This 1958 Lego patent drawing represents one of the first looks at what would become a global phenomenon. Although the company had started trading some 10 years earlier, it wasn’t until Ole Kirk Christiansen’s (the original founder) son, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen had become the junior managing director of the Lego Group.
It was his conversation with an overseas buyer that struck the idea of a toy system. Godtfred saw the immense potential in Lego bricks to become a system for creative play but the bricks still had some problems from a technical standpoint: their locking ability was limited and they were not very versatile. In 1958, the modern brick design was developed but it took another five years to find the right material for it, ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) polymer.
The modern Lego brick was patented at 1:58 P.M. on 28 January 1958;[5] bricks from that year are still compatible with current bricks.
Click the pic to take a closer look.