Citations › Citation ID: 47

C47. BOOK: Jens Andersen, The LEGO Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination (Mariner, 2022), p. 229-230.

Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen: "The idea for the Minifigures was originally my dad’s, and in a sense it goes right back to the twenty-fifth anniversary in 1957, when they did a drawing of what they called a “Lego Man”: a chubby little worker in overalls and a cap. Back then, the drawing was used as an illustration in the materials LEGO distributed to retailers, and it became a bit of an icon in the late 1950s.

That sowed the idea in Dad’s head, I think: “Could a figure like that possibly be an element in the LEGO System?” The thought wasn’t realized until around 1970, however, when designer Jens Nygaard Knudsen, the one who also came up with LEGO Space and LEGO Castle, was experimenting with some tall “Building Figures.” There was actually a whole family, and a set that sold really well, in 1974. The following year, Nygaard developed the Minifigures, which were three and a half centimeters [1.37 inches], or four bricks, tall. They fitted the scale of the LEGO bricks, but that version didn’t have moveable arms or legs, so it was nicknamed the “Pillar of Salt.” That wasn’t good enough, and Nygaard, Dad, and I spent ages discussing it. Something had to be done about these figures. They at least had to have moveable arms and legs. Back then I was a 100 percent sure that we would do incredibly well, very quickly, with a figure that size. That came out in 1978."

It took more than 20 years for the idea of the Minifigure to become realized in 1978.