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Subject: 
Arctic or Antarctic? Lego is clueless about the hemispheres!
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.loc.au
Date: 
Thu, 30 Nov 2000 00:12:18 GMT
Viewed: 
441 times
  
I just opened and built 6586 Arctic Polar Scout (orange snowmobile with
trailer). This is my first Arctic set.

The set itself is pretty and the minifig with the fur-lined hood is cute but
the set is otherwise not exciting. Too many specialised parts (without good
reason) in my opinion.

However, I was gobsmacked to turn to the back page of the instructions and
see a photo collage, in which at least 3 of the 4 main photos used were
actually of the Antarctic. Now maybe I'm just a bit of a pedant, but 1 of
the photos included the word "Antarctic" in large letters on a snowmobile,
another one was of the Amunsden-Scott base at the South Pole (and this can
be read from the sign over the entrance, even if you didn't instantly
recognise it), and the third was of penguins which do not exist in the
Arctic.

Although there is no text saying "These are photos of the Arctic", the box
has the word "Arctic", the set contains a polar bear (only found in the
Arctic) and an outline map of Greenland and thereabouts is part of the
collage. So I think including photos of the Antarctic is somewhat
misleading, especially for children.

The rest of the collage could be either Arctic or Antarctic; I couldn't see
anything distinguishing either way.

In a way it is curious that Lego made the theme Arctic rather than
Antarctic. There is a lot more scope for an Antarctic theme in my opinion.
Just imagine white BURPs to form Antarctic mountains and glaciers with long
deep crevasses for kids to crash their snowmobiles into. All those bright
red research stations and emergency huts. There is diving through the ice
(opportunities to reuse some of the Aquazone elements), and lots of zodiacs
(the yellow dinghie thingies) and helicopters and ice breakers. Admittedly
some of these ideas could have been used in an Arctic series too, but Lego
didn't.

Kerry

--
============
Kerry Raymond
kerry@dstc.edu.au
Proud to be LUGNET Member 599
www.lugnet.com/people/members/?m=599



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Arctic or Antarctic? Lego is clueless about the hemispheres!
 
I hadn't noticed the Arctic/Antarctic thing but, one thing you do get if you buy 6586 as part of the TRU value pack is a very neet little ice stab thing like this (can't think of name) which fits with your idea of mountains.. /| / | / / | -=- C Ya (...) (24 years ago, 30-Nov-00, to lugnet.loc.au)
  (canceled)
 

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