Which came first, LEGO or Nintendo?

Nintendo came first, by 43 years. Fusajiro Yamauchi began making hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto.

Side by side

LEGO

The company began in 1932 making wooden toys; the name comes from leg godt, Danish for "play well". The interlocking plastic brick in its modern form was patented on 28 January 1958, and the tolerances have been held so precisely since that a brick made that day still clutches a brick made today. LEGO is now the largest tyre manufacturer in the world by unit count.

Nintendo

Nintendo was founded in 1889 to make handmade hanafuda cards, and it was a playing-card company for about eighty years. It is older than the Ford Motor Company (1903), older than the aeroplane, older than the Eiffel Tower by five months, and older than the modern Olympic Games. Before settling on video games in the 1970s it tried taxis, instant rice and a chain of love hotels.