Josh Lapp

COM 11400-750
Outline 1 Ole Kirk Christiansen
General Purpose: My general purpose is to inform.
Specific Purpose: My specific purpose is to inform my audience about the inventor of Legos and how the
toy has affected modern-day society.
Introduction:
A. Attention Getter: According to ExtremeTech (2013), the worlds first life-size Lego car was a
256-cyclinder air-powered hot rod that could reach a top speed of about 20mph and was made
with over 500,000 Lego bricks.
B. Credibility Statement: I have been an avid user of Legos longer than I can remember, and I still
use them today for various purposes.
C. Relevance Statement: According to Legos official website (2014), there are roughly 86 Lego
bricks for each person in the world, so some of you are bound to own a few if not many
(Mortensen, 2014).
D. Thesis Statement: In 1949, the Lego Group, led by Ole Kirk Christiansen, began making toys
called Automatic Binding Blocks which were only slightly modified to become the most
popular toy in the world, Legos bricks (Franzen & Moriarty, 2009, p.25).
Body:
Transition: First, I will expound on the beginnings of Christiansens involvement in the toy-making
industry.
MP1: Although Ole Kirk Christiansen began in carpentry, he was eventually forced to move to toy
making.
A. The Great Depression hit Europe, and the market for building houses died (Bender, 2010, p. 50).
a. Christiansen started building wooden toys for children (Franzen & Moriarty, 2009, p.
25).
b. His business started growing rapidly (Bender, 2010, p. 50).
B. Christiansen was eventually able to purchase the first plastic injection-molding machine in
Denmark which he used to create his invention, the Lego Brick (Franzen & Moriarty, 2009, p.
25).
C. This first brick was made of cellulose acetate which is a weaker, toxic plastic (Franzen &
Moriarty, 2009, p. 25).
D. In 1958, the design for the Lego Bricks we see today was patented using a new type of strong
plastic called ABS which was stronger and nontoxic (Franzen & Moriarty, 2009, p. 25).

a. Up until this point, the bricks could stack but not lock (Bender, 2010, p. 50).
b. 1958 was the same year that Ole Kirk Christiansen died (Bender, 2010, p. 50).
E. After Ole Kirks death, the Lego Company was taken over by his son Godtfred who helped see
the company to vast expansion (Bender, 2010, p. 50)
a. Godtfred expanded the company throughout Europe during the 1960s (Bender, 2010,
p. 50).
b. The expansion was so rapid that the company had trouble controlling and managing it
(Franzen & Moriarty, 2009, p. 25).
Transition: Now that you know about the beginnings of the Lego Company, I can inform you about the
modern-day company and its successes.
MP2: The Lego Group has now grown to achieve gargantuan success, but it first went through a difficult
time period.
A. The Lego Group today is a globalized company today with locations in 29 countries (Mortensen,
2014).
B. The company did experience a great deal of trouble in the early 2000s though
a. The Lego Group lost about 50 million Euros in 1999 (Franzen & Moriarty, 2009, p. 25).
b. By 2000 this increased the deficit to about 1 billion dollars (Mortensen, 2014).
C. It wasnt until 2009 that the Lego Group began to experience more success.
a. They became the 5th largest toy manufacturer in the world (Mortensen, 2014).
b. They announced their new movie which, as we all probably know, was a huge hit
(Mortensen, 2014).
D. Just in the past couple years, the Lego Group has achieved great feats in production.
a. They are now the worlds largest toy manufacturer (Mortensen, 2014).
b. According to the official Lego website, laid end to end, the number of Lego bricks sold
in 2012 would stretch around the world more than 18 times (Mortensen, 2014).
c. 4 billion minifigures exist today which outnumbers any population group (Mortensen,
2014).

Conclusion:
Transition: At this point, you have heard about the inventor of Lego bricks and his impact on the world
today, so now we can review exactly what youve heard.
Restate Thesis: Using his carpentry skills, Ole Kirk Christiansen created the first model of the
modern-day Lego brick which has become one of the most used toys in the world while still
retaining most of its original design.
Clincher: Two single 2x4 Lego bricks can be combined in 24 different ways. Three single 2x4 Lego
bricks can be combined in 1,060 ways. Eight single 2x4 Lego bricks can be combined in over
900,000 ways. The possibilities with Legos are endless (Mortensen, 2014).

References:
Franzen, G., & Moriarty, S. (2009). The science and art of branding. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.
Mortensen, T. (2014). LEGO About Us. Retrieved September 12, 2014 from
http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/lego-group
Anthony, S. (2013, December 19). Worlds first full-size Lego car can hit 20 mph, powered by insane,
256-cylinder compressed air engine. Retrieved September 12, 2014, from
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/173167-worlds-first-full-size-lego-car-can-hit-20-mphpowered-by-insane-1048-piston-compresed-air-engine
Bender, J. (2010). LEGO: A love story. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley.