Monday 29 January 2018

Well Played, Mr Christiansen!

Lego is known and loved everywhere - its name comes from the Danish leg godt - play well. This week marks the 60th birthday of the iconic Lego brick, first made by Ole Kirk Christiansen a toy maker in Denmark.


I think this toy is brilliant and beautiful, inspiring girls and boys [and adults] the world over to create amazing things.

There's a good piece on the BBC Newsround page here
Less encouraging is this article which appeared over the weekend. I suspect unusually careless reporting of facts by BBC's Katie Silver. Lego have worked very hard to ensure their toys are safe, and the presence of Cadmium [one of the chemicals cited] was certainly phased out by the 1980s - they used cadmium free plastic from 1973 onwards. What the article does not make clear is the fact that many of the older plastic bricks containing the suspicious chemicals are "Lego-compatible" and not the pukka Danish bricks. I woudn't be surprised if we see some come-back from the Danes on this one! I am certainly hanging on to my Duplo [all post 1983] for the time being. 




2 comments:

  1. Lego is a fantastic toy! So imaginative!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Growing up in the 1960s we were very familiar with Lego as our Swiss relatives sent some over each Christmas. One time in the mid sixties the TV programme Blue Peter featured a Lego motor component soon to be seen in the UK. My older brother wrote in to say that he already had one for which he was rewarded with an iconic Blue Peter Badge.

    ReplyDelete

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