If we excluded Egypt from consideration for an Africa theme, then we (in terms of easily recognizable subjects) are limited to West Africa, Central Africa and South Africa. I think South Africa is probably the most politically correct one for TLG to go for, seeing as it could be a safari theme with all sorts of animals (maybe we'd get elephants back?). Central Africa would most likely be a hunting theme because there's lots of jungle there, and people hunt animals in the jungle.

It's unfortunate, too, but West Africa would probably not be an option. When I think of West Africa, I think of all the beautiful adobe mosques in what was the kingdom of Mali hundreds of years ago. And TLG doesn't really go for religious images in its sets, does it? In that way, West Africa is left to people to MOC instead. The same goes for Ethiopia, unless TLG wanted to make Bete Giyorgis as an Architecture set!

Adventurers would probably be the best category to do an Africa theme. One of the Archaeology Indiana jones type things. Put Johnny Thunder or Jake Raines on the trail of Nefertiti's treasure or something., with the guardians being ancient animal spirits etc. yeah it is suspiciously similar to PQ, but it would cover the territory. The only major drawbacks is Chima is already sitting or lurking on much of the iconography and set designs they would need for something like that. Giant croc and lion heads, etc.

There is no way that they could treat Africa as a Historical type theme without getting into some dark territory.

I would really love a theme based around ancient Egypt where the ancient Egyptians were the good (Or at least neutral.) guys.

Away from that though and getting around the skin color to a large degree if they had tribes people then they could be portrayed as wearing colored tribal masks that would go right over or even replace the heads, there would be no need for brown/black/yellow heads at all then. You could even set up two make believe tribes with conflict between them. They could be told apart by what sort of masks they wore, like castle is with shields. Probably would be good not to set it in the modern age though, but really it could be at some totally vague undefined point in the past. Also remember that the Sahara was not always a desert. Up to around 7000 years ago it was quite green and no doubt a lot more stuff happened there at that point with a wider range of tribes and animals. That could even be the theme, the change in climate and the tribes looking for dwindling resources?

It's definitely wrong to say that there has never been an Afrika theme...

But since Afrika is such extended and beautiful continent I can only agree that we need more africa lego.

Just as an add; this is a very nice set fitting the theme.

Problem 1 = I would say that the yellow minifig is really a problem. Making native american minifigs is still alright, but TLC would never attempt on making a yellow minifig of an obvious black person. I'd say there is too much trouble in this, which is rather awkward for you and me, cause we understand TLCs policy of having the yellow representing all skin colours and therefor being as political correct as even possible. Having said that, I know that not many have this understanding of TLCs policies and in times where Jabbas Palace resembles a mosque to some and TLC is blamed for that, they are likely very careful about all this stuff. The only solution for this is a Licenced theme but we all know TLC don't make these up so the only hope is to having Disney making a movie in Africa. And having the Lego sets accordingly. Rather unlikely I am afraid.

Problem 2 = Having the Licenced themes aside (which no one can predict), under which themes would these sets appear? I would love to see new Adventurer sets or even Jake Raine coming back to another setting. Not having any Adventure-related themes in the moment (Indy, Adventurers, PQ) is rather sad. Still, I would say that future adventure themes are rather located somewhere else, Polar region, South America, Asia probably. But there is a slight chance. And since PQ didn't have any local folks at all, TLC does manage to release themes without any local inhabitants. So it might be a solution to problem 1 as well, to simply ignore entirely the people who live there. This leads to the final

Solution = Having an african set without any locals under no Licence. I would say a Rally Car is my vote to be the likeliest set we are going to see. No locals, yellow minifigs, some animals, no hunting, could work under the City theme. I know this is not really what the topic starter wanted to hear, but I would say this is probably going to happen sooner or later. Everything else (Safari, african culture, Action themes) rather not I believe.

How about a tribe of blood thirsty cannibals against a group of unlucky tourists?

I'm afraid that could sound a bit racist, though...not only for the dark skin, but for the "african = savage" stereotype.

Why the focus on tribes and black minifigures ?

IMO a lego Africa theme can excist perfectly with the regular yellow minifigures.

Safari and jungle expeditions (and rally cars ), that's what I want to see, the minifigures are the regular neutral yellow figures, I don't see a problem.

Yeah I've been after TLG for years. Every time they do one of those AFOL surveys I always put:

New themes: Safari, Zoo, & Rainforest (And ancient civilizations.)

Based on their most recent one when they asked for specific apposing sides of good and evil to be played out, you could tell that this would not play out well in the above themes.

Let’s see who are the bad guys in Safari Theme. Hmmm, poachers. “Let’s kill people that kill animals!” Wait that might not sell too well.

Let’s see who are the bad guys in Zoo Theme. Hmmm, zoo keepers. “Let’s kill people that enslave animals!” Wait that might not sell too well.

Let’s see who are the bad guys in Rainforest Theme. Hmmm, mining companies. “Let’s kill people that burn the forest for gold and oil!” Wait that might not sell too well.

Yeah I've been after TLG for years. Every time they do one of those AFOL surveys I always put:

New themes: Safari, Zoo, & Rainforest (And ancient civilizations.)

Based on their most recent one when they asked for specific apposing sides of good and evil to be played out...

You're so right, I just realized that in the latest lego themes people are never the bad guys anymore, always aliens or monsters, killing aliens and monsters doesn't bother anyone, unless anyone here is friends with an alien or monster .

I think there is only posibility for Africa theme. Lego must create something like Orient Expedition. It won't work as a City theme.

I think you'd need a more concrete concept before I could see this as a theme. Lego themes need building and a story, not just culture. What would you build in a sub-Saharan Africa-based theme? Traditional cultures there rarely had impressive vehicles or structures, and modern African cities are pretty indistinguishable from those elsewhere in the world.

Rarely - or the ones that have survived are rare - but still some amazing structures. Checkout for example the

Great Mosque of Djenné, or the Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia Mosques in Timbuktu. I agree that they don't have the cultural recognition that might make them sellers - also the softness/roundedness of the mud architecture wouldn't translate well into small sets - you'd need lots of pieces and detail - but I'd love to see some.

Edited April 24, 201311 yr by bilda

Rarely - or the ones that have survived are rare - but still some amazing structures. Checkout for example the

Great Mosque of Djenné, or the Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia Mosques in Timbuktu. I agree that they don't have the cultural recognition that might make them sellers - also the softness/roundedness of the mud architecture wouldn't translate well into small sets - you'd need lots of pieces and detail - but I'd love to see some.

Using Timbuktu in a set these days becomes problematic. Aside from the modern religious overtones, it's currently a war zone, with one side seeking to specifically destroy those cultural wonders that you mention. Overall it's kind of messy to put in a children's toy set meant to be distributed internationally and cross culturally. And that kind of sums up much of the problems in seeking to do sets based on sub Saharan Africa. Too conflicted.

Yeah I've been after TLG for years. Every time they do one of those AFOL surveys I always put:

New themes: Safari, Zoo, & Rainforest (And ancient civilizations.)

Based on their most recent one when they asked for specific apposing sides of good and evil to be played out, you could tell that this would not play out well in the above themes.

Let’s see who are the bad guys in Safari Theme. Hmmm, poachers. “Let’s kill people that kill animals!” Wait that might not sell too well.

Let’s see who are the bad guys in Zoo Theme. Hmmm, zoo keepers. “Let’s kill people that enslave animals!” Wait that might not sell too well.

Let’s see who are the bad guys in Rainforest Theme. Hmmm, mining companies. “Let’s kill people that burn the forest for gold and oil!” Wait that might not sell too well.

Just because it's an action theme focused on conflict you don't need to have the good guys fighting the bad guys with weapons or trying to kill them. If you replace the "Let's kill people that ..." with "Let's stop people that..." you have 3 perfectly good themes right there (although I would expect a Zoo theme to be a sub-theme in City without the obvious conflict). Another option be to look back at the old Adventurers theme and have two opposing treasure hunting teams (a good and bad) that fights to get first to the treasure.

I think the yellow colour is a problem indeed. I'm not sure, but I think children growing up in Western countries easily identify themselves with yellow minifigures. I can't remember ever wondering why they were yellow (back then there were no licensed themes, but I had Playmobil as well), seems like I unconsciously accepted that Lego had to be yellow as all minifigures were yellow. I never thought of them being from a particular country, they were just people like me. But I did actually use the black heads of the ghost to have some "black" African minifigures for City of Pirate themes as well. It might be easier for children in Western countries to imagine that yellow is "their" skin colour, dunno.

The "Jungle" theme of 1999 comes quite close to an African jungle theme. But one runs into problems because of the yellow heads. As they are yellow, how de we know it's Africa and not Middle America? This holds for any theme by the way, the mining sets might represent Africa (we don't really have gold mines in Europe, do we), but it is difficult to imagine for a child probably. Even if you give them some masks / shields as in the Islanders theme (leaving aside that this is a stereotype), one might still think it's meant to be America and not Africa. So one would have to add lots of animals to make sure about the continent...

For a Safari theme, if all minifures have yellow skin, this might be understood as if TLC doesn't want to show African people. Remember that Playmobil has done nice safari sets recently with people of different skin colours. If TLC doesn't, then there might be some discussions (ignoring that minifigures of non-licensed themes are yellow always). Anway, I'm not that happy with Safari themes in this context, it gives the impression as if Africa's just a big zoo.

Another solution would be something like the Ninja castle theme. Say two different African tribes located somewhere in the past, or only one tribe fighting against some animal monsters / spirits. Playmobil has done some really nice things like this small set . Maybe give them semi-printed heads like the one of the Aztec warrior from minifiure series. But still, the skin should not be yellow. Again, this is might turn into the savage sterotype then.

Anyway, we have to keep in mind that Lego is mainly sold in Western (and Asian?) industrialized countries. We don't think much of Africa in general, do we? Leaving aside Egypt, actually I can't remember that I learnt anything about African history at school (I'm from Germany), except that they were later conquered by Europeans. We heard about Babylonians and other ancient cultures in Mesopotamia and lots of stuff about the Greeks and the Romans. That's it. Nothing about China / Japan / India. Mongolians insofar as they invaded Europe at some point. Nothing about Persia itself, except that the Romans fought against "them" and Alexander the Great conquered large parts. So it's no surprise that toys are as they are. I really like the Ninjago theme, but in the end it's just a stereotype thing. I would really prefer more realistic themes like the old castle themes (no dragons), which could easily be adjusted to other ancient cultures. But it goes rather the other direction, so many many fantasy elements, see the whole Ninjago theme (which is copied by Playmobil now), all the dragons / sceleton armies in castle themes, aliens in space theme.

I think those lines woudl be kidna boring.. .except they would bring TONS of gree bushes etc. which i always want lol

I think some Architecture sets would be really interesting. I've built some of the sets in LDD and I think the format of the booklets, with information about the building, would be interesting. I've seen a few examples mentioned here, and the Obelisk of Axum would, in my opinion, make an interesting architecture set. Also, with the level of detail achieved on printed minifigure pieces these days, I think Lego would be capable of making collectable minifigures with a realistic depiction of the clothes of different cultures.

I agree, you could have desert, safari and African tribes?

Oh hi, I just stumbled across this thread just now...

I want to see them include Africans too, and that is why I included the Nubians in my Egypt set. I'd say that this is definitely the best way to get Africa into a theme or set, because it avoids all of the other issues discussed above. And as far as skin-tone goes, they can dress them as distinctly African, and they can show that they are part of a globally-connected Iron Age African Civilization, and since they are from the northern part of Africa, in modern-day Egypt and Sudan, their faces can be "classic-yellow", just like the Egyptians usually are.

Here are two versions, one with flesh-tones and one with yellow. I think they both look very nice and everyone will like them. A good PR opportunity for Lego...

And here is the whole set together... if you like it, please vote to make it a reality! This is my second-fastest-moving set now, so it has an excellent chance!

Thanks! =D

Edited January 9, 201411 yr by The Real Indiana Jones

I think the first depiction works better. The flesh tones blend into the rest of the build, which is ironically the opposite of what I usually see when dealing with flesh-colored minifigs.

While an Africa theme would introduce a lot of new cool pieces (foliage in new colours, new animals, etc), I think that if they tried to do anything involving explorers and natives set in Africa, it'd be viewed as making toys based on slavery. It's too fine a line for LEGO to dance on, so they've just stayed away.

If they could find a way to do it without it seeming insensitive, it would be really interesting.

I think the first depiction works better. The flesh tones blend into the rest of the build, which is ironically the opposite of what I usually see when dealing with flesh-colored minifigs.

Yes, I agree... Since my collection started with Indiana Jones and other licenses, I've swapped all of my yellow-heads to flesh-tones. And so I used flesh-tones in the concept art just as a personal preference, although they would likely be yellow... Since Nubia is more Northern African, using yellow heads would be just fine!

While an Africa theme would introduce a lot of new cool pieces (foliage in new colours, new animals, etc), I think that if they tried to do anything involving explorers and natives set in Africa, it'd be viewed as making toys based on slavery. It's too fine a line for LEGO to dance on, so they've just stayed away.

If they could find a way to do it without it seeming insensitive, it would be really interesting.

I agree again... That is why I think that including realistic Nubians in a realistic Egypt set would be the best way to go... I think that it is the best way to showcase the African civs, as strong, thriving and independent Iron Age Civilizations, linked into a network of trade and technological flow with the rest of the hemisphere.

Plus I think that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon set is a great way to showcase Middle Eastern civs in an iconic and positive and educational way, and the Stonehenge set is the coolest way to show Rome's rivals as powerful and organized Iron Age civs... Not just painting them as generic "Barbarians" or "bad guys"!

Click here or on the colorful banner below if you'd like to see more.....

Edited January 10, 201411 yr by The Real Indiana Jones

The best and most positive way for Lego to do Africa would be to partner with the Jane Goodall Institute: animal conservation, as well as licensed style figures. This could include the Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program which is in more than 120 countries around the world.

The best and most positive way for Lego to do Africa would be to partner with the Jane Goodall Institute: animal conservation, as well as licensed style figures. This could include the Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program which is in more than 120 countries around the world.

Yes that would be awesome too! You should put it up on Cuusoo...

It's hard to envision a way that such a theme could be a reality, because of the political implications. If they took some historical angle, there isn't much toy-appropriate stuff from a Western world perspective, and if they took an earnest look at producing an authentic African set (from that point of view), it would be decried as exploitation and demeaning to that culture (someone's heritage being reduced to a plaything).

That being said, I think there could still be a way to do it, but it would have to approach the material from the safari/zoo angle. And it would be a way (probably the only way) to get official sets from LEGO that are in Africa without being Egyptian, but what else can you really ask for? I mean, two-thirds of the West's history with sub-Saharan Africa is practically pure slave trade (plus another century of the Scramble for Africa), so its nearly impossible to approach that way.

Here is my idea: here in the US there is an animated (plus about five minutes of live action) show on public television called "Wild Kratts" where two brothers and their team are dedicated to helping animals "live free and in the wild". Granted, their adventures aren't limited to only Africa, but the style and tone of the show fits LEGO to a T. There are poacher-type villains but who don't use guns--one tries to use animals to power bizarre machines he makes, another wants to use live animals as fashion accessories, etc.--and each episode their outrageous schemes are foiled by the brothers. Along the way, the brothers both teach and learn a lot about animals' unique abilities to survive in their habitats and then use crazy inventions to help rescue them.

Over-the-top and easily defeated villains (think Sam Sinister)? Check. Creative and inventive vehicles/locations? Check? Fun yet educational? Check. Sub-Saharan action theme that doesn't include (or even have any appearance of) cultural condescension or exploitation? Check.

Furthermore, the whole fleshie problem would be worked out-as licensed characters, they would be fleshies and could include other skin tones. Actually, they would have to, since one of the more important (albeit still minor) characters is black.

I realize this would be less "Africa" and more "new System animal molds," but after reading a lot of the comments here it seems like a lot of people would be more interested in that anyway (sorry, but that's the way I read it). This would be a way to bring those molds in in such a way that is creative, educational, and squarely aimed at TLG's professed target market (although we know they are really aiming more and more for us AFOLs these days ). And, it or something akin to it is really the only way an African theme is ever going to happen. I have my own kids (and several nephews and nieces) who love both LEGO and this show; my boys even asked me to make them some Kratt brothers from my minifigs, so I can see a definite market.

Sorry (after the fact!) for the long comment.

Here is a link to the show's site. Note that I have no ties to the show other than watching it with my kids on PBS.

http://pbskids.org/wildkratts/home.html

.....decried as exploitation and demeaning to that culture (someone's heritage being reduced to a plaything)......

Hmmm? Doing a quick scan of the map of global civs, I see that they have already created something from almost every culture in the world in Lego form, and everyone sees it as nice educational fun, as long as it is in a heroic and positive light, and it teaches positive values. Essentially, we just need to steer away from tomb raiders, animal hunters, and asymmetrical conflict, and more towards creative building sets and architecture sets. At least 20% of the Collectible Minifigures wear various historical costumes from around the world, and I know that a lot of kids use them as elements in their 6th Grade World History projects at school. Just about the only ones they haven't done yet are Mesopotamia, the Inca, and Africa. DId I forget anyone? The issue is that they have done just about everyone except Africa, and It seems a bit strange to exclude them!

And you are right, a peaceful Safari Theme with a conservation message would be beautiful. The only reason it's not zooming to the top of Cuusoo right now is simply that you can't suggest new molds for animals *yet*.

Edited January 14, 201411 yr by The Real Indiana Jones