Subject:
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Re: Has Lego begun producing "war toys"?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:01:47 GMT
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Highlighted:
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In lugnet.general, John Neal wrote:
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Playing war is fantasy. It is, boiled to its essence, acting out the
struggle between good and evil. Generally speaking, fantasy works well the
more removed it is from reality. >
JOHN
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Thanks John,
I think you put to words what many folks feel, but can’t articulate. In the
US, WWII, has already reached the level of “myth” for most kids. This is of
course an unfortunate by product of a collective refusal to honor history, but
that’s a whole other can-o-worms.
I think LEGO has correctly judged that US customers at least will not mind
buying Nazis (un-swastica-ed, but nazi’s nonetheless) to be defeated by the
dashing Dr. Jones. WWII is long over and the culture collectively decided that
fighting was the right choice. It is easy to mythologize a war when the agressor
and loser was the Nazis.
LEGO could probably not want to try to get away with making modern military
equipment. Such equipment would stir up -in parents- reminders of Vietnam,
Iraq, Afganistan, and countless other wars around the world that are much more
vivid in recent memory, and where good/evil, success/failure are not universally
agreed upon. These wars are harder to mythologize.
Clearly LEGO is not making MI Abrahms’ and Apache’s, and it’s nearly impossible
for me to imagine them doing so. However, a year ago I would have said the
exact same thing about jeeps with guns, technicals, Wermachtt troopers and
fighter jets.
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Has Lego begun producing "war toys"?
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| I agree with Karl. It makes a big difference which war is being represented. Indiana Jones provides a perfect opportunity to provide vehicles from World War II and the Cold War. LEGO will find them appropriate for their audience for exactly the same (...) (16 years ago, 29-Jun-08, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Has Lego begun producing "war toys"?
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| (...) Playing war is fantasy. It is, boiled to its essence, acting out the struggle between good and evil. Generally speaking, fantasy works well the more removed it is from reality. Space wars work great. The distant past works well, too. What (...) (16 years ago, 25-Jan-08, to lugnet.general, FTX)
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