Will the switch to natural-flesh-toned Pirates will be permanent?

[The Real Indiana Jones]

In the Indiana Jones set Temple of the Crystal Skull, there has been one additional color: 38 Dark Orange, a fairly old color that was chosen to represent the Mesoamerican natives from the movie.

Wow, now I understand why the call you the "Colour Master"!

And yes, "38 Dark Orange" is the fourth skin-tone currently in use. They used it for the fictitious Ugha Warriors from South America. At first glance I definitely thought it was far too intensely reddish. For reference, here is a picture of young hunters-in-training from the Yanomami Tribe.

If my kids ask, I will just tell them that these minifigs have covered themselves from head-to-toe with red-ochre clay body paint!

Edited December 1, 2010 by The Real Indiana Jones

[Big Cam]

I will almost guarantee you that no, they will not be flesh heads for regular pirates.

Even to this day TLG has maintained all of their own lines as yellow fig's, and left the flesh action to the specific license themes.

There is no reason for a flesh color in non-licensed themes, because there is no one for them to emmulate. So I without a doubt say NO, they won't keep flesh moving past PotC.

[Ravenclaw2010]

I probably won't get the POTC theme, although if there are some new parts (compass, epee, powdered wig) I will probably get them on BrickLink to boost my Classic Pirates theme.

This might sound stupid, but do you know for sure that they will make these pieces, or are you just guessing? I for one hope they do make them. And has anyone actually seen any pictures of the sets? If you have, could you please post them? Thanks.

[puriri]

I have to say I found a lot of the comments on this thread very interesting. For my own two cents I color all of my "pink" colored minifigs yellow with a yellow sharpie. That way they fit in with the rest of the figs. I also use any other colored figs alongside other figs from time to time but I don't specify if they are a race or not. Really I think LEGO is primarily a toy where you should use your imagination and if you are deciding wether your imaginary world is too "white" or not then you are loosing out.

[Mr. Gray]

I have to say I found a lot of the comments on this thread very interesting. For my own two cents I color all of my "pink" colored minifigs yellow with a yellow sharpie.

For a semi-purist, I might have to actually try this sometime. Thanks for the idea!

[The Real Indiana Jones]

I don't know if this will settle the topic in people's minds, but here's a set from 1977, which is simply called "Red Indians".

This is a perfect example of the retro-Bauhaus-style primary-colors-only aesthetic LEGO adhered to in the early days.

Looks like they did originally intended for yellow to represent white faces from the start, even before the modern minifig!

Edited December 5, 2010 by The Real Indiana Jones

[AhabDarab]

I have tried the yellow Sharpie trick, and it turned out far better than I expected.

Ahab out..............

[dendeze]

I hope they don't change it, yellow minifigs is what defines LEGO.

[Big Cam]

I don't know if this will settle the topic in people's minds, but here's a set from 1977, which is simply called "Red Indians".

This is a perfect example of the retro-Bauhaus-style primary-colors-only aesthetic LEGO adhered to in the early days.

Looks like they did originally intended for yellow to represent white faces from the start, even before the modern minfig.

I agree that TLG uses yellow fig's as the standard, but I don't think they are specifically supposed to be white, I think they are just yellow, the red indians was simply a way to identify indians back before being politically correct was a requirement.

[The Real Indiana Jones]

....... back before being politically correct was a requirement.

Oh, hey, that's cool... I am not worried about being P.C... I just like to see international variety with a bit of accuracy...

And everything that anyone has ever suggested is something that alternate brands or clone brands have already done, especially Playmobil, or many other action figure lines worldwide (see below).

I think at this point their ultimate rationale is simply that "kids and nostalgic adults expect to see Legos be yellow, in the same way that the Smurfs are blue, and the Muppets are multicolored!" That's the way it is!

As one perfect solution, I think we would all be ecstatic if they made a few small Safari sets with some brand new exotic animals, and some more cool African minifigs. Remember how excited people got over those POP camels and ostriches!

Just for the sake of consistency, perhaps they could do it as an offshoot of the Indy line/license, or Young Indy, simply to explain why the human faces are in flesh-tones in those sets. Everyone in the world would buy five of each of those sets just for the parts and the MOC possibilities!

Or... Now that we have the Disney license, let's just do a full-on "It's a Small World After All" Theme... Put your hands in the air if you loved that ride!! =)

Woo-Hoo...! Who has the ear of a Lego Ambassador?!

Edited December 23, 2010 by The Real Indiana Jones

[suunto]

This might sound stupid, but do you know for sure that they will make these pieces, or are you just guessing? I for one hope they do make them. And has anyone actually seen any pictures of the sets? If you have, could you please post them? Thanks.

Found this shortcut in another thread.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57393885@N03/5287199913/in/photostream/

[-obelix-]

So here are my questions...

1) Do you think the switch to natural-flesh-toned minifigs will be permanent for the Pirates line after the POTC license ends?

2) Will you start using Jack Sparrow and the new natural-flesh-toned POTC sailor and islander minifigs permanently for Pirate scenes in the future?

3) Will you replace the heads of your existing Pirate/Soldier armies to match the newer natural-flesh-tones? Or will you replace POTC heads with yellow?

1) No, I think this is just another licensed Lego theme, and the classic Pirate sets will stay intact, just the way we know & like them!

2) Yes and no. I will not stop using classic Pirates in my MOCs but I will make some MOCs with these new skin color pirates and islanders.

3) No, I will use them separately. Classic pirates and soldiers on one side, new POTC minifigs on the other.

Edited January 10, 2011 by -obelix-

[J-MAN]

I really hate that Lego switched to flesh for all their licensed mini-figs. However, when I buy licensed sets (which I do less often now) I don't change my figs over to flesh, mostly because usually there is to much flesh color on the body of the fig.