LEGO Collectable Minifigures Series 29. Rumors and discussion

[Darth Phallus]

The bionicle helmet/mask has leaked, looks good!

[BrickBob Studpants]

11 minutes ago, Darth Phallus said:

The bionicle helmet/mask has leaked, looks good!

It’s not in the usual places (yet)! There was a mock-up making the rounds yesterday however.

[Darth Phallus]

Bricks & Pieces short on YouTube has it.

[BrickBob Studpants]

4 minutes ago, Darth Phallus said:

Bricks & Pieces short on YouTube has it.

Could be real, but it looks very similar to the mock-up I've seen. Didn't save it for a direct comparison though

[Karalora]

1 hour ago, Lion King said:

Okay what’s up with red hair for Monster Hunter? I notice that Barbarian and Falconer from previous CMF series come wiht red hair and now Monster Hunter. What. Does a red hair suppsoed to represent?  Feminism? 

It's complicated. Visual media has a bad habit of using a female character's hair color as shorthand for her personality. Blondes are either innocent or extremely catty, black-haired women are sultry, brown-haired women are virtually unrepresented...and redheads are "fiery." Which is to say they're assertive and maybe a bit quick-tempered, but never to an extent that might be perceived as threatening to the presumed male audience. Because red hair is also, for some reason, coded as "sexy." It's kinda the opposite of feminism, actually--the red hair is essentially "permission" for the woman to be in a more active or combat-focused role, because she has a striking enough appearance to justify her existence.

[Accio Lego]

32 minutes ago, Karalora said:

It's complicated. Visual media has a bad habit of using a female character's hair color as shorthand for her personality. Blondes are either innocent or extremely catty, black-haired women are sultry, brown-haired women are virtually unrepresented...and redheads are "fiery." Which is to say they're assertive and maybe a bit quick-tempered, but never to an extent that might be perceived as threatening to the presumed male audience. Because red hair is also, for some reason, coded as "sexy." It's kinda the opposite of feminism, actually--the red hair is essentially "permission" for the woman to be in a more active or combat-focused role, because she has a striking enough appearance to justify her existence.

While that’s not an invalid analysis of longstanding female character tropes, it’s worth mentioning that this is classic Lego. 
 

In other words, bright, fun colors are the default and minifigure ‘skin’ is bright yellow so blond hair tends to be pretty meh looking. Red has the benefit of being a natural hair color (and, yes, some versions in the past have been more crayon shaded than anything, but when paired with the yellow skin…), so is an obvious go to when lego wants something other than black or some shade of brown (and those turn up plenty in CMFs) to add hair color variety in historical characters. 

[Lion King]

1 hour ago, Karalora said:

It's complicated. Visual media has a bad habit of using a female character's hair color as shorthand for her personality. Blondes are either innocent or extremely catty, black-haired women are sultry, brown-haired women are virtually unrepresented...and redheads are "fiery." Which is to say they're assertive and maybe a bit quick-tempered, but never to an extent that might be perceived as threatening to the presumed male audience. Because red hair is also, for some reason, coded as "sexy." It's kinda the opposite of feminism, actually--the red hair is essentially "permission" for the woman to be in a more active or combat-focused role, because she has a striking enough appearance to justify her existence.

Yeah, your interpreting is purely valid. I was trying to figure what that red hair means for tough-looking female characters. I’m not sure what Lego designers try to tell us about those female characters. So…yeah it’s complicated. 

[Black Falcon]

I think sometimes people are just reading to much into stuff. In the end there can be several reasons why they did something like they did. Could aswell be they just tried several colours and thought that would look the coolest, or one of the designers daughters wears the hair like this or well thousands of other reasons.

In the case of the Monsterhunter I wouldn´t be surprised if they choose red to add a bit of colour to the figure, as it already is very brownish, so brown hair wouldn´t have fit that good - blond would probably stand out to much, while a dark red adds some spark of colour without standing out to much.

For the Barbarian many assumed that it was loosely based on red sonja, hence the red hair and for the Falconer it can have thousands of different reasons, while honestly I would have prefered a more medievalish hair. But for the figure itself it didn´t look bad.

[Lion King]

34 minutes ago, Accio Lego said:

While that’s not an invalid analysis of longstanding female character tropes, it’s worth mentioning that this is classic Lego. 
 

In other words, bright, fun colors are the default and minifigure ‘skin’ is bright yellow so blond hair tends to be pretty meh looking. Red has the benefit of being a natural hair color (and, yes, some versions in the past have been more crayon shaded than anything, but when paired with the yellow skin…), so is an obvious go to when lego wants something other than black or some shade of brown (and those turn up plenty in CMFs) to add hair color variety in historical characters. 

That’s true. Red hair for female characters fairly standard out, like that Monster Hunter. Although, I don’t Hinkle blondes are that meh on yellow skin. 

[Karalora]

17 minutes ago, Lion King said:

Yeah, your interpreting is purely valid. I was trying to figure what that red hair means for tough-looking female characters. I’m not sure what Lego designers try to tell us about those female characters. So…yeah it’s complicated. 

I assume the LEGO designers are relying on well-worn character design tropes without interrogating them too closely, and you know what? That's fine. These things were codified in pulp adventure and fantasy of previous generations, when both the production and consumption of things were very much a "good old boys' club." LEGO play is very much not that, which robs the tropes of much of their baggage.

14 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

I think sometimes people are just reading to much into stuff.

Whenever someone accuses me of reading too much into something, I know I'm on the right track. 

[Lion King]

So we have seen some leaked images of Monster Hunter, Unicorn Elf, Trash Monster, and Binicle Cosplayer. I am so eager to see Mysterious Ronin!

[Robert8]

4 hours ago, Darth Phallus said:

The bionicle helmet/mask has leaked, looks good!

Where though?

[Lion King]

17 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

Where though?

@BrickBob Studpants stated that it’s jsut mock-up and it’s not shown in the usual place…yet. 

[hikouki]

Someone made a concept MOC and I realized that Lego could have just perhaps made that entire CMF out of bionicles. LOL

[Lion King]

6 hours ago, hikouki said:

Someone made a concept MOC and I realized that Lego could have just perhaps made that entire CMF out of bionicles. LOL

Most likely that Bioncile CMF series would receive backlash jut like F1 Series. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

8 hours ago, hikouki said:

Someone made a concept MOC and I realized that Lego could have just perhaps made that entire CMF out of bionicles. LOL

This most likely would not have been received particularly well  Maybe not quite as badly as the F1 series as they would‘ve been actual minifigs at least, but there still would‘ve been some backlash as @Lion King points out.

Personally, I wouldn‘t have loved an entire Bonkle CMF series either, but a return of the 2005-07 playsets but with actual minifigs this time could work! Never gonna happen tho.

[Lion King]

5 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

This most likely would not have been received particularly well  Maybe not quite as badly as the F1 series as they would‘ve been actual minifigs at least, but there still would‘ve been some backlash as @Lion King points out.

Personally, I wouldn‘t have loved an entire Bonkle CMF series either, but a return of the 2005-07 playsets but with actual minifigs this time could work! Never gonna happen tho.

Yup exactly!! And I feel Bionicles series would include same printings for torso and legs, just six diffeernt colors for each Toa. In other words, no one would want to see entire CMF series contains Classic Spacemen in different colors. 

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, Lion King said:

Yup exactly!! And I feel Bionicles series would include same printings for torso and legs, just six diffeernt colors for each Toa. In other words, no one would want to see entire CMF series contains Classic Spacemen in different colors. 

I think there would be plenty people that would love to get that series - but it would likely not be that popular among the general costumers, let alone kids, but more among AFOLs. 

[Lion King]

1 hour ago, Black Falcon said:

I think there would be plenty people that would love to get that series - but it would likely not be that popular among the general costumers, let alone kids, but more among AFOLs. 

I think you missed my and @BrickBob’s points. CMF might not be a better place for entire Bioncile characters. 

[Black Falcon]

16 hours ago, Lion King said:

I think you missed my and @BrickBob’s points. CMF might not be a better place for entire Bioncile characters. 

I understood that point quite well. I just thought that comparism with classic spacemen was kinda strange, especially as many would love to get several unique colours for that one.

[Accio Lego]

34 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

I understood that point quite well. I just thought that comparism with classic spacemen was kinda strange, especially as many would love to get several unique colours for that one.

That is the point that’s trying to be made. Both a Bionicle series and a series of just different colored classic spacemen would be very well received among certain sections of the AFOL community, but to casual fans and parents and children they would both come across as rather boring and just the same fig repeating in different colors. Lego just got a taste of why that doesn’t sell as well with the F-1 series, so they’re unlikely to do it again anytime soon. 

[Lion King]

19 minutes ago, Accio Lego said:

That is the point that’s trying to be made. Both a Bionicle series and a series of just different colored classic spacemen would be very well received among certain sections of the AFOL community, but to casual fans and parents and children they would both come across as rather boring and just the same fig repeating in different colors. Lego just got a taste of why that doesn’t sell as well with the F-1 series, so they’re unlikely to do it again anytime soon. 

Yup, exactly.

[BrickBob Studpants]

The torso and legs of what people believe to be the ronin have leaked! …How exactly did people confuse this with Lloyd…?

[williejm]

2 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

The torso and legs of what people believe to be the ronin have leaked! …How exactly did people confuse this with Lloyd…?

Tbf I would have likely dismissed it as a Ninjago character in passing … 

could definitely do with a head though! 

[Darth Phallus]

He is supposed to be carrying a new weapon.