  
| Author: | psusaxman2000  | | Posted: | Nov 17, 2023 11:08 | | Subject: | Re: Frustration w/ Yellow Minifigures | | Viewed: | 61 times | | Topic: | LEGO products | |
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| In LEGO products, axaday writes:
| | In LEGO products, jadonut writes:
| | I wanted to post here to see how many other LEGO fans have felt similar frustration
and confusion about LEGO's own cultural stance to printing yellow only minifigures
for their non-IP sets (ICONS, City, Winter sets etc, etc).
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I actually thought counterexamples would be easy to find and I was surprised.
There are a lot of town-looking minifigs with other skin tones, but even though
they aren't main characters they are from sets based on movies.
I am old enough to remember there were brown minifigs alongside yellow before
any of the modern skin colors were produced, but I see it was all or almost all
for movies. Just when those were still yellow also. Which undercuts the idea
that yellow is neutral. It wasn't neutral when Luke Skywalker was yellow,
but Lando needed to be brown. At the same time, the classic grin represented
both boys and girls until Pirates and Paradise.
It is a weird spot. LEGO has a classic thing that is part of a lot of childhoods
and they want to continue with that tradition and maybe they are a little stuck
in a blind spot? LEGO certainly cannot be described as a company that is ignoring
diversity. They just added 2 new skin tones this year. There are children,
middle age, and elderly. Wheelchairs, hearing aids, and a minidoll missing a
hand. They've cranked out a lot of coiled hair pieces in the last few years
and there is a minifig head and a minidoll head with vitiligo. They are definitely
making big inclusive efforts.
I am accustomed and endeared to the yellow minifig. I would miss them if they
disappeared, but I can see that it is at LEAST confusing. It is true that yellow
is on the light end of the color palette and I am speaking as a white person,
but I don't look yellow. They don't REALLY look like me. As far as
I know, LEGO has never explicitly explained it. They've just left it inferable
that the the yellow minifig lives in a world where everyone is yellow. I think
LEGO could make the case that yellow minifigs are not white. They are everyone.
But they really ought to make the case out loud.
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But if the City set all stay the same and everyone in the Lego-sphere is alike,
similar where race and color of your skin doesn't matter, doesn't that
mean that they are being all inclusive?
In my mind, the inclusion and use of skin tone in minifigs is to be more specific
of the individual that they are trying to represent in the specific sets. Think
Star Wars where there used to be yellow minifigs and then transitioned to be
skin tone to better match the character. This is different where you have non-specific
sets like the foosball table or sets that are not representative of specific
individuals. There I think Lego is actually being as inclusive as they can be.
IMO the City sets are classic/traditional that still represent the Lego world
where we all live together IN THEIR SPACE and this is not meant to be a consideration.
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Message is in Reply To:  Re: Frustration w/ Yellow Minifigures - axaday (7307) | [...] I actually thought counterexamples would be easy to find and I was surprised. There are a lot of town-looking minifigs with other skin tones, but even though they aren't [...]
(7 months ago, Nov 17, 2023, to LEGO products) |
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