LEGO's Jabba's Palace, Star Wars, and accusations of racism

[lightningtiger]

Okay so they are upset that the top of the palace looks like the top of that famous mosque and complaining about the treatment of Jabba the Hutt.....gee, someone cares about him ?

Aren't there more problems in the world seriously to deal with than a toy with parts inspired by a mosque perhaps.....well maybe Lucas's art direction team used it for inspiration so why don't they go him....no, wait Disney is bigger with bigger legal team right ?

[kibosh]

This is just absurd.

A case could definitely be made over the actual portrayal of Jabba's Palace in the Star Wars films having offensive cultural undertones...

It can? Offensive to whom?

What I'm REALLY waiting for are all the feminazis complaining about CITY (well all LEGO 'cept Friends) is aimed solely to boys and thus is 'unfair', 'too masculine', 'fvcks up gender roles', 'and contains not enough pink' ... afterall it's been like this since TLG started, right?

Feminazis? Really? Your mother must be proud.

Wooooow. Someone has WAY too much time on their hands. It's like the dude measuring and complaining about getting an 11 inch sandwich instead of a foot long at Subway.

I thought the 11 inch Subway thing was quite funny, actually.

[cortman]

So far it looks like they're the only people that have stepped up and said "Jabba looks vaguely like us!"

If the shoe fits....

[Faefrost]

Heck even in Star Wars, wasn't Jabba's Palace an actual monastery that had been taken over by Jabba's Criminal empire and thugs?

[Andy D]

what makes me sad about this is that there are so many real problems in the world (many of them involving racism and real forms of prejudice/discrimination) that are not being addressed. the fact that anyone is taking this seriously is pathetic.

I just re-read this thread again, and this quoted post says it all, more elegently than even some of he longer posts. Read this quoted post again!

Andy D

[1974]

Your mother must be proud.

She is

[Bobsy]

what makes me sad about this is that there are so many real problems in the world (many of them involving racism and real forms of prejudice/discrimination) that are not being addressed. the fact that anyone is taking this seriously is pathetic.

The Daily Mail running the story does not indicate that it is being taken seriously.

Fun fact: there is a list of all the things that the Mail has claimed can cause cancer and prevent it. Both lists are huge. Many things appear on both.

[Sam892]

The Daily Mail is the worst paper in the world.

I can't believe LEGO replied to this, its such a ridiculous statement. Just goes to show that no matter where you are in the world, there's always some idiot who rally's the uninformed against something they no very little about.

Then again if he doesn't want Jabbas palace set he can happily give it to me haha.

[Sir Walter Maugham]

I'm pretty surprised that Lego responded to this. I don't think this warrants anything but a "Damn, you people are stupid.". But I'm not in Public Relations.

I'm also surprised at how many people are bashing this news site. There is nothing Right or Left about this story, it's just something to tell.

[vynsane]

The Daily Mail is the worst paper in the world.

I dunno, the NY Daily News gives it a run for its money.

The topic was shut down over at Brickset before I could get many laughs over there, so I'm recycling my joke here...

Unfortunately, the main distinctive unifying feature is that both the model and the real mosque feature Han Solo frozen in carbonite mounted on the wall, and this lends credence to the claim.

[Navy Trooper Fenson]

Heck even in Star Wars, wasn't Jabba's Palace an actual monastery that had been taken over by Jabba's Criminal empire and thugs?

The turkish site acknowledged this surprisingly but still says that it would endorse the thought that the orient and asia is full of criminals.

I am really surprised how this news story took off so well. After seeing it on Hothbricks I was already surprised because over in Austria and Germany people rage about pointless stuff all the time and everyone mostly ignores it.

But seeing how LEGO actually went and made a response I am rather disappointed how they couldn´t answer the bullet point questions at the end of the original press release.

A few excerpts I translated from http://www.turkischegemeinde.at/index.php?id=312

- Since World War II there is a strong rejection of war toys. Why is it still being produced and sold by LEGO?

- Does LEGO find toy guns and war toys suited for children and adults (parents, pedagogues, therapists)?

- If they do, why are toy guns and war toys suited for children?

- If no, why does LEGO produce war toys and toy guns?

They somehow have a point there, even though it ignores that nearly every toy company sells toys based around conflict and war.

[TheRedGuy]

Just your average incomprehensible stupidity, move along.

what makes me sad about this is that there are so many real problems in the world (many of them involving racism and real forms of prejudice/discrimination) that are not being addressed. the fact that anyone is taking this seriously is pathetic.

I'm not saying this is a problem, but how is a small problem not a problem because there are bigger problems in the world? A problem is still a problem, other wise you wouldn't use the word problem. (That's a lot of problems)

[1974]

Kids mimic adult behaviour. When adults are no longer killing eachother in wars, kids will stop playing that too

I'm confident that kids in the middle ages were playing with wooden swords and neolithic children was throwing small spears as well

Such is human behaviour

So they don't have a point. Especially with the first point, I'm quite sure there have never been more toy weapons than now

One funny bit I read though is a complaint that some of the (LEGO) characters in Jabba's Palace looks 'too much' like local folk and thus mocking them .. pretty neat the GL could foresee that in '83

I wonder if TLG mailed them a DVD of 'Return of the Jedi'?

[Aanchir]

It can? Offensive to whom?

Well, taking that part of my quote out of context as you have done, to people from countries that have this sort of architecture, on which Jabba's Palace was clearly based. With that said, my comment clearly said a case COULDN'T be made (or more specifically, "a case could be made if not for the fact that it basically is just an extension of the already-established architecture of Tatooine, which was chosen for geographic (desert setting) rather than cultural associations.") Quote mining is no good, and frankly I don't like the implication that I don't agree this is a non-issue.

[Zaterdag]

This is rediculous. Muslims seriously just complain about anything they can, its annoying. Every time I read the news or watch it on TV there's another piece of Muslims freaking out over trivial bull crap.

I really hope LEGO does not give them an apology. The world needs to stop bending over backwards just to appease these people.

What I'm REALLY waiting for are all the feminazis complaining about CITY (well all LEGO 'cept Friends) is aimed solely to boys and thus is 'unfair', 'too masculine', 'fvcks up gender roles', 'and contains not enough pink' ... afterall it's been like this since TLG started, right?

Oh well do I have a surprise for you!

Part 1

Part 2

Edited January 24, 2013 by Zaterdag

[strangely]

They somehow have a point there, even though it ignores that nearly every toy company sells toys based around conflict and war.

But it's definitely not a strong point, after all their picking on a set based on a PG film...

And they act like this is super violent, I mean there's only a few fantasy style blasters included and I think an axe. This hardly counts as a war toy, at best this is a skirmish.

Now if they wanted to pick on sets like the battlepacks and some of the Lord of the Rings stuff I would understand that a little bit more as those are conflicts in a war (An overly fantasy based war, but a war nonetheless). Instead they set their sights on a set that revolves around rescuing a kidnapped friend.

And worst of all why is it up to Lego to answer for violence. After all it's the movie industry that targets these movies at kids, it's the studios that make toys deals and tie-ins. If someone is offended by the violence shouldn't they blame the movie rather than blame the toy (Which at worst let's you reenact Looney Tune levels of violence).

[BrickG]

Oh well do I have a surprise for you!

The difference here is the Jabba's Palace stuff is crap. I hate to say it but I agree with those videos when it comes to Lego and girls. While I don't agree with everything in them I can say Lego does absolutely nothing to help the stereotyping of the genders...

Edited January 25, 2013 by Fugazi
removed vids -- no need to quote them

[allanp]

I bet 99.999% of muslims are saying the same things we are. The daily fail never gave a sh%t about anything or anyone or the damage they cause just as long as they sell a few papers.

[Marvelfan120]

Just your average incomprehensible stupidity, move along.

I'm not saying this is a problem, but how is a small problem not a problem because there are bigger problems in the world? A problem is still a problem, other wise you wouldn't use the word problem. (That's a lot of problems)

True but I never said anything about the size of a problem just that there are real problems (big and small) that are not being addressed. The simple fact is that the very idea that TLG would intentionally model a set after this building or make their products to look like any minority group is at best a sign of stupidity and at worst a sing of mental illness.

[Brickington]

Can't the complainers pull their pants up and be men and we go back to building LEGO?

[Fugazi]

This is rediculous. Muslims seriously just complain about anything they can, its annoying. Every time I read the news or watch it on TV there's another piece of Muslims freaking out over trivial bull crap.

Your comments are probably unfair towards a large majority of Muslims who you've never heard complaining about anything. Please avoid such offensive blanket statements.

[Mister Phes]

The LEGO Group has released an official statement on the matter:

All LEGO Star Wars^TM products are based on the movies of the Star Wars^TM saga created by Lucasfilm. Jabba's Palace appears in Star Wars^TM Episode VI and appears in a famous scene on the planet Tatooine. The building is the palace of Jabba - a fictional movie character.

The picture shown above depicts the building from the movie scene. The LEGO designers try to reproduce all buildings, space ships and characters from the movies as close as possible when creating a new LEGO Star Wars^TM product.

This is done to allow both young and old Star Wars^TM fans to act out the scenes from the movies at home. The LEGO Star Wars^TM product Jabba´s palace does not reflect any non-fictional buildings, people, or the mentioned mosque.

The LEGO minifigures shown on the box and found inside the box (Jabba, Salacious Crumb, Bib Fortuna, Gamorreanic Guard, Oola, Han Solo, Princess Leia disguised as Boushh, Chewbacca and B'omarr Monk) are all modeled after fictional characters from the movie.

The LEGO Group regrets that the product has caused the members of the Turkish cultural community to interprete it wrongly, but point out that the design of the product only refers to the fictional content of the Star Wars^TM saga.

[Zzz]

@Zaterdag: If the media you're consuming gives you the impression that muslims complain about everything, you should question your choice of media.

Regarding the statement from Lego, despite the spelling errors (proofread before release...?), it's right to do this and professional. There's always someone who complains (the german soldiers in Indiana Jones, the Nuke guy after Fukushima etc.) and it shows balls to regret that someone's feeling were hurt. I can only recommend to everyone else, in your business or private life to act similiar. Don't excuse, but show regret that someone's feelings were hurt, show understanding and everyone can move on. This works best, as not reacting to something like this is actually a statement, if you mean it or not.

Regarding weapons, and this is really a different topic, everyone has to accept TLCs decision to make them and produce conflict-based sets. This is free world and if they're going that way, let them. If you don't want this or your kids to have this, then act accordingly. Simple thing. It's Star WARS btw. with millions of fans. It's in our nature to appreciate open conflict.

[Mr Benn]

It wasn't just the Daily Mail, this was also in the Daily Telegraph here: http://www.telegraph...r-Wars-set.html - I think it was page 3 or 5 of the paper!

This is pretty decent publicity for Lego really - anyone with a lick of sense knows that the accusations are just a bit crazy, but they've managed to get pictures of the full model into severl national papers worldwide.. not bad going!

I like the part in the Telegraph story where it quite diplomatically says "Jabba’s domed home and accompanying watchtower bear, according to the statement, an unwanted resemblance to Istanbul’s great Hagia Sophia, and another mosque in Beirut."

Edited January 25, 2013 by Mr Benn

[Peppermint_M]

Careful folks, people are very odd ducks all told.

So someone took offence, that (unfortunately) is their right, just as it is ours to have a bit of a titter about reactionary types who are easily offended. Some just want publicity and those who publicise it want the footfall/clicks.

It's all about money dear boy.

Also, as a... well I hate to say femmenist... but I work in a male dominated field quiet happily, do not conform to any real stereotypes, happily go about my business and life without concern for the more abstract or forced social norms and have several hobbies and tastes that would be declared masculine (ah screw it, I'm a Laddette ok!) I must say that those StrawFems are a bit silly and just as attention seeking as any other group who builds ire to a children's toy over the more important issues around the world.

Plus all of this seems to have overshadowed Toyfair in London and so far all I have seen is a quick shot of the concealed TLG area barriered off while the BBC business correspondent reported live prior to the show a few days ago...