LEGO Group officially the world’s largest tyre manufacturer 2012 sees LEGO Group celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LEGO wheel and what better way to mark the occasion than being awarded the Guinness World Record for ‘largest tyre manufacturer per annum’. It may come as a surprise that a staggering 318 million LEGO tyres are produced each year, that’s over 870,000 each day! The LEGO factories produces tyres 24 hours per day, 365 days per year because nearly half of all LEGO sets include a wheel of some sort. Emma Owen, PR & Promotions Manager at LEGO UK says: “Being awarded a Guinness World Record for largest tyre manufacture per annum is likely to be a surprise to many, but not to us and we are thrilled to take this record, 50 years after the invention of the LEGO tyre. Naturally we have previously broken records for creating the tallest LEGO towers, however with LEGO bricks, creativity holds no bounds and we have adopted this theory and looked outside the box with this latest world record challenge.”
Until the invention of the LEGO wheel in 1962, children simply simulated wheels with LEGO bricks. Today, with every second LEGO set featuring wheels, from police cars to safari jeeps, imaginations can go into overdrive. The LEGO Group produces 318 million tyres a year. Before the LEGO wheel was introduced, some LEGO sets included pre-moulded miniature cars, or children simulated wheels by using their LEGO brick collection. The first LEGO wheel was included in set No.400, which launched in 1962. It was the best selling set in 1967 selling 820,400 boxes. The smallest LEGO wheel stands 14.4mm high and belongs to a small two-seater car. The largest LEGO wheel stands at 10.7cm high and features on the Power Puller, launched in 2000.Set 10179Set OfBiggest Lego Set11 BiggestMillenium FalconLego SetsSets You ReWars StarTrek EuForwardWhich LEGO sets are the biggest of the big? To construct any of these sets, you're probably going to need a bigger table...The name 'LEGO' is an abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well".
It’s our name and it’s our ideal. The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The company has passed from father to son and is now owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, a grandchild of the founder. It has come a long way over the past almost 80 years - from a small carpenter’s workshop to a modern, global enterprise that is now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of toys. The LEGO brick is our most important product. We are proud to have been named “Toy of the Century” twice. Our products have undergone extensive development over the years – but the foundation remains the traditional LEGO brick. The brick in its present form was launched in 1958. The interlocking principle with its tubes makes it unique and offers unlimited building possibilities. It's just a matter of getting the imagination going – and letting a wealth of creative ideas emerge through play. Browse the LEGO history through the decades on the timeline above...️Lego Friends ️Lego Friends PuppiesFriends CafeFriends MocsFriends LayoutLego AliciaLego S JessLego Friends Sets ChristmasPhotos Kjw010ForwardPersonalized way to build the Lego Friends Cafe.
BTW: If you want to build this, you'll need to have more bricks then the amount that comes in the Lego Friends Cafe set.A WORLD record-breaking Lego sculpture of Tower Bridge has been built to mark the launch of a new Land Rover car. The replica landmark was built using 5.8 million bricks — breaking the previous record by nearly half a million — and took five months to complete. Laid out end to end the bricks would stretch from London to Paris, a distance of 200 miles.The new Land Rover Discovery beside the record-breaking four-storey Lego bridgeBear Grylls abseils down from a helicopter to land on Lego Tower Bridge Time-lapse video shows how record-breaking Lego Tower Bridge was built It was revealed at Packington Hall in Warwickshire alongside the new Land Rover Discovery SUV. TV adventurer Bear Grylls and sports legends Sir Ben Ainslie were there to mark the spectacle -- with Grylls abseiling down from a helicopter onto the four-storey Lego landmark.
Taking a dip ... Sir Ben Ainslie drove the new Discovery under the replica landmark Out the other end ... Sir Ben and his sailing team drove through the trough of water symbolising the Thames Meanwhile, sailing star Sir Ben took his America's Cup team for something they're not used to -- a trip UNDER the water in the new seven-seater. He was even towing another Lego creation -- a replica of his racing boat made from 186,500 bricks. He drove the car through a deep trough of water representing the Thames during the big reveal on Wednesday. Bobbing about in the waterZara Phillips jumps over two Discovery carsNew Land Rover beside mega bridge and sporting celebs There was also a chance for expert equestrian Zara Phillips, the Queen's granddaughter, to show off as she vaulted over the bonnets of two Discoveries parked nose-to-nose. Emma Owen, LEGO UK and Ireland spokeswoman, said: “We are thrilled that Jaguar Land Rover has used Lego bricks to add some Guinness World Record-breaking creativity to the launch of the latest Discovery."
1. Land Rover Discovery Tower Bridge (2016) – 5.8m bricks 2. Star Wars X-Wing Fighter (2013) – 5.3m bricks 3. Lego house created for James May's BBC programme Toy Stories (2009) – 3.3m bricks 4. Herobot 9000 A mecha robot (2011) – 2.8m bricks 5. Allianz Arena scale replica of the spectacular Munich soccer stadium (2005) - 1.3m bricks Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368Home > Awesomeness > By Joe Warner on November 14, 2014 Back in the 1990s, LEGO was the struggling toy brick company that adults looked back on nostalgically, but couldn’t make a buck. Until 1999, when LEGO started to license the brick out of it. Then things started rocking, and 15 years later, LEGO has produced a dizzying array of licensed sets from a number of A-list pop culture properties including Star Wars (one of the first), Harry Potter, Batman, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Simpsons and even Back to the Future.
The list goes on. This year saw the introduction of The LEGO Movie licensed sets, which was kind of like, whoa, dude, it’s like turning in on itself! But LEGO is not all about the licensed toys. There’s still the classic and long-running LEGO City, LEGO Space, LEGO Castle and LEGO Technic themes, as well as more recent popular themes like LEGO Architecture, LEGO Creator, LEGO Mindstorms, LEGO Ninjago, LEGO Legends of Chima and the girl-friendly LEGO Friends. LEGO Pirates are also coming back in 2015 after a 6-year hiatus. There’s even LEGO Ideas (formerly known as CUUSOO) which is a program that produces fan-submitted ideas through a Kickstarter-like process. That’s how the LEGO Minecraft and Back to the Future sets were born. We are truly now in the Golden Age of LEGO, and everything is awesome! Let’s take a look at 20 incredibly awesome official LEGO sets from the past 10 years. (Hey, we had to limit this somehow. Otherwise, this list would be huge!)
Special thanks to Brickset for their awesome LEGO site and passionate users! Taken from this year’s big hit The LEGO Movie, Metal Beard’s Sea Cow is an over-the-top mishmash numbering over 2,700 pieces. It’s the largest set from the series and is already considered one of the best ships ever produced by LEGO. It also includes the all-important double-decker couch. Release year: 2014 | Price: $250 – Amazon Released in 2011, this Ultimate Collector Series Star Wars set contains over 3,000 pieces and is no longer in production. eBay is your only hope to find it now. Release year: 2011 | Price: varies (not in production) – eBay Born out of the LEGO CUUSOO site (now known as LEGO Ideas), the iconic BTTF DeLorean Time Machine is a fan-submitted design that became an official retail set. Numbering 401 pieces, the set features the famous gull-wing doors, the flux capacitor, Marty McFly and his skateboard and of course Doc Brown. This is a great time to be a LEGO fan!
Release year: 2013 | Price: $35 – Amazon A treat for movie buffs, this 2,196-piece Expert set is inspired by movie palaces of yesteryear. It’s part of the Modular Buildings series where you can piece together different sets to form a city block.Price: $150 – Amazon Indiana Jones and LEGOs: awesome! This fun 554-piece set recreates the iconic boulder scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark and contains a minifigure for Jock, Indy’s pilot as well as one for the unfortunate Satipo who famously implores Indy to “throw me the idol, I throw you the whip!” Yeah, that didn’t end well. Release year: 2007 | Price: varies (not in production) – eBay Since its release in late 2012 to coincide with the release of The Hobbit, the 652-piece Unexpected Gathering set has won praise from LEGO and Tolkien fans alike. It’s as detailed as the movie scene it recreates is long. Which is to say, it’s very detailed. Release year: 2012 | Price: $63 – Amazon
Containing nearly 3,000 pieces and priced over $300, the Sydney Opera Set is a faithful rendering of the landmark structure, aimed squarely at adult fans of LEGOs, aka AFOLs. Standing nearly a foot tall, the set doesn’t have minifigures and the instruction booklet contains text and illustrations about the history and construction of the opera house.Price: $320 – Amazon Just a year after it was introduced, the Ewok Village, with its near 2,000-piece count, is already in the firmament of greatest Star Wars LEGO sets ever made. Say what you will about the cinematic worthiness of Ewoks, but they make very entertaining toys. Price: $250 – Amazon With no specific instructions and over 1,200 white and transparent pieces, the Architecture Studio is aimed at the builder who likes to use their own inspiration to create memorable LEGO sets. You get 73 different types of building bricks and a thick book that teaches you about architectural concepts. This is a long way from Star Wars LEGOs!
Price: $160 – Walmart Containing 865 pieces and 8 minifigures, the classic Black Seas Barracuda set is so good that it got re-released in 2002, 13 years after it was first introduced, and thus makes it eligible to appear on our list! Release year: 2002 | Price: varies (not in production) – Amazon Marketplace Another Star Wars set, another Ultimate Collector Series toy, 2,500 pieces of pure awesome. Release year: 2010 | It has just recently gone out of production, but the 2064-piece Haunted House is destined to become a sought-after commodity among LEGO builders. It’s been praised for the attention to detail, creativity, unique minifigures and the way it opens like a dollhouse. Consisting of over 1,000 pieces, the Medieval Market Village is a tavern, blacksmith’s workshop and open market with various animal figures, including two cows and a rat. For Castle fans, this is considered the best of the modern sets. Release year: 2009 |
Price: varies (not in production) – Amazon Marketplace This set boasts a mind-blowing 5,195 pieces, giving it the second-highest piece count after the Taj Mahal (#3 on our list). It’s also the largest sized model (33″ x 22″ x 8.3″) and most expensive set ($500 retail) ever made commercially available by LEGO. Release year: 2007 | As featured last year right here on The Checkout, the Tower of Orthanc is a ridiculously awesome set featuring six floors containing over 2,300 pieces and Treebeard the Ent among many other delights. It’s an amazing-looking LEGO set.Price: $250 – Amazon With the highest piece count of any LEGO set ever at a jaw-dropping 5,922 bricks in all, the Taj Mahal had to be on this list. The amazingly detailed and realistic set is a challenge for even the most seasoned builders. Even if you’re not a fan of LEGOs or even toys, this is one you just have to see for yourself. Release year: 2008 | This Advanced Model LEGO set actually moves and plays music like a real carousel and has over 3,000 pieces.