How a Brick-Shaped Heineken Bottle Almost Changed the World 50 Years Ago

You may have never heard of Alfred "Freddy" Heineken, but he should be a hero to drinkers and kids'-toy enthusiasts everywhere. Laughing Squid has the story of how Freddy—the third-generation patriarch of the Dutch brewing family—invented the WOBO, a beer bottle that essentially doubled as a giant interlocking Lego brick, and was made for building eco-homes back in the early 1960s. His original intent was to help the lower classes in Curaçao, where he happened to vacation in 1963, build houses for themselves with the very materials that were already littering their beaches—discarded beer bottles.