The New York Public Library hosted Blocks magazine’s Build Expert and Historian Daniel Konstanski to discuss LEGO history, as detailed in his book, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks.
Daniel has been an integral part of the Blocks team since 2015, with his first words in Issue 8 of the monthly LEGO magazine. Over the course of 100+ issues, he has shared exclusive micro builds, set modifications and, of course, the history of the LEGO Group, big and small. Armed with LEGO knowledge that spans from the simplicity of the very first wooden toys to the fever dream of Galidor, Daniel tackled the history of the famous LEGO brick in his book, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks, the first book for deep fans licensed by the LEGO Group .
With the book now on wide release, the New York Public Library hosted Daniel as part of its Author Talks series, a program designed to spotlight the best and brightest in their fields. Over the course of the evening, Daniel took the audience on a journey through the surprisingly intricate history of the LEGO brick, sharing stories he has gathered via countless hours of research and numerous interviews. And he began right where the modern LEGO brick got its start — Godtfred Kirk Christiansen’s moment of realisation.
“He went to the first Toy Fair in Britain,” Daniel explains, “looking for some inspiration after World War II. But he didn’t really see anything and came back a little bit disappointed. But on the boat ride back, he ended up striking up a conversation with a gentleman who was the main toy buyer at a department store in Copenhagen. And off the cuff, the guy just kind of said, ‘ah, there’s no system in the toy business.’ And that just stuck in Godtfred’s head.”
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Eventually, the conversation on the boat led Godtfred to spend time working on a product that the LEGO Group had largely ignored in the early 1950s — its building bricks. The bricks Godtfred first began working with were a far cry from the ones produced today; it would take diligent redesigning and testing to make the modern LEGO brick, with its all-important clutch power.
“The main question that I wanted to personally answer while writing the book was that I wanted to understand why LEGO bricks are the dimensions that they are,” Daniel says. “If you look at the length and width, they break down into very nice even millimetres in dimensions. But the height… is the weirdest dimension. And I was like, ‘why in the world is a LEGO brick this height?’ All throughout my 60 interviews, I kept asking, figuring it would be a very straightforward question. Why is a LEGO brick the height that it is? And no one could tell me!”
Thus Daniel had to dig even deeper, delving into the LEGO Group’s own archives, examining patent proposals and decoding equations scribbled down by unknown authors. Until finally, he figured out the critical relationship between modules — something named in the LEGO brick patent — and sections — something Daniel had the opportunity to name himself.
The author went into even greater detail explaining the origins of the LEGO brick and beyond while speaking at the New York Public Library, available to watch for free in the video above. And if you’re interested in learning even more about the complex history of the LEGO brick, then take out a subscription to Blocks, the monthly LEGO magazine, where you can read his latest discoveries each issue. Then also purchase a copy of Daniel’s book, The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks, via our affiliate links to help support the work we do at Blocks.