A Million Little Bricks: The Unofficial Illustrated History of the LEGO Phenomenon

by Sarah Herman

There aren’t many titles that haven’t been bestowed on LEGO toys, and it’s not hard to see why. 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, educative benefits, resilience, quality, and universal appeal. The LEGO name is now synonymous with playtime, but it wasn’t always so. 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 company’s ever-increasing catalog 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 and video 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. As nostalgic as it is contemporary, A Million Little Bricks 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).

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Business, Art

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

Reviews

[Bill Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed with this book to be honest. It started out all right, giving the story of the origins of the LEGO company, spelling out the trials and tribulations of the nascent toy company. But the bulk of the book is really just a list of all the different sets LEGO has produced over the years. There was only a small bit at the very end about the LEGO fan community, talking about a few of the conventions and Web sites, but I would have really preferred to see some MOC builders featured and more about the adult community.

Disclaimer: I was sent a free copy of this book to review.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like this started off strong and then lost steam. It seemed that once the product lines started expanding, Herman had a hard time organizing her writing. I was confused why some themes broke out minifigure and significant set descriptions while others didn't. Also, the two-page interview at the end seemed completely random.

It was interesting on a whole but really could have been done better.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been into Legos since I was three or four, so I couldn't resist picking up this book and checking it out. I loved the background story of the Lego company, and there are some interesting facts that I didn't know about one of my favorite toys...but once you get into this book it becomes a list of every single series and set. I appreciated some of this - because some of the older series are hard to come by and I've often wondered if anyone else remembered about the MTRONS and BLACK TRONS. I discovered that what I thought of as the Black Trons was actually the Black Tron: Series 2.
But I came to realize that I had only invested in a very small portion of the Lego universe, and there were about a hundred more series and sets that I never took interest in, or they were just on the shelves for too short of time. There is a lot here that I couldn't find interest in because it didn't really apply to my own experiences. And I don't think I'm going to hop onto Ebay anytime soon to find any Alpha Team series Lego sets, or Adventure Time etc...

[Matthew Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

if you removed the painstaking descriptions of about nine thousand lego sets, you're left with maybe thirty pages of actual "history" in this book... for hardcore AFOLs only.

[Kyle MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Million Little Bricks by Sarah Herman chronicles the history of ‘the Lego phenomenon.”
This is a great book for fans of Lego. As a fan myself, I love the detailed history it gives and the various pictures accompanying it.
The book has a great in-depth history of the Lego Group, how the memorable plastic bricks themselves came to be, and the several play themes they’ve developed over the company’s long history. From the humble beginnings of the company making wooden children’s toys to the famous plastic bricks we know and love today, and how fans go beyond official Lego sets and make custom creations, you’ll learn many details about Lego you may not have known.
While I think this is a great book and still does deliver a well-written history of Lego as a whole, I think something that holds the book back slightly in today’s world is that the book was published 12 years ago, and thus isn’t able to go into more modern ventures related to Lego.
Overall, even with the setback of it not being the most recent history of Lego out there, I still think it holds up today as a very well-written book, and as for the history of the Lego Group. Fans young and old can find this book enjoyable, as the many great pictures can help if you ever feel like you get lost in the words. I would give this book four out of five stars because while it does have its flaws here and there, I still feel like it is a great book for all Lego fans out there.

[Divyesh Sheth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book started out promisingly and catalogs the origins of The Lego Group. However, author eventually spent lot of time just explaining different Lego sets instead of delving into history and details of how Lego management made decisions that impacted the company for good or bad. Instead of getting a good sense of how decisions made by the leaders allowed Lego to be what it is today, it became a catalog.

[Woody Curran · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agree with many other reviews here. Great start to the book recounting the early history of LEGO. But it devolved into about 150 pages of product descriptions and evolution. Not what I hoped from this book.

[Delson Roche · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of lego company. The initial chapters of this book are interesting to anyone interested in business history. However, beyond the initial, most of the chapters are for people who either love lego or collect lego sets. Since it is not me- cant say how useful it is for collectors.

[Kent Archie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of detail aboit the earl days of the Lego Group.
I had no idea there were so many sets made over time.
Sometimes it seemed the author didn't have access to enough photos. We would see pages of pictures of the sets as well as descriptions and then it would suddenly turn to text only.

[Cj Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was bad for my budget, in that I now want to buy more legos.

The prose wasn’t great, the stories not particularly captivating, but the legos are top notch.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting little book!

[Ryan McDonagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

like reading a dictionary but i did it

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book doesn't really tell a story. It just lists all Lego products like a catalog.

[Fletch · Rating 2 out of 5]

As other people have mentioned, this is a fairly uneven read - a failure on the editing. It starts out as a history of the LEGO group, shifts into a brief touch on the evolution through the 70s and 80s (MY era of LEGO, which disappointingly, had the least coverage) and then almost a line-by-line product guide of the 90s and later products. I would have been perfectly happy with either a more historical approach, or an illustrated guide, but as it is, this kinda missed on all fronts. Having received the book as a gift, I wasn't too disappointed, but likely would have if I'd spent my own money on cover price. It did have some neat historical tidbits, and gave me a smile or two reminiscing over some of my toys as a child.

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow, I knew so little about TLG (The Lego Group) from its origins in pre-WW I Denmark, to it's invention of the Lego building system in 1957, and it's eventual mega huge success it has today. However, the company did have hard times and this book narrated it all, something that an official history book might not do. I did not appreciate the chapter orginization; frequently a chapter about the years of 1989-1999 would talk about events in 2005, very confusing. Plus I would have loved way more pictures, perhaps at least an appendix logging all the Lego System sets TLG has released would have been really interesting.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a more in depth history of The Lego Company than many of the other Lego books produced by The Lego Company itself. However, the book has a few editing problems and is somewhat disorganized. The long chapters (some as many as 100 pages), make it difficult to read and keep the information in your mind. There is a lot of great information in here, and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about Lego history.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides]

This looks like a well-done book, and the production values are great. (Nice paper, color pictures, etc.) However, I'm not enough of a LEGO geek to want to read another book on the subject, at least right now. Lego: A Love Story was the one I'd read and enjoyed before.

[Jeff Tate · Rating 2 out of 5]

For an illustrated history it was fairly light on illustrations. The history of LEGO section was interesting, but it only made up a third of the book. The rest just reviewed various sets and products that have been released over the years. Overall, it was disappointing.

[Andrew Murphy · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a huge disappointment. Like other have said, it started out well with the history but then it became a listing of products and updates. There was very little in terms of illustration. Do not buy this book, I sure you find a better catalog of Lego products on the internet.

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An awesome book for the Lego fan in all. Makes you want to go back and put together all the sets I had as a kid.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice pictures, when they had pictures, but way too much detail and history for a casual reader and LEGO user such as myself.

[Anne Lawrence · Rating 1 out of 5]

Best part of the book is the first section, especially Legoland (pp 48-59)

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off well, but the tail end of the book loses its luster.

[Christopher · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. A history of the company that does not go in chronological order. Difficult to follow. Boring. Someone has to write a better history of Lego. This stinks.

[Milt · Rating 3 out of 5]

some assembly required, good information
selective depth read

[Tiimo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great if you love Lego. It shows the history of Lego and how it's made.

[Sara Goldenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a heavy book and not that interesting. There is nothing really new that is contained here either.

[Anthony Carota · Rating 5 out of 5]

really good book to read if you want to know or find out how the LEGO toys came about