Dear LEGO executives,
Sincerely, Me.
Seriously. Explain to me exactly how the Firefly
I really want to understand your actual rationale, because the one you expressed over at Cuusoo is just nonsense in light of the products you already sell.
  |
internal inconsistency annoys me
Dear LEGO executives, Sincerely, Me. Seriously. Explain to me exactly how the Firefly I really want to understand your actual rationale, because the one you expressed over at Cuusoo is just nonsense in light of the products you already sell. 16 comments to internal inconsistency annoys me |
 |
|
Copyright © 2005-2013 walls of the city - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa 47 queries. 0.788 seconds. |
||
Might want to check those last two links.
One has to remember that it took the Star Wars franchise to reverse Lego’s long-standing “no realistic guns” policy. The closest thing they ever had to modern weaponry came in the form of crossbows. I have a feeling that the same employee who wrote that is the same as those who think that video games/music/television/movies/playing cards/comic books/reading/thinking/etc. are responsible for everything wrong in the world. Sci-fi is fine for Star Wars, but old Westerns encourage kids to have gunfights. And we all know that nothing like that EVER takes place in Star Wars and other science fiction settings. Also, Star Wars is totally not a Samurai-Western Space Opera. No sirree bob.
…Or they could just set down the crack pipe and give us a real answer.
i don’t think it’s the violence that lego has a problem with (they have even loosened up their “no guns” policy recently) i think it is the overt sexuality of one of the main characters that they are shying away from. when one of your main characters is a
whoreprostituteeh-hem *companion* it does have a tendency to raise the age limit in my opinion. violence is something that every age group has to deal with in some form or other, sex is something i consider a bit more mature.i do think that considering their large adult fanbase they could consider producing models from more mature content universes and only make them available online, without the fancy kid-targeted packaging. i always thought they needed to cater to their builder base a lot more than they do anyway. making parts and sets available directly rather than exclusively through distributors would be a huge leap forward. the could probably even use that to get around licensing issues. “if you buy all these single pieces from us, conveniently in a discount package, you can make this exciting model we couldn’t get the right to by following these directions over here that are published by people completely unaffiliated with us!” total gold mine.
@lucusloc Well, they could get around the “companion” nonsense by just calling her “the ambassador.” The same thing if the ninnies get offended by “preacher;” bam, now he’s just a “shepherd.” Of course, this all works fine until someone suggests building “shoot-out at the whorehouse,” “River v. Reavers,” and “our Mrs. Reynolds” playsets… That said, I would totally love to see Lego’s take on Vera.
@ lucusloc: I suspect you’ve nailed Lego’s main issue exactly. I mean, they can’t seriously say they object to the violence, considering the other sets they have out. I think there’s even a “zombie” set, so it can’t be the Reavers, either.
Of course, the fact that Serenity’s crew are thieves and smugglers who never actually reform at any point in the series (unlike Han Solo), and that a major element of many episodes is one form of criminal activity or another, probably doesn’t help, either.
If you think about it honestly, the series does essentially focus on the trials and tribulations of a group of violent criminals and their accomplices. The fact that they do have some morals (i.e., The Train Job), and that they lean towards smuggling and illegal salvage rather than robbery, doesn’t really change the fact that they do commit robbery when they feel it’s necessary, even if they do try to rob from the Alliance government instead of individuals. Even Book has some guilt by association, since he willingly continues to travel with them. Simon and River are really the only truly innocent ones on the ship.
@ Erin Palette: Thanks. Apparently doing a search in Amazon, linking that, and then doing another search results in either a broken link or a link back to the first search. Wierd.
Mussorgsky112 wrote:
This is not strictly true – the Pirates/Navy sets had fairly accurate blackpowder/flintlock pistols and rifles, along with cannon that actually “fired” Lego cylinders (if you flicked the pin at the back).
For that matter, the “Western” series from 1997 had fairly decent representations of lever-action rifles and revolvers, so most of the props for Firefly already have molds for them
.
@ lucusloc: And that, probably, is their core rationale, but then we create a situation where “murdering tens (hundreds?) of minor children in cold blood” is all kinds of shiny and acceptable, but “two adults entertaining themselves in a mutually beneficial fashion” is verboten and evil.
And we wonder how our society is broken to the point where we hardly notice shootings any more, but throw the mother of all hissy fits when two people of the same gender try to sign a contract involving only them.
Anywise, I would be a lot less upset with Lego if they had not just said that to begin with. Still upset, but not as much.
@ Mussorgsky112: And there is that, too – I mean, they rather gloss over the whole “he got tossed into a firey lake of lava” when it comes to Vader; not too hard to do similar things with other characters.
@ Jake: Oh, I am certainly not trying to hold up Firefly as a paragon of virtues and role models for all the impressionable children of the world… but I would not do that with Han, or Boba, or Gollum, or possibly even Indy.
Their line is indistinctly drawn, and arbitrary as all get-out. That is, of course, their prerogative, but damned if I will not call it out for what it is.
Has anybody cross referenced the Fox execs that pulled the plug on Firefly and the guys that make these calls at Lego? It’s a stretch, but maybe they’re the same…
Ted, you get out of my mind!
That was my first thought in reading about this. Did Fox get to them?
@ Ted N: Given that Fox is an American company and Lego is a Dutch one, I kind of doubt that there are too many levels of overlap there. However…
@ Mark: It would not surprise me if the Lego executives decided that attempting to pursue the rights to Firefly would be more trouble than it is worth. Universal/Fox have been notoriously stingy about that…
Has it gotten passed up to… MegaBlocks, megablox, however they spell it? They’ve got the Halo franchise, and I think a few other MoR DAKKA! franchises, so they’d be more open to it I think. Hmm, slightly buzzed googleing and emails away!
Email kind of sent, the only real way to get ahold of them that I found was more geared more toward missing pieces and such. Text of my write up:
Trying to get ahold of whoever picks out new franchises. There was recently a big push to get another brand to pick up the Firefly franchise, and it was shot down. Wink wink, nudge nudge, there’s a ton of people that’d love to get Firefly themed kits. It’d be awesome if Firefly finally got some building kits. Thanks for your time and consideration!
…
Hope that gets to somebody important, or at least helps!
Heh, I have to admit to being something of a Lego snob, mostly because that is what I grew up with, but secondarily because MegaBloks really uses an excessive amount of specialty pieces. Folks make fun of Lego for the few they use, but, damn, when a Covenant Banshee set only has 13 pieces including the stand, base, and two characters, you are doing something wrong!
second the lego snobbery. I actively pull out all the non lego pieces from any bulk buys i get. they get relegated to outside play for youngsters.
I think lego really needs to consider opening a channel to sell “unofficial” kits and bulk parts buys. there’s a huge market they are not even looking at.
My understanding is that Lego is more than willing to sell you whatever individual pieces – or collections of individual pieces – you might care to order… at a price, of course. They are idiots for not teaming up with any of the number of sites out there that allow users to build their own unofficial sets and put them online…
I think there are two warring (heh) factions inside Lego. One side wants to produce the coolest, best-selling toys possible, so they bring in all sorts of great licenses like Star Wars and even consider Firefly. The other side is baked-in Euro-lefties who probably have never even touched a gun-shaped object for fear of contamination.
Back in the early ’90s, a college student posted a set of “war game” rules for Lego figures — and got sued by them, because they considered using their toys for “war games” to be slander or something. *THOSE* people are the ones who make up the second faction.
The first faction survives on the basis of the amount of cash they bring in.
That would certainly explain some of the disjoint reactions, what with galaxy-wide genocide being ok but two adults engaging in a mutually-entertaining activity not being ok…
If it had not been for Star Wars and now LOTR, I doubt Lego would still be around these days, what with their stupid prices and decreasing parts counts. Seems there needs to be a small management/leadership coup…