Bitcoin. $2,16. Is it Amazon? Units.

I mean, there's probably multiple answers for this, to be honest. That's one of the reasons why that question's hard. All right, question two, please. Which company has been named Toy of the Century twice? Toy of the Century. Barbie. Barbie. Good guess.

Oh, that is good. And it also could be true. I don't know. There's probably many toys of the Century. I don't think there should be one. What are good toys? Um, Slinky, which we've talked about on a Patreon bonus episode. I had a crazy backstory.

Yeah. Toys. I'm so out of touch. It's a big, just think big of brands. Power Rangers. It's famous for its system. Nintendo. It's older than that.

All right. Rubik's Cube. It's four letters. Pac-Man. First three of them spell leg. Lego No, I'm sorry, Jess It's

Legu Legu Legu Legu That is Lego Well done, Jess Another win to you Jeez Dave's ordinary

guessing things, isn't he? I'm just getting much better Yeah, you are That's right Dave built his whole reputation on trivia knowledge No, no I built my whole reputation on guessing

Which is why this is terribly embarrassing Terrible Lego, cool So, Lego is cool. So I don't want, maybe you're going to say this, Matt. Are you a Lego fan, Jess? Oh, sure. Who isn't a Lego fan?

I like building shit. I love Lego, but I don't like following instructions. That'd be right. You bloody renegade. That's the beauty of Lego. Wouldn't you have picked Dave to be the type he, like, takes the instructions out and does them step by step? Oh, no, I get to step one and go, no, I don't understand this. Right?

Yeah. He's, like, you can't follow a basic recipe. True. It's a very similar thing. Dave, can you read? Yes, but I don't read in order. Okay. God, reports must be confusing for you.

They are. Wow, okay. You should see how he's written them out. Yeah, it's a real mess. But somehow they come out beautiful. Choose your own adventure. At the end of every paragraph, it's turned to page 12. Continue in.

There you go. Matt, are you a follow the instructions kind of guy? Yeah, I love to follow instructions. But it's fun to get just a big heap of Lego, I assume. I haven't done it in a very long time, but just to make something up, that's good fun. Yeah, that's bloody fun.

What I tend to make would be a sword or a tower. Yeah. Or a log. Oh, logs are fun. A log castle? Log hut. No, that's good. Log flume.

What I'm saying is I just stick them all together in a tall pile. So fun. Yeah, so fun. Yeah. And then kick it over. A big finger. Yeah. So fun.

So fun. Dave pitched an idea to me before. Oh, you probably don't want to go public with it yet. I can't remember what I pitched, so let's find out. He said, you know, fingeless gloves? Oh, yeah, that's my copyright before we go into this. Okay. Nice.

I think we're protected now. Thank goodness. I have actually files a lawsuit against anyone in advance. There's some lawsuits in this report. But the, yeah, he wants to have gloveless fingers. So you got fingeless gloves. That's so stupid. What are people that have hot palms?

Who the fuck has hot palms? And also those bits that they're cutting off for fingerless gloves are being wasted. You recycle those. You've got a whole new product. Put a bit of marketing spin on it. They'd also work as bespoke condoms. Are they separate or are they joined?

Because do I have to put on each? You have to put them all on. I think you've got to put them all on either way. Yeah, that is pretty stupid Dave. But if you had them tired, when Jess wasn't here, I didn't realize. That's so, We went for, we thought maybe we could go for like, you know, you've got like,

armless vests. Vest. Vestless arms. Vestless arms. Vestless arms. Because people are chopping off the arms and throwing them away. But some people have cold arms. Yeah, just put it on your arms.

You are idiots. The pair of you. The reason you have fingerless gloves is because you can't do anything with gloves on. So if you just had the fingers on. That's for people that enjoy only using their palms. Okay. You're not using the company credit card for this. I already have. No, David. We've got 900,000 fingerless gloves being ordered. Why 900,000? Well, it's actually technically nine million because there's 10 of them. Ten in a set. Are they all the same size or do you get some of the dumb ones?

I'm not an idiot. I don't know that that's true. Look at him. He's not an idiot. Matt gave me a lot of seed funding. Matt. I gave him a box of seeds. Okay. Is that what? That's a dumb idea. Okay, well, how about my next idea? Well, let's see if we can learn anything from Lego, Dave. Okay. And by the end, maybe you'll have a new idea you can pitch us. A magazine called New Idea.

Yes. Or Pew Idea is you pitched on Josh Earle's podcast during the week. Yes, we were on... Oh, Broden did so. We were on Josh Earle's great Planet Broadcasting podcast. Don't know who I am, Jess and I were with Broden Kelly and from Auntie Donner and Joe Stanley. It was very, very fun.

It was great. I suggest you check it out. Really fun. You should go check that out. But in the meantime, if you're going to go check that out, if you want some sort of thinking, talking, here's a report about Lego. All right.

So we're going back to 1916, the small village of Belund in Denmark. 1916. Well, you know, this is pre-Legro, but we've gone a little bit back before that. Carpenter named Ole Kirk Christensen bought a woodworking shop and started producing wooden furniture

and things like ladders and ironing boards and stools and stuff like that. Fun stuff. Real fun stuff. I should say, obviously, before we go any further, that Ola came from a large Danish family. He was the 10th son. Wow. I wish I had a Danish translator,

because what I would ask that person is, do they know what it was causing it? What it was causing it? Do they know what it was causing it? You've turned to say that it is to Danish and back again. Yeah, something's lost in translation there, obviously. Okay. What's the Danish word for fucking?

Dundoo. Doon to. Dutu. Okay. Things were going along okay. I did read in different. Some of these years I've read differently, but I'm just going with these ones. I think they're right.

Things were going along okay over the initial few years until 1924 when there was a fire in the shop, possibly started accidentally by his sons. That is not a good time for a wood. Like, that's not a good thing to happen in a woodworking. No. And it wasn't the last fire they suffered either. It's so flammable. Wood? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. My parents have a fireplace and they exclusively put wood in it. Imagine having a fireplace factory. That would be flammable. Oh my God. My parents exclusively burnt gasoline, so. Wow.

My parents own a gasoline factory where they manufacture gasoline. And they have a side business, sparklers. Oh, this is dangerous. Not a savvy business choice. They make it work. Thought about gloveless fingers. They have, they have like everyone has. And immediately decided it was stupid.

Okay. Anyway. So the fire burned down the whole shop and their family home. Oh, no. Rather than let... Well, they're separate buildings or... I think that, yeah, they're in close proximity. Oh, my goodness.

It'd just be like a terrible coincidence that they're on different sides of town and it happened at the same time. It was a fire. I know, wow, it skipped 900 houses. That is unlucky. You know, yeah, that would probably seem a bit suss. He also had a big insurance payout the next day. So he took that as an opportunity to start again and build a bigger and better workshop.

Didn't let it, didn't stop him. Yeah, I love that attitude. Phoenix rising from the ashes. That's Ole for you. Great name too. The bumpy early years continued for Christensen, Oleg Christianson's business. when the Great Depression hit a few years later, meaning they had to lay off,

some said all, some said most of their stuff. I watched an animated documentary, was on one of the Lego's YouTube channels. I went for about 20 minutes, really good, about the history of Lego right. And they talked about this next thing better than I could write. So they, Oleg came in to sit with his wife, Kirsten, in the lounge room.

So they're both sitting on chairs in the lounge next to each other. Olay tells his wife that things are tough, and he's just had to lay off his last worker. He took it really well. The girl was a class act. Anyway, Kirsten replies in the cartoon, I know it's hard to understand, but at least now it can't get much worse.

Oh, no, that's never good. Then the narrator comes in saying, but it did get worse. Yeah, there we go. shortly after, Olai lost his wife. And then she fades out of the picture. What? She has just said...

It can't get much worse. And then within seconds, she's fading away to death. It was amazing. And is it any of children? I think so. It was the most brutal bit of theatre I've ever seen. Wow. I'll link to that later.

But man, my mouth was wide open. A gape. A gape. It was a gape. Did you have an expression on her face like she could hear the narrator? But it did get worse and she's like, oh what? No! Sucked away.

Avenge me. The narrator did it. And then as it went on, you realized that the narrator was always grandson. Anyway, it's great. Go ahead, spoilers. Sorry about that. He had a grandson one day who went on to narrate things. What did that?

So this was 1932 when she died and things were at a very low point. Business was tough so Olle started looking for alternative ways for his business to make money. And this is where the idea of making inexpensive toys came about. Things didn't turn around at first. In fact, things remained bad and Oleg needed to borrow money. And according to an article on History.com, his siblings tried to get him to stop making toys, but he refused even when his siblings try to make it a condition of a business. bailout loan.

Oh. He was really committed to the idea of toys. His siblings are like, it's not helping. We'll give you money. So they had an intervention. Yeah, basically. Yeah. So there's a couple, he's really, he's a big believer.

Hmm. In 1934, he changed the name of the company from what I think was blunt, woodworking and carpenter's shop, catchy. Very close to bland. Yeah. He changed it to Lego. Do you guys know where, where the, where the name? Lego came from.

It's an acrostic poem. Yes. Oh, great. Oh, I didn't know. It's not that far off. But, yeah, what is, what is? Legendary eggs. Go.

Oh. Outside. Go, O. Could have said on because like our podcast is called go. Well, Dave, it's not about us. It's not about Dave. It's about Lego. It was you getting to the letter O going, what, what stands?

Outside. I stand by my end. I like the idea. idea of O just continuing the O from go. Go, O. I'm not going to call it as this leg. That'd be fucking dumb. So you don't know, Dave.

I had a feeling you might know this because it's a bit of a classic trivia bit. But maybe it isn't. Maybe it isn't that. Maybe. Is it not legendary? I feel like I've seen it in a quiz at some point. Maybe not. So it comes from a Danish phrase, leg gault.

I'm probably not pronounced that right, obviously. And that translates. and pronounce translates to play well. Oh. They took the first two letters of both words to make the word Lego. Play well,

according to the Lego website, is not only their name, but also their ideal. Oh, okay. They didn't realize at the time, but Lego is also Latin for something like I put together, apparently. They didn't realize at the time.

Yeah. I didn't have Google, Dave. But, I mean, that's exactly what they ended up becoming is putting stuff together. That's amazing. Yeah. So at the time, their early toys weren't, you know, it wasn't bricks and stuff like it is now. So it wouldn't have made that much sense at the time because it wasn't assembling toys.

It was already assembled wooden toys in those early days. Olly's son, Godfried. That's probably not right. Godfried, Godfried, Godfried. There's a D and a T, GODT, Gott, Gottfried, God. Let's call him God. God began, that's going to be confusing. Godfried, Godfrey, God.

How many times are you going to reference it? God, apart from God Freddy, call him Freddy. Freddie. Freddie began working at the

company when he was 12. All right, slave labor. And Olegne drummed his motto into the boy, which was

Only the best is good enough. He would say that to his son while hitting a drum as he marched around the office. Only the best

is good enough. Doom, do, at any hour of day he would wake him up with the drum. Dum, what does this mean?

Hmm? Only the best is good enough. Very good. Back to sleep. Why are you awake? Only the best sleep is good enough. Get maximum R-A-M sleep.

I want to see those eyes move. Rapidly. More rapid. Rapider. Apparently at one time Godfried excitedly told his dad that he'd save the company money by painting only two coats of lacquer on the toys. But all they made is.

boy unpack all of the new toys and give them their third layer of lacquer as only the best is good enough. Wow. Olle proved to be a... Olae provid and proved to be a very good toy maker, though his sales skills weren't amazing. Come on down, Oles Toys store. You can't have a little... We got bricks, we got blocks of wood. We're made of toys.

I'm sorry, it's really hot in here. I'm so nervous. Hi, I'd like to buy one toy, please. What? Oh, okay. I'll go somewhere else now. Wait! I'll spend my money down the street.

No! It's my artist's impression of how that... Is that how the animation worked, man? That was very similar. Well, not quite. They did have... They had a big buyer coming. He was a big toy buyer, like a middleman kind of guy.

And he said he made a big order, right? Top hat. His tie had a dollar... Yeah. This video was super subtle. Yeah. But this guy, so they made all these toys for him and it was like, things are picking up. But then that guy went bankrupt, unfortunately.

And things, but things did get worse. Oh, no. Not again. Not my wife. She's gone. So he had to, he had all these extra toys. So he started going around apparently, you know, shop to shop trying to sell them to store, well, grosses and whatever.

And he had some success, but he didn't. to make a lot of money because he was often trading the toys to stores for food, which was good because he had a few boys and it was a single dad now. He had a few boys. Had a few boys. I think he had four boys, including got a freed. So the business grew and the wooden toys were selling all over Denmark. One of the iconic toys he created back then was a wooden duck with a mouth that open and

closed as you pulled it along. Apparently these originals are now massive collectors items I'm trying to find one to see how much they cost now but I couldn't find any for sale They're that rare Yeah super rare You find a few pictures of them around But I would guess

And this is purely entirely made up right now But I reckon they'd be worth billions of dollars I was going to say Hundreds of thousands So somewhere in between I reckon Dave any thoughts 48 million

Yeah Yeah somewhere in between That is actually that is in between Yeah, no, we both agreed with that, yes. Yeah. We know simple numbers, like... What's bigger. What's bigger?

We've all played the game, What's bigger, Dave? What's bigger, Dave? It's a fun game. In 1942, the year was 1942. Yes. And the Second World War was... Roaring along. Germany now occupied Denmark.

and things were tough once more. Ola's factory suffered another fire, once again meaning he had to start again, which he did obviously. After World War II, the world had changed, and so had the world of toy manufacturing. Many of the manufacturing products had been used up by the war, so alternatives were sought.

I'm not sure if many wooden ducks were required in the war effort, but either way, this was the turning point where many manufacturers started looking to plastic as the future. I feel like the wooden ducks were the turning point in the war. Yeah. Yeah. Really got our boys over the line.

Yeah. Yeah. Hitler in the end actually killed himself with a wooden duck. Yeah. Just smacked himself over the head with one. And that one is worth billions. Yeah. Yeah.

That's the most expensive one. Advances in plastic technology helped make it a cheap alternative. Ole bought Denmark's first plastic injection molding machine in 1946. and started testing it out for toy manufacture. Oh, cool. Yeah, it was actually because of one thing or another, the Danish government said they weren't allowed to be used until 1949, I think, or a couple of years later.

So he wasn't able to sell products from it for a couple of years. I think while they were still recovering from the war and getting things back in order. But in the meantime, he's kind of perfecting how to. to do it, which I think is clever. So clever. All right, so he's practicing. Yeah, yeah.

He's just not selling anything. So by the time he can, at least he's got the expertise to do it, I hope. That's good. By 1949, Lego was making a plastic product called the automatic binding brick. Catchy name. Yes. ABB. ABB.

Ab. According to the History.com article, Lego has said that the fact that the name was English, not Danish, was an homage. to the Allied forces that liberated Denmark and put an end to World War II. History.com also mentions that the toy was inspired by a set of self-locking bricks invented by a British company called Kittycraft.

Lego says Kittycraft told the company it was fine to use the design. But in 1981, Lego formally bought the rights to Kittycraft bricks from their inventor's descendants. Wow. But at the time, they were like, yeah, it's cool.

Yeah, it sounds like they were pretty cool about it, but they, yeah, they basically just ripped off the idea. Kittycraft. Kiddycraft. It was a British one. Some of the things, some people say the British version, the kiddiecraft version, you know, was a bit blander. The colors weren't as vivid and that sort of stuff,

whereas Lego and some of those early famous versions used small amount of colors, but they were pretty bright, like red, yellow, blue, black and white, I think. White? At one point were. And I saw somewhere that that was inspired by a Danish artist at the time. I think the guy does that famous sort of block coloured paintings. But I could not find another reference to that. I saw that in a in a doco. Was Kittycraft K on the craft? No. Oh, you fucks. You idiots. You missed a bloody trick there. Wow. It's K-I-D-D-I and craft normally. No. That sounds more foreign than Lickett.

Kiddy That was adorable Do it again Where's the kiddie Kiddy I like the idea of sounding more foreign Saying as both are very

foreign countries to us But Foreign to the English language Sorry man Kiddy She's still let little things out Dave And the English language Of course

Being the greatest language Of all There it is These first Lego bricks Look almost identical to the modern Lego block only they didn't click together quite the same as modern bricks.

They would sort of sit together, but they wouldn't bond nicely like they do now. It wouldn't really click in and be stable on each other. You can't get them apart sometimes. You're like, got to get a fucking fingernail in there. Can I get this one off? Jess is furious. I've dug up some pretty bad stuff, haven't I, Jess? Yeah, I'm mad.

For a while now, Olai's son, Godfroid, had been working for the company. He apparently started there when it was about 12, I said earlier. He's a CEO now and he's 15. Get out of here, Dad. He's walking around with a coffee mug the whole time. It's pretty close. He's about to get a promotion. Together they made some improvements on the kiddiecraft design

and started selling the blocks in 1949. They weren't an instant success, but rather grew in popularity over time. Some of those improvements were like the colours and other things, but they were pretty similar. Right, but it just took a little bit of time to get it out. bit of time they were trying to get out. I mean, before they're not a popular toy.

So it feels like a weird idea that they would be such a big toy, little blocks to me now. So in a world where that wasn't already a thing, I imagine that people would have been taking some convincing. Hey, kids are going to love this. Little blocks. They click together. Yeah, and I suppose there's probably less toy crazes back then because there's not like TV advertisements pushing them and that kind of stuff. You know these days, however a year there's a new hit toy. Yeah.

For that Christmas that sells out God, let's invent a toy Yes, our fingerless gloves Also can be a toy Wow, that's great Yeah Put little smiley faces on it Exactly

And they're The kids will go wild for Red yellow white blue Fucking dumb kids No Sorry that last few We'll leave that out of the ad With that at the copy

Give us your money You're dumb fucks Oh are you still recording I can only afford to have a dumb once Put it out Why is this ad going out live Godfrey was appointed junior vice president on the day he turned 30. I think that's my favorite position.

He's been there 18 junior vice president. It's like the brigadier of the business world. Junior vice president. It's the classic homer line when he gets to give himself his own title. And he gives himself junior vice. He's the only employee of the company. No, no, no. Junior vice president.

So good. In 1953, the automatic binding bricks. Catchy name. Ab. No? What do you think? Automatic binding brick. I mean, it sounds like something that would work your core.

Side of bleaks. You think? It sounds more like that than a children's toy. Yeah, it sounds like something that'd be an ad for at 4 a.m. Father, for Christmas this year, could I have the automatic binding bricks? Hmm, Jimmy, we'll see. Well, yeah, you guys are right. Because they rebranded in 1953 as Lego Musil.

Or an English Lego bricks. Ah, yeah, that's good. I like it. Nice and simple. I'm predicting big things for this Lego brand. And from now, the word Lego is starting to be printed inside all the bricks as well. Oh. Which is a classy thing.

Early on there wasn't, but now you see, I think even on the little dots, maybe it says Lego. It's crazy. So do you reckon the original ones, they'd also probably be collector's items? Yeah. Yeah, big time. I think even like modern Lego, people pay big dollars for Lego. It's a weird thing. It's huge.

Yeah. I think there's places they'll buy it by the, um, by the kilo sort of thing. We'll buy your Lego like theirs. We'll buy your gold shops. Oh, right. I think it's true. I think that's true, unless I made it up. If you did make it up, you should make that your business.

Yeah. Side business to the fingless glove. That I would back. The fingless glove? No. Damn, I thought I had you on board. You also said fingeeless glove, which is already a fucking thing. Oh.

Oh, sorry, it's the gloveless fingers. No. Gloveless fingers. Gloveless fingers are great for getting those Lego bits apart. No, they're not. Yes, they are. It'd be harder. You can get your hand on there, get the grip of the palm, but then the bit, you don't hurt your delicate fingers.

Maybe the fingers aren't woolen knits like I thought. Maybe they're sort of like rubber or something like you're using. You know, there's gardening gloves where you want the grip of the glove, but it's too hot to be covering your whole hand in a sweaty glove. Gloveless garbless. Gardening fingers. Yes. That's what you're thinking. I hate it.

Gardening fingering. Spinoff product. Fingering. Fingering in the garden. Is that how you're going to market it? Fingering in the garden. So you know when you have to like, you know when you put your finger down into the dirt to put a little seedling in? You know how we all do that all the time?

Yeah. Well, you don't need a whole glove for that just for fingering the soil. Put on one of Dave's patented rubber finger. finger dingers and you can finger that soil to your heart's content Yep and I will And you're good to go

Plant your seed Move on Without leaving any mus Any fuss All right side podcast out of here Dave's wacky inventions No I will not guest on that podcast

Because that's a maybe fun Patreon bonus episode We'll do Dave's wacky inventions We all bring in an invention. No, I'll just bring in my 10 best. Dave's shark tank. And you can be my investors.

You each have $10 to invest. Do we actually have to bring $10? Please. I've got to get $10. Hey, Dave, can I borrow $10? Sure. That worked out really well. Matt also needs to borrow $10, please.

I don't worry, I'm rich because of this first invention. A key moment of Lego's history occurred when Gottfried met a purchasing agent on a ferry. They started talking about toys and the purchasing agent lamented to Godfrey that toys lacked system. They're all individual and didn't play into anything greater, any bigger system

and this is where Godfrey's vision for the Lego system of play came from. He wanted all Lego products to fit into the one system of play. I don't remember by system of play. Like just like kids play. Well? No, you've got to play within this system.

There are rules to playing. There's structure. Toys lack structure. Yeah, they do. It's less about that and more like they're all, it's such a whim-wam. It's a mishmash. A mish-mash.

A whim-wam. It's pandemonium. Wim-wam, thank you ma'am. Yes. But no thank you ma'am. Wim-wam, no thank you ma'am. So any Lego things, he wanted them, you know, you buy one set of Lego.

He wants that to be out of work if you buy another set of Lego. Sure. Which is cool. So up until this point, they don't all block together. Yeah. And well,

the bricks do, but the other pieces, you know, other things come in all different shapes and sizes, you know, little figurines and whatever are all very different. According to History.com,

designed on the principle that all blocks should interlocked and be interrelated and increased both the imaginative potential of kids and sales, kids and sales, the system became the foundation of modern day Lego.

that means that any Lego block produced since 1995 can interlock with any other. Right up to the ones made today. That is cool. So all those generations. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. You kept your child's grandfathers. They haven't changed their product since 1950. They've changed, Jess.

Strap in. Oh, my God. Well, you know, don't strap in. I sit on a normal chair. I'd have no option to strap in. With the new system of play now in the market, Lego made its first genuine push to export their products. Gottfried traveled to Nuremberg in Germany

to demonstrate the new product at a toy fair. And according to the Lego website, reactions were not positive. They didn't get on board early. Bricks, what are we looking at? Imagine going to a toy fair and people are doing like,

they've got things flying through the air and things flashing lights and stuff. And there's this guy going, look up these little bricks. Pretty colors. They interlock. It's a system. That's what they used to be called.

In 1958, it's a real big year for Lego. After testing a bunch of different designs, they settle on a stud and tube coupling system. Oh, right. Stud and tube. Like a pub. Yeah, like an English, an old English pub. Now the bricks can lock in properly to each other,

and this is the same system that is still used today. Again, have not changed their product. So you understand what that means, the tube system. So underneath, you'll see there's, depending how big the brick is, there's little tubes inside. And because of those, the little studs on top lock into place. That's a fascinating thing that I never would have thought about. But yeah, obviously that's like integral to the success of the whole company.

And some people I saw interviewed in Lego like this is the biggest moment in the whole company. They're putting these little tubes in there. I'd imagine the Friday drinks they would have had that week. It would have gone off. A few studs and a few tubes that night. All right. Do you reckon like the Lego office, everything's made of Lego? Matt, can you confirm?

Everything is awesome. There's no doubt about that. But it's a song from a movie. I got it. Dave? Yeah, I got it. I saw it on a plane once. Nice.

I saw it at the cinemas. Yeah, in country, Victoria. Anyway, I... I've said too much. It looked like a pretty normal building. The older ones definitely were, but now they're making some wild things. There's this house of Lego that they're building.

I think it's in the original town. And it is sick. They've got this tree that's all made of Lego and built into it is the history of Lego. And it's like multiple stories high. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. I haven't written anything in the report about it,

but it's, And then from above this building looks like lots of big coloured bricks. Real cool stuff, all right. Dave is speechless. Yeah, I think we've got to add that to the Dugel on World Tour of places to visit. Yeah, I'd love to. It's going a year-long tour. Two years.

We're going everywhere. Because we are overly excited about things. Everything is like, whoa! Lego tree! Whoa! Things seem like they couldn't get any better, but they did. In 1958, Oleg Kirk Christensen passes away. Look, I'd try to riff that, but yeah, he died.

Is that the narrator again? Things couldn't get any better. But they did. What year was that that he died, sorry? 1958. Right, okay. That was a big year for the company. It was a big year for the company.

And so Godfrey took him over as the head of the company. So now he's no longer junior vice president. No, he's given him. himself the title of senior junior vice president. So things are on the up. Better boy. I hope you got a new office for that one.

Five years after launching their system of play, Lego suffers its third massive fire. They had so many big fires at their factory. Again, in the wooden toy factory. So they were still manufacturing their wooden toys but wiped out all that side of the business. And rather than rebuild this time,

they decided to move forward exclusively with plastic toys. That's a big, like it makes sense now, but that's a ballsy move at the time. Yes. To be like, nah. It was a bit of a gamble. And especially because Olle's brother, I think, or one of the, a family member ran the wooden toys section of the company. So it's basically saying, we're cutting your thing. And he went off and started his own wooden toys company, I believe.

Yeah, which is now obviously world renowned. Yes, I hadn't. I, um, sure. My point being, fuck off wooden toys. Oh, poor wooden toy man. At this stage, the company... Give it a time.

Yeah, I'm with you. At this stage of the story, the company employs about 450 people in the small village of Blund. 450, guys, it's really quite massive. Yeah. Already. And they say that in that town,

if you don't work at Lego, you are directly related to someone who is. It's basically, it's such a big thing in the town. I think the current population is around 6,000, and I think that that's probably grown with Lego. So I assume it was even smaller then. So just a huge portion of the town works for Lego. By this stage, Lego is setting itself up overseas as well. There are Lego France, Lego Britain, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, amongst others. And though they wanted to move into the American market, they weren't confident to go in alone. So they licensed their

products through the Samsonite company. We were famous for luggage. Apparently, the Samsonite boss came across Lego while I was traveling through Europe. Yeah, Mr. Samsonite. Or Samsonite. Ah. So when he... That took Dave too long to get.

No, I was just fully appreciating great humor. Respect. When he was already loved it. So he got, he came home with extra. baggage, extra suitcases all filled with Lego bricks. We've all got a bit of baggage, man.

Yeah. We've all got a bit of baggage. Just got to work it through, get a therapist, talk it out. I've got daddy issues. This is so nice, it's got heaps of baggage. Yeah. Yeah. In 1963,

I should have said it wasn't super successful for the Samsonite that them license didn't take off in America. So when the license lapsed, Lego went to America alone and they have had a lot more success. Be interesting here what our American listeners think of Lego if it had a similar impact over there.

Soon after this, it came to Australia as well. It was set up here. And obviously, yeah, in Australia and it sounds like in Europe, but I'm pretty sure in America. It feels like it's basically a worldwide thing now. Yeah, I thought so. And is it true? Well, I don't know, is this,

Adelaide calls it Lego. Yeah, they say, Does anyone else in the world say that? I don't think so. I was half expecting it to be the proper way to talk because usually Adelaide say they talk better than everyone else. Right. Lego.

Yeah, in this case, I think they're the only ones who say it like that. You know New Zealand say Subaru as Subaru? Wow. And all Americans say Hyundai is Hyundai. Hyundai. Hyundai. And Adidas. Yeah.

We've had a few tweets when we said Adidas on one random episode. People try to work. They say Adidas. They didn't know what we were saying. Yeah, right. And I get the words. we all say things differently. I'll always advocate. I think it's fun. I love that. Don't get angry about it. Is anyone getting angry?

Is anybody? But I was wondering maybe if that, maybe the Europeans say Lego, but you didn't come out of the house. Lego is silly. South Australians, pull your heads out of your ass. It's Lego. Jess is thrown down the gauntlet. We did get a bit of feedback after a recent episode about how we say Ashfeld. And I looked into it and it looks like it's, for some reason, a Australia and Canada is majority of people say asphalt, but we say it wrong. There's no H in that spot. It's asphalt. Right.

Right, yeah. We even got a tweet from an Australian saying, I've never heard someone say the H. But they're wrong. They're wrong, obviously. They're from Adelaide, obviously. Because it's definitely majority, I think, in Australia and Canada, apparently. I had a little crisis when we got that tweet that. I was thinking, no, it is asphalt.

You said asphalt my whole damn life. Yeah, it doesn't, I mean... It would have been real weird if the three of us who didn't grow up together. Yeah, we're the only ones. Yeah, yeah. I feel like I've grown up with you guys. Oh, so many ways. My best years.

We were just... Wasted on you. We were so immature when we got together just a few years ago. And look at us now. In 1963, Godfrey presented a kind of 10 commandments for Lego. Love it, yes. I'd love to hear them. I love a boss laying down some fucking. fucking rules.

Especially when you're coming in trying to, you know, set your own scene after your dad's been the big boss. But they're, you know, these are all fine. I'll go through them if you like. So these were what he said should be the 10 product characteristics. Number one,

unlimited play potential. Great. Is that a rule or? Do not. Limit the play. That's all, Dave. Okay, sorry. Number two must be,

the products must be for girls and for, boys. Yes, great. Three, fun for every age. Great. Four, year round play. Fuck yeah. Don't make it seasonal.

It's not Lego for water. Yeah. In the pool, Lego. It's not Lego with fallen leaves, time. No. Lego skis. It's not Lego you can only play with indoors. No.

On a rainy day? No. Oh, yeah. Five. Healthy, comma, quiet play. Okay. Oh, no, that's... I've always played Lego very loudly.

Clickety, clickety. Yeah, because I'm going, as I stick them together. And that's just how I like to play. My fingers jammed. Everyone in there was some sort of fabric in between that. Maybe I could wear some sort of gloveless finger. David, David, you have wedged that in between.

David, one more time. Shameless plug. Come on, I need this. I will jump across this desk and thank you up. He's put his whole life savings. Well, life savings is just, I haven't had a win. a while. Oh, I know, mate.

I haven't had to win 27 years, champ. You're a loser, Dave. You're a loser. Yeah, but the first eight months of life were really good. What else are the rules? Six. Long hours of play. Oh, okay.

That's good. I like, you don't want to, it doesn't want to be something that gets bored quickly. What other products could, uh, could benefit from that kind of, like it. Long hours of play. Cricket equipment?

Yeah, yeah. Like a Sony Walkman. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Help me. Our seven. Development, imagination, creativity.

These are just like. Those are buzzwords. These are buzzwords, yeah. Well, I mean, they could have been their own rules each. He panicked. Yeah. He started panicked. Oh, it's got to be 10.

Yeah. It's got to be 10. All right. Just combine those ones. Oh, he's got too many ideas. He's got too many. Right. That's great.

But if we're combining quiet and long. long play could be together as well. Anyway. Eight. The more Lego, the greater the value. Is that per kilo again? That feels like that goes without saying, I guess. Yeah, that's a kind of business basic.

The more Lego. I guess he's saying let's give good value rather than being tired about it. He's the one who learn as a child, three layers of lacquer. I reckon that's the next commandment. Yeah. Nine. Always three. Yes.

Lakers of Lack. Dave had a win. Yes. He's merged that one in as well with extra sets available. What? Okay. Is he just like a press release now? Yeah.

These are getting less fun. He's coming to the store to you soon. And then finally 10. Quality in every detail. Okay, that makes more sense. Yes. Or for our American listeners, Detail. Oh.

Is that right? I don't know. Someone says detail. Thou should not cover thy neighbor's wife's Lego. Yes. Yeah. Missing. On the list.

So you can. That was on the short list. Yeah, you can now. That was number 11. I guess that's got to go. Gophrie had another vision in the 1960s. He had that vision earlier about the system. Now his vision was for a land made of Lego.

Are these visions coming to him like he's some sort of like he can talk to God? Yes. I think Moses came down with the tablets with the weird 10 rules for play. Quiet play. No worries Moses, I got it down It's number six But yeah, now this new vision Was for a landmate of Lego

It seemed he was truly losing his mind He's going to a board meeting He's like, a land of Lego That's it I'm out Make it happen But he was a powerful man I'm a cool boss

CEO out And gets in his chopper Yeah he just flies out A Lego chopper Is sitting on the ground He's spinning the top white He gets like 30 people to push it out, push it out of the office.

Can't hear you. Got a freed out. How do you say my name? Even he doesn't bloody know. But he made it a reality. Made this vision a reality on the 7th of July, 1968, Legoland Blund opened its gates.

How would you say Belund? B-I-L-L-U-N-D. Belund? Billund. When Lagoland Blund opened its gates. Sounds good. So in its first season,

he was hoping they would get something like he, and apparently it sounded like a wild idea, but he's like two or three hundred thousand people in the first year. Right. And they ended up getting 625,000 visitors. What? To this tiny little town with Legoland in 1968. A couple of the Lego land is 50 years old.

Wow. With a population of around 6,000 as well. That's outrageous. There's suddenly people everywhere. Yeah. That almost doesn't sound right to me. But that would just like, that would be such a boom for the local economy. For too much of one.

Yeah, the motel that has nine rooms. Yeah, they're like, we are booked out forever. Yeah, 67 years? Within seven years, the theme park welcomed its five millionth visitor. That's ridiculous. And I don't think I've noted this down anywhere, but apparently the second, he ended up one of the family members, one of the big dogs, got an airport built there. What? Okay.

Which is now the second biggest airport in Denmark. No. Seriously? Yeah. An international airport, I'm guessing? Yeah, it's all one. That's awesome. That is so cool.

I'm like, yeah, it's just really set up. And it's still only six thousand people. Yeah, I'm doubting that more and more all the time. I only saw that written in one place, and I think it might have been in that Wikipedia sidebar for the Boulund page. That's awesome. May not be right, but I believe that to be true. And now there are many Lego lands around the world.

Have you ever, you half expect you guys who have been to one because you've both been at Disneyland's. No, I've been to places where you see it on the list of things to do there, but I've never gone to a Lego land. I went to the Lego store in Manhattan. What's that main part of New York? Is that Manhattan? Where the big advertising section in the middle part?

Time Square. Time Square. Yeah, Times Square. Yeah, Times Square. I went to a big Lego shop there. Is it like massive? Yeah, really big, multi-story. And that you could just have big things of each different color of Lego brick

and you just want to shovel it into a however many shovels of a certain color you want and stuff like that. That's awesome. But now there's Lego lands around the world, including one in England, two in the US, one in the United Arab Emirates, one in Japan, one in Malaysia, and plans for new parks in China, Korea, and a third US park in New York State. That's crazy. Yeah.

Yeah. I can't fully picture them. I think they're aimed at a slightly younger crowd. They've got roller coasters and that sort of stuff. But I think they're more gentle kind of roller coaster. and they're aimed at younger kids. But it's just lots of big things made out of Lego. Different cities recreated in Lego and...

Yeah, cool. So this is a cool stuff. A real family affair. I went to the aquarium in Sydney one time, and at the time they had, like, giant Lego statues and stuff as well. Yeah, right. And that was pretty cool. There was one that was like, was it Poseidon?

The dude with the thing? Yeah, the god of ocean. Ariel's dad Oh, Trident No, he's holding a Trident I think his name was Trident His name isn't Trident His name's Poseidon

Oh no A trident because that's three isn't it Try Yeah And he's holding a three-pronged He's holding a dent Weapon I really thought his name was

And what did you just Google I'm googling Okay There's a Wikipedia page called List of Little Mermaid characters And Someone is going to get served here and I ain't me and I'm real happy about it.

Hmm? Hmm? Oh, he's going to do that. Triton is the king of atlantica. Triton. Yeah. Wow, no one was right. Who was closer?

Poseidon. Triton. Who's Poseidon then? Poseidon's the real one. Yeah. This one's fictional. I think the thing is the real god of the Greek god of the ocean, I believe. Well, then that's who it was.

It wasn't Ariel's dad, but I thought that was. One of the same. Anyway. I imagine Triton's probably based on... Triton. Yeah, no, it's a weird one. That's stupid. And he's holding a Trident.

Yeah, I mean, come on. Anyway, sorry to derail. But that was my closest thing to sing. And he's the king. He could name himself anything. Yeah. Could have been called Gary Gregson. That's what I'd be called.

I know. Oh, we know. In 1969, Juplo is launched. You guys familiar with Juplo? Yes. I love Duplo. Because it was easier for your tiny hands Yes!

Well that's exactly It was made bigger play for smaller hands Or something like that Is DuPlo made by a Lego? Yeah, it is I didn't realize that either I didn't know that I thought it was a competitor

Nope, they're all made by the same thing So it was just a new line they launched And it was really popular pretty quickly By 1977 It had its own factory And it was own, you know, its own department and everything Does they have a Duplu land

I reckon they probably buddy do But Maybe they have like a section of Duplo at Lego. Yeah, that makes sense. In 1997, Lego also, Alco also welcomes the third generation of Christensen to the company

when Gottfried's son, Keld Kirk Christensen joins management. All right, his name is K-J-E-L-D. Kelt. Wow. I'm not going to do any better than you. I imagine it's something like, Lelt.

Just call him Kirk. Kirk. Great. The Lego logo changed around bit over the first few decades of the company's existence. But in 1972, they settled on a logo that, apart from a minor touch-up in the late 90s, is the same as today. According to Logo Myway.com blog, the Lego logo features the word Lego.

Okay, that makes sense. Almost I didn't need to say that bit. This blog is so specific. Spelled out in an original bubble-shaped font. And what do you reckon is fonts known as? Lego. Yes. Yes.

Lego font. Woo! God, it feels good to win. Point for Perkins. The letters are white and are surrounded by thin borders of black and yellow and a set against a red square background. Thank you, Logo, blog spot. It's funny because when I was reading this, I reading about it, I'm like, I could not tell you what the Lego logo was. And then I read that and I'm like, oh yeah, I do.

And saw it. Obviously, it is a very well-known. logo. I just couldn't picture it without seeing it. Right, but the description you're like, yep. Oh yeah. I'm looking at it in my life. Yeah, that's right. It says Lego. Yeah. And the rest as they say is

red, uh, background. It's thought that the background, specifically its shape, is a nod to the company's square blocks that they are famous for. Oh. This is still from the blog. I'm not coming up with this sort of magic myself. Oh no, we know. We could

tell. The font of the logo was meant to be soft and light-hearted. It's rounded edge, bubble-shaped conveys an idea of fun and levity that is representative of the brand itself. It's fun. It's light-hearted. It's soft. It's rounded.

Gentle. No sharp edges. Unlike our product. Which are all sharp edges. And it's really painful to step on. Famously painful to step on. That's shorthand for owie. is stepped on a bit of Lego the other night.

That's really short. I can't think of an example when you need such a shorthand. You could just say, Owie. Yeah. Or I stepped on some Lego. It's a long hand for owie. Yeah.

This is what I meant to say. Thank you. In 1978, another big milestone occurs when the mini figures are introduced. Oh, so until now it's just been bricks. Yeah, it's been bricks. There's been figures, but not these mini figures. are sort of like slightly different, they're not fully integrated into the system figures.

Got it. Because now they can stand on anything. Yes. So their feet and their butts and the back of their legs can all sort of sit on the studs of the Lego system. I know I just said that. I was trying to clarify for the listener. I'm sorry, listener.

Trying to clarify because he said it in such a wild way. But to be fair. I fucking said that. And also, you know, when I've got something written out, sometimes I just have to get through the end of the sentence. I'm sorry, Jess. It made for a new problem, though, as the mini figures could not fit in the existing range of Lego cars

and other modes of transport. So the Lego designer started to design new cars, etc., to take this into consideration. How annoying is it when you can't get them into the car once the car is built? You have to build them into the car, but you forget. And then you built the car and you're like, fuck! What a life for that mini figurine as well. So that's the thing.

I don't want to trap them in there. Forever. I mean, cars are just supposed to be an A to B kind of thing. We're not living in our cars. No, please. Unless you are. Which case, I'm sorry. Fine, and hopefully, you know.

Yeah. It's a comfortable car. My solution. Always convertibles. You never finish building in the car as I was saying. I never put the roof on. Never. Even when it rains.

Wow, Dave. Fuck them. Wow. Wait, is it like Lego rain or? Yeah, pouring water on top of them. Yeah, which is Lego rain. That's true. Well, that's...

Yep. Can't argue with that. Psychopath. According to... You guys aren't going to be surprised by this. According to a survey from 1980, 70% of Western European families with kids under 14 had Lego bricks in their home.

We are not surprised by that, are we, David? To me, though, I'm like, wow, that is a... Imagine having a product with those kind of numbers. It's pretty wild. 70% is huge. Huge. In 1989, there I had noted down. Did you two have...

Lego when you were kids. Like it wasn't going to come up before now. But anyway, in 1989, Oleg Kirk Christensen was inducted into the Toy Industry Hall of Fame from Beyond the Grave. So I have a seance? Yes. He gave him to a short speech via Ouija board. L, E, G, O. It spells Lego.

He's not finished. Two, T, leg out. Oh, he's lost it. He's been crazier than his son. That's true. We buried him with his leg out. H, E, L, P. That's enough of the Ouija, but with the Ouija board away.

What does he mean? He needs leg out help. What is that? Godfrey died in 1950. Godfrey died in 1995. I was going to say, wow. Passing the company onto his son. Kield Kirk Christensen

Oh it's a family biz I love it Yeah it's still So it's still owned by the Christensen So it's very day So they haven't sold out to any bigger toy company It's just that's the family Yeah

So they would be multi-billionaires Yes I think I have a figure A little bit later I don't think it's a wild number But pretty obviously When you're talking billions That's all pretty wild

Yeah it's wild And anything compared to podcast wage Is pretty wild I worked out in a billion dollars Yeah. On a wage of $10 million, you'd have to work every year for 100 years and not pay any tax. Isn't that crazy? 10 million.

With expenses? No, and you're spending nothing. Right. That's impossible. And what reality are you going to work under these conditions, Dave? Surely just give yourself another couple of million a year for spending. Okay, $2 million a year for spending. Okay.

Still no tax. Do you need $2 million for the year? I mean, if you're getting 12 million now, surely you can just make do with a couple hundred thousand spending money, even at some sort of luxurious standard. Yeah, that's pretty good. And then you're going to knock that billion dollar target off in less time. Is that including compounding insurance? Interest?

I know finance. I think you do. Oh, look, I know finance. Dollars and cents, may, if it ain't making dollars, it ain't making no sense. The guy from the Black Keys sang that once Co-Dab. He did an album with hip-hop rappers. Please go on.

Oh my God, I'm very sick. I don't know if anyone's been able to tell so far. My mind is not with me. If Matt knows anything, it's finance and rap. Yeah. With your two strong suits. Yeah. Just last week you said we needed to get to know you better

and we fucking know you, man. We know what you're like. Just last week you said you should get to know me better. We don't like what we love. We like to better the old way. We were just a beard that talked. The beard that talks. That's cool.

That's an Enid Blighton series. The beard that talks. It's spin off of the phantom, the ghost that walks. The beard that talks. The dog that pokes. A triptych. So, Keard Kirk. Kierd Kirk.

Christensen better took on the top job but he found it tough I think he did come in at a pretty rough time to be running a big old school toy company

mid-90s a lot of changes a lot of changes going on video game consoles are taken off and they're really eating into their toy market share in 1998 for the first time ever

the Lego group was in deficit and in 1999 a restructuring meant that over a thousand jobs were lost at Lego. So this is the first time. This is the first real dark times since early on. So like most of that, a lot of that town was out of job suddenly. Yeah.

Well, I mean, that's worldwide. That's from worldwide, yeah. But it's mostly that town. Yeah. I'm afraid. But there was only two people working that Centrelink office. Then they needed heaps more people. So about 500 of them got jobs there.

So they just switched straight across. So that was quite smooth. And the other five were just doing sort of like working for the doll program. What would that? What would Centrelink be more broad? for international listeners. What do you call those things? It's just like unemployment office, I guess.

Yeah, basically. By 2004, explaining jokes is always fun. Sorry, Jess. It was very good. I just didn't want anyone to miss out. I didn't want him to miss out. It was shit. I'm sorry, everyone.

In case any Blonde listeners, we'll go on. Jeez, that sounds funny. It's got a great rhythm. Blunt. Wish I knew what Sennelik means. I just trusted me. I said meat. I wish I knew what's settling meat.

That's how we pronounce meant, yeah. Victorian. By 2004, Lego, we're having a run of huge deficits. Kield decided to find a CEO who he thought could take the company forward in the modern age.

Jorgenvig Nudstorp was chosen. I would get that guy as soon as I saw his name on the resume. Yeah, I'd be like, you're hired. You're in, mate. Save us. See your best.

He's like, well, I've never been a CEO before. I'm going to guess. right here before you even get there, that he has lifted them right out and they're doing super well now. I'm going to say, oh my God, Lego movies, yes, okay. He's going to fucking win.

Woo! Jorgian! No, I'm going to go the opposite. Things couldn't get much worse. But they did. But they didn't. No, he did do a really good job. But this signalled the first time

that a Christensen had passed on the presidency before dying and also the first time to a non-family member. So it would have been a hard call to make. But it feels like. like that's a cool call to make when you're like, I don't, I think we need someone else. I think we need to change this over. And since Nudstorpe got the job, Lego has turned things around, going back to making big profits. In 2016, they had a 600,000 increase in turnover from 6.3 billion to 37.9 billion.

Wow. And despite Kield Hamming Over the reins, the company is still a family-owned business, and he's thought to be the richest man in Denmark with over $5 billion. Only five. I understand what you mean. Yeah. It's like crazy.

But it's five billion. It's more than five billion. It's five point something billion. That's heaps. That's huge. Yeah. I'm not disappointed. Oh, good.

He's the richest man in Denmark. Yeah. That's right. By birth. Yeah, amazing. And he's not even the president. Yeah, he's just enjoying that. What do you think he does now?

Oh. I'm sure he's still quite active in the company. Yeah, I think he's still. in and around them. Junior vice president. Yeah. He got his granddad's old job. Oh, that's sweet.

That is sweet. Granddad's old desk. Oh, did he? Is it made out of Lego? They should, that's what I mean. Like, their officers should be made out of Lego. Their desks should be giant Lego box. They should be.

Except the chairs, because that would be uncomfortable. I could be, like, really comfortable or not. You know, like the old taxi driver bead. seat things? I wonder how comfortable they are when I see those. I reckon they'd take some getting used to. But then you couldn't sit on a normal chair. No.

You know? You'd put beads everywhere. Too smooth. You go into that. You'd be putting beads under your sheep. Yeah, I'd be starting to wear beads. I'm wearing like chain mail beads. Full outfit.

Ooh. And then we give him a hug and it's like, ah. Take some getting used to hug you. But it's worth it. Get to know me. Where can I take you? I'm a driver. I don't think an Uber driver does this hug.

Please stop. It's a consensual hug. Okay, that's right then. A beady hug. So, Lego's business is still built around the humble brick. But over the last few decades, they've moved in many other directions, with collaborations with large movie franchises such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, and superhero franchises such as Batman and the Avengers.

I like that. They do DC and Marvel. Yeah, they don't fuck around. It was one of the commandments. It's for everyone. That's true. Boys and girls and Avengers. But also coming up with original characters and spin-off TV shows of their own,

such as their super successful Bionical series. It's been up for quite a while and it's had a bunch of movies made. And also less successful things like Galladour, Defenders of the added dimension, which apparently was a big flop. Sounds like it. Yeah, it sounds pretty bad. What was it called? Is that what it was?

Defenders of the outer dimension. In 2014, the Lego movie hit theaters, and it was a huge success with critics and at the box office, returning nearly $500 million from a $60 million budget. A sequel is Slated for 2019, which I didn't realize, did you know that? It's called, which makes sense, obviously. It's called The Lego Movie 2, the second book. part. Love it.

I love it. It was also well received from the plane I was on. Oh, yeah? Everyone cheered. Oh, we're all talking about it. Cheering. Really? Yeah, we all watched it in sync.

It was amazing. Where were you going? Belund. Yes, Belund. So it was a Lego convention, so it made sense that we're all watching that. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, they can't get enough of it. It does sound like it's a real, you know, it's almost like a cultish world, but I guess

it would be. And they all talk about the system. And apparently some people are like, you know, they don't like how certain things are moving away from the initial brick. You know, some things are like, you shouldn't have all these extra parts needed to make like a, what's the big spaceship from Star Wars? The Death Star or the Millennium Falcon.

They're like, which apparently that's the biggest Lego they've ever had a kit for it. The way it's like six kilos or something. Yeah, I think it was like $1,000 or something to buy it. No. Seriously. That much. Yeah. But the big one.

Yeah, wow. The big proper. Life size. Yeah, which is. That's great value. My car would be more expensive than that, and it's 15 years old. It's a life size, Millennium Falcon. And I don't have any stormtroopers in my car.

Thank you. Someone had to say it. I'm just saying. You're putting it on the record. $1,000. Brand new Millennium Falcon. I'm assuming there's some stormtrovers in there. Who's guarding everything.

Stop looking at me like I'm an idiot. So why do you want the stormtroopers in there? They shouldn't be in there. Oh, yeah. Hand should get rid of them. Get rid of them, hand? Oh, yeah. Unless he's playing.

Doesn't he dress as one at some point? But this is true. Yeah. Yes, Jess. Yes. Nailed it. See, I got it. Love the references.

Good one. Obi-one. But apparently as well, with that model, a lot of those parts that were like the big round parts and stuff, they were from different kits from a few years earlier. Like, for the most, they try to make it all fold back into itself, you know? which I thought that was kind of cool but yeah it's interesting

when some people are like disappointed with certain things changing anything sort of deviating from the system people aren't happy they talk about it like the system is almost like a cultish status but just don't use that if you don't want that just don't buy that problem there's people inside working at Lego they've also gone in different directions

they found that girls weren't playing with Lego as much as boys so they made some more more girls friendly ones, which it felt a bit like a bit strange for me, like a bit old school sort of thinking about like slightly girlier, classically girlier things, different colours. Like franchises. Well, they made the figurines, they redesigned them.

So they were like a slightly different shape. But they still fit into the system. Their feet still locking and all that. I'd never seen any of those ones. Yeah, I used to work in the toy department of a big department store. Right. And yeah, there was a range, which I can't remember the name of now. There was a range of like girls Lego.

And they'd just been in those small boxes. You know how you get like little boxes of Lego and you make like a motorbike? Yeah, it would be stuff like that. Yeah, totally that's what it was. But you'd make girly kind of things. Like a motorbike. Like a motorcycle on the front. She motorbike.

Yeah. There's been a bunch of legal action. I've pretty much come to end here. There's been a bunch of legal action over the years taken out by Lego against. Like competitors. competitors who they call Lego clones. Try-hards. Lego try-hards.

For the most part, Lego's been unsuccessful, as courts normally find that the functional design of the brick is a matter of patent rather than trademark law, and the relevant Lego patents expired quite a while ago. So they're trying to sue based on that. The brick is our trademark. This is our, it's like iconically our, but courts tend to disagree.

And they're having to fight this in different courts, different jurisdictions. Right, okay, sure. But like, does it disrupt their business that much? Or are they? I don't think so. They're still the dominant force. Yeah, like I couldn't name any of their competitors. Yeah.

Over the years, a lot of the competitors would advertise saying fits in with Lego and stuff like that. And that would actually make them to the same specifications, which is interesting that you can't. It feels like there should be something in there protecting you saying, And sure, you can't, we can't protect the style, but to advertise saying it'll fit in with, the other round, it's like basically saying it's exactly the same. But I obviously do not understand trademark law at all. It's why you're going back to law school. Yeah, yet again.

I'll finish that damn course. It's a course. I'm doing it at Tafe. You're the L Woods of your Tafe. I don't know what that means. Who's L. Woods? Legally blonde. Oh.

Oh. El Woods! Great film. Oh, El Woods. I thought, I was thinking El Ron Hubbard. That's the only other L I know. El McPherson. Oh, you mean like E, W.L.E.

Yep. El McPherson. Yep. El McPherson spells the name E. W.L.E. I don't know, does she? Yes. I've got a couple of fun facts to finish.

Yay! Oh, Jess, you're not going to like this one. Boo! They're both, they're really Dave style fun facts. Oh, right. Heavy in stats. Yeah, they're more number. Yeah.

But how many billions is he worth now? Right now. Give me an exact... I'll tune out for a little. I think we should have no. If you think it's fun, both of us... No, if you think it's fun, we'll say yay or you get to boo if you think it's not fun. Yay!

Yay! But we can vote separately. You yaying the boo? Yeah. We can vote separately. Okay. Okay, so this is for a mental floss. In 1961, the Lego wheel was invented.

Today, Lego turns out more than 300 million tiny wheels per year, which makes them the most prolific wheel manufacturer in the world. Yay, come on, that is amazing. You got me with the last sentence. Yay! Yes, that is fun, Matt. So they make more wheels than any other diet company. This is ridiculous.

They're tiny. So what are they four cars? Tiny Lego cars. Got it. Oh, so cute. Yay. Yeah. Double.

I feel like I should finish with that one. This one, this is all Dave now. You even glanced at me like, ah, ah? Maybe. Well, I just saw your body language like, oh, I've got my chance here. The second one, so six pieces of two by four Lego bricks can be combined in 915 million, 103,000 and 765 different ways. Yay! That's a yay for me.

That's a make. That's heaps. Yeah, no, I don't understand how it's, that's right. What are the dimensions again of them? The two by four Lego bricks. So six pieces. You know the two by four? Yep.

So the dot studs. Yeah. So the classic sort of brick. Six of those. Six of those. Yeah. Well, let's try and prove them wrong. One is just them all stacked on top of each other.

That one I like. One is five of them. Is it how many of them is? Six. So it's five of them stacked and then one, slightly. skew. Yeah. But I love it.

One of them looks kind of different if you squint at it. That's a little different. Mark it down. Yeah, mark it down. 914 million to go. I've just laid the brick saddle parallel to one another on the table. I'll spread them to the six corners of planet Earth. Try and get it back together now.

Six corners? Yeah, Lego was amazing. Lego, well, it's so good. I mean, the phrase is four corners and that doesn't make sense either. It's a sphere. Well, well. Everyone knows spheres have six quarters. Matt, those were fun facts.

Never doubt yourself. Oh, that's so nice. What a great end to a great report. Or was that the end or was? Don't say anything else. Yes, leave it there. I know. Leave them wanting more.

I want more. I want more. One more. No. Don't do it I can't handle it Yeah That was great

That was great So many fires Three major fires To the factory No I mean That really I'm glad they took the hint

That wood was not Yeah Don't go with wood That was really Ballsy But it obviously paid off for them And I yeah I like that he kind of goes

You know what I'm not doing Best by the company here I'm going to bring someone else Yeah And it worked Yeah That did seem

That's pretty cool too Yeah And I would I imagine the whole, like to be the first and some of that must have felt so much pressure. Definitely. To just stick it out and bring it around. But also so much pressure probably internally going, come on, we need you to fix this.

Yeah, for sure. Do you understand that they're still the CEO now? The guy took over. He stepped in a different role last year. He's the mega CEO. But yeah. He's a vice mega CEO. That's, yeah.

He drives a giant Lego. car. He calls it a car. He just calls it a car. When we stop recording, I'll show you some photos of this, the Lego tree. Oh yeah, that sounds great. I've also thought of the thing we can allocate to our listeners who we're going to thank. Yes, okay. So before we do that, let's say, thanks for everyone for listening to the show. If it's your first time, appreciate that. If you're a big Lego fan, we've done a lot of other episodes, obviously that you can access in the back catalog. And the other thing is, if you want to

support the show. The way to do that is by either sharing it with a friend, because that really does get the podcast out there. Yeah. You can't afford to give any money to our Patreon, which I'm about to talk about. If you just tell any friend about it, give them a topic that you think they might be listening in,

download it onto their phone or whatever. That really helps us out. Yeah, peer pressure. Yes, exactly. It helps. Or we can give us a review. It's not all bad. No.

Yeah, peer grip pressure gets a real bad rap. But it's all right. And small doses. And it's not all bad is also what you could write on iTunes. if you gave us a review. It's not all bad. Five stars, please. That really helps the show as well. So that's something you can do without contributing any money. But if you do have a couple of extra shackles you want to throw away,

patreon.com slash do go on pod. There's a link in the description to the episode. And in exchange for your generosity, we will generously give you two bonus episodes every single month that only those people here. You can vote for the topics that two out of the three of us report on. So you get to really shape the show. And also you get a shout out at the end of an episode.

And we're going to do that now. And Jess... We should say, sorry, David. At the moment, all old bonus episodes are still up on the Patreon. But I think we're going to bring that back down. So it's only a recent, certain amount of months. Yeah, so basically, we've just kept all the old ones there. So there's 20 right at the time of recording that you can go back through.

If you sign up soon, but soon, because we think that it might be a little bit unfair for some people that are only contributing now, say the people that have been contributing for 18 months to get the same episodes. So we're thinking you're putting, you know, just having the most recent 10 or something out there. But if you strike now, you'll get all 20. Yes. Yep. Strike while the island's hot, as they say. And I think when we're thanking our Patreon listeners this time, we should give them positions within the Lego company.

Oh, great. Job titles. Fun. We've been changing their names a lot lately, but it's like, don't try and change them. They're perfect. Yeah. Let's just give them responsibility. Okay.

My names are pretty great this summer. as well. Oh, are they now? Are you leading off? I'm happy to lead or follow. You obviously... Yeah, look, I'll go first, sure. Okay, here we go.

I'm going last. Okay. I'll go in the middle and I chose that. That was my choice. So dumb. Yes, you are. Well, let's thank some non-dum people that contribute to our Patreon. Marties.

All right, Matt, you also came to kick it off. I'm really keen to kick it off. And firstly, from the state of Illinois, which is such a fun word to say. Isn't that great? Isn't it great? In the United States of America, I'd love to thank Michael Schneider. Michael Schneider. Michael Schneider. Head of H.R. Oh, wow. That's a. He would not like the peer pressure we were talking about before. No, but I was saying it's constructive peer pressure. Okay. So if you say it like that to Michael Schneider, he's pretty on. And depends on what kind of HR person. The most HR people I hear about are ones that are bad at it.

You know, the people you go, I went to HR and they said nothing we can do. Yeah. Just do your job. Yeah. Not our problem. Which is amazing. But not Schneider. Not Schneider.

He's great. He's in there. He's on a first name basis with all the staff. He's great. Michael Schneider. Head of HR. He is Michael Schneider. Michael Schneider.

I love, I just love that name a lot. Michael Schneider. Yeah. I can tell. Michael Schneider, the advice provider. Oh, yeah. It says it on the door. But you can't say that because he's got an open door policy.

Yes. He's cool. Yeah, he actually doesn't have a door. He wears a t-shirt and jeans. Like he's just really cash, but he's on a big salary. So if you've got to, if there's no door there, so if you've got to tell him something pretty personally, you've got to talk really quietly or the whole office will hear.

You can't close the door. Yeah. But I mean, as he always says, you can say to me, you can say to the whole of Lego. I don't care how private it is. Yeah. As he always says. I've got diarrhea.

Can I go home, please? Tell it to the office. Let them decide. I just yelled it. I think, yeah. Barry, did you hear what Michael said? He's also named Michael. I could say.

I could say. I'm confused. Thanks, Michael Schneider. I'd also love to thank from Florida. The Florida Keys. Oh, yeah. In the United States of America, a long-time supporter, Odie, Matthews.

I mean, to be honest, all these people have been supporting for about the same amount of time because that's how we read them out in order of when they came in. But I'm just familiar with Odie's work on social media. He's often in contact. So thank you so much Odie Matthews. What would Odie's gig be? Dave.

Head of international marketing research. Wow, we've had a couple of heads of departments so far. That's a couple of big names. Yeah. Don't worry, we've got some pretty boring office workers coming up soon. Wow. Thanks so much. Odie.

International travels a lot for work. That's cool. To all the different Lego land. Yeah. That's a great gig. That's what I want to... Good stuff, Odie. I want to be Odie when I grow up.

We all want to be Odie when we grow up. Also, the name Odie is awesome. It is. That is so cool. I know. That is a great name, isn't it? Yeah. What's Odie short for? Is it short for anything?

Odorous. Ah. That's not good. We'll need to go to HR. about that one. Well, yeah, that's why Sean's it. We've got to step in at some point. That's great.

Thanks, Odie. All right, I'm going in the middle as I demanded. I would like to thank... You're the third child. All the way, keeping in the US from South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Isn't that cool? Milwaukee here. Oh, yeah.

I would like to thank Samantha M. Hitchcock. Oh, very good. Good. Samantha M. Hitchcock. M in the middle makes me think she's very important. Yeah. Also, I think normally, yeah, that can often mean they work in entertainment, right, because they had to put their name on the register of actors or whatever. Right, yes.

I think she directed the Lego film. Yes. Wow. That's cool. Nice one, Sarah. And her name's Hitchcock. Yes. Do you think?

No, it is. It definitely said so. Samantha Hitchcock Samantha M Hitchcock Not to be confused with Samantha Hitchcock Who directed the third diehard film Yeah nice Which was still good

Yeah sure of course But Samantha M Hitchcock Lego movie And we appreciate that thank you Not the big Lego movie Because that was definitely a different director No I think sorry what I meant When she directed that cartoon

That you were talking about Yes On the Lego website With the fadeaway wife Samantha that fadeaway wife Was incredible storytelling I can't wait to share that with the listeners.

I dream of one day being a fadeaway wife. I just like the script would have said in brackets, fade away wife. And everybody just went, yeah, obviously. No need to storyboard this scene. Sounds like a feel good sort of romantic comedy where the wife is a basketballer right in the WMBA. But she dies and comes back as a ghost.

Because a fadeaway is like a jump shot style, but also she dies. and she's the ghost member of the team, point guard, and they go on to win the championship together. I just had deja vu of sitting here how I am, which is looking at you through my hand. I had deja vu of going,

what are you talking about, Matt? I'm sorry, Jess. All right, I'd also like to thank from Dallas, Texas. Damn, that is cool. From Dallas, Texas, I would like to thank Michael McDowell. Hopefully, not a relation of

Andy McDowell. The worst. Hopefully not. I hope not. I hate Andy McDowell. I think I was going to cast her as the fadeaway bride. Yeah, you would. You're not an Andy McDow fan.

No. Really, what about that film with Hugh Grant? Yeah, she ruined it. She's actually terrible in that show. She's really bad. I really like her. Her character is not a good person. Not a good person.

Grand Hog Day, though, she's great. Yeah, she is. Yeah, she's all right. I would like to thank Michael McDale. And I think that it's possible that Michael McDale, operates one of the roller coasters. Really? Yes!

At Wichelago Land, I was going to say... The new Shanghai. Yeah, the new Shanghai. He's transferred from the original balloon. Yes. Because he loves an adventure. And on the way there, he stopped at Dallas, Texas. That's awesome.

Live there for a few years. Yeah. Thanks, Michael McDow. Keep operating that roller coaster. Rollercoaster operated to the stars, Michael McDowell. Yeah, he works on the VIP roller coaster. Yeah. I would like to thank, if I may, if I please may. Please, may you?

Please may. I'd like to thank from Ontario. Oh, that's cool. In Canada. Yes. Oh, stop. Greg Hazleton. Oh, Greg.

Fantastic man. I think what Greg's job is, he's the head stud and tube checker. Yeah. Checks every stud and tube. Check every stud and tube, which is literally billions a year. And he puts in long hours. but it never affects his attitude at work. He is so jovial.

He lights up a room. He does. Greg. Greg. Here he is. Everyone always says that when he comes. It's bloody Greg. Greg.

Greg. Greg. I love Greg. I love Greg. Greg is one of my favorite names. Do you think Greg, we're talking about it before we started recording how names can be short. And do you think Greg is short for Gregory or Gregory? Gregon.

Gregor. Gregor. Gregor? Greg's could be a lot of things. Greggy. Gregi. I always assume... On his poster, it says Gregi.

I assume Gregory, but yeah, I feel like he might be a Gregor. Gregor. No, no, sorry, let me finish. I feel like he'll be a Gregor. Gregory. One other two. On your, Gregie. And finally, I would like to thank,

and the reason I asked to go last is because I know this person... Greg? No. From Singapore, she's listed here, but I do know for a fact she is back in Melbourne now. It's Stephanie Mitchell, who also goes by Stephanie Kay Mitchell, if you want to... Oh, all the way was Stephanie Kaye. That's a classic digressy chant when Stephanie Kay went for junior body president. Exactly. Junior body president. That's not a thing, is it? Classic episode. Junior body president.

What? What she, the president? What's she the president of, the junior bodies? In a lot of way, a kid's head is the president of the junior body. True, true. Now, Stephanie Mitchell, what does she do for the Lego company? Well, I met Steph when we were studying, it was my first year at uni, at ACU. She went on to study media communications, I believe. So maybe she is the,

because that's not a completely different, head of media communications. For the Singapore branch of Lego? Yes. Wow. Whoa. She's back and forth. She travels. That's great.

I wonder what kind of things she communicates. Love. Yeah. Is that what they do? Yes. Because I majored in metering communications. I was always wondered. Always wondered.

I was wondering what that means. Me too. I don't know. You were talking about that on Josh Ells. All three of us did media and communications and none of us know what it is. I know what it is. It's all about, you know, communication. Is it all about podcasting?

Because we're all here. Through forms of media. Yes. Like a podcast. Media is plural for medium. So I know a bit about the form. Wow. The medium is the message.

And look at us communicating right now. Let me stop me right there. I think it's the message is the media. Fuck. Is it? Yeah. No. But yes.

Who said it? Marshall McClure? No, Marsha Hein. Marcia Hines, Thank you, Troy McClure. Anyway, we've lost it. Oh, I coughed into the microphone. I wanted to go to the side.

Anyway, I hate these two. Oh my God, I said that out loud. I just want to go home. No, thanks to everyone that supports the show at Patreon. And supports the show just by listening and telling people about it. That is bloody cool. our website now, do go onpod.com. Yes.com.

Don't type in. Dot com. That's a separate website Jess is working on. It has nothing to do with us. Don't look at it. It's not ready yet. Nothing. Mom, don't come in. Do go on pod.com. On there, you'll find a link to Patreon.

You find a link so you can suggest a topic. It's very, very easy. Just fill out a little survey. Tell us about the topic. Why we should do it. And often if people do write why we should do that topic, it pops out better. So amongst the thousands.

It's easy to see. You can get in contact at any time. All the links are on our website to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, email. And you can buy merch. Yes, merch. That's very important. You click store on doagleonpod.com. It takes you to Red Bubble.

And the designs come up on T-shirts. But if you do a little bit of click-y-click-y-clicking, you can find that... Media communications degree. You can find they also come on other things, even like our phone covers. Com. Com, com in other things. They come on other things. Oh yeah, you can...

Digit-onpod.com! At the moment there's two designs, but we've got more designs coming. One of the designs, which I came up with, hasn't sold super well. So feel free. I think we've sold some of them, though. Yeah, there's a couple have gone through. Jess and Matt and Dave and Ringo. Like the Beatles shirt.

Yes, it's a comprehensive listing and ranking of the talent, how talented we are at drums. Oh. Cobb that, Ringo. No, he's actually really good. He's not even the best drummer in the podcast. And fuck you, He's not even on the podcast.

I'm losing my mind. Please help me. He's a treasure. The fat control. The way you got back to March after all those years. The beautiful soul. And speaking of which, Jess,

we'll get back to your emails real soon. I'm up to date. No, it's amazing. You do great. You do great. But I haven't been getting back to our pen pals lately. So I've got to pick up our game. Get on that.

And you've got the best writing of the three of us. So you better get on that. Do we have pen pals? No. But we could get a PO box if people want that. People probably don't want that. Okay. Thanks so much for listening, guys.

We'll be back next week with another episode. Until then, I will say thank you and goodbye. Later. Later. Bye. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want.

It's up to you. Hey, this is Matt. Sorry to drop in here like this, but I was editing the episode, and I realized that I didn't thank the people who suggested the topic. And it's probably, I reckon, the most suggested topic ever, almost. It'd be very close anyway. So here are a bunch of names to thank for suggesting this topic, including Jen Jen Rosie Dawson, which is a sick name. Actually, this is a great batch of names, to be honest.

Chris Day Carey, awesome name, Tyler Spirwack. Holy shit, that's a good name. Melissa Beach, can't be a real name. That is an awesome name. Jean-Nicholas Bourdain, who's from French Canada. Oh, I think I nailed the French-Canadian there. Also, Andrew Cuxon, who actually works for Lego. And that is pretty cool.

So hopefully the show wasn't too shit for you, who knows, probably knows everything. He said he'd like to hear us chat about our childhood's own experiences with Lego. Something I didn't mention the episode is, I remember one. One of the Lego kits I had as a kid was this game with the dice and stuff and you had to move the Lego bricks around a board. But I cannot find anything about it on the internet. So I fear that I may have made it up. But anyway, that was from, you know, obviously a long, long time ago from my childhood. Also, Jasper Nolte suggests this topic and Lowen Josephs.

Also, Vincent Vinnie Burroughs did, who's a Lego collector, Dylan Byrne, who's suggested so many. topics over the years. Stirling Ruiz and Habib, who also had this little fun fact to say, which I didn't get around to saying the episode, obviously. So I'll say it now, but the plural of Lego is just Lego, not Legos, Lego, like Moose. I have not checked that to make sure, but I do believe Habib, I trust him with my life. So I'm willing to put that out as a fact. Anyway, back to wherever I'm sliding this into the episode. Is that for me?

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