| |
In lugnet.dear-lego, Marc Cook writes:
(snipped)
> While the Knights and Swordsmen of the age of castles is a distant piece of
> this planet’s history it’s still a violent and bloody age. Yet the irony
> is that Lego produces these
> type of sets. Does TLG consider the historical and brutal wars of the
> ancients less relevant and damaging to children because they occurred
> hundreds of years before the likes of Hitler?
The Knights and swordsman theme portays the kind of "romantic era" that we
are faced with when we hear fairytales. The times of chivalry, you know...
The difference is quite obvious, the 20th century wars meant the end of
chivalry and mass destruction. So it is pretty obvious why. Note that I
agree with you when you say those times were not pure glamour, and bloodshed
means the same no matter the time. All wars are evil, even those who appear
to have noble purposes. People die.
Maybe a different reason to TLC's attitude (and I'm only speculating) is due
to the fact that Denmark was ocupied by Germany during WW2, and neither the
danes nor the germans like to remember those days (would you like to
remember that your nation had been occupied once?). And knowing the
importance of the german market, I'd say this is one of the historical
reasons. Noone in Germany would buy sets from a theme where germans would be
portrayed as the "evil" guys. Same for Japan, Italy, and some countries in
Eastern Europe (axis' allies). In fact, I'm pretty sure hardly anyone in
continental Europe would like to remember the Wars fought here in the past
century. We are trying to build up a European Union, for heaven's sake!
> War and war machines are reality of this world. As a toy they will sell,
> and sell and sell. Kids end up using Lego pieces to create tanks, and
> combat jets anyway if not modern themed machines, then future crafts of
> destruction. The Sopwith Camel is a great start. I hope sales of this
> rather pricey and less advertised model has demonstrated the appetite for
> such kits.
>
> I grew up with the cool space sets of the 80’s and early 90’s. Inevitably I
> would end up building combat jets and tanks from these pieces. If you
> give the child the ability to build anything he can imagine with Lego’s and
> sure enough it’s often something of a military nature, why not jump on the
> bandwagon and provide beautiful sets of tanks, combat jets, and even naval
> vessels.
>
> If I had to pick this first set series of any military to be sold to the
> masses it would be a World War II, it would be minifig scale naval planes
> from the US and Japanese pacific fleets with authentically dressed minifigs.
> And then naturally surface ships from this era.
> Wow, imagine a model-team minifig scale replica of the USS Hornet? I’d pay
> 399.00 for a set with 4,000 pieces.
I grew up with the cool sets of the 80´s and 90´s too. I had pirates and
castle sets, and I also tried to build a tank. Then I turned my attention to
trains, and the world suddenly became safer.
I'd rather pay $1000 to have a replica of the Eiffel tower, minifig-scale.
It represents the wider horizons you get to see when you give a different
use to metal: construction, instead of destruction.
Pedro
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Military Lego Sets
|
| (...) That would be my guess. I believe they want to avoid anything that is classified as "In living memory". They're really pushing the boundaries by producing the Sopwith Camel, but of course that's not available via mass-distribution. And "ILM" (...) (23 years ago, 1-Sep-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
|
Message is in Reply To:
| | Military Lego Sets
|
| It’s very obvious that military Lego sets would sell like wild fire. I don’t think producing a M1A1 Abraham Tank set would promote violence or portray TLC as a evil corporation. It would drive sales, and continue to promote and spread Lego’s into (...) (23 years ago, 31-Aug-01, to lugnet.dear-lego)
|
31 Messages in This Thread:
  
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
