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Hi all,
A good, intelligent, and civil debate here, I'm sorry I didn't see it earlier.
There is no doubt that LEGO has moved away from their diehard position against
violent toys. I'm not sure the new Agents line is really any more military
looking than the Dino Hunters were - there was a minifig head with camo paint on
it a few years ago. As for the lines between good and evil, a lot has changed
since the heady days of the Black Falcons and Crusaders - if you look at the
latest Castle line there is no doubt whatsoever who the goodies and the baddies
are supposed to be.
My main issue with the Agents line is simply that I don't think it is pulled off
very well. The Indy sets on the other hand, are simply marvelous, and I do hope
we see more of them over the next few years
I never thought I'd see a contemporary military line, but at this point who is
to say for sure? LEGO is conscious of not losing ground in the market and for
better or worse, boys have always loved to play war. And to use a martial
metaphor, in the battle for the boys toy market, while technologies and trends
come and go, avoiding producing military playsets is the equivalent of not
trying to take the highest hill of them all.
Things I could see LEGO doing in the future include:
-More model-team type military models (think Sopwith Camel) maybe from WWII,
geared towards older builders. I can see good reasons not to release a Stuka
model in Poland or a Superfortress model in Japan. But a Spitfire or a P 51
Mustang would sell well worldwide, a T34 or a Sherman might have potential.
Maybe even try to sneak in a Tiger Tank if the ball gets rolling?
-A sort of future military/space type minifig-based theme. This would allow LEGO
to do "minifig war", but without the most direct paralells to whatever
problematic conflict is going on in the real world.
-Maybe do military style Technic sets? LEGO have already put out a Cobra
gunship, and of course there was that awesome red Creator chopper with firing
missiles...
-Less likely, but maybe even a contemporary military style minfig scale theme
would be an option, although probably with generic tanks, instead of actually
creating a minifig scale M1 Abrams.
We'll see what happens, I think the only thing we can be sure of is that
whatever LEGO's policy is right now on these things, that is subject to change.
As a military builder, I don't think I'd have a problem with LEGO doing any of
these things. But there are more than enough specialized pieces and colors for
military MOCers to keep busy with already.
For one of the most thoughful set reviews I've ever read, check this out from
2005. It addresses lots of relevant issues to LEGO and military type stuff.
http://news.lugnet.com/build/military/?n=2081
To me the Agents line does not signify LEGO crossing a line for the first time -
I think the company has been selling and profitting from war toys for many years
now, and has wisely stopped trying to stake a claim on some disfuse moral high
ground.
Magnus
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Has Lego begun producing "war toys"?
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| I am curious to hear folks opinions on this one. I happened across a pics in brickshelf showing the boxes for new sets for 2008. It is my understanding that we do not allow links to leaks, so you will have to find it yourself. Long and short, for (...) (17 years ago, 23-Jan-08, to lugnet.general)
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