Come on, come on!
Good morning.
Happy Valentine's Day, Rye.
Happy Valentine's Day, Pam.
What do you love?
Oh, wow.
So many things.
My family, my friends.
I love my life.
I love Lego.
That feels like a Ryan answer.
I spent the week tracking down all of my old Lego bricks.
I even went to my mom's house and got my bricks from when I was a kid.
Whoa, I feel like that must have been a lot.
347,693 bricks.
Last I counted.
What did you do with all of them?
I'm actually not sure what to do with all of them.
Do you have any ideas?
Maybe.
Can I see them?
Um, sure.
Yep, this feels closer to 350,000 Lego bricks.
What am I supposed to do with all of these?
Wow, Rye, um, I think we need to look into this Lego situation.
Yeah.
I'd appreciate that.
I'm Ryan Willard.
And I'm Pamela Kirkland.
It's Friday, February 14th.
This is a 10 News Deep Dive.
So I've played with Lego bricks for almost my entire life.
Lego is one of the most popular toy brands in the world and appeals to humans of all ages.
Whether it's a six-year-old or a 46-year-old.
A-Falls.
They're called A-Falls.
What are A-Falls?
Adult fans of Lego.
Oh, I'm an A-Fall.
I'm going to use some of your bricks to build something, while we share five fascinating facts about Lego.
The Lego Group will celebrate its 93rd anniversary this year and was founded by a Danish man named Ole Kirk Christensen.
Christensen was a carpenter and the Lego Group began in 1932 when he was making wooden toys like cars, airplanes and yo-yos, and also produced ladders and ironing boards.
At the end of 1935, Christensen decided on a new name and put two Danish words together, leg and gat, which means play well.
And in January of 1936, the name Lego was officially used.
It wasn't until sometime later that someone realized that Lego in Latin means I assemble.
What are you assembling, Pam?
Don't worry about that.
In 1955, Gottfried Kirk Christensen, the son of Ohl, had taken over the Lego Group and implemented a philosophy that would change the company forever.
It was called the Lego System of Play, which chose to focus on the plastic bricks instead of the other toys they were making.
The system of play philosophy stated that the toy has to be compact in its dimensions, without limiting the free expression of imagination.
It has to be reasonably priced.
It has to be simple and durable and yet offer unlimited play variety.
It has to be suitable for children of all ages and for both boys and girls.
It has to be classic in its presentation, meaning it wouldn't need to be updated, and it has to be easily distributed.
A LEGO employee named Axel Thompson explained it like this.
The LEGO system means that all elements fit together, can be used in multiple ways, can be built together.
This means that bricks bought years ago will fit perfectly with bricks bought in the future.
It means that a LEGO element not only has instant value, but will keep its value always.
We will always make sure that all bricks from yesterday, today, and tomorrow fit together.
And that's why my LEGO bricks from childhood fit with my LEGO bricks from today.
Exactly!
Do you know what the biggest LEGO set in the world is, Rye?
Number four.
Well, I mean, the biggest LEGO set in the world is... Well, that's actually a two-part answer.
Because the tallest LEGO set in the world is the Eiffel Tower, which is Paris, France's most well-known landmark.
The Lego Eiffel Tower stands at 58.5 inches.
That's almost five feet tall.
And it has all the intricate details of the Eiffel Tower, including the truss work elevators, a broadcast tower and the French flag at the top.
The Lego Eiffel Tower has 10,001 pieces.
That's the tallest, but there's a Lego set with over 11,000 pieces.
And that's the Lego art world map.
Is it a map of all the art in the world?
Not quite.
The LEGO Art World map is a piece of art, but it's a customizable map that lets you choose which continent you want at the center of it and allows you to track your travels using small colored pins, so you can pin all the places you've been on planet Earth.
Speaking of planet Earth Trivia, Master Owen once told me a cool fact about the LEGO minifigure, which is one of the most recognizable toys on the planet.
He said there are more than 4 billion minifigures on the planet worldwide, which means if they were people, they would be the world's biggest population.
But there is one single minifigure that is more valuable than the rest of them, which brings us to number five.
According to BrickEconomycom, the most valuable Lego set is a Spider-Man minifigure that was given out at San Diego Comic-Con in 2013.
Attendees were given a chance to win one in a raffle held at the convention.
Only 350 Spider-Man minifigures were made and the minifigure is currently valued at $17,812.57.
And that was five fascinating facts about Lego.
And I'm done.
Wait, did you just build a life-size Lego version of your dog?
Yep, this is Lulu.
But that still leaves us with hundreds of thousands of your bricks.
Maybe Cap has an idea.
All right, we're going to combine two things we love, Lego and hearing from you.
We asked you, the tenors, what your favorite Lego set was or original thing you built.
A tenor named DaMinecraft said, I love Lego.
I, with some help, made a cool Lego world and most of it wasn't from a set.
My favorite set I built was a big T-Rex.
Thank you, love the podcast.
And then gave some thumbs up emojis.
Ooh, that's epic.
I've never built a Lego T-Rex.
A tenor named Ben the Bomb said My favorite Lego set that I made is 2125 pieces and is Lego Himeji Castle.
I didn't even know they made a Lego Himeji Castle.
A tenor whose name I cannot pronounce said The favorite thing I've built was a scooter for Spider-Man.
It's like a Vespa, and it has vents and gold in a compartment.
Yeah, I'm not Spider-Man, but I want that scooter filled with gold.
Please and thank you.
Sister and brother tenors, Talia and Felix, told us that their favorites are the Harry Potter, Hogwarts Hall and the Marvel Dancing Group.
Maybe it's time for a Harry Potter Guardians of the Galaxy crossover.
And a tenor named Kiki's Quest said, My fave Lego set that I built was a friend's shopping mall.
It was really fun, but it took more than four days to build it.
It would take me four months, possibly four years, to build a friend's shopping mall.
So I think you're doing great, Kiki.
And we've got some emails.
A nine-year-old named Aiden said, I love the show and I listen to it in the car with my dad.
My favorite Lego I've built is the Eiffel Tower.
Hi, Aiden.
And hi to Aiden's dad.
I'm impressed you built the tallest Lego set.
And last but certainly not least, Tenor Cameron said the coolest thing about Lego is that it has age ranges for all ages.
The coolest set I've ever built is a three foot one inch destroyer that I've spent over six months on.
A photo of the build was attached and I have to say it was amazing.
Great work, Cameron.
Keep on building.
Wow, I'm really inspired to make something now.
Oh, Ryan, get in here.
Hello, Ryan.
Do you know why I've called you in here?
Uh, based on the length, pitch and fury of your scream, I'm going to guess that you stepped on a Lego brick.
Correct.
I also noticed you've been storing thousands and thousands of Lego bricks in the office.
Yes.
Yes, I have.
Which begs the question, do you have any ideas of what I could or should do with them?
Actually, I might have the perfect solution to your Lego brick situation.
Have you ever heard of Pass the Bricks?
They're a cool organization founded by a teen, Charlie Jeffers, and now run by his sister, Lucy.
I had a chance to talk with Lucy about what they do.
I've not heard of them, but I'd love to listen in.
Hi, Lucy.
So happy to have you here with us today.
Can you explain to our listeners what Pass the Bricks is and how long it's been around?
Thank you so much for having me just to start.
And Pass the Bricks is a nonprofit organization that repurposes used Lego bricks into new sets for kids in need.
So we do that through a four-step process.
So first we collect Lego bricks.
From there, we're going to sanitize and sort them, which is a whole process.
And then once they're all cleaned and sorted, we build them and then package them into new sets.
And then they are distributed and packaged to kids in need who will benefit from them.
So that's the general idea of it.
And I guess our goal as a nonprofit organization is to create widespread behavioral change so that people can see Lego bricks not just as a toy, that we don't always think about them as a privilege, but they are because they are so expensive.
And we're really looking to create more opportunity to support sustainability and to give kids who might not have the opportunity to buy a brand new Lego set a chance to play with them and get to have the same joy that a kid who is more fortunate would have as well.
Really wonderful.
How did this all start?
Where did the idea come from?
The idea came from my older brother and his name is Charlie.
It started with him.
We both have loved Legos since we've been really little, but he especially has loved Legos since he was super young and I think he came to the idea when reflecting on the fact that he has been so privileged with having Legos his whole life and whenever he wants to get a Lego set, it can be a birthday gift, it can be a Christmas gift, but there are kids all across the world who don't have that luxury of getting Legos when they want, of getting to open a brand new set and to play with it and build with it.
But it is a universal joy.
So I think he thought, like how can we create opportunities for more kids to have access?
How can we create more access to play?
And from there, it was like, how are we going to mobilize this?
How are we going to create real change that can be picked up by people and picked up globally, which I think we're starting to see, which is super awesome?
And then how does it work with the ambassadors that you have?
And how many cities, how many do you have?
We're at 189 cities and counties globally, which is amazing.
And I can't even believe we get to say that today because it just started, obviously out of our living room.
I'm looking right now at the website, just as we get this earlier today.
And then internationally argentina, all the way to the philippines which is crazy and dubai singapore thailand, peru like amazing places poland panama, new zealand we're so lucky to be able to list those off and it's all because of these amazing ambassadors who are able to take so much time and energy and put it towards this organization and really help us spread our message.
So yeah, that's amazing.
How do you find the organizations to then donate the bricks to?
We started, I think the first one was a boys and girls club.
And at first it was definitely and it still is today reaching out to them and saying we have these Lego bricks and we're super lucky to have the ability to have a relationship with many different charities and organizations.
And it's, I think it's, it is still growing and, as we speak which is awesome yeah i think it goes both ways any donations that have been very surprising surprising i would say sometimes you'll get i think we got like a lego death star which was what wow yeah so sometimes we'll get big sets which are also super fun because when i like especially last summer i loved like like there would be a whole lego set up in our living room so i'd go and i'd go build stuff because it's so fun how do you decide what sets to make Are there certain ones that you find are more popular or is it really just up to the ambassadors?
Definitely up to the ambassadors.
You can make little things like I made these little boats.
I think they were about like 10 pieces over the summer.
And I just found like 20 of the same piece so I could replicate it 20 times and then just knock those out.
So sometimes those little sets are super easy, little birds, little boats.
But what the kids usually generally love is minifigures, because that's a super fun thing to play with.
So when we create scenes like a cafe or a restaurant or a park, including three minifigures or having like maybe a toy dog, like those are always little fun things to include because we always get good feedback towards that.
That's a fun thing to play with is a nice minifigure.
So that is something that we definitely see a lot of or definitely I use a lot of when I build.
What's your dream for the future of Pass the Bricks?
Great question.
I have... obviously like a year and a half more until I'm off at college.
So my dream for just when I'm here is able to just continue what my brother Charlie did, just to try to incorporate more ambassadors, more cities.
Our goal in 2024 was to reach 25,000 kids with the Legos, which we achieved.
So I think for 2025, we were thinking 30,000 kids.
My goal specifically is I like we got to work on our Instagram a lot and just that sort of publicity I can definitely focus on.
So I think that's going to be a personal goal of mine.
But outside of myself, I hope.
I think our central hope is that the message of changing our behavior towards Legos and what they really mean as not just a toy, but really as an access to play and as like, a tool for learning and by something that can really unite all kids across the world.
Being able to create more access to that privilege is something very beautiful and something that we're very proud to be able to do.
So just seeing how far we can go with that is really the ultimate goal.
Yeah.
Thank you, Lucy.
This is really wonderful.
I love the organization.
I think I know someone in my household who will be doing his research and reaching out to be an ambassador.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for your time.
I would love for your son to be an ambassador.
That is amazing.
And I would love to give him a million Legos or just talk about it.
It sounds so fun.
What a great organization.
Thank you, Cap.
And some really cool news to share.
We're working with Pass the Bricks to get Lego bricks to kids and families who lost theirs in the LA wildfires.
We'll have more updates on this in a future episode.
What do you think, Rye?
Do you want to donate your Lego stash to Pass the Bricks?
Absolutely.
I would love for them to go to people that want and need them.
But I'm going to save some for a certain someone.
Welcome to the trivia room.
What up, Owen?
Hey, Rye.
Why are you bringing a big bag of trash into the trivia room?
Uh, it's not a bag of trash.
It's a bag of treasure.
I brought you some Lego bricks in case you wanted to upgrade your Lego brick trivia throne.
I'll give them to you if you let me do some trivia.
Whoa.
Game on.
Step on up.
Today's a tricky one, and it has to do with round things that most people use on a daily basis.
Donuts?
No, not donuts.
I'm talking about tires.
Cars don't work without them.
But according to the Guinness World Records, who is the largest tire manufacturer?
A, Michelin, B, Bridgestone, C, Goodyear, or D, Lego?
I don't even have a car and don't know much about tires, so I'm going to guess A, Michelin.
The answer is... D, Lego.
That is so crazy.
I never would have thought that.
Well, you earned these.
Thanks.
I'm going to use this topic for the Lego tribute throne and add some wheels to it.
Cool.
Right, right, we did it!
We successfully got rid of all your Lego bricks.
We did!
Though, if there are any left on the ground that you step on, those are probably Owen's bricks.
Right.
What are you going to do with all that space you have now that your Lego bricks are gone?
Well, now I have space for the Formula One Lego sets coming out this year and the Nintendo Game Boy set coming out this year and- Okay okay, okay.
Before we go any further, here's a quick note for the grown-ups.
And two extra notes for the grown-ups.
You can now get ad-free versions of our episodes when you join the Tenors Club on our website.
And if you want to help support The Ten News, you can make a tax-deductible donation at the link in our show notes.
The whole team thanks you for your support.
The 10 News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcast and part of the Airwave Podcast Network.
The 10 News creative team is busy playing with their Lego bricks and includes Tracy Notta Crooks, Adam the Great Bambino Bernard Brian, Not Ryan.
Douglas and Carson, Not So Harry Potter.
Big thanks to Owen Not Slowing Down for anybody.
And the biggest thanks and 10 News snaps to everyone who sent us their Lego comments for this episode.
Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald, Not Dim, but Albright, and show creator Tracy Takes the Leads Kaplan.
I'm Pamela Kirkland.
And I'm Ryan Willard.
Thanks for listening to this 10 News Deep Dive.
