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Warning: this post contains language concerning and links to LEGO depictions of
materials that some may consider offensive and/or inappropriate for children.
A fan of The Brick Testament alerted me via
e-mail last night to the apparent use of an image from The Brick Testament on
the official LEGO website. He couldn’t positively identify the illustration,
but noted that it looked a lot like my style. What was most confusing and
confounding was that this image seems to be an illustration one of the Bible’s
several mass circumcision scenes! And that it is being used on a part of the
LEGO website that gives advice to parents of young LEGO fans, in this instance
concerning “General Party Tips” for throwing a great LEGO-themed birthday party.
I quickly followed
the link (in
case the image has been removed by now, here’s a
screen
capture of how the image was being used) and immediately recognized the image
as indeed being from The Brick Testament, though I couldn’t immediately
recognize which specific story it was from. Seeing that line-up of male
minifigs depositing round yellow 1x1 plates into a barrel had me almost certain
that it would indeed turn out to be from a mass circumcision story. Looking
through the archives, it does bear strong resemblance to
this illustration from Genesis, and
this
illustration from Joshua, and
this illustration from King David.
But eventually I recognized my minifig depiction of Gideon and was able to track
down the
original image on my site. So as it turns out, the image on parents.lego.com
does not portray freshly hacked-off foreskins being dropped into a barrel, but
rather golden earrings taken as booty after 120,000 Midianites were killed by
the Israelites. These stolen earrings are about to be used to create a golden
idol which the Israelites will proceed to “prostitute themselves” to.
While it is less significantly less disturbing an image to appear on
parents.lego.com (under the “party suggestions” heading, no less) when those
round yellow 1x1 plates are recognized as not intended to represent shorn
foreskins, it should be noted that this image is taken from a particularly
depraved Bible story in which the “hero” Gideon takes two prisoners of war and
commands his young boy of a son to publicly execute them. When the boy is too
scared to do so, Gideon executes them himself in one of the
more
memorable Biblical execution scenes so far illustrated in The Brick Testament:
So the question remains: How on earth did this photo end up being used used as a
promotion photo on the official LEGO website? I can only imagine it was a
mistake of some sort. For, if it was intentional, it would have to mean that
either:
1. It was a prank. A LEGO.com web designer was seeing what she could get away
with.
or more insidiously:
2. LEGO believes it has the right to use any images of its product in a
promotional context, no matter who build the LEGO construction or who took the
photo.
But since it is almost certainly neither of the above, I can’t help but have a
great curiosity how this happened. Did a LEGO web designer mistake my image for
one that belongs to LEGO? Is that image from The Brick Testament (and possibly
others) in some database of images that LEGO web designers can draw from? If
so, how did that happen?
Part of me is tempted to refrain from bringing this matter to LEGO’s attention,
since it mostly strikes me as a humorous and harmless mistake, and there’s a
certain honor in having a Brick Testament image used in a positive way on the
official LEGO website.
I could even use the gaff to playfully mock LEGO’s sometimes overactive legal
deptartment by sending them an official cease-and-desist letter. But in the end
it seems most prudent to respectfully inform LEGO of the mistake and stick up
for my own copyright on the image.
It’s not always easy to figure out how to contact people (or the right people)
at LEGO, though, so I have both sent in a letter through their website’s
Customer Service form and also posted here on the chance that someone at LEGO
might read it and pass it on to the appropriate department.
Of course, if this matter actually gets investigated (which I’m almost certain
it won’t), I’d love to hear how this happened! :)
-Brendan Powell Smith
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: Brick Testament image used on LEGO.com?!
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| (...) That is quite possible I think. There was a pre-promotional image of an EXO-Force model with a prominent "XFORSKN" sticker on its groin (my copy is lost unfortunately) and, more recently Star Wars had (URL) this great promotion> on a mock up. (...) (17 years ago, 30-Jan-08, to lugnet.fun, FTX)
| | | Re: Brick Testament image used on LEGO.com?!
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| (...) A long time ago, in a different far far away galaxy, I had a run in with the Lego legal department. I was buying an old store model on ebay and got an e-mail from one of their lawyers. She said Lego wanted the model back that I was high bidder (...) (17 years ago, 30-Jan-08, to lugnet.fun, FTX)
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