'The Lego Movie' is Awesome, and 10 Other Facts About The 'Toy of the Century'

First we had the 'Lego Movie' that wowed critics, then came the news of a Lego 'Simpsons' episode, it seems Lego mania really has taken over the world. With that in mind here's ten facts you might not know about the iconic toy company.

The Lego movie has caused us to fall in love with Lego all over again

1. Lego was created by Ole Kirk Christiansen a carpenter from Denmark. After losing his job in the depression he took to making toys, their popularity would lead to the creation of Lego. The name Lego is an abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well”.

2. When Christiansen created Lego in 1934 it was very different from today - most notably it was wooden. In fact the first toy he had success with was a small wooden duck. He started using plastics in 1947 but the Lego design that we’re used to today didn't appear until 1958.

3.The first Lego 'set', ie pieces that were specially designed to create a specific thing,  was available in 1964. However Christiansen had a special condition which lasts until this day, that there would be no directly military-themed sets. Christiansen had a policy of not wanting to make war seem like child's play.

4. As of 2013, 560 billion LEGO parts had been produced, meaning every person on the planet could have 80 LEGO pieces each!

5. There are over 4 billion LEGO minifigures, making them the world’s largest (albeit fictional) population. The figures started off without facial features or gender and were highly simplistic. Now you can seemingly have anything, even Batman.

Batman in the Lego movie

6. There have been fifty LEGO video games since 1997. These include original games and the more recent licensed games which include 'Harry Potter', 'Star Wars' and 'Batman'. Most recently there has been a new game to accompany the 'Lego Movie'.

7. Lego has been to space! As part of the 2011 'LEGO Bricks in Space' program, activities involving Lego took place onboard the International Space Station. The project was to show how the bricks would react in microgravity.

8 There are 6 Legoland theme parks, the first was in Denmark and the next was Legoland Windsor in England. Since then there has been one in Germany, two in America and one in Malaysia. The largest park is in Florida.

9.In 2008, the Lego brick celebrated its 50th anniversary. That same year they launched ‘The Taj Mahal’, containing their record number of bricks - a mega 5,922, wow.

The ensemble cast of 'The Lego Movie', more familar faces than 'The Monuments Men'.

10. Lego is official the 'toy of the century'. The British Association of Toy Retailers gave Lego the title in 2000, and after being in business for over 80 years we have to agree!

Watch the trailer for 'The Lego Movie':