I just found out from Brickset that former Chief LEGO Designer Jens Nygaard Knudsen passed away last week on Feb 19, 2020 at the age of 78 after battling ALS.
- CNN article - https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/25/business/lego-minifigure-creator-dies-scli-intl/index.html
- People Magazine article - https://people.com/human-interest/jens-nygaard-knudsen-lego-minifigure-creator-dies-78/
- Brickset's post - https://brickset.com/article/49052/designer-of-the-minifig-passes-away
For those that didn't know, Jens Nygaard Knudsen worked at LEGO from 1968-2000, leading the design team in the 80s and 90s. During his tenure there he was responsible for inventing the LEGO minifigure (42 years "young" now) and designed the entire first LEGO Space (classic) line.
LEGO, and even more specifically LEGO Space had such an influence on my early years. Perhaps many are too young to remember, but before LEGO Star Wars, there was LEGO Space. That LEGO line totally captured my imagination and I spent much of my childhood on LEGO space adventures. It is not an exaggeration to say that LEGO helped shaped my decision to become an #engineer.
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| #NygaardMemorialFleet |
It's a variation of the Space Scooter set 885 from 1979 (https://brickset.com/sets/885-1/Space-Scooter). Unfortunately I don't have any of my original LEGO (one of my greatest regrets...) so I had to improvise a bit. I also thought it would be fitting to use the latest iteration of Benny the Spaceman as well.
I found this quote from People magazine article (above) highly enlightening:
“His imagination was so fantastic,” he said of Knudsen, who reportedly worked for LEGO between 1968 to 2000. “If we had a brainstorm, it was more like a brain hurricane because he had so many ideas.”Thank you Jens Nygaard Knudsen. RIP.
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