Lego love: plastic bricks through the ages

According to Lego, the world's children (and more than a fair few adults) now spend a boggling 5 billion hours a year playing with Lego. Here, a young girl plays with a primitive Lego city at Selfridges department store in London, 1962 Photograph: Kent Gavin/Keystone/Hulton Archive

The first model Lego cars are wheeled out of production in 1961. Gregory Shelley, pictured here, gets trucking with a display at Bentalls in Surrey, 1969 Photograph: Tim Graham/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

1983: Children ride model vehicles round a miniature Lego village in Billund, Denmark. The world's first Legoland, Billund opened in 1968 and has seen over 42 million visitors pass through its gates Photograph: Media Press/Rex Features

1.5 million Lego bricks later ... and Mount Rushmore is recreated in Billund Photograph: Christophe Boisvieux/Corbis

Copenhagen Harbour, reconstructed with three million Lego bricks (yes, the boats move) Photograph: Jean Pierre Amet/Corbis/Sygma

If the real city's just too big and scary, join the 1.65 million visitors who went to little Lego London (actually in Windsor) last year Photograph: Stewart Kendall/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Art parties are boozy even in Lego: Art Crazy Nation by Little Artists duo John Cake and Darren Neave was shortlisted for the Comme Ca Art Prize North in 2003 Photograph: Don McPhee for the Guardian

Damien Hirst's shark tank gets Lego'd in 2005, part of the same work for an exhibition at Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery Photograph: Phil Noble/PA

Plastic fantastic: Queen Elizabeth ll, rendered through Lego in June 2003 Photograph: Tim Graham/Getty Images

It took more than four months to complete but that didn't put off German model-maker, Paul Riese in March 2004. This, a model of the Fritz Walter stadium, the home of FC Kaiserslautern, was built to a scale of 1:50, weighing 1000 kg, to promote the city of Rendsburg as a venue for the 2006 football world cup. Photograph: Action Press/Rex Features

The devil's in the detail: London's GLA building in Lego (Boris Johnson not included) Photograph: David Levene

January 2006: Legoland Windsor receives a fresh delivery of London Lego architecture. Photograph: David Levene

The Lego UK headquarters in Slough concentrate on the important stuff and set a Guinness world record for the 'largest ever number of Lego Star Wars clone troopers built and displayed in one location', in June 2006. Photograph: Anthony Upton/PA

March 2007: A bust of German-born physicist Albert Einstein, made of Lego bricks adorns the entrance of Berlin's Legoland Discovery Centre Photograph: John Macdougall/AFP/Getty

March 2007: Berlin, Germany: A model of Berlin's cathedral (Berliner Dom) made of Lego bricks forms part of the Miniland exhibit at Berlin's Legoland Discovery Centre Photograph: John Macdougall/AFP/Getty Images

Who needs waxworks when you have Lego? An effigy of German screen legend Marlene Dietrich stands next to a cardboard limousine at Berlin's Legoland Discovery Photograph: John Macdougall/AFP/Getty Images

May 2008: The Lego tower built to break the world record for the tallest Lego brick tower stands tall at Legoland, Windsor Photograph: David Parry/PA

June 2008: Lego brick wall repairs of artist Jan Vormann and friends in Bocchignano, Italy Photograph: Rex Features

Legoheads: there are 52 blocks of Lego for every person in the world Photograph: Gorman & Gorman/Getty Images

March 2009: The minature figures have the employee's name printed on the front while their phone number and email address is written on the back. The figures are not bespoke but because Lego make so many different varieties they can always find one with the right likeness. At the moment they are just being handed out by Lego top brass but Lego say they have proved so popular it won't be long before everyone at the Danish firm has one Photograph: Rex Features

The minature figures have the employee's name printed on the front while their phone number and email address is written on the back. The figures are not bespoke - but because Lego make so many different varieties they can always find one with the right likeness. At the moment they are just being handed out by Lego top brass. But Lego say they have proved so popular it won't be long before everyone at the Danish firm has one Photograph: Rex Features

Barack Obama in his car at his lego presidential inauguration, which took place a day before the real ceremony in January 2009 Photograph: Graham Whitby/Allstar

A Lego pre-enactment of President-elect Barack Obama's presidential inauguration, created at Legoland California Photograph: Rex Features