Hi all, this is my first post in the historic themes section, but lets get to the point. I was looking around on Brickpedia ( Lego Wiki) and is noticed someone had given some of the Wild West minifigs names. For example, The Sherrifs name was: Wild Wyatt West, Cavalry lieutenant: Colt Carson, And the Red shirt cowboy: Zach. Do you old timers remember the WW characters having names? I also noticed that The wild west town's name is either gold city or legoredo. The main WW town set is Gold City Junction, But It included Two stickers that go on one of the building:"Legoredo newspaper (That way)" and "We Trade Gold at the Legoredo general store." One point for the name being legoredo, but then again the set is Called GOLD CITY Juntion. Anybody Have Word on this? Or am i just blind and the names are official and I didn't notice 'till now.

Legoredo is the name of the large Fort (Fort Legoredo), I just reproduced stickers for it so I had a careful look at it :) those sets fit in very well with Lone Ranger I think!

It's funny you should ask this, I was just researching Wild West for my LEGO timeline today...

Given that the original LEGO Western town at LEGOLAND Billund is called "Legoredo", it's not surprising that LEGO set designers would call their Western fort and town Legoredo as well. As you point out, there are signs for Legoredo all over the town, and a mighty large one on the fort.

But for some reason, magazine and catalog copywriters decided to name the locations themselves, signage be damned. In the UK, they changed the names to Fort Apache and Silver City. This catalog also calls the fort "Fort Redo" on the very same page as the Fort Apache name! The main bandit was called Prairie Pete (of the Coyote Gang), even though he had a wanted poster naming him "Flatfoot Thomsen".

The US, slightly more sensibly, left the Fort Legoredo name intact, and almost got Flatfoot Thomsen's name right (he became "Flatfoot Thompson"). But they still left us with the clearly inaccurate "Gold City Junction" name, and since the US set names have been more or less retroactively adopted universally, we're stuck with it.

I'd say the town's name is definitely Legoredo (there are three signs right in the set!), but "Gold City" could be a nickname.

As for the characters, a lot of them did get names from various sources:

In the US, the September-October LEGO Mania club magazine dubbed the Sheriff "Wild Wyatt West". In the UK, he was Sheriff Duke. The German audio dramas bundled with some of the sets called him Sheriff Silver. He also got a deputy named Danny.

The Calvary Colonel was named Colt Carson in the US, Colonel Thomson in Germany and (IIRC) Colonel Jefferson elsewhere in Europe,

Zack's name comes from the August 1996 Bricks 'n Pieces UK magazine, where he's described as an older prospector. (I suspect that the same figure is intended to be Danny, the young deputy from the German audio dramas.)

The Mania Magazine also names a number of other characters: Black Bart, Dewey Cheatum, and Flatnose Curry. The German audio dramas name the bank manager Goldpenny.

There are a number of other named characters from the audio dramas, but assigning them to figures is guesswork at best. You can check out the cast lists here, here, and here.

You can check out the relevant Bricks 'n Pieces and Mania Magazines here. They're pretty cool, especially if you're into the LEGO characters like I am.

TC

(PS: Wait, if I was around for the initial release of the Wild West theme, does that mean I'm an old timer?!) ;)

Edited February 28, 201312 yr by TalonCard

Yeah, I don't know if I'm a old timer at all. Since when did 19 teen year old's get called old timers?

But anyway, I knew that Taloncard would give the answers, boy is he smart!

Since I reAlly get into history, I can't help but wonder, did lego release an exact date that WW takes place? I already know somewhere in the late 1800s, but any exact dates?

Ps

Well I guess not old timers but I didn't like Legos then so never read lego mania And all that stuff.

Just to get things straight, you said the colonel was colt Carson, but on brickpedia colt Carson was the luitenant's name.

Yet another question, I've never been to legoland Denmark but isn't there an Indian chief who plays with kids at the legoredo town part? If so, would his Indian name be the name of the lego Indian chief?

I was just coming in here to ask about the names of the native Americans.

I only remember Gold City as the town and Fort Legoredo as the fort. And I do remember Dewey Cheatum vaguely now that I read it, but the other names would have been lost on me.

But it's weird how LEGO does that. I recall seeing an older catalog that had the Black Falcons as "eagle crest" and the Black Seas Barracuda as some other ship name. Not sure why they wouldn't keep the name the same all over for continuity, but I guess maybe they thought people wouldn't go across the pond searching for names.

Thanks for the info though. Interesting stuff.

Aha! In a lego mania magazine Dewey cheatum "tells" a tale that takes place in 1884 and he also says "a while back in 1884" so lego western takes place tiny bit after 1884!

Fort Legorado always seemed to be separate from the Western City in my mind. Also, there was never a specific year assigned to the Wild West sets to my knowledge, but there are obviously others here that have other Lego sources/publications to draw from.

The names of sets changed based on translation. I remember that uppn occasion I would get British or European? catalogs in my sets and they would have different names for practically every set.

But anyway, I knew that Taloncard would give the answers, boy is he smart!

Either that or I just think waaaaaay too much about this stuff. ;)

Just to get things straight, you said the colonel was colt Carson, but on brickpedia colt Carson was the luitenant's name.

Yet another question, I've never been to legoland Denmark but isn't there an Indian chief who plays with kids at the legoredo town part? If so, would his Indian name be the name of the lego Indian chief?

I'm not sure where Brickipedia got that from...Mania Magazine definitely calls him Colonel Colt Carson. (Gotta love the alliteration!) All the other sources I've seen that name the cavalry officers use the rank of colonel as well.

The LEGOLand Indian Chief's name is White Eagle. In the UK the Indian Chief's name is "Big Chief Rattlesnake". Given that there are multiple names for most of the Wild West characters, it's possible they're the same, but I doubt we'll ever find out one way or the other.

(By the way, that UK Magazine article is hilarious, and would probably have been offensive here in the states. It's cute that the writer tried to avoid troublesome stereotypes, but I never would have believed anyone would use the phrase "Red Indians" to describe Native Americans in 1997. :p )

But it's weird how LEGO does that. I recall seeing an older catalog that had the Black Falcons as "eagle crest" and the Black Seas Barracuda as some other ship name. Not sure why they wouldn't keep the name the same all over for continuity, but I guess maybe they thought people wouldn't go across the pond searching for names.

I think you're right... Set and character names didn't start getting globally consistent until about 1999, not long after the Internet had become become ubiquitous, and right around the time the storylines and characters took on greater importance.

Since then it seems like the American set names have become standard for the older sets, retroactively. (I do remember a brief time when international discussions and catalogs would use only the set numbers, but they aren't particularly memorable and it was a pain having to check reference sites all the time.) Even here on Eurobricks everyone knows what you're talking about when you say "Black Seas Barracuda", but perhaps not so for "Darkshark". (The Black Falcons was a faction name popularized by fans to the point that LEGO started picking up on it. At the time they were indeed Eagle Knights, and seemed to be folded into the Black Knights when they came along.)

I'm not sure if this is something LEGO fans have settled on, or if it's the result of an internal policy at LEGO, but it's interesting. Occasionally you'll see official LEGO Books use the UK names for old sets, so there's probably some internal confusion there...

Aha! In a lego mania magazine Dewey cheatum "tells" a tale that takes place in 1884 and he also says "a while back in 1884" so lego western takes place tiny bit after 1884!

The problem with that story is that some of the other tales are about the ghost of Butch Cassidy and the ghost town of Garnet, Montana. Butch Cassidy wasn’t reported dead until 1908, and Garnet wasn’t truly abandoned until around ten years after that. The story can work as a sort of final reflection on the West by an older set of characters, but I doubt the Wild West theme itself is set in 1918.

The 7^th Cavalry mentioned in the UK catalog is a real regiment, and could help to date the Wild West theme somewhat—the Cavalry was involved in a gold rush shortly before the Great Souix War in the mid 1870s, apparently, so that's the date I use. It's possible the German audio dramas have a more exact date; we'll have to see about that...

TC

Either that or I just think waaaaaay too much about this stuff. ;)

I'll stick with you being smart.

TC, you said big chief rattlesnake is the UK's name for him and the seventh cavalry is the name of the cavalry, what source is that? Could you perhaps send a link to the magazine?

Just found the Magazine but it says nothing about 7th cavalry. Where did it mention 7th cavalry? Ps. the famus George Armstrong Custer was colonel of the 7th cavalry and died in the battle of Little Bighorn, in South Dakota. 200 cavalry soldiers (all of them) died in this battle.

Just found the Magazine but it says nothing about 7th cavalry. Where did it mention 7th cavalry? Ps. the famus George Armstrong Custer was colonel of the 7th cavalry and died in the battle of Little Bighorn, in South Dakota. 200 cavalry soldiers (all of them) died in this battle.

I sincerely hope that the Lego Western Colonel is in no way supposed to represent Custer.

I wouldn't think so...I wouldn't even say for sure that LEGO's 7th cavalry is intended to represent the real one either, but it's useful for timeline speculation.

Just found the Magazine but it says nothing about 7th cavalry. Where did it mention 7th cavalry? Ps. the famus George Armstrong Custer was colonel of the 7th cavalry and died in the battle of Little Bighorn, in South Dakota. 200 cavalry soldiers (all of them) died in this battle.

Sorry, it's in the UK catalog, not Brick 'n Pieces. Here's the link; it's in the (teeeny tiny) text for the "Fort Apache" set. :)

TC

Edited March 2, 201312 yr by TalonCard

Ah yes, now I see it. I have another question. I've searched but nothing came up, about whether or not the Cavalry soldiers and Indians are fighting each other. Either lego lets the kids decide that, they aren't fighting or obviously they are at war. Anyone know?

I always assumed the Native Americans were neutral to the conflict between cavalry and bandits. The native's sets contain no bandits or cavalry and the cavalry and bandit sets contain no natives.

It seems like lego would want a classic "cowboys vs Indians" in the western theme. Also TC, I can't find any page in an American Mania magazine about the Indians, As if they never existed. But I did in the uk catalog. If you know of a page with Indians could you send a link

As far as I know, the Mania Magazine never gave the Indians any kind of names or backstory--they were just sort of there. We did have the sets, but I think there was at least one set that was never released in the US...

TC

The LEGOLand Indian Chief's name is White Eagle. In the UK the Indian Chief's name is "Big Chief Rattlesnake".

According to BrickWiki the original character in Billund was Chief Longears.

Thank you for pointing that out...my source for Chief White Eagle is a 1983 issue of Bricks 'n Pieces magazine. I'm not sure if Chief Longears is the current name for the same character, or if there are supposed to be multiple chiefs, or if the name was just misreported in the magazine. It honestly never occurred to me to check the current LEGOLand website; I keep thinking of LEGOREDO as an old attraction but obviously it's still operating...

TC

Flatfoot is an odd name for a bandit as that is an (outdated?) slang word for policeman or detective in the US.

Joe

True, true. It's also a reference to a medical condition, though, and as he's a minifigure, he does have flat feet. ;)

TC

I remember getting a number of these sets when I was younger and always wondering why the Indians have noses but most (all?) the other minifigures do not.

I always called the red shirt bandit Flat Foot Thomson, the black clothed one Black Bart, and the one in the top hat, Dewey Cheatum'. As for noses, Flat Foot Thomson has one.