The Danish Jens Nygaard Knudsen created the little character with a neutral expression and removable legs and arms in 1978.
The Danish Jens Nygaard Knudsen, inventor of the famous Lego figurine, died Wednesday 19th February 2020 at the age of 78 in Hvide Sande, on the west coast of Denmark, said one of his relatives on Saturday 22nd.
“He had a fantastic imagination, he had so many ideas,” Niels Milan Pedersen told AFP.
To give free rein to the imagination
Jens Nygaard Knudsen worked at Lego from 1968 to 2000 and designed in the 1970s the famous little man with movable arms and legs, which was launched in 1978.
The brand decided to put on its face a neutral expression, without mention of sex or race, in order to give free rein to the imagination of children.
“He created this figurine to bring life to homes” and structures made from Lego bricks, said his widow, Marianne Nygaard Knudsen, to TV2.
Founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen, the Lego group employed more than 17,000 people at the end of 2018. Its famous built-in brick was launched in its modern form in 1958.
