Did lego ever have church sets?

[ks6349]

7 hours ago, Bricked1980 said:

I think as an international toy manufacturer LEGO has no choice but to steer clear of subjects like religion, politics or anything else that could risk upsetting different groups of people.

However I would absolutely love to see LEGO make a church as part of their winter village series. I don't suppose it's likely to happen though.

 

I think LEGO is overreacting.

If there are so worried, why they produce Archiecture of Shanghai, the Great Wall and even Chicago, Las Vegas...  Those sets probably also upset the Anti China groups or Anti US groups of people.

[JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)]

13 hours ago, Aanchir said:

But overall, religious subject matter is kind of touchy territory. Even besides concerns of offending people with different religions than are being depicted, there's also the very real possibility of offending people with the SAME religion being depicted — after all, while most people might appreciate seeing their religion depicted, honored, or recognized, some might find it a bit sacrilegious to see their religion commercialized as a consumer product. Oftentimes, people who criticize LEGO for being overly sensitive by avoiding religious sets, modern military sets, sets associated with real world disasters/tragedies, etc. seem to think of those policies strictly as attempts to appease people who think those subjects are bad for kids, and don't consider the people who might think those subjects are important for kids but inappropriate for a secular company to exploit for profit.

Indeed. All the more reason on why this is very risky. It'll definitely add more to the already convoluted mess.

30 minutes ago, ks6349 said:

I think LEGO is overreacting.

If there are so worried, why they produce Archiecture of Shanghai, the Great Wall and even Chicago, Las Vegas...  Those sets probably also upset the Anti China groups or Anti US groups of people.

Because landmarks is quite straightforward as a lot of them are tourist spots. People visit these places for adventures or on vacation. It's not even controversial like religion. I don't think those anti fellows could even match up to what religious people can do.

Edited November 20, 2018 by JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)

[icm]

On 11/18/2018 at 8:13 AM, ks6349 said:

I really want to know if I can build a church with details inside , like Creator Expert. And it 'll be so great to put 100 different minifigures inside and they pray. 

Here are some examples of fan builds that are relatively "small" as these things go, and therefore achievable to copy.  Any church building that can fit 100 minifigs is going to be really big, so I wish you the best of luck planning and executing your build.  I've enclosed them in a quote so that people with slow Internet connections don't have to load the pictures if they don't want to.  Click on any image to go to the source on Flickr; there will probably be more images to help you plan your build by example.

Quote

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ks6349]

20 minutes ago, icm said:

Here are some examples of fan builds that are relatively "small" as these things go, and therefore achievable to copy.  Any church building that can fit 100 minifigs is going to be really big, so I wish you the best of luck planning and executing your build.  I've enclosed them in a quote so that people with slow Internet connections don't have to load the pictures if they don't want to.  Click on any image to go to the source on Flickr; there will probably be more images to help you plan your build by example.

 

I remember I happened to see a picture of LEGO church showing the indoor where a number of minifigures inside praying. I didn't save the picture I forget where it is. It was exactly what I want. I have no special preference on the outside appearance of the church because I am of NO religion and just like the beauty of church and its inside

Yeah , I found the pictures, probably like this, not necessarily exactly...

so grand... where it can stay so many minifigures !!!!

 

Edited November 20, 2018 by ks6349

[MAB]

4 hours ago, ks6349 said:

I think LEGO is overreacting.

 

If they make a church playset, then why not a mosque, or a Buddist temple? To some it may just be a building. To others it is their religion. And if they turn people's religion into playsets, then why not make, for example, Jesus and his disciples into minifigures. And if Jesus, why not Muhammad or Buddha minifigures?

 

3 hours ago, ks6349 said:

I remember I happened to see a picture of LEGO church showing the indoor where a number of minifigures inside praying. I didn't save the picture I forget where it is. It was exactly what I want. I have no special preference on the outside appearance of the church because I am of NO religion and just like the beauty of church and its inside

2

I don't think you need to build a church. Just build a wall at one end of a base plate, with a stained glass window or plain windows for a more modern setting, and have loads of benches in front of it. Then build some furniture such as an altar. That way you get your inside without having to build the outside.

[JopieK]

On 11/20/2018 at 11:19 AM, MAB said:

If they make a church playset, then why not a mosque, or a Buddist temple? To some it may just be a building. To others it is their religion. And if they turn people's religion into playsets, then why not make, for example, Jesus and his disciples into minifigures. And if Jesus, why not Muhammad or Buddha minifigures?

Playmobile did create a Martin Luther figure. But people will be offended no matter what one does. And I don't think LEGO will and should take that risk. Apart from that you still could do it yourself of course, as 'reverend' Smith did with his Brick Testament. But he could make a brick testament without people protesting in the streets etc (it is clearly a selective and more or less moc(k)ing version of the real deal of course). If he would do the same thing of some other religious texts, he would possibly need to fear for his life (see the reaction to e.g. Rushdie), so if people want to MOC that is not big deal but if the company itself would do it that is something else. See also the story about a Dutch AFOL from Zwolle: https://www.destentor.nl/zwolle/doordeweeks-ontwikkelt-hij-software-maar-in-het-weekend-bouwt-hij-bijbelverhalen-met-lego-br-br~a574ac02/ (Google translation version, becoming better but still not too good ;)):

He develops software during the week, but during the weekend he builds Bible stories with Lego

You work for the boss during the week. You put the alarm clock in the evening and you put four sandwiches in your blue lunchbox in the morning. Elastic band around it. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday. And then the weekend; your hobby becomes your work. You are a referee at football, a victim of a lottery at the first aid, pull the balls at the bingo. Nice. Weekend.

Alfred Doorn (47) is stacked on Lego. Just make a stack, stacked up, on pile of. And then on the stack. When you count his Lego trays with stones, you do not believe your eyes: 72. Two! And! Seven! Tig! ,, And then I have eight more with pink blocks, "adds Alfred dryly. "Those are my daughters."

Yes, very Doorn's house breathes Lego. His hobby leads to making the Peperbus to scale. A gigantic project. The Zwolle structure will be 1 meter and 80 centimeters high. "At my job - I was working at SallandElectronics at the time - they said: let me see."

Alfred takes the Peperbus, in bite-sized blocks, in the car. To his work. He puts the bundle back together again. His colleagues and his manager are impressed. The boss does have a small annotation. "There is still a church attached to it?"

To dive Alfred financially goes that far too far. ,, You still have to count on 800 euros ", Alfred adds all the missing blocks together. The company wants to sponsor him and so Doorn has to go to the box, to dive with Lego. Fortunately, he is not alone; his brother, wife, colleagues and friends help. Fifteen men in total.

The helpers receive a building plan that they can use. In every corner of his living room, a group of three or four people is ready for work on the building day. In the middle a wallpaper table that is weighed under the many kilos of Lego. What Cologne and Aachen did not succeed, Alfred and his helpers succeed; After one day of toil and sweat, the job is done: the Peperbus has a church.

Ark of Noah
After he has shown him many times, Alfred is ready. ,, The Peperbus has been demolished '', says the builder. Doorn is looking for a new project in 2011. Zwolle chooses the ten most beautiful Bible stories and Alfred seems to like this top-10 in Lego. Jonah in the whale, the ark of Noah, Moses leading his people through the Red Sea. ,, And I wanted to bring it close to the children. "

Doorn seeks contact with Lego and unfolds its plans. He will make the examples and the children may then build their own interpretation of the Bible story.

The Bible in cubes. Lego thinks it's a nice idea. For two years, Doorn will borrow four 20 kilograms of bins. In the past years Doorn himself has purchased the much-needed (extra) Lego. At the workshops he gives to children, he only sees happy faces. Alfred puts the elephant belonging to the Ark back on the legs. "I almost see it as a calling," he says.

So it seems LEGO does not mind, although I believe he was asked to refrain from adding explicitly the Bible passage certain builds were referring to. I also remember BeLUG having in their policy not to depict religious builds and apparently their rules are based on TLG event policies.

[neonic]

Interesting topic I think... I'm not religious myself and don't care too. Also I don't care if someone is. I respect that.
I can imagine that Lego don't wanted to make a religous set for some reason. They also don't make anything related to war. However ... I don't see the problem when they make a set of a famous church or mosque. For example the dom of cologne is very famous and reconisable, or the Aya sophia in Instanbul, wich I believe it was a church and now a mosque, However, those structures are very cool as a set. 

If it's all about / against religion ... they also made the Taj Mahal, in India. Well, it's not a church or mosque but it has a lot of Arabic elements. 

 

 

 

Quote

I think LEGO is overreacting.

If there are so worried, why they produce Archiecture of Shanghai, the Great Wall and even Chicago, Las Vegas...  Those sets probably also upset the Anti China groups or Anti US groups of people.

This has nothing to do with religion. There always people who hate ... whatever. Things like those landmarks is great. They are very reconisable and typical. I like too see more of those.

Edited November 25, 2018 by neonic

[anothergol]

Funny that Lego doesn't wanna touch anything religious, and yet they release advent calendars every year.

It sucks, considering that a large amount of the best looking buildings in Europe have religious origins. I live 50m away from a cathedral, no one sees it as a religious building, everyone sees it as the city's best looking asset.

On 11/20/2018 at 4:32 AM, dr_spock said:

Any building can be converted to a church.  Even a local bowling alley was turned into a church after it went out of business. 

Sounds like something you'd only see in the US :)

Wait, it's even funnier: apparently lots of churches HAD bowling added to them?

https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/did-you-know-your-church-may-have-a-hidden-bowling-alley

 

2 hours ago, neonic said:

This has nothing to do with religion.

It indeed has nothing to do with religion, Lego is just like Disney & has no balls. Any touchy subject is forbidden.

..except that "thanks to" social justice warriors, staying away from some touchy subjects is now considered a problem as well. And that's why Lego have released those "women of" SJW battlepacks.
I imagine Lego's product managers having a division by zero in their head when they realize that if they release a set for feminists, it's gonna be critisized, but if they don't, it's gonna be even worse for them.

That also reminds me of https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/apr/28/lego-sell-bricks-chinese-artist-ai-weiwei-mistake. I just love how it backfired for them.
That makes me think, it'd be hilarious if Lego released a Disney set with Winnie the Pooh in it, and Lepin cloned it. That would be a cunning plan, that'd be the definitive end of Lepin (& maybe Lego as well in China).

Edited November 25, 2018 by anothergol

[Karalora]

35 minutes ago, anothergol said:

Funny that Lego doesn't wanna touch anything religious, and yet they release advent calendars every year.

I would argue that Christmas is primarily a secular holiday nowadays, even though plenty of celebrants include a religious component. The most popular traditions--decorating, gift-giving, etc.--are religiously neutral, and observed by people who have never set foot in a church or even follow a non-Christian religion. The term Advent itself is arguably religious, but in practice all it means is "the lead-up to Christmas," and if Christmas is secular, then Advent can be also.

That said, I find it a little weird that LEGO won't release sets of religious buildings, since they are so commonplace in any town or city. Merely portraying a church, mosque, etc. doesn't amount to an endorsement of the religion in question, IMO. And what about the Taj Mahal set? If being an important world landmark is enough to convince them to break their "no religion" rule, why not Notre Dame, St. Peter's Basilica, and other famous cathedrals and religious sites?

[anothergol]

2 hours ago, Karalora said:

Merely portraying a church, mosque, etc. doesn't amount to an endorsement of the religion in question,

For a mosque I think it would, because islam is still where christianism was a few centuries ago, very active & thus the only sight of a mosque means islam, whereas a church has become part of the scenery, & more a vestige of the past & a tourist attraction. Talking about old stone churches that aren't built anymore, that is.

2 hours ago, Karalora said:

why not Notre Dame

& they still haven't included it in the upcoming Paris skyline set..

[Karalora]

1 hour ago, anothergol said:

For a mosque I think it would, because islam is still where christianism was a few centuries ago, very active & thus the only sight of a mosque means islam, whereas a church has become part of the scenery, & more a vestige of the past & a tourist attraction. Talking about old stone churches that aren't built anymore, that is.

Surely that depends on where you are, doesn't it? In Western Europe where you live, churches are part of the background scenery but mosques are new and potentially controversial. In the United States where I live, it's all potentially controversial and (Protestant) churches can be some of the most obnoxious buildings in town. In my specific city, Los Angeles, religious diversity is taken for granted and few people make a big deal about it either way. Someone in Indonesia might very well have the opposite opinion to yours, considering mosques normal and Christian churches to be a weird, intrusive exception.

Just something to think about.

[Aanchir]

22 hours ago, anothergol said:

It indeed has nothing to do with religion, Lego is just like Disney & has no balls. Any touchy subject is forbidden.

..except that "thanks to" social justice warriors, staying away from some touchy subjects is now considered a problem as well. And that's why Lego have released those "women of" SJW battlepacks.

You say "has no balls", most people would say "has standards".

And anyway, stuff like Research Institute and Women of NASA are only a touchy subject on the same level as war, police violence, and religion to the sorts of sexist numbskulls who complain about female construction workers, scientists, knights and firefighters in LEGO City or Castle sets being unrealistic political correctness/social engineering, about Star Wars being ruined because of a handful of movies starring female or non-white characters, about the She-Ra reboot on Netflix being bad because it has female characters who don't all have lipstick and identical pinup model physiques, etc. In other words, the types of people who frequently say stuff like "SJW" unironically.

And with regard to religious buildings, again, they're avoided not only because acknowledging their existence could offend religions that disagree with them, but because turning holy places into commercial products could offend the very religions the sets are attempting to recognize. Lots of religions have VERY different ideas about what context religious subject matter should be portrayed in… for example, to some religions, pictures of gods, saints, and/or prophets are a not only normal but encouraged way to venerate those individuals, while to other religions (including several sects of Christianity) it is idolatry and a grievous sin.

World religions are not monolithic, and even in Islam (which in the west is frequently stereotyped as adhering strictly to its most radical, orthodox, and theocratic forms), there are widely varying interpretations of how believers ought to dress, pray, and go about their lives, same as in Christianity, Judaism, or any number of other faiths. As such, for a company like LEGO that does business all over the world, there's not really a safe way to represent these religions in a way that would be recognized and accepted by even all of their own believers on a global level.

[anothergol]

28 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

And anyway, stuff like Research Institute and Women of NASA are only a touchy subject on the same level as war, police violence, and religion to the sorts of sexist numbskulls who complain about female construction workers, scientists, knights and firefighters in LEGO City or Castle sets being unrealistic political correctness/social engineering, about Star Wars being ruined because of a handful of movies starring female or non-white characters, about the She-Ra reboot on Netflix being bad because it has female characters who don't all have lipstick and identical pinup model physiques, etc. In other words, the types of people who frequently say stuff like "SJW" unironically. 

Nope, it's a touchy subject because a "men of NASA" pack would have sent every SJW on the street to protect against Lego.
And that's also the reason I believe Lego did release the set, they were scared by the power feminists have today. Releasing the set was less of a risk, because normal people just laugh at things like this, they're not gonna protest. NOT releasing it, you'd have read manipulated articles explaining that Lego is against all women.

I mentioned Ai Weiwei's case, it's the same deal here, Lego had to make a choice, they couldn't get away doing nothing. And thus they refused selling him bricks, thinking it was the safest for them. I'm GLAD it backfired, and at least here it was for a very valid cause, one that is even more valid today.
Of course it could also have been the case that Lego had already planned to develop in China, and didn't want to have anything to do with government critisism. That would be even worse, not any defendable.

Edited November 26, 2018 by anothergol

[dr_spock]

On 11/25/2018 at 12:01 PM, anothergol said:

Sounds like something you'd only see in the US :)

Wait, it's even funnier: apparently lots of churches HAD bowling added to them?

https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/did-you-know-your-church-may-have-a-hidden-bowling-alley

 

Interesting.  Churches can be locations to hold social events.  There's more to religion than just worshipping. 

You can also rent them for LUG meetings and events.  :wink:

 

An example of LEGO church in smaller scale

[Aanchir]

8 hours ago, anothergol said:

Nope, it's a touchy subject because a "men of NASA" pack would have sent every SJW on the street to protect against Lego.
And that's also the reason I believe Lego did release the set, they were scared by the power feminists have today. Releasing the set was less of a risk, because normal people just laugh at things like this, they're not gonna protest. NOT releasing it, you'd have read manipulated articles explaining that Lego is against all women.

Seems to me like LEGO made Women of NASA because it was a massively successful Ideas project that accumulated supporters very quickly, was cheap and easy to make compared to some of the other sets that were in the pipeline, and seemed like it would have similar appeal to a previous Ideas project that had far exceeded projected demand (Research Institute). If we lived in a world where a Men of NASA project was wanted and needed to the extent that all those things could describe it, then LEGO would probably have done that as well, but we don't. Because in the world we live in, it's well understood that men outnumber women in most STEM careers and tend to be more widely recognized than women for their contributions to science — not the other way around.

Chances are that a Men of NASA project on Ideas would not generate 10,000 supporters in the first place because it would be recognized as an attempt to prove some ridiculous point about feminism, and not because it promotes any kind of positive changes in how kids think about science and history. But it's not as though it would be rejected specifically for having male characters, any more than the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 project or Beatles Yellow Submarine projects were. It's just that "I selected these subjects because they represent an already well-recognized demographic within NASA history" does not serve a purpose that's as useful as "I selected these subjects because they represent an under-recognized demographic within NASA history".

You want to propose an idea celebrating male accomplishments? Either choose men who are especially noteworthy because people don't ordinarily associate their accomplishments with men, or choose men like the Beatles mentioned above who are accomplished and noteworthy for reasons not specifically related to their gender.

It's hard to think of a whole lot of the former since history usually has little trouble celebrating accomplished men, unless their accomplishments are in fields that aren't highly celebrated to begin with. But I'm sure there are examples out there.

[icm]

Can we please not get back into the Women of NASA debate again?  This topic is about church buildings, why they have seldom appeared in official sets, and how @ks6349 can find MOCs for use as inspiration and examples in constructing a church MOC of his own.

[Johnny1360]

8 hours ago, dr_spock said:

Interesting.  Churches can be locations to hold social events.  There's more to religion than just worshipping. 

You can also rent them for LUG meetings and events. 

 

 

Funny you should mention this as a group I am associated with, regularly meets in church, even though there is no religion involved, I had indeed forgotten this aspect of churchs. They are more than glad to rent out meeting rooms, to pretty much anyone, at least around here, providing they follow the rules. This would be an excellent aspect to include in a church moc, my opinion anyway. 

Edited November 27, 2018 by Johnny1360

[Karalora]

13 hours ago, Aanchir said:

turning holy places into commercial products could offend the very religions the sets are attempting to recognize.

This is a point I hadn't considered. Thank you for bringing it up.

[anothergol]

8 hours ago, Aanchir said:

If we lived in a world where a Men of NASA project was wanted and needed to the extent that all those things could describe it, then LEGO would probably have done that as well, but we don't

There's a big difference between "not needed" and forbidden.

If feminists were really asking for equality, they should have asked for a "people of NASA" pack, featuring 2 men & 2 women. Even that would already be unfairly weighted, because as you said yourself, that wouldn't even represent reality.
But no, what feminists ask for, is a pack featuring only women, while being against a pack featuring only men.

 

8 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Chances are that a Men of NASA project on Ideas would not generate 10,000 supporters in the first place

Of course it wouldn't (unless you'd gather 10k trolls, like from 4Chan), that's because feminists are robots easily assigned to a task, normal people aren't.

8 hours ago, Aanchir said:

or Beatles Yellow Submarine projects were.

That makes no sense, it's not like it would have been possible to produce a Beatles set with anyone else than the Beatles, who are men.

If Lego were to produce a Spice Girls set, there would be nothing feminist about it.

8 hours ago, Aanchir said:

You want to propose an idea celebrating male accomplishments?

No, because I don't even think it's a good idea.

Yes, I believe that things like this only deserve feminism (which USED to be very important in our developped countries, and STILL is important in many places in the world, but not here anymore).
Those "women of" pack screams "see? Women can do it too". That makes women look like kids pretending to do jobs, waiting for their parents to tell them that they're good at it.

I am/was a programmer. Pretty sure that many here are too, and they would tell you that women are very rare in this domain. A brainwashed feminist would conclude that there is some secret sect restricting access to the programming cast to women, and that they need to tell the world that yes, some women are programmers, and that these rare women need to be assigned key roles because enough is enough.
But no, the truth is that women aren't programmers because they have no interest in it. And that programmers are tired of working exclusively with dudes.

There was a bit of legitimacy in the women of NASA pack, though, because at least 2 in the pack are old, from a time feminism was very legitimate in our countries.
Today's feminists don't care about feminism, they woke up & decided they wanted to fight for the world, they don't care which cause it's for, they just like to fight. (and if you think it's silly, there are documentaries around showing that)

8 hours ago, Aanchir said:

You want to propose an idea celebrating male accomplishments? Either choose men who are especially noteworthy because people don't ordinarily associate their accomplishments with men, or choose men like the Beatles mentioned above who are accomplished and noteworthy for reasons not specifically related to their gender.

That sums up the whole problem here!
Do you believe that the dude who suggested the Yellow Submarine idea, thought "mmh, I wanna do something to celebrate male accomplishments. What could I do.. The Beatles maybe?"?
No! The dude most likely liked the Beatles, and that's just it. I've mentioned the Spice Girls, I just checked and there's apparently an (expired) project on Ideas already. There is NOTHING related to feminism in the guy's description, and his profile is "I'm a big LEGO fan who collects mainly Castle, Pirate Ships, LOTR/Hobbit, Modular Building and Collectable Minifigures!". Dude likes the Spice Girls, or enjoyed designing a project around them, that's all there is to it. And.. maybe, and sadly that's the reason his project didn't get any vote, he didn't ring the feminism bell to attract the horde to his project.
The reason I'm able to claim that the "Women of NASA" project IS a feminist project, is because it is defined as such, and the woman behind it is an open feminist, and every of her actions is related to feminism.

7 hours ago, icm said:

This topic is about church buildings, why they have seldom appeared in official sets, and how @ks6349 can find MOCs for use as inspiration and examples in constructing a church MOC of his own.

That has pretty much been answered already..
Oh and btw, every religion is pretty much patriarchist, & thus against feminism - maybe that's also why Lego doesn't wanna touch anything related, lol.

Edited November 27, 2018 by anothergol

[MAB]

I think a minifigure based set of three figures  - containing Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins - would sell extremely well seeing how well Saturn V has sold. But it wouldn't be allowed on Ideas.

Mind you I reckon a set of three popes taken from different eras would also sell quite well.

[Dorayaki]

Aside from Christmas, to me the fairest use for non-religious use of a church might be weddings. But that also reminds me in set 10184 the wedding was held in the town hall, so... 

Like most commented, the chance of a real detailed church (also temples from other religions) is introduced probaby when the following occurs:

1) Realworld landmarks, dependent.

2) Appears as background of certain scenes in licenesed materials that scarcely hints on religions.

3) Original religious buildings created in LEGO's story, which we've seen in Ninjago, Chima or Elves. This one would be easy to deal with, but it could be obscure sometimes.

[Karalora]

I have a sincere question for anothergol and MAB...

Do you guys want a "Men of NASA" set? Is that a product that actually interests you? Or are you just angry that there was a "Women of NASA" set?

If it's the former--heck, even if it's the latter--why not propose one on Ideas? You claim it would never succeed because of "SJW" protests, but that's a huge assumption on your part. In any case, you literally have nothing to lose by trying. If the feminists do shut you down, you get to be proven right, and if they don't, you have a shot at launching a cool LEGO set! It's win-win!

On the more general subject of feminism, I must strenuously disagree with any and all assertions that feminism is "no longer necessary" in developed countries. Here in the United States, our government is in the hands of wannabe theocrats and just plain misogynists who would love to wind back every inch of progress made in women's rights for the last 100 years. We could lose our reproductive rights any day now, for instance. That's all I'll say on that matter, but it's a very real struggle.

[MAB]

24 minutes ago, Karalora said:

I have a sincere question for anothergol and MAB...

Do you guys want a "Men of NASA" set? Is that a product that actually interests you? Or are you just angry that there was a "Women of NASA" set?

 

1

I wouldn't want a Men of NASA set as the title is too loaded. But I wouldn't mind a Pioneers of NASA set. And it would be fine by me if all the people in it were men, as the notable women have already been done. Or just a decent minifigure set to go with Saturn V, rather than the microscale / trophy figures. The original moon landing crew would make sense there. Or they could do a "People that have walked on the moon" set, or famous astronauts set, and include women where appropriate.

As for Ideas, anything related to the Apollo program is now banned. Even if it wasn't, a set similar to Women of NASA with vignettes wouldn't pass as it is too similar to the past project.

 

Edited November 27, 2018 by MAB

[koalayummies]

7 hours ago, MAB said:

Mind you I reckon a set of three popes taken from different eras would also sell quite well.

And if one of them is Benedict they can reuse the Palaptine head print.

[anothergol]

6 hours ago, Karalora said:

Do you guys want a "Men of NASA" set? Is that a product that actually interests you? Or are you just angry that there was a "Women of NASA" set? 

No I don't want a "men of NASA", no one does, it'd be as ridiculous as women of NASA.
Some (not me because I don't care - even though I dig the Saturn V set) do want a "first man on the moon" set, not because they're SJW's, but because they're into space exploration, or great achievements. And here "Man" means "human", and it just happens that they're men, because.. History.
 

Anyway, I was just pointing out that Lego, in this case, had no choice but supporting a controversial subject.
I'm not kidding when I'm saying it's purely a feminist project, you can check for yourself the background of the one who did the project.
First, look at her (Maia Weinstock) other projects: feminist battlepacks. She does not care about NASA, she cares about women and just that. https://ideas.lego.com/profile/20tauri/entries. And check her story, she's an active feminist.

And lol, I'm not making this up, straight from her wikipedia:
Eventually, this included a submission to the Lego Ideas contest called the "Legal Justice League", which was designed to look like a courtroom built out of Legos, and contained miniature versions of Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.^[8]The submission was declined by LEGO as being too political, which led to an increase in publicity for the project

So I hope that it's clear that "Women of NASA" isn't about NASA, and that the real reason it got voted is quite obvious.

What I did not know btw, is that the Research Institute set might already have been Lego's answer to feminists already attacking the company...
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28660069
I'm telling you, Lego was forced to make a decision here. So if you want Lego Ideas to accept a church project, you'll have to build a drama around it. I can't imagine it being easy, though. I'm sure you'd have more chances with a "Black handicapped chairwomen of Peru" project.

6 hours ago, MAB said:

I wouldn't want a Men of NASA set as the title is too loaded. But I wouldn't mind a Pioneers of NASA set.

Well, considering that you can't do a "pioneers of NASA" without the true father of rockets, von Braun, who is also known for having developped the V2 for the nazis...... I can't imagine Lego doing it :)

Edited November 27, 2018 by anothergol