The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks: The Story of a Design Icon

Konstanski, editor of the Lego fan magazine Blocks, debuts with an adoring love letter to the Danish toy brand. Founded in 1932, the Lego Group initially made a variety of toys, but in 1954, owner Godtfred Kirk Christiansen realized there was a market for playthings constructed to the same scale that could be sold separately and used together. The most promising candidate, he decided, were small plastic bricks that the company had produced since 1947 but regarded as ancillary to their wooden toys. Konstanski discusses Christiansen’s efforts to perfect the brick’s design; the introduction of wheels in the early 1960s, enabling the production of popular model train sets; the gradual evolution of the minifigure, the first iterations of which debuted in 1975; and the company’s forays into franchise tie-ins, led by Harry Potter and Star Wars sets in the early 2000s. There are plenty of amusing insights into Lego’s approach to toymaking (until the mid-aughts, the company maintained an Element Committee composed of designers who would critique and offer suggestions on every new piece considered for release). Despite the occasional lapse into hyperbole (“LEGO BIONICLE and LEGO Star Wars represented seismic, foundation-shattering shifts”), Konstanski’s enthusiasm for his subject endears. While not as robust as Jens Andersen’s The LEGO Story, this will click with plastic brick enthusiasts. Photos. (Sept.)