Have you ever wanted to create a giant starship from your favorite Star Wars movie? Or maybe build a huge model of the Taj Mahal? How about a Ferrari racecar in the pit stop getting a tire change? With Lego, that is all possible.
Lego was started in 1916 when a Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Kristiansen bought a workshop in a little town called Billund, Denmark. It was set up for building houses and furniture, but the company was not called Lego at this time. In 1932, with the great depression threatening to close his shop, he moved into the toy-making industry, creating wooden toys, like yo-yos and wooden blocks (Lipkowitz 12-13).
In 1934, Ole Kirk decided to name the company. Ole Kirk held a competition among the employees to name the company with a bottle of wine as a prize. Ole Kirk
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In 1987, the first “Bricks in buckets” was released, with Lego bricks in a bucket for kids to be able to build anything with their bricks (Lipkowitz 23, 25).
The Lego Company grew and grew so much since Ole Kirk made the first wooden toy. Now there are Lego designers all over the world. Some, like Sean Kenney in New York, are certified Lego professionals. He makes sculptures and models out of Lego bricks at his studio, and is recognized as one of the premier Lego brick builders in the world (Kenney 33).
The most amazing part about Lego bricks is what you can do with them. Only you are able to decide what to build. You can build a chess board made out of Lego bricks, a five-thousand piece Millennium Falcon from Star Wars, a giant model of the Sydney Opera House, or maybe even something even bigger. In May of 2013, Lego even made a life-size X-wing starfighter. More than five million LEGO bricks were used to create it in celebration of new LEGO Star Wars animated TV special, “The Yoda™ Chronicles”
Due to tremendous growth and modern business practices in centralized management, product consistency and quality, efficient use of facilities, cost control and mass advertising, the company needed to operate under one name. In 1966, “Keebler” was judged to be the most sound and memorable.
In 2012 alone, Lego increased its revenue by 25%, nearly tripling their sales in 2007 (Trangbaek). Knudstorp has done an exceptional job in progressing Lego through their darkest of days to a new era filled with success. Lego has managed to do what few companies have and despite its many challenges, they have achieved success and continue to serve as a beacon of light to other companies that are facing similar defeat. I am curious to see the future of Lego and intrigued to see their continued growth in the world.
under a different name of the Top Hat. Tony Smith started the company as a
The Lego movie is the story of a simpleton turned knight-in-shining-armor and co on their journey to the top as they brave life on the run from a benevolent dictator in order to foil his devious plot to freeze the world in his image for all eternity. To make matters worse, pretty much each and every citizen is completely oblivious to the full extent of the chaos that is ensuing. At first glance, life seems all but perfect, but in reality, this could not be further from the truth. Even if this is as obvious as the sky is blue, Lord Fussiness has managed to keep resistance at bay through means of manipulating the minds of his citizens into believing a false sense of safety and freedom under his every watch.
Barbie was created by Ruth Handler, whose husband co-founded Mattel, the world's largest toy company. She noticed a gap in the market as she saw her daughter, Barbra, playing with adult paper dolls. At the time, the market for young girls was focused on baby dolls, but Barbra and her friends preferred to play with a grown-up version, dressing them up in outfits and pretending they were the grown up women they were playing with. Ruth then thought to create a 3- dimensional fashion doll that she would name Barbie after her daughter, Barbra. When presenting the idea to executives at Mattel, she was shot down, being told that they were too expensive to make for the amount of detail Ruth ...
In 1945, Ruth and Eliott Handler founded Mattel – one of Americas leading manufacturing companies of today. The idea for the Barbie doll was conceived when Ruth watched her daughter play with adult paper dolls. She noticed the importance of being able to change the doll's clothes, and decided to create a three-dimensional fashion doll, naming her Barbie after Barbara (her daughter). At the time, the toy market was dominated by baby dolls and toddler dolls. Barbie was a new conception that became a worldwide hit. Since her debut in 1959, Barbie has remained one of the most popular toys of all time. There are two Barbie's sold every second, and more than one billion dolls have been sold around the world (Maine, 2000, cited in Slayen, 2011).
90% of girls ages three through ten owned at least one Barbie doll. Ruth Handler’s idea for children to live there adult fantasies through a toy, came to life in a tall beautiful blonde doll. Barbra Millicent Roberts, or Barbie for short was named after Handlers daughter. Barbie was originally molded after the European Lilli doll that was made to be a gag gift, but Handler transformed this idea into so much more. The first Barbie doll was created in 1959, changing the toy making industry forever. This simple idea turned into a massive success. The sponsor of the phenomenon was Mattel Inc. founded by Ruth Handler and her Husband. Ruth Handler’s original idea of Barbie was revolutionary due to the many impacts on society this small doll created.
Toys R Us founder Charles Lazarus opened the first Toys R Us store in Rockville in 1957. The company went public in 1978 and evolved into a powerful international toy vendor, with Kids R Us, Babies R Us and Toyrus.com. It operated 638 stores in the United States and 579 outside the country.
The LEGO Group organization is famous due to its flagship product – colourful plastic bricks that can be interlocked to form a variety of figures, and then disconnected again. These binding bricks originated in a wooden form when the company was first established in Billund, Denmark by Kirk Kristiansen in 1932 (The LEGO Group, 2012), and today’s well known plastic version was introduced in 1958 (Rosenberg). The company’s head office is located in Billund to this day, and The LEGO Group remains privately owned by Kristiansen’s family (The LEGO Group, 2012). They currently sell toys and teaching materials in over 130 countries worldwide.
Build-A-Bear workshop became present to the mind whenever Maxine Clark had a fun conversation with her friend’s son. Maxine Clark became the President of the Payless Shoe Store. After awhile that job lost its spark so she began to do something new. Maxine was shopping with a daughter of one of her good friends and her brother Jack in which collected beanie babies, they began to discuss that whenever they got bored or couldn't find anything new to do they would make beanie babies. Maxine read between those lines and came up with the idea of creating a store that kids could be able to create custom stuffed animals. She began to build a plan and that was when it all came together. In 1997 she withdrew $750,000 from her retirement account to get Build-a-Bear Workshop off the ground. All of that money covered the start up cost and building. During the process of building, her first store coming soon signs appeared all over St. Louis. The signs caught the eye of Barney Ebsworth and his partner Wayne Smith. They bought in for 20% for $4.5 million.The first store opened up on a Sunday in St. Louis Galleria. Over 160 million Build-A-Bears have been created
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration.
Ruth Handler, the creator of the Barbie doll conceived the idea of creating a doll after a family trip to Europe where she discovered an adult doll that was a German sex toy. Once she returned to the United States she made a discovery in regards to the toys of young girls saying as quote” I saw these little girls playing grown up and knew that the only dolls available on the market were baby dolls where the child is limited to playing mommy, or toddler or companion dolls where the child is limited to playing with a girlfriend; there was no adult doll with which a child could truly dream her dreams in the early fifties” (Piche). Hence the Barbie doll made its debut through her company Mattel in March of 1959 it not only revolutionized the way women thought of themselves but caused controversy because it did not directly encourage domesticity. When Barbie made her debut in 1959, “she wore a black-and-white striped one-piece bathing suit, black heels, white sunglasses and too much eyeliner
Barbie was first launched in March 1959, after Ruth Handler, president of Mattel, Inc., went on a trip to Europe and discovered a unique German doll, “Bild Lilli.” The aforementioned doll was special in that she was an adult, whereas man...
Toy World, Inc is a manufacturer of plastic toys for children, founded in 1973 by David Dunton. In the past, the company's production schedules had always been highly seasonal, reflecting the seasonality of sales. Jack McClintock, president and part owner of this company, is considering a proposal to adopt level monthly production for the coming year.
Ruth Handler a co-founder of Mattel, invented Barbie in 1959, when she noticed her daughter playing with paper dolls imagining them to be different people who were working, swimming, and playing with friends. Barbie got her name from Handler’s daughter Barbara. Ken, Barbie’s boyfriend was created in 1960, and was named after Handler’s son. In 1963, Midge, Barbie’s best friend was created and in 1964, Barbie’s sister, Skipper, was created.