Have LEGO products become more violent?

[bartneck]

We just published an interesting article on whether LEGO products have become more violent. What do you think? Here is the summery of the article:

"Although television, computer games and the Internet play an important role in the lives of children they still also play with physical toys, such as dolls, cars and LEGO bricks. The LEGO company has become the world’s largest toy manufacturer. Our study investigates if the LEGO company’s products have become more violent over time. First, we analyzed the frequency of weapon bricks in LEGO sets. Their use has significantly increased. Second, we empirically investigated the perceived violence in the LEGO product catalogs from the years 1978–2014. Our results show that the violence of the depicted products has increased significantly over time. The LEGO Company’s products are not as innocent as they used to be."

[Legocity2713]

NEXT...

[Aanchir]

Yes, LEGO products have become more violent. There's no disputing that. In the name of being anti-war, LEGO used to insist that any kind of person-versus-person conflict play was bad for kids, and that they wouldn't put any weapons of war in their sets. Even then, though, the classic Space sets had lots of forward-facing "antennas" and "radar arrays" that were obviously meant as laser guns, and classic Castle sets had plenty of swords and axes. LEGO designers knew how kids would naturally want to play with these toys, they just didn't want to admit that to parents or to their own upper management.

LEGO's past "innocence" was based on the assumption that violent role-play is harmful to child development and would make kids grow up to be violent. However, as the company has evolved, they've recognized that kids are naturally drawn to good-versus-evil conflict play, and that this doesn't hurt them (yes, I know there have been studies suggesting that acting out violence makes people more violent, however, there have been just as many studies disputing that). Many LEGO designers probably grew up playing with toy soldiers and watching movies like Star Wars, but that hasn't made them violent, so why should they be overly concerned about today's kids doing the same? Science is also increasingly demonstrating that kids CAN differentiate between fantasy and reality better than many adults give them credit for, and as such LEGO avoids realistic, present-day violence and warfare in their themes, instead focusing on fantasy conflicts.

It's worth noting that in LEGO, "good" characters are generally motivated by honorable values like freedom, equality, and protecting the people they love. "Evil" characters are generally motivated by dishonorable values like greed, selfishness, or a thirst for power. As you yourself observe about villainous characters like Hero Factory's Pyrox, LEGO generally makes it painfully obvious which characters are good and which are evil, that good characters routinely triumph over evil ones, that good characters are happier than evil characters, and that the good characters' values and methods are the ones kids should emulate while the evil characters' values and methods are ones kids should steer clear of.

[Mr Greeble]

Violent? Yes. Realistically violent? No. And that is what makes all the difference.

[anothergol]

Ironic that it's a (now) Disney-licensed theme that's the most violent :)

[PicnicBasketSam]

Yeah, no. I will say that the most violent-type thing we've ever seen in a set is Deadpool.

[KotZ]

Has it gotten more violent? Perhaps. I'd say they just have made it easier for kids to play "violent", not that it makes kids more violent. And they're still very much anti human-v-human violence aside from fantasy which even then, like others have stated, has clearly defined good guys and bad guys with distinct morals. All the other "person against person" violence comes from the licensed sets and even then are toned down a bit. I think kids would still make their favorite film heroes without official pieces and play with them "violently".

[xboxtravis7992]

The Lego fan community is more violent than Lego's own products sometimes... ever noticed the bazillion MOCs of dismembered minifigures on MOCpages?

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

Role-play of conflict and violence is an important way for children to learn the social dynamics of conflict resolution, and I think LEGO have come to understand this. With the explosion of Star Wars models and superhero ranges I think it should be quite obvious that the capacity for violent play with LEGO has been significantly increased. However, they are clearly and quite consciously trying to strike a balance by allowing violent play in fantasy settings while avoiding the glamorization of real-world war and violence. It may seem a fine line at times, but I think the approach makes sense. I kind of respect LEGO for refraining from producing real world military models even when they know there is a market for them.

[x105Black]

Products may have increased the depictions or availability of violent play. This is a good thing. As others have said, this can actually aid in their development. I don't think LEGO is making kids more violent.

LEGO could easily have more of these types of sets, or push that envelope further, and I still don't think it would have a negative effect.

[Blondie-Wan]

All of the above.

Also, while LEGO's products have become more violent than they used to be, they're still not particularly overtly violent; much violence is implied rather than directly portrayed, and their violence trails much of the market in extent.

[dr_spock]

LEGO didn't make sets with weapons back in 1970s. Some of us had to make guns out of 2x4 bricks to play cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians back then. In the 1980s we could pretend the megaphone piece was a minifig gun. Come to think of it, the early Star Wars sets Stormtroopers used megaphones for blasters. You can still violence play with weaponless LEGO. It take a bit more creativity and imagination though.

Day 097 of 365: Are You Feeling All Chipper Today? by dr_spock_888, on Flickr

The topic of weapons has been debated numerously and almost regularly in the Town Forum, if you need more weapons opinions for your article.

[Forresto]

I would argue Lego has not become more violent then it ever has been.

In the last five years we have seen a series around Architecture swiftly become one of the most popular themes. We are literally about to get a whole series set around a team of volcanologists. A year or two ago we had one on the Space Program. The police themed sets are arguably the most violent of the Town theme and in those the police are always shown arresting people never shooting or killing. If anything Lego's version is less violent then the real world equivalent it is representing. That's not a political statement against cops but short of being a soldier, being a police officer (especially in parts of the US) is prone to being one of the most violent professions out there. That's not even to mention the Modular Series, Mixels, Creator, Technic, Collectible Minifigures, Disney Princess, Elves, and many other themes.

Star Wars is violent but not any more then it was when it first came out nearly a decade ago. Arguably we have gotten more side characters through the years that don't fight.

I think Lego has maintained an equilibrium of non violence and violence. The more violent sets there are the more non violent ones they also produce. That's just my opinion.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Forresto

[Aanchir]

An observation that I brought up on Brickset that I think deserves consideration here as well:

While LEGO may be more violent than they used to be, the notion that violence in kids' toys and media is a recent trend is complete balderdash. Toy guns have been a popular kids' toy for decades, and toy soldiers for centuries. In fact, the first toy LEGO ever patented was a life-size toy semiautomatic pistol that really fired, back in the 1940s! http://en.brickimedia.org/wiki/325_Halvautomatisk_Leget%C3%B6jspistol Another LEGO pistol that fired Modulex bricks was released in 1960: http://en.brickimedia.org/wiki/LEGO_Pistol

So the notion that violent weapons are NOT appropriate subjects for kids' toys and media is much younger than the notion that they ARE. If you think enjoying a theme like LEGO Bionicle and Ninjago where people use medieval-esque weapons — not even to hit each other but to generate beams of fire, ice, and lightning — makes today's generation "immersed in a culture of violence", what does that say about kids of the 1940s and 50s who grew up on realistic toy guns and TV shows like The Lone Ranger that glorified gunplay?

[Forresto]

Wow that's really interesting Lego's first patent was of a toy gun, never knew that!

[xboxtravis7992]

Wow, that gun is far more realistic than any toy guns I had as a kid! No bright orange anywhere. And all coming from the company of "no-violence" :)

The flame war that's erupting on Brickset over this article is very strange. Especially that one AFOL who pointed those who defend Lego's violence are all "Bionicle and Star Wars skewed teenagers." Yes I might love those two themes but first I'm 22 not 16, and second I might have witnessed far more violence than some jaded 40 year old AFOL has seen in his life (unless he is a veteran or a cop, then he has got me beat). A man once attempted to rob me in broad daylight, and on another day I witnessed a complete social collapse with mass looting and violence. The claim that we don't have enough life experience to comment on what "real" violence is, is ridiculous. And trust me, two little kids having two minifigures or Bionicle sets fight each other is nowhere near the effects of real violence. If anything imaginative violent play is a form of escapism, I'd rather have those violent behaviors be taken out on plastic toys, not real people.

And sometimes violent play teaches real life consequences to. Ever taken a Marshall arts class? Getting your butt handed to you is a good reminder that violence is best as a "last resort" in self defence.

And yes to prove my comment on the violence I witnessed, someone filmed a YouTube video of it. The place I attended church at is RIGHT next to the supermarket being looted. I was five blocks or so west at the time writing my parents back in the US via email. This violence lasted two days, and on the morning of the third day the streets where littered in baracades and ashes and broken bottles. This is what real destructive behavior is, not near anything Lego has ever promoted.

[Vindicare]

The catalog quite a bit unfair. As there's a lot more license themes, which the source material plays heavily on violence. Of course catalog depicts violence more.

[1974]

LEGO didn't make sets with weapons back in 1970s.

[Peppermint_M]

Now those would count as 1x2 Shooters right? Not quite a 6!

This is the same as the violent and angry faces debate from a few years(?) ago. Well the catalogue analysis bit anyway. To give the gist: Faces of LEGO figures were rated by a Mechanical Turk service (Volunteers online rating photos on a scale) and the data compiled to say that faces were more angry. The issue there was one man's angry face is another man's determined, so that data fell flat.

About all you can say about LEGO catalogues these days over the older ones: As with all advertising copy, things are more Dynamic. Instead of the old days of a handful of kids and some LEGO sets being played with (pictures of kids now raising all sorts of other issues these days). The modern catalogue has the action depicted.

Anyway, yeah, there is more VS roleplay, but that is not encouraging violence but instead teaching children how to deal with conflict situations. Also, they are far more likely to be taking cues from the media they consume when creating a story than with what the medium they are using might suggest. I would theorise that even with a blank and formless "Minifigure" a child would still make a game of cops and robbers.

[PicnicBasketSam]

I'll just copy-paste my Brickset comment about the study...

*sigh* That's not a particularly well-thought-out study. The VERY FIRST thing it says is that violent media makes kids more violent, and then says "Well, it probably doesn't, but because we need evidence, we're going to say it does so we can also say LEGO has jumped on that bandwagon." The whole think is hinged on something that has not been proven at all, and as such shouldn't even be taken seriously.

Also, the whole thing with "weapon bricks" also kind of disproves itself with the whole thing around the Death Star--you can just as easily use weapons for other things as other things for weapons, so clearly, that argument isn't valid either.

I think this guy is just looking for attention by claiming LEGO is doing something horrible. So original.

[Forresto]

*snipi*

Exactly! I've seen a couple comments like that one saying dissenters to the study are kids who don't know what real violence is. I don't understand their point? That lack of experience with real violence means people enjoy fake violence more? Or does fake violence make people with no experience with real violence more violent? I don't get it. I think there is this weird association people have between imaginary/cartoony violence and realistic violence and automatically connecting the two. There might be a correlation but I have not seen any study prove that their is causation.

I'm 21 and I have been fortunate enough to not have been mugged. However I grew up in a neighborhood where these MS13 wannabes were always fighting rival groups of wannabe gangs. Basically both sides were teenagers my age, in fact has a couple classmates who were in one of the gangs, who were dangerous but not really organized or smart thankfully. When I was fifteen I got caught in the middle of a gang fight in broad daylight (people I guess don't care if you see them) once which was a bit horrifying. If anything the experience made me less prone to violence and I was already an adherent to non violence by then as well.

The core issue with the study is that it takes one major element of Lego out. The kids, TFoLs, and AFoLs. Lego is by it's very nature just a model/kit service leaving the stories and builds up to the imaginations of us the buyer. As seen in the Brick Testament and countless MOCs, builders can make extraordinarily violent scenes using figures from sets that had no violence. I've also seen an endless stream of non violent totally innocuous MOCs as well using pieces from "violent" sets such as Star Wars or any superhero themed set. Just because a set has tons of swords and lasers and guns doesn't mean that when someone plays with it they do so in a violent manner.

[Paul77s]

I've just seen the article on the BBC news website regarding all of this. All I can do is shake my head in disbelief that it's even been brought up. My five year old got into Lego a year or so ago. His imaginative play has been a wonder to witness. From taking sets apart and 'improving' them, to creating his own custom minifigs......all this and he it's not caused him to rob a bank (yet). I'm shocked that 'people' have actually found anything negative to say about Lego with regards to the development of young children. I'm in utter disbelief as the TV pumps out 24 hour a day news coverage from places like Syria etc. Strange world we live in today.

[Hobo Fett]

smells like....victory

[Stash2Sixx]

First people blamed television, then music, then video games...now LEGO.

If you think the toy is too violent, stop buying it!

As a kid, I had toy guns. My brothers and I beat the shit outta each other with wrapping paper tubes! And when LEGO guns weren't really available in the 80s, we built our own. I really don't think I'm a violent person.

Nowadays, I buy Brickarms and other third party items, I build Brickmania kits because they are awesome, and they inspire me to MOC more and learn about history. I still don't think I turned out violent...

Oh wait, I know what it was...I had parents that gave a damn and acted like parents! They taught me a set of values, instilled right and wrong into my brain...my fathers been gone more than ten years and I still hear his voice in the back of my head.

So I guess if you let a tv, video game, or a toy raise your kids, and they don't turn out so great...well I guess you've got an easy scapegoat.

[MAB]

Next study, does Lego encourage arson / robbery more than in the past.