Lego teaches us... to travel
Children and adults who are passionate about Lego number in the millions in the world. The rage translates into the construction of millions of buildings, ships, cities, castles, skyscrapers and imagined architectures that fill the children's rooms, the living rooms of the houses and even the offices of fathers and mothers who also relax building in their free time. It was in the 30s of the last century when Ole Kirk Christiansen, a humble Danish carpenter with four children, decided to get out of his economic crisis by creating something that would entertain and educate children spatially in a simple way. This is how Lego came about, which comes from "leg godt" (to play well in Danish). But in addition to teaching us how to play, Lego has taught us to travel... albeit with our imagination and from home.
1)Lego theme parks
In 30 years he managed to make his game an unprecedented success and sold in 130 countries. So, following in the footsteps of Disneyland, he decided to open a recreational park in Billlünd, one hour from Copenhagen. The first Legoland Denmark is full of attractions, games and large figures. It houses an area called Miniland where the plastic blocks reproduce from areas of Amsterdam, Germany or Japan, to the Statue of Liberty or an Egyptian temple.
Millions of pieces and lots of color flood these recreational parks, which have been opened in various parts of the world: Winsdor, in England; Günzburg, in Germany, Florida and California in the United States . The latter was, in 2011, the first of the firm to launch Star Wars Miniland. The immortal film saga of George Lucas is another of the references shared by children and adults and scenes from all six films can be seen there. To do this, one and a half million blocks have been used to create these miniature interactive sets (at a scale of 1:20). The German park has been the last to incorporate the Star Wars universe into its offer.
And it is that the Lego industry is attentive to all the phenomena : whether they are literary or cinematographic sagas (Harry Potter, Pirates in the Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings, which will be reactivated with the premiere of The Hobbit this coming Christmas), classic themes that have always attracted children (Lego Knights) or new children's television icons, such as SpongeBob.
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The videos of stories created by the hundreds of thousands of followers fill YouTube and Lego, echoing this passion, launched this year an online community . It is a network for the exchange of ideas, Lego Click, a site where inventors, artists, creatives and fans can communicate, exchange ideas and discover what is new that appears regularly. It's all topped off with an iPhone app that captures images and turns them into Legos.
2) Lego in travel accessories
Even fashion is interested in this toy. Jean Charles de Castelbajac, Marc Jacobs or Lanvin have created collections or accessories based on Lego imagery. And the brand, in turn, is interested in fashion: it has recently launched CLIKITS watches, with multiple possibilities to create very different straps. However, the great novelty of this March 2012 are the Lego Moleskine Notebooks , a limited edition of notebooks and travel notebooks that can be purchased on the Moleskine website, which include stickers with shapes and Lego characters and some pieces to assemble.
3) Traveling from home: Lego Architecture
A whole universe of adaptations that reaches its maximum sophistication for adults with lego-architecture , created by the American architect Adam Reed Tucker. With this toy you can reproduce some of the most recognized projects in the world : the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Frank Lloyd Wright's waterfall house, the White House in Washington D.C., or the Burj Kalifa in Dubai, the tallest skyscraper in the world. In addition, in the Spanish version, each model is accompanied by a publication in which several Spanish architects (Carlos Rubio Carvajal, Carlos Lamela, Gabriel Allende, Fermín Vázquez or Rafael de la Hoz, among others) share their fondness for the game and comment some of the architectural models.
Constructions of all kinds, videos shot by fans, theme parks, video games, online communities, clothing and accessory collections, watches, reproductions of emblematic buildings... No matter how much imagination the brilliant Christiansen (who left us in 1958) had, he never could have anticipated to what extent his little wooden bricks would serve to build a true multiform, multimedia and multicolored universe.
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