The creator of the Lego figures died. The Danish Jens Nygaard Knudsen, died at the age of 78 in the Anker Fjord hospital in the Danish city of Hvide Sande, reports the Spanish newspaper “Expansión” this Sunday, February 23.
The Dane leaves a legacy of about eight million plastic figures four centimeters high around the world.
“He was a man of ideas. He created the figures (from Lego) so that there was life in the houses. Until then, the houses were empty, but he designed the statuette, ”his widow, Marianne Nygaard Knudsen, explained to Danish public television.
Former Lego co-worker and designer, Niels Milan Pedersen, said his imagination was “fantastic”. Nygaard Knudsen was a Lego designer between 1968 and 2000 and, in addition to the articulated arms and legs that he patented in 1978, he was responsible for very popular series by this brand, such as space or pirates.
According to Lego, it was decided from the beginning that the figure had a yellow face, with a neutral smile and that it had neither sex nor race, so that this was left to the children’s imagination.
Founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen, the company has become a global phenomenon with its own network of cartoon films and amusement parks. In 2018, it made a profit of more than one billion euros and had 17 thousand workers in more than 40 countries.
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