The beginning

The creator of LEGO was called Ole Kirk Kristiansen. LEGO, the toy company, started off just making wooden toy's from cars to animals with wheels. The word LEGO is from the Danish phrase leg godt meaning 'play well'. In Latin LEGO can be translated as "I assemble".

Ole Kirk was a carpenter and in 1916 he bought a little company in Billund, in Denmark and made furniture and houses. During the Great Depression his business was struggling, so he used his skills to make children's toys. He made wooden blocks, yo-yos, pull along animals and lots more.

These are some pictures of old wooden LEGO toys. Yo-yos were popular at the time, but then people stopped buying them, so Ole Kirk used all the spare yo-yo parts as wheels to make trucks.