WEBVTT - Episode 22: LEGO 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:16.320 Everybody. It is Nerdificent coming in on hopefully both sides 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:18.960 of your headphones. If not, you might need new headphones. 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:21.400 This is if you wide away and sitting across from 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:26.599 me is Danny Fernandez. Boomha, that's how you pronounced that name. Yes, 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.040 it's very Actually there's a billion I've talked about this, 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:31.240 but there are many Danny Fernandez is, in fact, even 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:35.360 in this town. Or Dan Yelle Fernandez. Fernanda said, there's 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:40.920 a lot of Fernando said, I think so, I think so. Yeah. Yeah, 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:45.280 it's been uh you know, it's it's been. It's been wild. 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:49.680 How's your week going, Um, it's going a lot better 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.960 than the founder of Lego who has passed, So his 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.120 week is fine. But like when it was still we'recovering legos, 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.960 and when I was researching this topic and like put 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:05.400 this together, I found he had a very rough life 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.120 where so many bad things happened. You would think that 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.200 it was like God telling you not to make legos. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.919 Like if you believed in God, any normal sane person 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:18.679 would be like cool, So I my factory burned down again, Um, 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.240 I probably shouldn't be making legos. But now he stuck 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.400 with it. You know, some people were like, these are 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:30.160 just my haters and mother Nature looking my dj they 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:34.119 don't want you to build Lego. Yeah, all I do 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.120 is win. I love the idea that like nature is 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:42.360 your hater, by the nature my biggest universe, the universe 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.440 trying to stop me. It won't biggest hater, it won't. Yeah. 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.600 So let's talk a little bit about the history of Legos. 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:55.160 All right. So so you're saying he had a rough start, right, okay, Yeah, 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:58.840 So the Lego group began in the workshop of Ole 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:03.960 Kirk Christon, who was a carpenter from Billain, Denmark, and 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:08.280 he began making wooden toys in nineteen thirty two to 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.120 make a living after having lost his job during the 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.640 Great Depression. Man. Yeah, that's that's how you kick it 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:17.120 off with a start. YEA. That is definitely checking all 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.560 the boxes on every everything that might say you might 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.359 have a rough start the Great Depression. Man, that was rough, 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:25.880 you know, grapes rough, great book. Not going to do 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.800 a deep dive on that. So don't have are we 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:34.320 gonna do Warren Peace or nope? Perfect. We might read 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:38.040 his short story The Chrysanthemums, But that's where that's where 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:40.480 I draw the line. We should actually we need to. 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:42.720 We need to. You don't want to do the Pearl? 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:48.120 Which one was that it was the one with the pearl? Alright, 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.080 then I guess I don't know that one. And then 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:55.520 the Blue Dolphins. Okay, yeah, I mean that's the O 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:59.160 G triple O G. Yeah. We should actually explore more books. 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.679 We will. I believe we have a Harry Potter one 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.200 that's on the docket. But we're of mind some men. 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:06.440 The one thing that is cool about it we're going 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.520 to do this quick tander is just the effect that 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:14.560 it did indeed have because that archetype lived for so long. 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.959 Just the short smart guy and the big dumb guy 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:22.359 that's pinky in the brain. That's uh, you know, two 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:26.440 stupid dogs, two stupid dogs. Yeah, like that's just went 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:34.600 uh asteroids rinnen Stimpy Yep, it's just a certified classic. 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:38.400 But there we're talking about legos and back to the 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:41.640 Great Depression, which the Grapes of Wrath is based off 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.000 of it. If you're wondering how we got from the 0:03:44.080 --> 0:03:47.880 Great Depression to John Steinbeck or not based off it 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.600 takes place during it. It's the setic whatever. Let's talk 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:57.440 about okay, yeah, yeah, So he he was a respected 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.880 carpenter with his own company, but you know, times were 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:03.240 super hard and he didn't have a lot of money, 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:06.160 so he had to dismiss all of his workers, and 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.040 soon after his wife, Christine died, leaving him to raise 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:11.640 four sons. I have something to say here is that 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:13.760 you can actually look up. We'll put in our footnotes. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:19.920 Lego made a cute, cute, adorable little animated short of 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:23.680 Olay's like history, but in it when so when he 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:27.480 had to layoff all of his workers, his wife is like, well, well, 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.440 at least things couldn't get worse, and the narrator was like, 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.840 but things did get worse and then she died. And 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.599 I'm like, this is like a kid short animated on 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:42.279 the Lego site. Um just talked about his horrific life, 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:44.880 which wasn't horrific, but I guess things. You know, things 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.560 were different back then, and you had things like factories 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.560 burning down and people dying of measles or whatever. Um, 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.719 And so he dealt with a lot of hardship that 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:56.840 would have knocked anyone else down, but not ol A 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:02.120 dude that felt like a ron Our narrator like, things 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:07.760 did get worse, And they did, they did, yes, oh man. 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:12.200 But then from there, things, you know, moved on. Yeah. 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.800 So soon after his wife Christine died, leaving him and 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.880 raised his four sons. That's rough. He made a small 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.839 wooden duck toy for his children, and when they loved 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:23.160 it so much, he decided to put the ducks into production. 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.600 Using his leftover wood from his old business, he started 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.720 making wooden toys. One day, a wholesaler came in and 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.000 placed a huge order, so he had to rehire his 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.480 workers and used the highest quality wood for his handmade toys. 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.599 Can you imagine being like fired or laid off and 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:42.799 you're like, oh, man, screw this guy out. Never worked 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:44.479 for him again. He's like, I got more work. I 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.080 guess I'm working for him again. Yeah. In fact, this 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:48.800 was that they wanted to have a bunch of his 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.520 toys to sell before Christmas, so they wanted to have 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.400 him in the windows and stuff. So he worked over 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.240 time essentially to make all of these toys. And if 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:01.120 he yeah, if he, this is where and again it 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:05.279 happened again to our man. Oh he received a letter 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.640 saying the wholesaler filed for bankruptcy and couldn't buy the toys, 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:12.719 like it's almost this is what I mean where and 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.360 it continues like this in his life like where. If 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:17.039 you were a writer, you would be like, this is 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.160 too much. You know, if you were writing the screenplay 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.320 of his life, you would be like, slow down a second. 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:25.200 But he that didn't stop him. He decided to drive 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.719 around himself and sell the toys, and he succeeded in 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.440 selling all of his toys. He wasn't able to get 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:33.760 as much money as he wanted, and a lot of 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:37.320 farmers in his area traded him for food instead, which, 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.560 like he in the Little Lego short and said, you know, 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.240 he would have preferred money. I mean everyone would, but 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:45.440 he took the food so that he could feed him 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:47.479 in his place. I mean kids got to eat, so 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:49.720 you know either way, Like I will say that as 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:52.880 someone with the child, I'm like, man, I would like 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:55.160 to roll out in the bins, but I guess my 0:06:55.400 --> 0:07:00.280 daughter doesn't. Yeah, you're right, you right? Uh? But then 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.880 in four his company came to be called Lego, derived 0:07:03.920 --> 0:07:07.599 from the Danish phrase ligat, which means play well. In Latin, 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.840 lego can mean I put together or I assemble, which 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:14.360 is wild. Yeah, he didn't actually know the Latin part. 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.920 He only know the Danish part. Was picking it out. Yeah, look, 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:21.280 this is this seems when you connect all those dots, 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.560 just the constant failure, but keeping pushing forward and then 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:29.160 these connecting, it's almost like a little fate story. I 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.360 have another thing coming up for you. I have another 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:37.559 thing after yeah. So he so he named it Lego 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.360 and then in a fire broke out in his factory. 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:47.200 What's going on? Now? What is going on? We know 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:49.800 he has a successful story. That's the only reason I'm laughing. 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.680 I'm sorry, like r I P O a um a 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.400 fire bro this did not kill him? Then nothing would 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:00.480 kill him. In fact, nothing stopped him. I'm sorry. In 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:04.680 ninety two fire, he's like the Charlie Brown of his life. 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.560 He's definitely had a curse. Yeah, you know, he's like 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:11.960 the descendant relative arrest mutant or something. No, he was 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:14.480 listened in Beauty and the Beast. He turned away the 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:18.400 witch and he was all right. She was like, I'm 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.000 all out of these beast spells. I'm gonna hit you 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:25.480 with this failed toymaker spell. In two a fire broke 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:28.720 out in his factory in his workshop, destroying all of 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.880 his drawings and models, completely burning them to the ground. 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:35.160 It forced him to rebuild and he started working again 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:40.920 as a carpenter. And then World War Two happened, and 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:45.319 following World War Two, plastics became available in Denmark and 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:50.480 Lego purchased a plastic injection molding machine in seven And 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:55.800 like I foreshadowed during the The Transformers episodes, molds are 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:57.840 going to be a very big thing when it comes 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.000 to toys. I have a huge toy episode planned out 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.840 with like just kind of the toy kind of subculture. 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:10.880 I have a friend Rocom who is who works at Razor, 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.839 and his friend Quong. There's a whole there's every time 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:16.559 I talk to them, they blow my mind. There's a 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.920 whole toy subculture and it really molds are a big 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.479 part of it. And like they talk about how sometimes 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:25.720 if you don't know the factory that you're sending your 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:30.520 mold too, and you may never get your toys made 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.840 for like almost a decade because you're in line with 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:37.640 all these stuff and in line with all these different 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:40.760 toy makers. And if the toy makers their homie, then 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.320 they're gonna make those first and then when you have 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:46.160 the vinyl toys, and we're talking about vinyl toys like 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:50.439 the you know, the Dunnies and your original Fake which 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:55.120 is uh one of my favorite artists cause made the companions. Uh. 0:09:55.240 --> 0:10:00.280 Then you have Mr Bunny, you have Squire and the 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:04.080 skull Bud. The list goes on, you know, Ugly Doll, 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.199 which I think is a really popular one that most 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:11.520 people know. Uh kid Robot. Uh. Just it's just so 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.360 such a long list of like designer toys, and there's 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.520 like a subculture within that of like people because they'll 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.160 sell blanks of them, and like you have to be 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.680 only certain people can like paint and resell them because 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.120 if the maker finds out there, like no, you can't 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.920 do that. I wanted to blank for a reason. So anyway, 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:32.560 we'll go deep into that on another episode. But this 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.600 every time mold gets mentioned, I have to go on 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:37.880 that quick tanner because it's so exciting and I can't 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.640 wait to set them down and talk about it. But 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.640 they did get those molds, and uh so they got 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.920 the molds in and Lego expanded to begin producing plastic 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.440 toys and the nine Lego began producing among other new 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:57.280 products and early version of the now familiar interlocking blricks, 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:06.040 calling them automatic binding bread Well, well, yeah, if he 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.360 did not tell you to pick up your automatic binding 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:13.200 bricks although technically their abs, then not tell you to 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.480 pick up your abs and step in all of your abs. 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.120 You know they're rock hard there they hurt. Want to 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:22.360 step on them? Uh? Rock hard abs uh? And then 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:26.240 the uh but we call them Lego bricks uh. Then, 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.920 manufactured from cellulose acetate, were developed in the spirit of 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.960 traditional wooden blocks that could be stacked upon one another, 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.439 but it could be locked together. They had several round 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.160 studs on the top in the hollow rectangular bottom that 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.160 we know and love, and they would stick together, but 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:45.320 not so tightly that they cannot be pulled apart. Yeah. 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.880 The basic eight stud red Lego brick was first sold 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:53.080 in Denmark in nineteen nine. And the bricks produced today 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:55.640 have the same bumps and holes and can still interlock 0:11:55.760 --> 0:12:01.079 with those produced back in Yeah, and that's a big 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.280 thing for Lego. They want there. They go through so 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:08.840 like stringent lengths to make sure that the all the 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.839 Legos can still lock up, so that no matter what 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:15.200 error you buy Legos in if if if I gave 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.640 my legos to my great great great great great great 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.400 great grandson. He would still be able to play with 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:24.559 his new legos with my old ones, and vice versa 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:26.800 if I were to go to my great great great 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:30.000 great grand father's legos, is what I'm meaning to say. 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:32.760 But then, these bricks were based on the Kitty Craft 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.560 self locking bricks, which had been patented in the United Kingdom, 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.400 and Lego had received a sample of the Kitty caraff 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.360 bricks from the supplier of the injection molding machine that 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:46.320 it had purchased. The bricks originally manufactured from Selo's estate. 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.640 We're a development of the traditional stack of the wooden 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.960 blocks at the time. This is really fascinating because copyright 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:58.319 is going to come into play or patent I mean, 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.160 cottons are going to come into play year um in 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.920 a little bit. But the Lego groups model is I 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:10.079 can't say that. Yeah, the Lego groups model is essentially 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.880 only the best is the best, or more literally, the 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.080 best is never too good. This was something that actually 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:19.160 had for a while, like as a carpenter and when 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.400 he was making his wooden toys. The reason why they 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.920 were seen as so magnificent is because of the care 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.440 that he put into them, and he was obsessed with 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.520 continuing that when he started making legos, like he just 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:34.440 wanted the highest quality possible. Yeah. I heard he opted 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:36.840 to have that on the wall instead of a no 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:42.920 smoking sign and that Yeah, first factory got caught on fire. Um, 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:47.679 but yeah, it was. It was a huge, huge, important 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:52.160 deal for him for Christiansen and then by plastic toys 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.480 accounted for half of the Lego company's output. So they're 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.960 almost pushing out they're almost going to start to push 0:13:57.960 --> 0:14:02.199 out the their wooden toys. Ninety eight, the modern brick 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.240 design was developed, the one that you can use up 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.560 until today. It took five years to find the right 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:14.199 material forward a B s acronaitural beauty dyne starry polymer 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:17.800 could have just said a BS polymer. I don't need 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.080 to know the full facts, but just for some people, 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:24.720 some people were like, yep, thanks. The modern Lego brick 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:29.200 was designed and patented in January nineteen Yeah, and also 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:32.280 in ninety eight, the bricks were improved with hollow tubes 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.800 and the underside of the brick. This added support in 0:14:34.840 --> 0:14:38.440 the base, enabling much better locking ability and improve versatility. 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:41.680 The company patent the new design, as well as several 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:46.480 similar designs to avoid competition, although, like I just said, 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:52.400 they had copied it from the Kitty Craft. So um. 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.440 But oh A actually died that same year, and his son, 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.720 Godfried inherited leadership of the company and would come to 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.320 rule it for many years to come. Yeah and uh, 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:08.160 Lego executives observing how children played with their products realized 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.960 the firm future realized the firm's future success was not 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:16.400 about the brick, but what the brick could create. Buildings, streets, 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:20.640 cities all filled with people, vehicles, street signs, and bushes. 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.080 You can go on and on, building and building. You 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:26.080 never get tired of Lego. But one of its publicity 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:31.280 campaign said, to see what's next on the list? Another 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:40.040 warehouse fire. Listen, listen. I don't know what burial ground 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:44.920 they built Lego on. Lego had another warehouse fire. They're 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:46.800 doing fine. Lego is doing great. You know, they have 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.240 the Lego films. They're amazing. So I just but but 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:53.120 back in the day it was difficult for them. They 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.680 had another warehouse fire. This is what's fascinating. Okay, So 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:58.680 they had a warehouse fire that struck the Lego group 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.480 in nineteen sixty, consuming most of the company's inventory of 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:05.720 wooden toys. This is the fascinating part. It almost forced 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.920 them to completely abandon wooden toys, and Godfried his son, 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.840 decided to just move forward with their plastic line. So 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:15.880 I was talking to Dan, our producer, about this, and 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:18.040 I was telling him when I was researching this man's 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.840 story of like, how many things went wrong. It kind 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.560 of is fascinating though, because each time something went wrong, 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.800 it forced him to rethink and restructure and get better 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.880 and make these decisions. And so it's like, you know, 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:33.960 you and I it's like, oh, well, my script got rejected, 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.760 and it's like this man freaking dealt with with so 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:42.360 much death and and catastrophic like loss of his belongings 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.360 and things like that that he was working on, and 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.560 each time he got back up. It's just it's just 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.840 a remarkable, remarkable story. But this I find really fascinating 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.960 that when their warehouse burned down, they completely scraped their 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.440 wooden toys because it destroyed all their wooden toys and decided, hey, 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:00.800 we're just going to move forward with plastic, which ended 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.240 up being the best decision that they made. Yeah, that's 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:05.960 what I like and I feel like will be the 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:10.320 moral of you know, Lego story is like when you 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:14.360 do reach a roadblock, instead of just kind of stopping 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:18.600 there and maybe even instead of trying to rebuild what 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.720 you have, look at what you're left with and work 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.240 from there. You know. It's that's that's that's what it 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.840 feels like. It's like, you know, the classic life hands 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:32.399 you lemons make lemonade. Yeah. But so by the end 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:35.120 of that year, the Lego group was employed now over 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:39.200 four hundred and fifty people. And in the nineteen sixties, 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.240 the companies Brick Smith actually invented the wheel which was 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:45.359 around brick with a rubber tire for their legos um. 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:48.680 The Lego wheel earned its own patent application. They're very 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:51.560 big on these patents. Uh. And then a little known fact, 0:17:51.680 --> 0:17:55.000 Lego makes more than three hundred million tires per year, 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:59.320 which is more than good Year or Bridgestone. Yeah, they 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.040 didn't launched do Blow. It's a line of bigger bricks 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:06.240 for preschools in the sixties as well. In nineteen sixty 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:09.040 eight they had the first Legoland theme park, which I 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.320 didn't know that. We think Lego Land is something that 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:14.359 came out this past decade. But now uh in night, 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:17.480 the first Legoland theme park open in Belund, and h 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:19.960 Lego was trying to be its own kind of everything 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.560 store or everything toy. And we'll actually get into the 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:35.400 history of Lego Land right after this break and we're back, 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:37.720 so we're going to dive into a little bit of 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.680 the history of Lego Land. So yeah. So the Legoland 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:45.040 Blund resort opening Belund, Denmark in nineteen sixty eight, followed 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.399 by the Lego Land Windsor Resort in Windsor in nineteen 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.560 and then further parks opened in Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Dubai, 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.000 the United States, which we have in California and Florida, 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.560 and then parks in South Korea, New York. Oh, I 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.520 don't know. They were getting a park in Shanghai are 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.880 currently under construction. That's dope. Shout out to New York. 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.200 You guys are getting a park. Yeah yeah, So I 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:15.560 vividly remember when the San Diego Lego Land open and 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:22.280 apparently it opened on March twenty and when it opened, 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:25.800 I just thought it was the first ever. I get 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:28.359 so funny that there were so many before, and I 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:31.399 was like, no, this is while Lego Land was just 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:36.480 created for the first time, and no, it wasn't a 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:38.560 little little that. No, I don't know. I haven't been 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:43.720 to Lego Land, have you. Um I think I went once? Yeah, yeah, 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.760 my families from so um yeah, I think I remember 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:50.840 going once. But I mean when I had my pick, 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.720 I always picked Disneyland. So when I was because let's 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:55.760 see nine to night, I was in middle school, so 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:58.359 my family actually would let us on our birthday, we 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:00.560 could either have a birthday party or we take one 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:04.240 friend to Disneyland because tickets are expensive as hell, and 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:06.960 so I always chose to take one friend to Disneyland. 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.880 I did that like every year one one friend got 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:13.280 hooked up. I mean I had brothers too, so they 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:15.399 were paying for my brothers to go with me and 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.040 also my one friend. Yeah but your year, one friend 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.159 got to drive all the way up to Anaheim and 0:20:22.320 --> 0:20:24.919 experience that fun day like that friend got hooked up. 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:28.600 Yeah that's true. That's true. They probably don't realize how 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:30.880 dope that world. No, Tiffany, do you realize it. We're 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:33.480 not even Facebook friends. Let's see that, we'll see what 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:37.520 I mean. Definitely do not realize it. So all six 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:39.960 of the parks include a Lego Mini Land, a model 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.080 village which includes models of landmarks and scenes from all 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.800 around the world made from made from millions of genuine 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.120 Lego bricks. The parks rides are all Lego theme. Many 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:52.480 are made to appear as if they're built out of 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:55.600 Lego bricks. They tend to be based on one particular 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:58.679 line of Lego For example, a popular ride at All 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:01.479 Six Parks is the dry Wagon Coaster, which is loosely 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:05.320 based on the Night's Kingdom Lego sets. Another popular ride 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:09.120 is Driving School, in which children can drive small electric 0:21:09.200 --> 0:21:12.160 cars made to look like Lego cars around a small 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:16.040 road network, after which they gain a mock driving lesson 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:19.520 a mock driving license. I wanted to say, so, I 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:22.159 visited my brother in Phoenix recently and we went to 0:21:22.520 --> 0:21:25.920 there's a Lego Land Discovery Center in Phoenix. So i'm 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.479 and it's like much smaller, It's like attached to one 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:30.720 of their malls. So I imagine that there are a 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.120 lot of places if you listening don't have a Lego Land, 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:36.199 but you have one of these Lego Land Discovery centers, 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:40.080 let us know. So it's essentially like dinosaurs and astronauts 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:42.000 and stuff made out all made out of Legos, like 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.879 these huge builds of them. Um, and then they have 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.600 two rides, ten Lego building play zones in a forty 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:53.040 cinema there. So it's not like the full one with 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:57.280 roller coasters, but yeah, still cool. There's a lot of 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:59.200 Lego facts, So I'm gonna just hit you off with 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:04.240 some quick facts that happened hashtag facts uh f A 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:08.440 c K s uh. In nineteen seventy one, Lego began 0:22:08.520 --> 0:22:12.880 a target girls by introducing furniture pieces and dollhouses. Yeah, 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:15.320 and then in nineteen seventy two, Lego added boat and 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:19.359 ship sets with floating whole pieces nineteen seventy four. Human 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:23.560 figs Human figures with posble arms made an appearance in 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.440 nineteen seventy four, and Lego Family sets, which went on 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.200 to become the biggest sellers at the time. The next year, 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:31.119 an early version of the mini figure a k A. 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:35.159 Minifigs Minsture Lego person was introduced, but it was not 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:38.240 posible and had no face printed on its head. What 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:42.880 was that nightmare escape of a toy? Well, I guess 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:45.240 like knowing little kids you could draw like you, I 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:48.600 would probably have drawn my own on there, which would 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:50.760 not have looked good. It would have been like lopsided eyes. 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:54.879 In nineteen seventy five, the Expert Series set was introduced 0:22:54.920 --> 0:22:58.160 and it was geared towards older, more experienced Lego builders, 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:03.639 followed by the Expert Builder sets in nineteen In eight, 0:23:03.720 --> 0:23:07.200 the Legos Mini fig was officially added. These small Lego 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:10.560 people have posable arms and legs and smile no more 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:14.800 of that creepy no face than going on. Essentially Lego citizens. 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:18.119 Lego also expanded into space with the creation of Lego 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:23.120 Space sets with astronaut mini figures, rockets, lunar rovers, spaceships, 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:26.920 and in medieval territory with a castle theme. Yeah. And 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:31.360 then in nineteen nine, Lego introduced the Scala series featuring 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:36.520 jewelry elements marketed towards young girls. God if he we 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:39.680 also are astronauts. Can I tell you now, I'll just 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:44.000 like furniture. You know, we're also into rockets and lunar rovers. 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:50.879