Subject:
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Re: Will Indiana Jones license bring new minifig skin tones in 2008?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.build.minifigs
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Date:
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Fri, 22 Jun 2007 00:50:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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12704 times
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In lugnet.mediawatch, Brendan Powell Smith wrote:
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Now that LEGO has moved away from its all-minifigs-are-yellow policy for
their movie licenses, “white people” are depicted with pink minifigs, and
“black people” are depicted with brown minifigs, but what will LEGO do for
depicting Asian people (Shanghai scene in Temple of Doom), Indians (rest of
Temple of Doom), South Americans (opening of Raiders), and Arabs (Raiders)?
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The Asian issue has been neatly postponed for a later date by the simple fact
that they are not going to be releasing any ToD sets in this batch. Three sets
will come from Raiders (two of which are unlikely to feature any minifigs
besides Indy, Marion, and maybe a skeleton or two), one from Last Crusade (just
Indy, his dad, and some Germans), and four of undisclosed nature from the
upcoming Indiana Jones IV movie.
Middle Eastern people will probably be featured in the truck chase set from
Raiders, the South American tribesmen will probably be left out of the boulder
set (I’m guessing this one will be limited to just the section of temple
interior where the boulder was located), and for Indians, the same reddish-brown
color used for African skintone would be perfectly fine. I mean, when you think
about it, there’s a wide range of brown skintones found among people of African
descent, from nearly black at one extreme, to pale enough to appear more
Mediterranean at the other. The same holds true for Caucasian skintones, which
range from those who are unable to tan at all to George Hamilton. And yet
there’s only one LEGO skintone for each. I’d not be surprised if they do a
median skintone (and not the horrible dark-pink they used for the NBA minifigs)
to cover the bulk of Asia, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Latin America, and
the Pacific islands. Neither of the two current skintones would work for much
of those regions, but as far as minifigs go, the issue has never been forced
based on the casting of the current licensed properties. Star Wars was
primarily white, some black, and lots of funky makeup. Harry Potter was also
primarily white. Avatar is Japanese (which is a lot closer to Caucasian
skintone than what would be needed for the aforementioned regions). Spongebob
is irrelevent. Batman and that other superhero property are largely white with
a bit of black thrown in for background characters. And that leaves one
property that can give any clue what they’d do for a median skintone. Dora.
Oddly enough, both the Dora and Diego Duplofigs have their own unique skintone,
with Dora being somewhere between the two white skintones (current and NBA), and
Diego being perhaps a bit darker than halfway between the two current skintones.
Between the two, I could see Diego’s skintone being more useful than Dora’s, and
given the recent policy to trim down the color palette I wouldn’t expect to see
both used.
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And of course: will there be an official LEGO Hitler minifig?
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I think it’s safe to say “no” on this one. The only two confirmed sets that are
likely to feature any Germans at all are the truck chase (Raiders) and the
motorcycle chase (Last Crusade). The only appearance of Hitler in the entire
trilogy so far was when he inadvertantly signed the Grail journal in a heavily
crowded street. There wasn’t exactly a lot of action in that scene, so all that
a set based on it would be is a section of city street and a press of minifigs
around them, and the only point in releasing that would be to release an
official Hitler minifig, which, hopefully, isn’t high on their list of Things To
Do.
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P.S. New element watch: if that CG Indy minifig is an accurate representation
of the final product, looks like we’ve got a new minifig whip, and new
minifig hat, and a first-of-its-kind over-the-shoulder minifig accessory: the
satchel.
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I’m sure it is accurate. I mean, look at the Star Wars line and how many
special pieces had to be crafted just to do it justice (aside from the
regretable 8-year delay on reasonably Star-Wars-y guns). Indy just wouldn’t be
Indy in either a standard cowboy hat or a campaign hat, the old whip looks
better when used in its original purpose (a vine) or looped back on itself for
some sort of wagon/carriage driver, and as you so rightly pointed out, there is
no possible substitute for the satchel, aside from just painting it on the
minifig. I wouldn’t expect to see many new weapons, though, since Indy always
uses a revolver, the scimitar already exists, and the tommygun (while entirely
inaccurate for a German soldier to wield) is likely to be used for any soldier
toting a submachine gun. This does bring up the interesting possibility of a
broom-handled mauser, which would be useful for both any German troops used in
this theme, as well as for Han Solo and Rebel pilots in the Star Wars theme.
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