7 April: Lego

Born on this date in 1891 was Ole Kirk Christiansen, the founder of LEGO. Here are ten things you might not know about Lego.

1. The name LEGO comes from the Danish phrase leg godt which means play well. As of 2014, it's the world's biggest toy company.
2. The company which produces LEGO was founded in 1932 in Billund, Denmark, although they didn't start making the interlocking bricks until 1949. They didn't actually invent the toy they're best known for. Founder Ole Kirk Christiansen was a carpenter who lost his business, and to use up his leftover wood, made toys for his children. They loved them, so he started making toys to sell. Christiansen was intrigued by a sample a plastic mould salesman had with him which had been invented (and patented) by a man called Hilary Fisher Page. Page died before finding out someone had copied his idea so Christiansen avoided being sued, but LEGO does acknowledge that the interlocking brick idea was inspired by Page.
3. The LEGO company produces more rubber wheels than all car tyre manufacturers put together.
4. In 2013, more than 560 billion LEGO bricks had been produced. That's 86 for every person in the world and enough to reach from the Earth to the Moon – 14 times. In 2012 alone, enough LEGO bricks were sold to stretch around the world more than 18 times.
5. LEGO bricks are made from a type of plastic called acrylonitrile butadiene-styrene or ABS. It’s heated to between 230 and 310 degrees Celsius to make it malleable enough to go into the moulds. The system is so efficient that only 18 per million bricks are rejected for being sub-standard.
6. There's a three digit number inside every LEGO brick which corresponds to the mould that was used so that if there's a defect, the company can trace exactly where the defective brick came from.
7. Why does it hurt when you stand on a LEGO brick? They're made to be durable, which means high resistance has been built in. The average human isn't heavy enough to exert enough force to bend it, so the force is simply transmitted into the nerve endings in your foot. Ouch.
8. One thing you'll never find is any kind of military LEGO set, because the company doesn't want to glorify war for children.
9. LEGO minifigures have been around since the 70s and there are so many of them that if they were real people, they'd be the world's largest population group. They are always yellow (unless they're based on an actual person) because that is deemed to be the most racially neutral colour. They also have little holes in their head so if a child swallows one, air can flow though and the child is less likely to choke.
10. In 2009, James May made a full sized house out of LEGO bricks. It would have been possible (though not very comfortable) to live in it, and it even had a flushing Toilet. Sadly, the owners of the site where it was built didn't want it to stay there, and James May couldn't afford to pay to have it dismantled and rebuilt in LEGOLAND – so it was smashed to bits and the bricks donated to children's charities. The tallest LEGO tower was 94 feet high and built in California, using 465,000 bricks.

My Books 

(for more details and buying options Click Here)

The Ultraheroes series

Several new groups of superheroes, mostly British, living and working (mostly) in British cities like London and Birmingham. People discovering they have, and learning to live with, superpowers. Each book is complete in itself although there is some overlap of characters.

The Raiders series

A tale of two dimensions, and worm hole travel between the two. People displaced in both time and space, learning to get along and work together to find a way home while getting used to the superpowers wormhole travel gave them. A trilogy.

Golden Thread

A superhero tale with a difference. Five heroes from another dimension keep returning - whenever they return, they have a job to do and are a well-meshed team in order to do it. Until one time, something goes wrong...

Tabitha Drake series

A different kind of power - the ability to talk to dead people. Tabitha has it, and murder victims seek her out to make sure justice is done. Tabitha has this and a disastrous love life to cope with.

Short story collections

Some feature characters from the above novels, others don't. They're not all about superheroes. Some are creepy, romantic, funny.