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Jonathan Little wrote:
> In lugnet.western, David Little writes:
>
> > About lego not doing civil war sets, I would not rule it out. Remember
> > Playmobil is a european company and they do american civil war figures. Lego
> > is a very different company from Playmobil in some cases, but I think that
> > them being in europe is not the deturing factor. If anything keeps them from
> > doing a civil war theme I think that it will be the fact that they don't want
> > to be a war toy.
> > David
>
> I'm confused. There's all this talk about how Lego won't do a Civil war
> theme, because it's American and Lego is European. The thing is, the whole
> western theme is American, in the first place. The whole cowboys and indians
> (or Native AMERICANS) thing is from US history. The blue-clad soldiers are
> wearing uniforms of the US army, circa late 19th century. If Lego never does
> a Civil war theme, I don't see how it would have anything to do with the
> fact that Lego is a European company.
Hmmm, I wonder if (to get this back "on topic" for .starwars) if TLG can't acquire
a license to "F Troop"...or maybe to "Glory" (but then they'd have to handle race
in minifigs, wouldn't they?). Idle speculation, and naturally it's got zero
chance of happening--about as much as seeing them acquire the rights to "Hogan's
Heroes" or something.
<historian>
I agree with Jonathan and David that LEGO being European wouldn't stop them from
doing a Civil War theme. In fact, their being European makes it *much* more
likely--a US-based company might never have tackled the "Wild West" theme, because
that's an ugly and nearly genocidal episode in US history. They're separated from
it, so they can handle it and avoid some of the accusations that might be leveled
against a US-based and US-owned company by the victims of US territorial policy.
Besides, the Europeans seem to love those cowboy-type westerns--especially the
Italians--and TLG was careful not to mix the Wild West Soldier and Indians
subthemes the way that Pirates and Imperial Guards (or even Pirates and
Islanders--but note, not Imperial Guards and Islanders) were mixed adversarially.
The relationship between the themes is left to the builder.
That said, the US Civil War is a different case; it was really the first modern
mass war (despite British and French insistence that Napoleon and Crimea somehow
were) and you can't help but make those blue and grey minifigs adversaries. The
war itself raised all sorts of nasty issues that presage the bloody twentieth
century, and those could rear their head in any LEGO rendering of the conflict.
However, most non-academics have purged the uglier images of the war's excesses
from their mental images or else feel somehow disconnected from the war itself
(Southern Culture Association and the SC Flag Controversy perhaps excepted). I
know a lot of re-enactors who happily glamorize the war, even its darkest moments
and awful exigencies, and that's the image sold overseas. I could see TLG
possibly doing it, even given their anti-war-toy stance, because it's a popular
subject and people both inside and outside the US don't connect it with the same
kinds of evil that memories of WWI and WWII conjure. Now, whether evil (or Evil)
existed on either side in the War of Northern Aggression is matter for .debate,
but I personally don't see anything wrong with little grey soldiers.
The thing that makes me doubt that TLG would produce such a theme is because in
the past (no .pun intended) they've shied away from rendering competing historical
groups together in an antagonistic way--for example, red and blue Imperial Guards
were never faced off against one another in the theme, IIRC--you clearly knew the
Pirates were the outlaws and the "heavies." Even in Castle, there's generally the
hint that the "bad guys" are chaotic forces of lawlessness. There's no such exit
with the two major parties to the US Civil War; both represent extremely high
levels of organization in Western nation-states, and even today you can't locate a
"villain" despite the moral issue of slavery for the Confederacy and illegal
impressment of immigrants (usually Irish) for the Union.[1]
</historian>
That stream-of-consciousness rant aside, I'd still love to see a Civil War theme.
On the balance sheet, I feel like it would be a 50-50 likelihood. I do think they
would at least consider it and seriously explore the possibility within the
company. This is all the more likely considering Playmobil's success with their
offerings.
Just my fifth-of-a-dime,
Lindsay
[1] Star Wars and Space themes are exempt--I consider these to be fictional enough
that the desired distance from objectionable subject matter is attained.
FUT...ummm, .western? Maybe we need a lugnet.on-topic.debate group? ;)
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Future Wild West Possibilities
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| (...) I'm confused. There's all this talk about how Lego won't do a Civil war theme, because it's American and Lego is European. The thing is, the whole western theme is American, in the first place. The whole cowboys and indians (or Native (...) (25 years ago, 21-Mar-00, to lugnet.western, lugnet.starwars)
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