A toy that could be built into other toys, holding children's interest over the generations, the Lego brick is a Design and Business Classic.

Robot action figures and beanie babies may come and go, but the humble Lego brick is forever. The very simplicity of Lego's design is its strength. By exercising the imagination, Legos can be turned into all kinds of shapes, from toy trains to skyscrapers.

The precursor of the Lego brick originated in 1932 with the son of a Danish master carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen who made wooden toys. Ole's son, Godtfred Kirk, came up with a way to interlock wooden play blocks by putting rows of pegs on one side and matching cylindrical holes on the other. This created a secure coupling system that let children construct a variety of interesting shapes without toppling over the bricks.

The company adopted the name Lego, formed from the Danish words LEg GOdt, meaning "play well." Much later, the toymaker discovered that in Latin, the word lego means "I study" or "I put together."

By the 1950s, Lego was manufacturing colorful injection-molded plastic bricks, which were lighter and cheaper than wood. The Lego system of play was so successful in Denmark that the game maker began marketing its products in other countries. Today Lego is one of the world's ten largest toy manufacturers the only one in Europe. Over the past 50 years, the company has sold more than 320 billion Lego bricks roughly the equivalent of 52 Lego bricks for each of the world's six billion inhabitants.

For fans who fantasize about living in a world made entirely from Lego bricks, there's Legoland, an amusement park where everything from trains and castles to monuments and dinosaurs are made from jumbo Lego bricks.