Yellow or "fleshy"

[SMC]

I think its best not to dig to deep or I think your find all yellow figs are sadly white people.

It started with Lando and Lego realised this and made a change for the better but then many years later did the same thing with Vitruvius. This really bugs me why not have him yellow I don't get it.

The Simpsons are just the way they are in the show but it does highlight this problem.

But I like having both, fleshy look great and more realistic and yellow look classic.

[Krikkit]

I only display my fleshies, as I am a big fan of the Superheroes line, flesh colours works right.

With the yellows, they work really well as your run of the mill, race agnostic figures.

You cant have a yellow powerman or yellow falcon, so it works.

[Vindicare]

I don't have a preference. Flesh works for licensed, obviously, since they're portraying real people. I think yellow works for every other theme because they can be whatever race you want. Furthering that, which I think is a nice touch actually, that in City(and other evergreen themes)that they don't add other color heads, as far as I know, that way they truly do represent people, not race.

Edited May 2, 2015 by Legocrazy81

[TheLazyChicken]

Yellow in my own opinion.

[Dorayaki]

It's sometimes weird to find out that Ninjago fanarts mostly assume the characters fleshie people despite their names don't indicate definite Asian descents. Exo-force characters are official ones, but at least they all use Japanese names.

Although yellow isn't the very natural color for real actors, I think I'm fine with seeing characters mixed with flesh, yellow and other kinds of skins in TLM. In an individual view, I think how the characters look like their counterparts matters the most.

This might bother purist customizers sometimes, however, even the original LEGO themes begin to introduce more kinds of skin colors themselves (not saying Friends, but those non-human characters). It's difficult to say that stopping giving licensed fleshie figures could end this case.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Dorayaki

[Luke Styer]

Not all licensed figures are all in flesh color, but some other characters like Cyborg and Nick Fury are in other skin color.

Also most of the human characters in The Simpsons are all in yellow except for Apu and Dr. Hibbert.

Those are all flesh color, though not "Flesh" color. While not labeled "Flesh," they are reasonable-for-toys approximations of human skin tones.

Vitruvius from The LEGO Movie is only known non-licensed minifig in other color besides yellow.

The Collectible Minifigures line has featured the Mime and a clown or two whose yellow wasn't showing, though I don't suppose that's exactly the same thing.

I have many figures in my Superheroes display that were previously yellows, but I replaced the hands and heads with flesh versions (as long as the torsos didn't show any yellow skin like with the necks).

I do the same thing. My basic practice is flesh tones for modern people, yellow for pre-modern. That said, I'm way more tolerant of a little yellow showing on the torsos than I ever expected to be because I find that if the head, hands and arms, if appropriate are Light Flesh, then a fair bit of yellow isn't really all that noticeable.

[Risgrynsgrot]

I prefer the yellow faces, it's a part of the minifigure's iconic and awesome design, and I wish that they would have continued to make them in yellow.

Black characters? Make em yellow too.

[ekobor]

I'm on the Yellow side. I find the fleshies look odd to my eyes, and I preferred the "race-neutral" idea behind the yellow. Might also have something to do with my lack of interest in most of the licenses, just the builds. I'd rather be able to think they are all people from my head, which is harder when they are distinctive, I think.

[The Chosen Minifigure]

I love yellow. I'm still mildly annoyed that lego made the splt, and it's the only thing keeoing me from buying bulk City sets for my Superhero backgrounds,

[Lordofdragonss]

Yellow. The flesh change was oneof the worst Lego ideas in my book- it destroyed great mixability in minifigures. Now we get lovely torsos/faces just to learn they are only in yellow/flesh...

[Jared]

It's funny, because if you'd asked me two years ago, I would've said "flesh", but yellow has really grown on me in the last year....

[dr_sarcophagus]

I love them both! I like to moc the yellow ones to give them a personality and put them in my modular street. But I prefer to keep the licenced characters which already have personalities. I generally keep them seperate but the superheroes often need to save the populous from the rancor who likes to cause havoc.

[Jay_Em]

I can see why the split between yellow and flesh is a shame, but it was unavoidable IMO. You couldn't have a brown Lando minifigure with everyone else being yellow because that implies that yellow = white. As a result some people would assume that other non-licensed themes are 100% white... that's obviously not Lego's intention but people like to find ways to be offended.

[Cheatster9000x]

I literally don't care. If I'm making custom minifigures, it's all about the face print.

Example: My Ben Reilly Spider-Man has a yellow face, but my Green Goblin has a Fleshy face.

[Blondie-Wan]

When the split happened I was bothered by it, and for a brief period I actually avoided buying certain licensed sets that I now wish I'd gotten. I eventually overcame it, and now happily go with flesh tones for licensed themes and yellow for non-licensed ones, as LEGO itself does, though I do yearn for greater flexibility in mixing them without having the visually apparent differences.

I did always think they could have gone on using yellow for everyone, including people of color - back in the early 2000s, they actually did print specifically, overtly "black" facial features on yellow heads in a few basketball sets where they didn't represent specific, real-life individuals - but after learning that their research showed children tended to read yellow faces as "while" (or possibly other races / ethnicities, but never black), I understand the move to realistic flesh tones in the licensed themes, and I agree it was the way to go. At the same time, though, I understand that yellow is the traditional, iconic "skin" color of LEGO minifigures, with so much of their branding and corporate identity tied up in it, so they could hardly stop using it, so I do think the split - yellow for original stuff, flesh tones for licenses - is a good solution.

Not all licensed figures are all in flesh color, but some other characters like Cyborg and Nick Fury are in other skin color.

Oh, they are flesh-colored; just because they're not "white" doesn't mean they're not. They're brown, which is an actual color of actual human beings. When we speak of minifigures being "yellow" or "flesh", we're not talking about a difference between just two colors, but between yellow (a color real people don't generally come in) and a broad range comprising a number of colors that real-world human beings normally come in. "Flesh" doesn't have to mean just one color.

Those are all flesh color, though not "Flesh" color. While not labeled "Flesh," they are reasonable-for-toys approximations of human skin tones.

Exactly.

Edited May 22, 2015 by Blondie-Wan

[Risgrynsgrot]

I did always think they could have gone on using yellow for everyone, including people of color - back in the early 2000s, they actually did print specifically, overtly "black" facial features on yellow heads in a few basketball sets where they didn't represent specific, real-life individuals - but after learning that their research showed children tended to read yellow faces as "while" (or possibly other races / ethnicities, but never black),

That sounds pretty stupid. I mean, LEGO is largely played with western kids, and they're obviously gonna insert themselves into their games, so of course they're gonna think yellow = white.

I think this whole problem boils down to the decision to make Lando brown in an ocean of yellow minifigures. I wish they'd opted for yellow for him, too.

[Blondie-Wan]

The halloween characters in the CMF have green, white and a variety of other colours for skin tones and they're non-licensed.

Those (and pretty much all other non-licensed LEGO themes) use yellow to represent any regular human skin, regardless of race or ethnicity. When they use other colors, such as white, green or whatever, it's either because it's depicting something other than skin (for example, the white used for the S4 Kimono Girl and the S5 Small Clown represents the makeup they're wearing), or because they're not exactly "human" but monsters, aliens, statues, etc.

[Deathleech]

I can see why the split between yellow and flesh is a shame, but it was unavoidable IMO. You couldn't have a brown Lando minifigure with everyone else being yellow because that implies that yellow = white. As a result some people would assume that other non-licensed themes are 100% white... that's obviously not Lego's intention but people like to find ways to be offended.

And why couldn't Lego have just kept all minifigures yellow? Lando could have been yellow too? I mean all minifigures are the same yellow color, but not all "white" people are the same white. You have skin tones that have more pink hues, yellow in the pigment, are lighter, darker, etc. but all non-licensed Lego minifigures are the exact same yellow and don't represent these variances so why should they for black people?

[Blondie-Wan]

That sounds pretty stupid. I mean, LEGO is largely played with western kids, and they're obviously gonna insert themselves into their games, so of course they're gonna think yellow = white.

Right, but not all western kids are white, and LEGO doesn't want to limit their appeal to just white kids (or just western ones, either, though their pricing and distribution surely aren't doing them favors in that department). Offering the options of various non-white skin tones in the licenses, as well as yellow nonlicensed people who can be read as something other than white, gives them multiple ways of reaching a broader range of kids.

There is of course the problem that such a small percentage of characters in most licensed themes are something other than white, but of course that's an issue with their licensed source materials rather than with LEGO itself, and will only get fixed when we get more POCs in the various movies and shows and whatnot on which LEGO bases sets.

[Jay_Em]

And why couldn't Lego have just kept all minifigures yellow? Lando could have been yellow too? I mean all minifigures are the same yellow color, but not all "white" people are the same white. You have skin tones that have more pink hues, yellow in the pigment, are lighter, darker, etc. but all non-licensed Lego minifigures are the exact same yellow and don't represent these variances so why should they for black people?

I don't think a yellow Lando would have worked for most people to be honest. As shown by this FBTB comic from the period-

[Blondie-Wan]

I remember that comic well, but for me it always showed the opposite - it illustrated how a yellow minifigure would indeed work for Lando, even assuming they used the same preexisting, standard mustachioed head that they used for Biggs (and especially if they didn't, but instead used a new print like they did for the other major characters, with a character-specific mustache like the one he eventually got).

That said, I am now glad for fleshtones in the licensed themes, for reasons already discussed. The one thing route that would have bothered me would be if they had continued to a realistic fleshtone for dark-skinned people and bright yellow for everyone else, as they did in the Cloud City set. I'm glad that's the only one they ever did like that, although now that they've long since settled the minifigure "skin" color issue I do wish I'd gotten the Cloud City set when I had the chance, but I was just really uncomfortable with that approach at the time.

[SMC]

^ Could not agree more.

Yellow Lando would have worked but in the end flesh works well.

[Artifex]

This thread should have a poll. ;)

[HawkLord]

I prefer the flesh tones because it just looks better to me. I think it would be tough to live in a Lego world of all yellow figures but still have some things like aliens and creature in appropriate colors. Why limit the human skin tone pallet?

I know over detailing Lego can move it away from its simplistic roots, but all other toy products are moving forward. Action figures are way more detailed than when I was a kid (when they were really just stick figures), so why not take Lego to that next level?

[BrickG]

Flesh all the way. I was into Yellow but it just does NOT work for Franchises and black people.

Stop fooling yourselves. Yellow cannot stand for anyone. It's just lighter skinned people. That's why they did the change largely due to Lando. This is why Virtruvius was the only non-yellow non-franchise character. Yellow just doesn't work for dark flesh tones on any level.

I liked Yellow before I got into the franchises but I do see the compatibility issues and honestly would rather they get rid of yellows at this point. My Castle Lego is incompatible with my Fleshies. It's quite annoying. Get rid of yellows!

Also, to encourage COLORBLINDNESS is NOT the way to go with racial stuff and skin tones. We don't need to whitewash rare (or yellow-wash). We need to see the difference and accept them without applying any prejudice or negativity towards the differences. Colorblindness is an incredibly old fashioned way to attempt to be Politically Correct which in the end just ends up being the opposite. Acknowledging and accepting differences is where it's at, not trying to mesh it all into one super generic mishmash.