LEGO brick turns 50!

When the TECHNIC brick is also over 30 years (and here finishes this post relation with TBs theme...), its older brother 'LEGO® Brick' celebrates its 50 years this January 2008.
It happens today (January 28, 2008) at exactly 1:58pm, according to this timeline (rests to know in which timezone...).

The LEGO history began in 1932 in Denmark, when Ole Kirk Christiansen (OKC) founded a small factory for wooden toys in the unknown town of Billund in the south of the country.
Barely 15 years later Christiansen discovered plastic as the ideal material for toy production, and bought the first injection molding machine in Denmark. His courage, input and investment paid off: in 1949 he developed the LEGO brick prototype, which continues to excite countless children and adults to this very day. Over the years he perfected the brick, which is still the basis of the entire LEGO game and building system today. Of course there have been small adjustments in shape, colour and design from time to time, but today’s LEGO bricks still fit bricks from 1958 (Read more and see the official LEGO commemorative video of 50 years of the brick, plenty of history and some interesting old scenes).

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the modern brick, LEGO released this year a special-edition update of the classic Town Plan set (10184), completely redesigned with the best of modern bricks, details and design. The all-new Town Plan features a 1950s-style gas station with pumps, carwash and garage, a town hall, a movie theater, 2 automobiles, 8 minifigures, rare LEGO colors and elements, and more.

• It includes a letter from company owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (KKK), who appeared as a kid on the original Town Plan box and returns on this one.
• Also includes 3 2x2 bricks with 'gold' finish, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick.

Meanwhile Google, whose founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are known to be avid lovers* of the LEGO brick, also joined the celebration by displaying a commemorative image at Google's homepage (below left), after have added a Google logo made of LEGO bricks into the company office in NY** last year (below right).

Did you notice that, LEGO is a kind of GOogLE anagram. And that, "Go LEGO" would be a perfect anagram for "Google"... what a coincidence. ;)


*) The first storage system ever used by Google was built by co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin themselves. Hard drives at the time maxed out at 4GB, and they piled 10 into a case made of LEGO. Google took it offline in 1999 and gave it to Stanford University.

**) Sean Kenny (A LEGO Certified Professional) was approached by the head of Google New York about bringing LEGO to their offices. The astonishing resulting sculpture was installed at Google's New York office in April 2007.