<P> The Lego Group began manufacturing the interlocking toy bricks in 1949 . Since then a global Lego subculture has developed . Supporting movies, games, competitions, and six Legoland amusement parks have been developed under the brand . As of July 2015, 600 billion Lego parts had been produced . </P> <P> In February 2015, Lego replaced Ferrari as Brand Finance's "world's most powerful brand". </P> <P> The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891--1958), a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932 . In 1934, his company came to be called "Lego", derived from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well". In 1947, Lego expanded to begin producing plastic toys . In 1949 Lego began producing, among other new products, an early version of the now familiar interlocking bricks, calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks". These bricks were based in part on the Kiddicraft Self - Locking Bricks, which were patented in the United Kingdom in 1939 and released in 1947 . Lego modified the design of the Kiddicraft brick after examining a sample that they received from the supplier of an injection - molding machine that Lego purchased . The bricks, originally manufactured from cellulose acetate, were a development of the traditional stackable wooden blocks of the time . </P> <P> The Lego Group's motto is det bedste er ikke for godt which means roughly "only the best is the best" (more literally "the best is never too good"). This motto, which is still used today, was created by Christiansen to encourage his employees never to skimp on quality, a value he believed in strongly . By 1951 plastic toys accounted for half of the Lego company's output, even though the Danish trade magazine Legetøjs - Tidende ("Toy - Times"), visiting the Lego factory in Billund in the early 1950s, felt that plastic would never be able to replace traditional wooden toys . Although a common sentiment, Lego toys seem to have become a significant exception to the dislike of plastic in children's toys, due in part to the high standards set by Ole Kirk . </P>

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