National Lego Day 2021: 12 Fascinating Facts About The Colorful Brick Toys

Adults and children all around the world have enjoyed the seemingly endless possibilities of a world they could build using Lego. The colorful bricks, which have been around for more than seven decades, encourages the use of imagination and creativity.

In celebration of National Lego Day, which is celebrated on Jan. 28 of each year, here are 12 facts about Lego that will amaze you even more:

1. Lego is most probably older than you.
The beloved children's toy has been around since 1932 and originated in Denmark. Little did its founder, Ole Kirk Christiansen, know that Lego would be the world's most powerful brand in 2017.

2. Its name has a quirky origin.
The name LEGO was created by taking the first two letters of the words "Leg" and "Dogt" and combining them. The phrase meant "play well" in Danish.

3. The version of Lego today is 50 years old.
The recent, familiar version of Lego that you play with today is 50 years old, which means that if you combine Lego blocks made in 1958 with blocks that were made this year, they would still fit perfectly with each other!

4. Lego is at the top of everyone's wish list.
During the Christmas season, about 28 Lego sets are sold each second. Not each hour or minute -- second. The hype truly is real.

5. There is more than enough Lego to go around.
On average, there are about 80 lego bricks for every person on Earth, according to National Geographic.

6. The largest Lego tower is made out of about 500,000 bricks.
500,000 Lego bricks is a lot. And a group of students from John Dickinson High School was able to build this tower in August 2013. The 11-story creation weighs about a ton.

7. Someone built a real house made out of Lego.
A man named James May built the first-ever house made of Lego in 2009 using 3.3 million bricks. The house had everything -- even a working toilet and shower. Talk about dedication to your craft!

8. Lego can circumvent the world ... literally.
Laid end to end, the number of Lego bricks sold in a year would reach more than five times around the world.

9. There is a Lego model of the Taj Mahal.
Considered the largest commercially produced Lego set, the Taj Mahal model is made with over 5,900 Lego bricks and pieces.

10. A kid in California built a braille printer using his Lego set
Shubham Banerjee was able to create a braille printer using a Lego set that costs $370 after seeing a flyer asking for donations for the blind.

11. Lego Minifigures has the world's largest population.
The nation of Minifigures would hold the record for the world's largest population (if they were human, of course), with the number surpassing 4 billion.

12. There is more than one way to combine Lego bricks.
Each set contains trillions of combinations, which proves that the world of Lego is almost without limits. Two eight-pipped Lego bricks, for example, could be combined 24 different ways.