Building a History

Author: Sarah Herman
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
ISBN: 1783408049
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 525

Book Description
The story of these beloved bricks and the people who built an empire with them. From its inception in the early 1930s right up until today, the LEGO Group’s history is as colorful as the toys it makes. Few other playthings share the LEGO brand’s creative spirit, educational benefits, resilience, quality, and universal appeal. This history charts the birth of the LEGO Group from the workshop of a Danish carpenter and its steady growth as a small, family-run toy manufacturer to its current position as a market-leading, award-winning brand. The company’s growing catalogue of products—including the earliest wooden toys, plastic bricks, play themes and other building systems such as DUPLO, Technic, and MINDSTORMS—are chronicled in detail, alongside the manufacturing process, LEGOLAND parks, licensed toys, and computer games. Learn all about how LEGO pulled itself out of an economic crisis and embraced technology to make building blocks relevant to twenty-first century children, and discover the vibrant fan community of kids and adults whose conventions, websites, and artwork keep the LEGO spirit alive. Building a History will have you reminiscing about old Classic Space sets, rummaging through the attic for forgotten minifigure friends, and playing with whatever LEGO bricks you can get your hands on (even if it means sharing with your kids).

Great LEGO® Sets

Author: Daniel Lipkowitz
Publisher: DK Children
ISBN: 9780241011638
Category : LEGO toys
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
This stunning LEGO® book is a visual history of more than 300 of the best LEGO sets, from the first Town Plans of the 1950s to today's dazzling sets. It comes with an exclusive retro-style LEGO set for you to build! Packed with stunning photography and fascinating facts, Great LEGO® Sets explores the history of LEGO sets in magnificent detail. It showcases the best-ever sets in the LEGO Group's long history, including much-loved classic 1970s and 1980s Space and Castle sets and the latest LEGO® Star Wars(tm) and THE LEGO® MOVIE sets. Follow the timelines of LEGO set history, discover how LEGO sets are made and see hundreds of LEGO sets in amazing detail, superbly captioned and annotated. Created in full collaboration with the LEGO Group, Great LEGO® Sets reveals exclusive insights from LEGO designers into how LEGO sets are made. LEGO, the LEGO logo, the Brick and Knob configuration and the Minifigure are trademarks of the LEGO Group. © 2015 The LEGO Group. Produced by Dorling Kindersley under licence from the LEGO Group.

LEGO and Philosophy

Author: Roy T. Cook
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119193974
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
How profound is a little plastic building block? It turns out the answer is “very”! 22 chapters explore philosophy through the world of LEGO which encompasses the iconic brick itself as well as the animated televisions shows, feature films, a vibrant adult fan base with over a dozen yearly conventions, an educational robotics program, an award winning series of videogames, hundreds of books, magazines, and comics, a team-building workshop program for businesses and much, much more. Dives into the many philosophical ideas raised by LEGO bricks and the global multimedia phenomenon they have created Tackles metaphysical, logical, moral, and conceptual issues in a series of fascinating and stimulating essays Introduces key areas of philosophy through topics such as creativity and play, conformity and autonomy, consumption and culture, authenticity and identity, architecture, mathematics, intellectual property, business and environmental ethics Written by a global group of esteemed philosophers and LEGO fans A lively philosophical discussion of bricks, minifigures, and the LEGO world that will appeal to LEGO fans and armchair philosophers alike

LEGO Studies

Author: Mark J.P. Wolf
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317935454
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Book Description
Since the "Automatic Binding Bricks" that LEGO produced in 1949, and the LEGO "System of Play" that began with the release of Town Plan No. 1 (1955), LEGO bricks have gone on to become a global phenomenon, and the favorite building toy of children, as well as many an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO). LEGO has also become a medium into which a wide number of media franchises, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Batman, Superman, Lord of the Rings, and others, have adapted their characters, vehicles, props, and settings. The LEGO Group itself has become a multimedia empire, including LEGO books, movies, television shows, video games, board games, comic books, theme parks, magazines, and even MMORPGs. LEGO Studies: Examining the Building Blocks of a Transmedial Phenomenon is the first collection to examine LEGO as both a medium into which other franchises can be adapted and a transmedial franchise of its own. Although each essay looks at a particular aspect of the LEGO phenomenon, topics such as adaptation, representation, paratexts, franchises, and interactivity intersect throughout these essays, proposing that the study of LEGO as a medium and a media empire is a rich vein barely touched upon in Media Studies.

A Million Little Bricks

Author: Sarah Herman
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 1620870541
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 319

Book Description
The LEGO Group's history is as colorful as the toys it makes. This history charts the birth of the LEGO Group in the workshop of a Danish carpenter and its steady growth as a small, family-run toy manufacturer to its current position as a market-leading, award-winning brand.

The Big Book of LEGO Facts

Author: Simon Hugo
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0744086329
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
An updated edition of the must-have guide to trivia about the LEGO? world, featuring the latest facts and images. Find out everything you ever wanted to know about bricks and minifigures with stacks of LEGO? facts! Did you know that 68,000 LEGO? pieces are created every minute? Or that The LEGO Group is one of the biggest manufacturers of tires in the world? This must-have guide for LEGO fans of every age is crammed full of fascinating LEGO trivia. From the first brick to the latest record-breaking build, discover everything there is to know about the LEGO world. ©2022 The LEGO Group.

The History of Science Fiction and Its Toy Figurines

Author: Luigi Toiati
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 139900557X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 530

Book Description
Science fiction, as the name suggests, is the combination of science and fantasy. In addition to a literary form, it also encompasses film, TV, comics, toys and our beloved toy astronauts, or other figures such as aliens, monsters and other playable genres. The term science fiction was coined by publisher Hugo Gernsbach around the first decades of the last century to refer to the predominantly 'space' adventures covered in his magazines. Space invaded radio, cinema, TV, and consequently for a long time toy figurines were predominantly space-related, later evolving into other themes. This lavishly illustrated book covers both the history of literary science fiction, following in the footsteps of contemporary official criticism, and toy figurines inspired by science fiction. You will also find several other themes, such as the link between science fiction figures and cinema, radio, TV, comics, and more. Luigi Toiati offers to both guide the reader on an often-nostalgic walk through science fiction in all its various forms, and to describe the figurines and brands associated with it.

LEGOfied

Author: Nicholas Taylor
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501354051
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Book Description
LEGOfied: Building Blocks as Media provides a multi-faceted exploration of LEGO fandom, addressing a blindspot in current accounts of LEGO and an emerging area of interest to media scholars: namely, the role of hobbyist enthusiasts and content producers in LEGO's emergence as a ubiquitous transmedia franchise. This book examines a range of LEGO hobbyism and their attendant forms of mediated self-expression and identity (their “technicities”): artists, aspiring Master Builders, collectors, and entrepreneurs who refashion LEGO bricks into new commodities (sets, tchotchkes, and minifigures). The practices and perspectives that constitute this diverse scene lie at the intersection of multiple transformations in contemporary culture, including the shifting relationships between culture industries and the audiences that form their most ardent consumer base, but also the emerging forms of entrepreneurialism, professionalization, and globalization that characterize the burgeoning DIY movement. What makes this a compelling project for media scholars is its mutli-dimensional articulation of how LEGO functions not just as a toy, cultural icon, or as transmedia franchise, but as a media platform. LEGOfied is centered around their shared experiences, qualitative observations, and semi-structured interviews at a number of LEGO hobbyist conventions. Working outwards from these conventions, each chapter engages additional modes of inquiry-media archaeology, aesthetics, posthumanist philosophy, feminist media studies, and science and technology studies-to explore the origins, permutations and implications of different aspects of the contemporary LEGO fandom scene.

Service Management

Author: Jay Kandampully
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461415535
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Book Description
“Great retailers are great at service. No exceptions. This book offers a wealth of insight into delivering excellent retail service.” ---Leonard L. Berry, Distinguished Professor of Marketing, N.B Zale Chair in Retailing and Market Leadership, Mays Business School, Texas A&M University "With a growing understanding of service as a phenomenon and perspective of business and marketing, retailers are increasingly seeing the need to transform from distribution of products to service providers. This book includes considerable insight regarding the importance of the service perspective and how it can be implemented in retailing." --Christian Grönroos, Professor of Service and Relationship Marketing, CERS Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management, Hanken School of Economics, Finland "Consisting of chapters written by leading scholars in service management and retailing from around the world, this comprehensive book offers rich insights for how retailers can excel and achieve sustainable competitive advantage by invoking and implementing service management principles. This enlightening book is a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners with an interest in retailing." --A. "Parsu" Parasuraman, Professor of Marketing & The James W. McLamore Chair, School of Business Administration, University of Miami Coral Gables, Florida "Service excellence and service innovation are critical for success in today’s competitive retail marketplace. Service Management: The New Paradigm in Retailing provides a contemporary and transformative lens for accomplishing these essential goals." --Mary Jo Bitner, Professor, Director Center for Services Leadership, W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University

Building Blocks

Author: Jose Muñoz Alvis
Publisher: transcript Verlag
ISBN: 383944781X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 319

Book Description
Building blocks are practical materials for playing, learning and working at kindergartens, schools, universities and companies. How did building blocks, which were primarily established as toys for children, come to be practical materials used in professional and educational settings? This study explores the historical implications of particular sets of building blocks in the interdisciplinary consolidation and transformation of techniques, materials, discourses and subjects. By mapping the genealogy of building blocks from Fröbel's »gifts« to their current systematization as interlocked blocks, this study proposes that building blocks should be understood not exclusively as concrete objects, but as the materiality of a combinatorial program, which delineates a modular system characterized by a code of composition, a context-neutrality and a semantic component.