Creator of iconic Lego figure Jens Nygaard Knudsen dead at 78
- Former designer for Danish toy brick maker died from ALS while in hospice care, according to ex-colleague
- Legendary figure with interchangeable legs and torsos was released in 1978
Jens Nygaard Knudsen, who designed the iconic Lego minifigure with interchangeable legs and torsos, has died while in hospice care from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), his former colleague said Saturday.
The 78-year old former designer died on Wednesday at a hospice centre where he had stayed for a week, according to Lego designer Niels Milan Pedersen, a former colleague for Nygaard Knudsen.
“His imagination was so fantastic. If we had a brainstorm it was more like a brain hurricane, because he had so many ideas,” said Milan Pedersen.
Nygaard Knudsen, who died at the Anker Fjord Hospice outside the small town of Hvide Sande on the Danish west coast, was a designer at the Danish toy brick maker from 1968 to 2000.
He worked with developing the now legendary minifigure with movable arms and legs in the 1970s, before it was first released in 1978.
