Henry and Bob are looking up resale Legos on Craigslist, and I got curious as to how many pounds of Lego bricks are out there in the world. Here’s what I found:

Approximately 19 billion Lego elements are produced per year. 2.16 million are molded every hour, 36,000 every minute.

You can read the full Gizmodo list here.

Since the company has been producing bricks since 1958, I would guess that’s about 1.1 trillion elements, which includes things like flats and plates and minifigs and stuff (i.e., not just bricks).

I can’t figure the conversion of number of elements to pounds, since there is such variation from piece to piece. But I feel it’s safe to say “a lot of pounds of Legos” as an answer.

Finally, I overheard this while the boys were hunched over the laptop looking at bulk bricks:

Henry: “dad, let’s get that one!”

Bob: “no way, pal.”

Henry: “awww but why not, dad?”

Bob: “we are not getting 250lbs of Legos.”

Henry: “but why?”

Bob: “because that weighs more than I do.”

Henry: “oooookaaaaaaaaaay.”

The hunt continues.