Inside a Lego Factory, Where Christmas Wishes Come True

Lego employs more than 20,000 people around the world -- more than a quarter of them in Billund. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
Lego employs more than 20,000 people around the world -- more than a quarter of them in Billund. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
TT
20

Inside a Lego Factory, Where Christmas Wishes Come True

Lego employs more than 20,000 people around the world -- more than a quarter of them in Billund. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
Lego employs more than 20,000 people around the world -- more than a quarter of them in Billund. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

As a boy, Samuel Tacchi was crazy about Lego cranes. Now he designs them, under cloak-and-dagger secrecy, at the Danish group's headquarters where Santa has filled his sacks for decades.

At its ultra-modern flagship building in Billund, a visit to the offices where the design work is done is out of the question -- the company is fiercely protective of its trade secrets, AFP said.

But Tacchi, a 34-year-old Frenchman, lifts the veil a smidgen on the creative process, standing at a display featuring some of the brand's colorful toy kits.

"I always start with a little sketch on paper about what I have in mind", says Tacchi, who designs for the Lego Technic series.

"Then I start to build the technical layout: the drive train, steering, and starting to build with the function. And then I dive into the styling."

"Then afterwards we dive into the computer."

His office is a child's dream come true, chocka-block with Lego Technic pieces.

"We have an elements shelf behind our backs. It's easy to reach and fix some elements, build them together and see if (our idea) works," he says.

In his seven years with the company, Tacchi has helped create around 25 kits.

- From start-up to multinational -
A family-owned company, Lego employs more than 20,000 people around the world -- more than a quarter of them in Billund, which is also home to its oldest factory.

Here, in a huge hall where robots move about like in a choreographed dance, hundreds of thousands of pieces are manufactured each day.

Colorful plastic is molded into familiar shapes: bricks, figurines, hair, dragon wings and tires (Lego is reported to be the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world!)

Sorted and stored by model in large crates in an adjoining warehouse, the pieces are then sent to other factories to be included in kits.

While everything is made of plastic today, the toy empire was founded by a carpenter very conscious of the quality of the wood he used.

In 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression, Ole Kirk Kristiansen began making wooden toys, winning the favor of Danish children with his yo-yos.

"He sold the yo-yo to every child in Billund and... (when every child had one) he couldn't sell anymore. But he still had them laying around," explains Signe Wiese, Lego's resident historian.

"So instead of throwing them out or just leaving them, he reused them. He split the yo-yos in half and he used them for wheels on wagons."

Four years later, having given up on carpentry, he named his new company "Lego", a contraction of the Danish "Leg godt", which means "Play well".

With a shortage of raw materials after World War II, Kirk Kristiansen gradually turned towards plastic and invested his life savings in an injection molding machine.

"He was really fascinated with the technology and the machinery and the material itself," says Wiese.

"So for him, it seems to have been a pretty easy decision, in spite of the fact that everyone was actually advising him against it."

The idea for the bricks came later.

Initially they were made without Lego's famed "clutch power" -- the mechanism that makes it possible to click the bricks together.

The design was patented in 1958, paving the way for an endless catalogue of figures, shapes and kits.

Now, Lego is the biggest toymaker in the world, ahead of Japan's Bandai Namca and US groups Hasbro and Mattel, according to market analysts Statista.

This year, Lego says its catalogue of toys is bigger than ever before, but refuses to disclose the exact number. Another trade secret...



Humanoid Robots Stride into the Future with World's First Half-marathon

A robot takes part in the humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2025. (AFP)
A robot takes part in the humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Humanoid Robots Stride into the Future with World's First Half-marathon

A robot takes part in the humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2025. (AFP)
A robot takes part in the humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2025. (AFP)

Step by mechanical step, dozens of humanoid robots took to the streets of Beijing early Saturday, joining thousands of their flesh-and-blood counterparts in a world-first half marathon showcasing China's drive to lead the global race in cutting-edge technology.

The 21-kilometer (13-mile) event held in the Chinese capital's E-Town -- a state-backed hub for high-tech manufacturing -- is billed as a groundbreaking effort to test the limits of bipedal robots in real-world conditions, AFP said.

At the crack of the starter's gun, and as a Chinese pop song "I Believe" blared out from loudspeakers on repeat, the robots queued up one by one and took their first tentative steps.
Curious human runners lined up on their side of the road and waited patiently with mobile phones at the ready to shoot each machine as they prepared to depart.

One smaller-sized android, which fell over and lay on the ground for several minutes, got up by itself to loud cheers.

Another, powered by propellers and designed to look like a Transformer, veered across the starting line before crashing into a barrier and knocking over an engineer.

"Getting onto the race track might seem like a small step for humans, but it's a giant leap for humanoid robots," Liang Liang, Beijing E-Town's management committee deputy director, told AFP before the event. Nearby, engineers jogged alongside their machines.

"The marathon helps push humanoid robots one step closer toward industrialization."

- Tech race -

Around 20 teams from across China are taking part in the competition -- with robots ranging from 75 to 180 centimeters (2.46 to 5.9 feet) tall and weighing up to 88 kilograms (194 pounds).

Some are running autonomously, while others are guided remotely by engineers, with machines and humans running on separate tracks.

Engineers told AFP the goal was to test the performance and reliability of the androids -- emphasizing that finishing the race, not winning it, was the main objective.
"I think it's a big boost for the entire robotics industry," Cui Wenhao, a 28-year-old engineer at Noetix Robotics, said of the half-marathon.

"Honestly, there are very few opportunities for the whole industry to run at full speed over such a long distance or duration. It's a serious test for the battery, the motors, the structure -- even the algorithms."

Cui said as part of its training, a humanoid robot had been running a half-marathon every day, at a pace of about seven-minutes per kilometer, and he expected it to complete the race with no issues.

"But just in case, we've also prepared a backup robot," he added.

Another young engineer, 25-year-old Kong Yichang from DroidUp, said the race would help to "lay a foundation for a whole series of future activities involving humanoid robots".
"The significance (of the race) lies in the fact that humanoid robots can truly integrate into human society and begin doing things that humans do."

China, the world's second-largest economy, has sought to assert its dominance in the fields of AI and robotics, positioning itself as a direct challenger to the United States.

In January, Chinese start-up DeepSeek drew attention with a chatbot it claimed was developed more cost-effectively than its American counterparts.

Dancing humanoid robots also captivated audiences during a televised Chinese New Year gala.