LEGO was started in Billund, Denmark in 1932 by master carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen with the motto that "Only the best is good enough." LEGO began making interlocking building bricks--first called "automatic binding bricks"--in 1949, two years after the company started making plastic toys. The first building systems, complete with vehicles and other supplementary elements, appeared in 1955. The sets have since become more complex and varied; some, such as Mindstorms, even include motorized elements. This family-run company, which only employed 7 people in 1934, now has multiple product lines for kids of all ages and employs more than 10,000 people in 30 countries.