Iysk Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 I'd like a Mrs. Claus, and possibly more black characters. Like that Ambulance driver from the Spider Man set or the guard from the Batman asylum. Quote
Cutty Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 Generic Demon / Black Gargoyle Gender: undetermined head: black with yellow or green evil eyes and big, tusk-laden grin. Cheekbone und frowning lines printed in dark-blue headgear: a "devil horns"-attachement similar, yet smaller than, that of SW's Saesee Tiin (sp.?) figure. neckgear: black demonic bat-wings with dark-blue highlights, comparable to PQ's new wings part torso: black with dark-blue muscle print similar to bare chested Dastan of PoP waistwear: a rubbery part to go between hips and torso, comparable to SW's "clone-skirt"-part, yet with a pointy devil's tail attached to the back legs: black, perhaps with some kind of "toe/claw" print similar to the old Adventurers' Pharaoh-figure's toe print This'd be great stuff! Quote
Henchmen4Hire Posted December 31, 2010 Posted December 31, 2010 (edited) Barbarians and Warriors Gender: Male and Female Occupation/print on torso: Barbarians, Marauders, Mercenaries (Conan, Red Sonja, sword and sorcery type characters). Printed light armor, loincloth, etc. Type of headgear: Long unruly hair pieces, horned helms, more red hair! ha ha Type of facial expression: Scowling, laughing, stern, battle cry Color on torso/legs: Flesh or Yellow Accessory: Big swords, new axes, sais, wooden shields Edited December 31, 2010 by DrNightmare Quote
RubeusHagrid Posted January 4, 2011 Posted January 4, 2011 (edited) Gender: M Occupation/print on torso: Postman Type of headgear: Red new style cap Type of facial expression: Any Color on torso/legs: Red Accessory: Brown satchel/ letter Gender: Either Occupation/print on torso: Child with short legs, in beach gear Type of headgear: hair Type of facial expression: smile Color on torso/legs: yellow Accessory: bucket/ spade/ ice cream Gender: F Occupation/print on torso: Fairy Type of headgear: Princess Hair Type of facial expression: Female Smile Color on torso/legs: White/ Pink Accessory: Wand with star on the end. Wings and skirt like this. Gender: M Occupation/print on torso: Drummer Type of headgear: New City Male hair Type of facial expression: male face Color on torso/legs: tan Accessory Drumstick, Drum (S4 paintbrush mould in tan???) More to come Edited January 7, 2011 by RubeusHagrid Quote
tazosaure Posted January 7, 2011 Posted January 7, 2011 Gender: M Occupation: Headless horseman Type of headgear: A pumpkin 'helmet' with holes for the eyes and mouth (similar to the gorilla suit guy) Ideally the pumpkin would have stud on top to allow for a hat. Type of facial expression: N/A Color on torso/legs: black Alternatively the fig could be a scarecrow, I just really want that pumpkin helmet. I can already see it with a LED inside for halloween displays Quote
Gregorovich Posted January 10, 2011 Posted January 10, 2011 (edited) Gender: F Occupation/torso: Indian princess(sari on torso) Hairpiece: black Tamina hair or a new piece, with decorations printed on Legs: dress slope with sari(continued from torso) Face: pretty, happy, possibly jewellery and Bindi Accessories: possibly cape and or veil, mirror Gender: M Occupation/torso: mountaineer(jacket on torso) Hairpiece: s2 skier hat Legs: any Face: determined, tired Accessories: pickaxe, bag, rope Gender: M or F Occupation/torso: burglar(black torso) Hairpiece: black s3 fisherman hat in black Legs: black Face: smug with black mask over eyes Accessories: jewel or money, 2011 backpack Gender: F Occupation/torso: medieval maiden(corset on torso) Hairpiece: princess leia hairpiece in a new colour Legs: dress slope piece with dress printed on it Face: stuck-up or happy or bored Accessories: plate if fruit and jug or mirror I like the idea of the ballet dancer. I think she'd be a useful fig. Edited January 15, 2011 by Gregorovich Quote
jth781 Posted January 11, 2011 Posted January 11, 2011 I have wanted to post my picks for along time. Police Chief With Different Uniform FBI Agent Black suit with FBI on the back with a small badge FBI Agent #2 in classic blue jacket with yellow fbi in print on it with a small badge Police Swat Agent with Accessory Tactical vest with nightstick or riot shield Securing of Evidence Police Officer Barber Butler Golfer with Ball and Club Frenchmaid Fire Chief Roller Bladder TV Anchor Hospital Patient in Gown Mayor Doctor in Lab Coat Surgeon in Scrubs Judge Graduation Student in Cap and Gown Pope Priest Bishop Quote
BasOne Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Roman Legionary 1 Male serious looking face, Roman shirt print on torso, red or green 'skirt' print on legs. With Spear (Pilum) and large rectangle shield and typical roman legionairs helmet and plate armour. Like this: Roman Legionary 2 Same as 1 but with Gladius (Sword) and shield. Roman Centurion Angry/shouting face (CHAAARGE ) Undergarments/shirt print on torso, mail skirt print on legs. Round shield and Gladius (sword) and armour plate on torso. Roman Senator Male serious looking older face. White Toga print on torso and legs. Assecories coeld be parchment scrolls. Roman Emperor (Ceasar) Male serious looking older face, but different from the senator. White with red toga print on arms and legs. Laurel wreath on head. Quote
Pvt. Ryan Posted January 16, 2011 Posted January 16, 2011 Gender: M Occupation: Mad Scientist Face: Goggles with a derranged expression Hairpiece: White or grey Exo-force peice Torso: White labcoat over light blue button-up Legs: White with 2 pockets Accessories: Test tube or Book Gender: F Occupation: Amelia Earhart Face: Smile with lipstick Hairpiece: Aviator Helmet and smaller afro-ish in red Torso: Brown leather bomber jacket with "Earhart" in cursive Legs: Black Accessories: Pilots licence Gender: M Occupation: Lego kid Face: Smile with freckles Hairpiece: blonde male standard (Racecar driver) Torso: A minifigure t-shirt with max on it Legs: short kid blue with pockets Accessories: Recolored sumo minifig award in red with yellow face and blue leg print Gender: M Occupation: Space cadet Face: Like the surfer without facial hair Hairpiece: Red new space helmet Torso: space man from series 1 in red Legs: space man from series 1 in red Accessories: Blue space gun with green beem Gender: M Occupation: Ping-pong player Face: luke face with pupils and in yellow Hairpiece: Irina Spalko hair in black Torso: green shirt reading "Team Lego" and t-shirt arms Legs: grey shorts with black shoes Accessories: Small paddle in tan with blue pad print Gender: F Occupation: Waitress Face: Smiling with red lipstick and mole Hairpiece: Ponytail in black with a red bow printed Torso: blue blouse with a nametag reading "Betty" in cursive Legs: Black shorts Accessories: Red clone wars waist accesory (I always thought it looked like a waiters smock) and bill or round plate brick (without studs, 2x2) with plate and food print Gender: F Occupation: Purple dinosaur (Barney suit) Face: frown with crows feet Hairpiece: Purple dinosaur mask Torso: Purple with green underbelly and green spots on back Legs: Purple with yellow claws/toes Accessories: tail that attaches between legs and torso Gender: F Occupation: Teacher Face: Smile with glasses Hairpiece: PoP Dastan hair in yellow Torso: light orange blouse Legs: tan with pockets Accessories: Pointing stick or geometry book Quote
Haltiamieli Posted January 16, 2011 Posted January 16, 2011 Gender: M Occupation: Mad Scientist Face: Goggles with a derranged expression Hairpiece: White or grey Exo-force peice Torso: White labcoat over light blue button-up Legs: White with 2 pockets Accessories: Test tube or Book Something like this? Quote
lifeinplastic Posted January 16, 2011 Posted January 16, 2011 Gender: M Occupation: NEW Santa Claus Face: Similar to Gnome Hairpiece: NEW Father Christmas Hat (we need a new proper Santa hat to replace the old pirate one!) Torso: Red with Belt and Bulging Belly Legs: Red with printed black boots Accessories: Beard + sack/gift? Gender: F Occupation: Alpine Goatherd Face: Female Hairpiece: Blonde Pigtails Torso: Alpine Blue Dress Legs: Matching Accessories: Dark Tan Goat! Gender: M Occupation: Man with Broken Leg Face: In discomfort Hairpiece: An existing male hair piece in a colour it isn't yet available in. Torso: Light Blue Shirt Legs: Navy with printed plaster cast Accessories: Crutches! Gender: F Occupation: Hairdresser Face: Friendly Female Face with blonde eyebrows (no teeth showing please) Hairpiece: Blonde Wavy Torso: Fashionable with Necklace Legs: White Accessories: Hair dryer and Comb Gender: F Occupation: Librarian Face: Glasses and Grey Eyebrows - (no teeth showing please) Hairpiece: Bob like Series 3 Sumo Wrestler in Light Grey Torso: Mauve Twin Set Legs: Matching Accessories: Book Gender: F Occupation: Florist Face: Female (no teeth showing please) Hairpiece: Brown Irina Spalko Torso: Dungarees in new colour Legs: Matching Accessories: Flowers in orange or light blue colour Quote
AncientCiv Posted January 17, 2011 Posted January 17, 2011 Roman Legionary 1 A Roman soldier minifig with a shield like that would be fantastic! The shield for the LEGO spartan minfig from last year was rather lame IMO. TLG went all out with the shield for the new Gungan soldier in the SW theme. So I know it can be done. Steve Irwin “The Crocodile Hunter” Gender:Male Print on torso:tan Type of headgear: hair Type of facial expression: smile Color on torso/legs: tan shorts Accessory: snake Capuchin Franciscan Monk Gender: Male Print on torso: Brown Robe with white cord Type of headgear: Monk hood Type of facial expression: Contemplative Color on torso/legs: Brown Accessory: staff Trappist Monk Gender: Male Print on torso: white robe with black scapular & brown belt Type of headgear: monk hood Type of facial expression: contemplative Color on torso/legs: white habit with black scapular Accessory: book Cistercian Monk Gender: Male Print on torso: white robe Type of headgear: monk hood Type of facial expression: contemplative Color on torso/legs: white robe Benedictine Monk Gender: Male Print on torso: black robe Type of headgear: monk hood Type of facial expression: contemplative Color on torso/legs: black robe Accessory: staff or book Vietnamese boatman Gender: Male This: http://www.photoradar.com/photos/121283/dvlazar/cheerful-vietnamese-boatman Russian Orthodox Bishop/Priest Gender: Male This: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stjohn_shanghai.png Also… Jewish Rabbi Buddha Hindu Priest Dalai Lama Lord Krishna Socrates Queen of England Opera singer Leonardo da Vinci Albert Einstien Quote
Puck Posted January 20, 2011 Posted January 20, 2011 (edited) Gender: Female Occupation/print on torso: Librarian/sweatshirt Type of headgear: long mane of blonde hair Type of facial expression: smiling, wearing glasses Color on torso/legs: any Accessory: a book, maybe a pencil of some kind Gender: Male Occupation/print on torso: superhero/ his logo Type of headgear: long brown hair Type of facial expression: smiling Color on torso/legs: any Accessory: pet spider Edited January 20, 2011 by Puck Quote
JamesBenjamin Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 How about more grey hair? Old people in general, maybe. I went to make a grandma & grandpa a while back for something and realized I only have 2 grey hair parts! (Toy shop guy in the christmas set & obi wan from the speeder set). Quote
Mr. Elijah Timms Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 (edited) Haven't added anything to this thread in a long time. Thought of these a few days ago: Gender: Male Occupation/print on torso: Hobo, patchwork jacket Type of headgear: sloppy hat Type of facial expression: sleepy, forlorn, disheveled Color on torso/legs: Browns, blues Accessory: Wand/stick with clip-on bag to sling over shoulder Gender: Male/Female Occupation/print on torso: Any Type of headgear: Any Type of facial expression: upbeat, smiling Color on torso/legs: any Accessory: WHEELCHAIR!!! Diversity is good! Edited January 21, 2011 by Mr. Elijah Timms Quote
fred67 Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 (edited) Ok, I'm late to this thread (I've seen it but am usually pressed for time). I will skim through, but I doubt I'm repeating (at least the first ones). One thing I REALLY like about Series 4 is the painter, and I'd like to see more of the "arts" being represented... perhaps a sculptor. I would also like to see more interesting themes for girls. My daughter is on a dance company, to explain the first two: Gender: Female Occupation/print on torso: Ballet Dancer Type of headgear: Hair/Bun (like the Sumo Wrestler) Type of facial expression: Female, smiling, maybe pink cheeks. Color on torso/legs: black or pink torso with bare arms, pale white legs (like stockings), pink or black feet (matches torso) Accessory: ? Gender: Male Occupation/print on torso: Ballet Dancer Type of headgear: just hair. Type of facial expression: neutral. Color on torso/legs: black with bare arms. Accessory: ? My son does mixed martial arts... Gender: Male/Female Occupation/print on torso: Martial Artist Type of headgear: Just hair. Type of facial expression: Neutral/Serious Color on torso/legs: (*) See below for variations Accessory: various belt colors (perhaps 1x2 plates with completely open holes?), perhaps a broken board. (*) Variations: torso with bare chest and arms OR Gi (white or black, which would work both with male and females), white or black legs to match the Gi. Really, though, ultimately I would like to see an increase in the availability of a variety of minifigure pieces from PAB... more heads, plain torsos and legs (that we can detail ourselves), more hair. They should do an expansive version of the "build a minifigure" from the stores online, perhaps even doing sticker sheets instead of printed torsos (I prefer printed of course, but I'm trying to think more realistically). Plain torsos + a sticker sheet for martial arts or ballet, or any number of some suggestions already given (scientists and such). A great example could be any team sports player - where the sticker sheet could have a variety of numbers and someone could make a whole team. Edit: wow... you guys are good; not only did I see ballet dancers, but coal minors (I was thinking of that, too) and a lot of ideas that ended up as collectible minifigures! Edited January 21, 2011 by fred67 Quote
ka.lego Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 Forgive me in advance for the novel... I have a tendency... ...Actually, more female minifigs all round would be super nice. I'd love to see a female only collectable set... it would go a long way to redressing the horrendous gender imbalance in my minifig collection. Thanks so much to gabe and others for bringing up the deep gender imbalance in LEGO minifigs. For my tastes, not enough AFOL's seem visibly concerned, though I've seen some positive steps in the right direction in the form of forum posts, great publications like BrickJournal doing spotlights on female enthusiasts, etc. When it comes to something I love like LEGO, I'm especially vocal about gender imbalance. One of the reasons I love LEGO so much is that they promote imaginative play by giving us relatively abstract minifigs that we can use as simple "templates" for human beings. This lets each of us "create worlds" by dictating the types of people we want to see and interact with in these worlds. It's classic "good play". Unfortunately, when there is a major gender imbalance in terms of the sheer availability of female vs. male minifigs coupled by the still limited roles pre-assigned to LEGO female minifigs, there's a sort of "agenda setting" effect that almost makes it tough not to create male dominated LEGO worlds. Out of curiosity (and of course, with the hopes of finding data to help prove a point), I went through all fifteen pages of this thread to get a sense of the kinds of minifigs we, as global AFOLs, are asking for. I basically went through all the posts and noted how many females and males were requested. If a poster listed "either" or "both", I added one count to both female and male. If a poster didn't state it, I didn't count it in either unless it was a historical figure or somehow obvious (eg a drawing, or a sex specific name like "fireMAN" or "policeMAN"). There were 15 pages of posts, so I more than likely screwed up a few times, but given the data, I don't think it matters too much since the disparity's huge between requests for females and males. Oh, and I did leave a few out by folks like mo123567 and tazosaure who just provided long lists of names without details (btw I loved many of their suggestions, for the record), just because it was too hard to accurately determine if they intended to request female or male minifigs, etc. With that said, the results... We posted ideas for the creation of 581 new minifigs total... Total requests for females were 167 (29%) Total requests for males were 414 (71%) This runs similiar to a male dominated minifig population from TLG based on the terribly low number of female characters in almost all of their themes. Below are some examples. (NOTE: These are only individual characters, so I didn't count multiple versions of say Kai or Cole from Ninjago, which would only make the female-male disparity even bigger): Ninjago: 1 female (14%), 6 males (86%) ----- Didn't count skeletons...too much room for controversy...ha. But if I did...well... Pharaoh's Quest: 1 female (14%), 6 males (86%) ----- Again, didn't count mummies but did include Amset-Ra. Atlantis: 2 female (18%), 9 males (82%) ----- Didn't count fishy-folk but did include Poseidon statue and Atlantis Emperor cuz it wasn't Atlantis "Empress". Pirates: 10 female (9%), 103 males (91%) ----- Ouch! Didn't count skellies. In the Real World (according to the US CIA's statistics) the breakdown is more like... At birth: 46.5% female, 53% male Age 15 - Age 64: 49% female, 51% male Age 65 - : 60.5% female, 39.5% male So the way I read the data, we're 1) requesting a male-dominated minifig world and 2) getting a male-dominated one from TLG. It's not an indictment of us or TLG; I'm not trying to demonize us as male supremacists, misogynists, or as Little Rascal wannabes creating a "She Man Woman Haters Club" (I just dated myself) within LEGO. It's just what I see happening in a hobby I love and it's also something that's easily changeable...provided all parties—us as enthusiasts/consumer and TLG as producers—are first and foremost aware. (If you're still bothering to read this, thanks for getting us one step closer.) I'll stop there with my analysis. I have more ideas around this, as to why this is, how we can change it, concerns about the types of female characters we request and are offered by TLG, etc etc etc but I'd like to get folks' feedback. Also, I'm sorry if this wasn't the best thread for it. It came up recently in the Ninjago forum and then I started reading this and something "clicked". I'm new, so if there's a better spot, please point the way. Oh, and for the record, I do work as a teacher, but I've been out sick for the last few days, allowing me waaaaaaay to much time to do things like this. Ha. Full disclosure: I'm about to have my first child in May. This has definitely reemphasized my desire to see great toys like LEGO do a better job at upholding the social position of women. As an educator, I'm convinced that a child's upbringing definitely has an impact in what her/his worldview will be; this is either reinforced or transformed by the child's play habits. I want my baby, regardless of what it's sex or gender is, to live and play in worlds where there are just as many opportunities for women and men to feel free and empowered. I happen to be having a boy, and, as a "boy" myself, I think it's especially important that he gets the right messages about sex and gender at an early age. After all, many of us here already know what the most educationally exciting experiences of his childhood are gonna look like: Hours spent playing with LEGO. (With my luck, he'll think LEGO's are lame. Ha!) Thanks again if you took the time to read this. Extra thanks if you take the time to consider it. Thrilled appreciation if you respond. Quote
Navy Trooper Fenson Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 Gender: male Occupation/print on torso: Barbecue chefs apron Type of headgear: chefs hat or the new cap mold from the rapper/baseballer in a different colour Type of facial expression: get creative Color on torso/legs: /white torso / darkblue jeans Accessory: A grill like vaguely resembling this one consisting of three new parts: upper and under bowl (possible reuse as flower pot and for dinnerware) and a tripod designed like a reverse version of the flower part with the stud above for connection with the bowl and with the three legs having the exact same length, unlike the flower part (reuse could be as tripod for a hobby photograph and Star Wars E-Web Blasters) Quote
fred67 Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 We posted ideas for the creation of 581 new minifigs total... Total requests for females were 167 (29%) Total requests for males were 414 (71%) In the Real World (according to the US CIA's statistics) the breakdown is more like... At birth: 46.5% female, 53% male Age 15 - Age 64: 49% female, 51% male Age 65 - : 60.5% female, 39.5% male Thanks for doing all that work, and if you look a couple of posts above yours, you'll see I requested two different types of figures - with a male and female version of each. Yes, I'm still gender-typing, because the ballet dancers were with respect to my daughter, but the martial artists were with respect to my son - but I did ask for both genders of each, and I did not dictate what my kids chose to do. In fact, I asked over and over again if my daughter would like to do martial arts (which I think was wonderfully helpful for my son) and she declined, despite the fact that half the class is, in fact, girls. It's a hard stat to noodle through... you're stats aren't wrong, but I don't think the conclusion you reach is a fair one. 1. Most AFOLs are males; they sometimes ask for female figures to flesh out "real life," but they are mostly males - if they ask for football players, baseball players, soccer players... well, in professional sports, for good or ill, there are many more male athletes, and most people follow male teams. 2. If you ask for historical figures, like pirates and Roman legionnaires, they are all men... you can't be gender neutral and true to real life when talking about these historical themes. All the time I'm asking for medieval women (among other things) for trades, since I'm into the castle theme - but even if I have 50/50 ratio of townspeople, the soldiers are all male.... ultimately there are many more male figures in my medieval setting, and that's not gender bias, that's just how it is. That said, I certainly am not denying some bias in LEGO sets, but we are actually seeing it getting better and better, IMO. We ARE getting castle town sets with women, city sets have more women, the sets that are generally for the older crowd (like the modular buildings) are pretty gender neutral... but certain themes just don't lend themselves to being equal. Even when we look at collectibles, which started a huge debate last year about LEGO and gender bias, and I agree they could do better, but when you have a line of characters - like the historic "warriors," for example, you won't see women... as far as I know, historically speaking, it would have been pretty strange to see a female Samurai, Ninja, Sumo, or Spartan. So if you then go and look at the suggestions and complain about the ratio, you have to first remove the figures for which there would be no female counterpart anyway. How many female werewolves in movies? How many female mummies? How many female wolfmen (wolfwoman?) Even when they happened - even though there have been classic female vampires, there's got to be at least a 10 to 1 ratio of classic movie vampire men to women. So... I guess what I'm saying, if you went back through your list and eliminated characters for which a female wouldn't make any sense, I think your stats would paint a very different picture, even if bias would still exist. On the flip side, while I'm ecstatic that we have a female tennis player, I'm disappointed we don't have a male one. It goes both ways (even if more one way than the other). I like the Hula dancer, but I'd love to see matching native Hawaiian men (possibly with drums or something). Conversely, I'd like to see cave women, native American women... most of the characters could have a match of the opposite sex, and I think it would be better if they did. Quote
mikey Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 Forgive me in advance for the novel... I have a tendency... ... I found your post very interesting, and was actually surprised to see the results. I would have assumed that female characters would have been requested more than they actually have. I personally love to get a new female minifig because they can create a more realistic MOC world when I need them, and get the sense generally that most AFOL would like to have a nice balance of male and female characters to use. Of course it could be argued that this data is skewed, but for a general sense it does raise a good issue. One way of reading this data could be to say we are all ten year old boys at heart! But seriously it would be interesting to see if the roles people had allocated to male could easily be switched to female. I totally agree with your point about creating an 'awareness' of this issue, and this is not a discussion about misogyny. To look at this from a different angle, we could say that sex is biologically determined, whilst gender (and by definition, gender role) is a social construct. So maybe roles have been allocated to male, when a female fig could fulfill them, which might be related to a learnt sense of the perceived 'correct' gender for that particular character request. Quote
ka.lego Posted January 21, 2011 Posted January 21, 2011 Thanks for doing all that work, and if you look a couple of posts above yours, you'll see I requested two different types of figures - with a male and female version of each. No problem. It was actually gratifying to see some data, despite the dataset's admitted flaws. Just to clarify, I did see your post as well a few others where people requested both male and female. If it wasn't clear, I counted those by adding a 1 in both the female and male columns. And still, the numbers of figure requests leave a huge gap between female and male. And regarding the anecdote about your kids, for the record, I don't think that's really an example of negative "gender-typing" at all. Not sure if that's what you got from my post. Again, it wasn't an indictment of anyone, just an observation of a long-standing trend that needs to be examined more closely by AFOL's and TLG, in my opinion. 1. Most AFOLs are males; they sometimes ask for female figures to flesh out "real life," but they are mostly males - if they ask for football players, baseball players, soccer players... well, in professional sports, for good or ill, there are many more male athletes, and most people follow male teams. Granted. And again, I'm a 34 year old male AFOL. So yeah, I get that we'd have biases that might make us more often than not want guy minifigs. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be critical of and challenge our own biases nor should we simply accept this as a valid reason for why we'd ask for more dude minifigs. And I definitely don't think that the fact that "most people follow male teams" somehow implies that it's okay that we only get male athlete minifigs. Why not reflect the WNBA, or even the thousands of female athletes that play baseball, softball, football, american football, volleyball, tennis, track, etc at all levels, be it professionally or at the college, high school, junior high etc levels? As a high school teacher, I work with female high school athletes daily, and I've often heard them have to assert their skill to their male counterparts and have to defend themselves against the "argument killer": "Well there ain't no girls in the NBA." (Admitted, many times the word "girls" is replaced by something offensive and colorful. ) But, logically speaking, it's not an actual end to the argument, just an opening for a better line of questioning. And I believe a toy like LEGO is a great environment to remind young children—girls and boys alike—that all avenues are open to them, regardless of gender. By simply being more intentionally inclusive, I believe that a strong message is sent. (And an equally strong message is sent when we unquestioningly allow the "default" male-dominance.) 2. If you ask for historical figures, like pirates and Roman legionnaires, they are all men... you can't be gender neutral and true to real life when talking about these historical themes. All the time I'm asking for medieval women (among other things) for trades, since I'm into the castle theme - but even if I have 50/50 ratio of townspeople, the soldiers are all male.... ultimately there are many more male figures in my medieval setting, and that's not gender bias, that's just how it is. Actually, history has shown that the stories of powerful women and women leaders have often been overlooked, overshadowed or outright ignored by historians. As a student of history and history educator, I'm the first to admit to students that history is a work in progress; just because the past has passed doesn't mean we've recorded it all. It's common knowledge amongst historians that the contributions of women in society may go largely unrecorded or misrecorded, especially in patriarchal (male dominated) societies. Now I'm not saying that we'll likely find out any time soon that there were secretly scores of female Roman legionnaires, but in more fringe circles like those of the Pirates, there were many female swashbucklers [see article] who held their own. They just aren't a part of the mainstream lore a la "Treasure Island" because, again, those were filtered by male storytellers who did so, not out of a great male conspiracy, but the "natural" male bias we've already sorta addressed above. (By the way, apparently there were female gladiators in ancient Rome [see article] as well as "Amazonian" conscripts who fought for Britain's Roman Army [see article]. I'd love minifigs of those...or three or four!) That said, I certainly am not denying some bias in LEGO sets, but we are actually seeing it getting better and better, IMO. We ARE getting castle town sets with women, city sets have more women, the sets that are generally for the older crowd (like the modular buildings) are pretty gender neutral... but certain themes just don't lend themselves to being equal. IMO there's plenty of room for further improvement, and there's actually no reason to not improve. But more on that later. I sort of get what you're saying about certain themes not lending themselves to being equal, but I still think the degree of the inequality is staggering. First off, let's go with a theme that's meant to reflect the "real world" like LEGO City. I'm looking at the recent catalog with January's sets, and of the 21 new minifigs being offered, only 2 are female. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we have to enforce some sort of strict, mechanical 50-50 rule across all sets, but we have to acknowledge that over the last few decades TLG has had something on average closer to 30-70 in favor of men. (I haven't done the research, but perhaps I will, if it seems like folks would be moved by it.) And that's a problem. Now what about themes like Ninjago, which is the newest LEGO offering and should, therefore, reflect some sort of improvement? It's not really based in history. It's complete fantasy. So actually, it doesn't have any of the limitations you outlined above to keep it from portraying at least a little glimmer of improvement towards a more equal gender balance. Why then is there 1 female character, and based on the animated movie, why is she just a main character's sister who barely has any screen-time, playing a marginal role in the story? The "that's-just-the-way-it-is" narrative doesn't hold up here and the decision to make the 4 main ninjas all boys is at best a missed opportunity. In my original post I mentioned that I didn't count the skeletons, but from the movie it's clear that they're all boys. It's hard to see this boys-club of a theme as being much sign of improvement. (See my numbers for Pharaoh's Quest and Atlantis which are also newer themes.) Why won't LEGO and resistant/hesitant AFOLs take some notes from Hollywood and other traditionally "male-leaning" industries like video games who've eased up a little in relegating women to the margins of their stories? Sure, most of the traditional monster movies have male heroes, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer was both brilliant, empowering, and refreshing. Sure, maybe most of the stories we heard growing up about treasure hunters were rugged dudes like Indiana Jones or Jake Raines, but Lara Croft was a pretty badass raider of tombs who made the genre new and exciting for women and men alike. There's a lot of potential for LEGO to follow these leads by creating new, exciting female characters, and the result would only mean fun play options for kids and AFOLs alike. So... I guess what I'm saying, if you went back through your list and eliminated characters for which a female wouldn't make any sense, I think your stats would paint a very different picture, even if bias would still exist. And what I question is how the inclusion of female minifigures in any number of roles "wouldn't make sense". I think there's an assumption there that has to be explored more. ...most of the characters could have a match of the opposite sex, and I think it would be better if they did. Exactly. Whole-heartedly agree. And really, that's all I'm talking about: Making LEGO "better if they did." :thumbup: I found your post very interesting, and was actually surprised to see the results. I would have assumed that female characters would have been requested more than they actually have. I personally love to get a new female minifig because they can create a more realistic MOC world when I need them, and get the sense generally that most AFOL would like to have a nice balance of male and female characters to use. Of course it could be argued that this data is skewed, but for a general sense it does raise a good issue. YES! When a MOC calls for it, the possibility of realism through more available female characters would be a huge "win" for AFOLs. But to note, many MOCs deal with themes that have little to do with what's perceived to be "realistic", such as SkyFi, Mechs, Post Apoc, Fantasy/Castle, Star Wars, etc., but even those tend to be pretty male-centric. You and I could go on Flickr and look at custom minifigs and count the males versus females, and... Heh. But yes, I agree that the results were surprising and interesting. And I also agree that the data is skewed based on who is on Eurobricks and posting. But that's why I included the rough survey of the TLG's minifig offerings across several themes. Thanks to sites like Brickset, it's actually pretty easy to do. Or even just by flipping through the Minifig book or sticker books, it's strikingly apparent...if one's conscious of it. And yes, as a guy, it's a challenge to step out of our filter to try and see things a little differently, but when you do, the numbers do start to shout at you. One way of reading this data could be to say we are all ten year old boys at heart! But seriously it would be interesting to see if the roles people had allocated to male could easily be switched to female. I totally agree with your point about creating an 'awareness' of this issue, and this is not a discussion about misogyny. To look at this from a different angle, we could say that sex is biologically determined, whilst gender (and by definition, gender role) is a social construct. So maybe roles have been allocated to male, when a female fig could fulfill them, which might be related to a learnt sense of the perceived 'correct' gender for that particular character request. EXACTLY!!! Thanks for spelling that out so clearly. It's funny how, when I teach the difference between "sex" and "gender", it's a difficult concept for young folks to grasp. Many assume they are much more tightly linked than they are. This of course leads to difficulty when students of a certain sex start to express gender behaviors that challenge the traditional roles, like a boy who's into fashion or a girl who wants to get into mixed-martial arts. (True story...one of my senior girls is a badass MMA fighter whose won several local tournaments. Without fail, both females and males have questioned her sexuality, her true "sex", and even her beauty. Her dad had a hard time with it too. Ugh. He came around though once she started winning!!! Also, I think he realized he didn't have to worry about a boy taking advantage of her. Ha.) I'm not saying fixing LEGO will solve all this, but it sure would be a step in the right direction. Here's a related article I found where a father laments how tricky it is to navigate the gender-pigeonholing that is seemingly everywhere while trying to raise his daughter. Especially relevant because he actually uses a LEGO example. Thank you both for the thoughtful comments. This has been a great discussion and has fueled more food for thought. Quote
tazosaure Posted January 22, 2011 Posted January 22, 2011 (edited) Oh, and I did leave a few out by folks like mo123567 and tazosaure who just provided long lists of names without details (btw I loved many of their suggestions, for the record), just because it was too hard to accurately determine if they intended to request female or male minifigs, etc. Sorry about that, I hadn't seen there were guidelines when I posted my first reply. To be honest I only clearly had in mind 4 females (marching band, basketball player, fairy mermaid) out of the 16 suggestions (but 2, the grim reaper and the little gey alien are kind of genderless). I think we got 2 females out of 16 minifigs in series one, and 3/16 in following series (including series 4). So I did a little better than TLG in my suggestions but not that much, apparently I'm still pretty biased too... No matter my suggestions, I'm totally with you for more females minifigs! That said, I wanted to point out that even though I've been a little bit disappointed by the new community minifigs set for other reasons, I think we can command lego for reaching gender parity on that one (including a police woman and a fire woman). It's really a step in the good direction, especially compared to the previous community workers set which had like 4 females out of 30 minifigs... The fact that this new one is released as part of the LEGO Education brand might have helped. (The 9349 Fairytale and Historic Minifigures set doesn't do as well with 8 females versus 12 males). Hopefully we'll see a rise in female minifigs with series 5, and personally I wouldn't mind getting repeats as long as the gender of the figure is different (For example: female surfer in series 4 => yay, male skateboarder in series 4 -even if better than the original one- => nay) Edited January 22, 2011 by tazosaure Quote
fred67 Posted January 22, 2011 Posted January 22, 2011 (edited) But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be critical of and challenge our own biases nor should we simply accept this as a valid reason for why we'd ask for more dude minifigs. There's no point in criticizing our biases when we ask for a male baseball or basketball or (American) football player... those are male dominated sports, so if we want to create a "real" sports scene that is easily recognizable, it's going to be dominated by males. That leads us to this: And I definitely don't think that the fact that "most people follow male teams" somehow implies that it's okay that we only get male athlete minifigs. Why not reflect the WNBA, or even the thousands of female athletes that play baseball, softball, football, american football, volleyball, tennis, track, etc at all levels, be it professionally or at the college, high school, junior high etc levels? Because TLG isn't in the business of creating some sexually egalitarian society... they sell toys and make money, if they decide to make a basketball theme they are going to do the one that sells the most. When 100 times as many people follow NBA basketball as WNBA, it's NOT a valid complaint against TLG that they choose to represent the NBA instead. The same can be said of just about every sport except tennis... and lo and behold, we got a female tennis player! You can't blame TLG for what goes on "in real life." You can argue that they are simply encouraging the stereotypes, but that's completely disingenuous when you understand they are following real life, not leading it. As a high school teacher, I work with female high school athletes daily, and I've often heard them have to assert their skill to their male counterparts and have to defend themselves against the "argument killer": "Well there ain't no girls in the NBA." That's right, there aren't. I'm sure there could be, but it would always be a male dominated sport, that's why the WNBA exists. But, logically speaking, it's not an actual end to the argument, just an opening for a better line of questioning. And I believe a toy like LEGO is a great environment to remind young children—girls and boys alike—that all avenues are open to them, regardless of gender. I'll repeat - it's not TLG's job to create a sexually egalitarian society (since it's impossible anyway - like it or not, men and women are different). By simply being more intentionally inclusive, I believe that a strong message is sent. As far as TLG goes, that message is "we lose money because our core audience doesn't want WNBA, they want NBA." When "real life" creates a demand for it, I'm sure TLG will respond accordingly. It's not that there's not some level in which you're making a good point - surely TLG wants as many girls as boys, they'd stand to make tons more money, but they can't force girls to buy their products and when they've tried "girly" sets they didn't sell well, is it really hard to blame them? So they are doing what they can - they are already doing it, they are including more females in their sets, and they are including more "strong" female roles as well. They are including females in sports where it makes sense; and I'll throw in that I'd like to see some more "executive" females (I like the train theme - there are females, but it's generally the guys with the newspapers drinking coffee on the train, and it feels like the women are along for the ride - but then again, I never said there wasn't room for improvement). Actually, history has shown that the stories of powerful women and women leaders have often been overlooked, overshadowed or outright ignored by historians. As a student of history and history educator, I'm the first to admit to students that history is a work in progress; just because the past has passed doesn't mean we've recorded it all. It's common knowledge amongst historians that the contributions of women in society may go largely unrecorded or misrecorded, especially in patriarchal (male dominated) societies. I don't disagree with you, but what do you want TLG to do about it? The core audience wants Spartans, Legionnaires, Vikings, they don't want Marie Antoinette or Susan B. Anthony; you can't suggest TLG needs to satisfy a fringe audience. ... but in more fringe circles like those of the Pirates, there were many female swashbucklers Well, then it may be of no surprise that TLG has actually made many female pirates and, in fact, I just built one a couple of weeks ago at the LEGO Store's build-a-minifigure section, and it's not just me putting pieces together, it was a female face with an eye patch. (By the way, apparently there were female gladiators in ancient Rome [see article] as well as "Amazonian" conscripts who fought for Britain's Roman Army [see article]. I'd love minifigs of those...or three or four!) I'd love minifigures of those, too, but again you have to be realistic... for every 1 female gladiator, how many males were there? So if LEGO is going to make one, which one should they make? And I have to suggest that releasing an Amazonian would be counterproductive; how many feminists will whine and complain about that one? IMO there's plenty of room for further improvement, and there's actually no reason to not improve. But more on that later. I sort of get what you're saying about certain themes not lending themselves to being equal, but I still think the degree of the inequality is staggering. First off, let's go with a theme that's meant to reflect the "real world" like LEGO City. I'm looking at the recent catalog with January's sets, and of the 21 new minifigs being offered, only 2 are female. That's bad, but again I have to suggest that if 90% of street cops are men, that any company making a toy representing what you're most likely to see on the street would make a set with men; same thing with fire "persons." Don't get me wrong... even at a 10-1 ratio, it would be great to see 2 to 1 in sets. Like I said, I have no problem with it. Now what about themes like Ninjago, which is the newest LEGO offering and should, therefore, reflect some sort of improvement? It's not really based in history. It's complete fantasy. So actually, it doesn't have any of the limitations you outlined above to keep it from portraying at least a little glimmer of improvement towards a more equal gender balance. Why then is there 1 female character, and based on the animated movie, why is she just a main character's sister who barely has any screen-time, playing a marginal role in the story? The "that's-just-the-way-it-is" narrative doesn't hold up here and the decision to make the 4 main ninjas all boys is at best a missed opportunity. Perhaps, or perhaps it's because it's an action theme and I don't recall reading much about female Ninjas? Look, honestly, I'm agreeing that I'd like to see more female minifigures, but I am arguing that criticizing TLG for giving their core audience what they want is not helpful, and neither is criticizing AFOLs for saying they want Spartans, Romans, Baseball players, football players, etc., etc.. You can't make people want a female gladiator when the vignette they're dreaming of making doesn't reflect that. Are we supposed to feel guilty about it? Even though I want more women, if they make a gladiator, I want it to be male. Sorry. Edited January 22, 2011 by fred67 Quote
BasOne Posted January 22, 2011 Posted January 22, 2011 How's this for an idea... Doctor Overbuild Duke Exeter Vanda Darkflame Hael Storm And Baron Typhonus I'd love LEGO to do a LU theme, i want an army of stromlings But i doubt they are gonna do it, so the collectible series i a perfect oppertunity to do characters from LU. Quote
Klaus-Dieter Posted January 23, 2011 Posted January 23, 2011 I'd love LEGO to do a LU theme, i want an army of stromlings But i doubt they are gonna do it, so the collectible series i a perfect oppertunity to do characters from LU. Please don't understand this as a personal attack, BasOne, but I really wouldn't like TLG to release characters of a computer game or movie. So we'd go in the direction of licensed minifigs - and that's everything other than I want. Here are some more wishes: Archaeologist male white hat surprised white shirt, white pants small brush, skull, bone Wild West Miner male black hat perspiring tan shirt, brown pants pick-axe, oil lamp Woman In Brown Bear Suit female brown bear "hat" perspiring brown shirt with printing, brown pants piece of meat Punchinello male green long hat laughing brown cotton jacket printing, blue pants wooden swatter (to beat up the crocodile from series 5) Model female long blond hair (like the coastguard woman from series 2) friendly silvern shirt with pink jacket, pink pants silvern handbag Klaus-Dieter Quote
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