Lifestyle 12 things you didn't know about LEGO

We all have our own history with LEGO. The sets you begged your parents to buy. The borderline structurally sound fortresses that overtook your childhood bedroom. The sharp, incomparable pain of accidentally stepping on one with bare feet. But how well do you really know them? We pulled back the curtain on the Danish mini brick masters and dug up 12 things that might surprise you.

1.They’re the largest tire manufacturer in the world.

In fact, they turn out more per year than Goodyear and Bridgestone. Combined. How many does it take to be at the top? 381 million mini tires. 2. Over 4 billion minifigs have been produced to date.

These are the little dudes with cupped hands, and they're expected to exceed the human population by 2019. Think about that for a second. Ok, now keep reading.

3. They make a special series just for adults called Serious Play.

This line consists of kits sold to businesses for team building purposes, and are designed to enhance group innovation and performance. Pro tip: don't leave them on your boss' desk chair. 4.The Lego Group got its start in 1932.

Following a fire in founder Ole Kirk Christensen’s woodworking shop, he started making toys out of surplus lumber, ditching the carpentry gig and dedicating his time to a whole lineup of wooden piggy banks, cars, trucks, and houses. It wasn’t until 1947 that they even began producing the trademark interlocking plastic bricks, and sales were initially very disappointing.

5. It would take 40 billion bricks to make a column high enough to reach the moon.

Or approximately the number of crucial pieces you lost under the couch as a child. Either way you skin it, that's a lot of bricks. 6.The minifig didn’t debut until 1975.

And they looked pretty different than they do today; originally, they didn’t have faces, arms, or a gender.

7. There is a secret underground fireproof vault at the company headquarters in Billund, Denmark.

It's called LEGO Memory Lane and it contains a model of almost every LEGO set ever made. Think of it as the toy equivalent to the doomsday seed bank in the Arctic circle. 8.The name LEGO comes from the Danish phrase Leg Godt.

This means “play well." Coincidentally, it also means “I put together” in Latin.

9.Master Builders are paid to build sets.

Yes, there are professional LEGO builders, though applicants must build in front of an audience and judges to prove their prowess, a.k.a: Danish X-Factor. 10.The largest kit ever made was in celebration of the first ever licensed set, Star Wars.

It was a giant X-Wing and required 5.3 million bricks, taking over 17,000 hours to build.

11.Brick art is a booming industry.

Artist Nathan Sawaya left his job as an attorney in 2004 and fully dedicated his time to building badass LEGO sculptures. He's since gone on to exhibit work all around the world, is commissioned by charities, companies, and celebs, and regularly sells pieces for six figures and up. He also owns more LEGO bricks than any other single individual: 1.5 million.