While discussing the art for last week’sOKCupid poston the preferences of different races , guest creative person , Chris “ Powerpig ” McVeighdropped an astounding fact : “ Almost all non - white faces in Lego are scowling . ” tardily now : It ’s not Lego ’s fault .
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“ The yellow - lead minifigure was a conscious pick , ” says Michael McNally , Lego ’s brand relation manager . “ Because of their ethnically neutral cutis color , Lego people can be any people — in any history , at any time . ”
It ’s been that way since 1978 , when third - contemporaries company honcho Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen invent the Lego man . Grandson of the company founder , Kristiansen grew up fiddle with the plastic blocks , and always require a way to bring mass into his plastic fantasies . Shortly after taking over the company , he made his dreaming a reality : The minifig was born .
tight - forward 21 years , to 1999 when Lego produce its first Star Wars - theme solidifying . Though pegged to the release of the Phantom Menace , the kit were based on the original trilogy . ( Smart move . ) And your preferred characters were in full effect : Darth V , Luke , Leia , and the bunch — all yield as canary - confront citizens of Legoland . Not being a fundamental character , Lando Calrissian was n’t invite to this political party , but customers started reading more into his absence seizure . “ They asked ‘ where ’s Lando ? ' ” says McNally . “ They saw the yellow - faced Han Solo and figured that we had omitted Lando because he could n’t romp a chickenhearted head . ” This got the ship’s company thinking .
Four twelvemonth later , In 2003 , Lego acted : TheLego NBA Seriesfeatured completely off - base representations of democratic NBA instrumentalist . Off - fundament with one exception : Some participant were disgraceful , just like the flesh - and - blood ballers they represented . Though these NBA “ stars ” are n’t worth much money today , they were an important shift in Lego ’s policy . “ From that dot forward , ” sound out McNally , “ we started portray persona from our partners ’ storyline as accurately as possible . ”
In 2004 , Lego come after with another flight of stairs of Star Wars kits . These young set featured characters from the prequels — let in Jedi councilman Mace Windu , whose plastic surrogate eager a hard resemblance to his celluloid cousin . Though one of the good guys , Mace wore Samuel L. Jackson ’s stern construction .
If you ’re not familiar with themed Lego sets or the Expanded Universe , it ’s not hard to misconstrue Windu ’s scowling browned brass as the cruel countenance of a threatening enemy rather than the battle - inure visage of a fabled general . specially because most of his minority minifigure compatriot are n’t smiling either . But , again , do n’t blame the Danes ; head your anger at California .
Hollywood has a well - defined predilection for white protagonists in bighearted - budget films , while most nonage roles go to bad guys . One particularly gross representative : Indiana Jones movies , where Indy ’s orb - trotting exploits bring in him into contact with a veritable Rainbow Coalition of ethnically diverse anti - poor boy .
That ’s not to say there are n’t average blank dudes in Jones ’ adventures — Indy kicks raft of Nazi tush — but Powerpig , who has more than 54,000 brick and 541 piffling plastic dudes , gauge that 85 - percent of his scowling minorities fall from the15 Indiana Jones sets , which include sour - looking Arabs , rough - faced Asians and intelligibly crank South Americans .
The Prince of Persia kits — based on a movie that ’s set somewhere in the Middle East but stars white-hot Guy who vocalise distinctly British — don’t serve much either . There ’s almost no diversity , with the only non - lily-white straits belonging to Prince Whatever ’s chum Seso . For some reason , he ’s frowning .
So how many nonage minifigures are there ? “ I dunno , ” aver McNally . “ Nobody here has ever trouble to consider , because nobody care . ” But McNally does have one figure easy at hand : 4.5 billion . That ’s the global universe of Lego people . If you counted the minifigure itself as an ethnical group it would be the largest in the world .
I do n’t recognise about you , but when I was a kid , I was by all odds part of the Lego race : lending my voice and willing to countless lemon - headed adventurer . And , given the opportunity , I ’d playact a little Mace Windu , too — even though he ’s grim and I ’m white . Now : I require you to go in that bag and find my lightsaber … It ’s the one that says ‘ Bad Motherfucker ’ on it .
Original artistic creation by guest artist Chris McVeigh ( AKA powerpig ) . you may arrest all his work at flickr.com/powerpig , and follow him on Twitter . ( @Actionfigured ) Original minifigure image provided by Lego .
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