In YouTube are speculating about the end of yellow heads

[Lion King]

None of these crooks scream “WE ARE WHITE REDNECKS!”…..

[doomguy]

Doubt it, the yellow minifigures are synonymous with the LEGO brand as a whole. We'll probably get some fleshies thrown into Original LEGO themes down the line or in more D2C sets but they'll never go away or get phased out. Youtubers just say crap for clicks.

[SpacePolice89]

I prefer yellow, it's a good compromise because no one is yellow in real life and everyone can identify with yellow minifigs. Yellow is to Lego what blue is to the Smurfs. 

[dr_spock]

Maybe someone with jaundice would be yellowish in real life.  One can always pretend that yellow can be whatever one's imagination desires, assuiming one has an imagination to begin with. 

 

 

 

 

[Horation]

On 11/30/2023 at 10:45 PM, Lyichir said:

I wouldn't necessarily assume that these pictures mean flesh-tone heads are arriving for all themes (especially since these promotional characters do not seem to appear in any actual themes or sets).

That said, if or when Lego does transition to all flesh tone heads... I feel it'll take some time for people to adapt. But I also feel like it's sort of been a long time coming. The inadequacy of yellow to truly represent all real-life people was apparent way back when the transition was first made for licensed themes. And the current system (yellow for unlicensed themes, flesh tones for licensed ones and Friends) sort of works as a stopgap, but relying mainly on Hollywood franchises to carry the weight of representation creates major issues, especially given that Hollywood blockbusters tend to have their own issues with adequately representing women and people of color.

For example, one of the themes that currently offers a wide range of skin tones is Harry Potter—but even setting aside my distaste for the books' creator aside, there's no avoiding the fact that the main recurring characters of the series are all represented by white actors, with people of color largely appearing in side or background roles if at all. The Black Panther sets probably were the first license that featured mainly people of color, but its larger-than-life Afrofuturist fantasy elements make some of its character designs less useful as basic sorts of stock characters for populating a normal sort of city scene. One of the best minifigure-based sets in recent years for representation has been the Table Football set, and it's probably not a coincidence that it's one of the only sets with flesh-toned figs who are not based on a specific licensed property. Meanwhile, as divisive as the figure design itself can be, the Friends theme has done a great job showing how well realistic skin tones can work in an original theme with realistic characters.

One of the biggest hurdles with shifting over completely to flesh-toned figures, for fans, is the challenge of customizability. But the sooner that change happens, the easier it will be for people to get over that hurdle, as a wider range of skin tones becoming more common would make it easier to customize flesh-toned figs.

Anyway this is a lot of words, mostly restating things I've said before and probably will say again at some point. TL;DR I don't think the change to flesh-toned figs is imminent, but I do think that while such a change would be divisive and adapting would be a challenge, it would probably be for the best overall if or when it happens.

Well, yellow being inadequate to represent any flesh tone is intentional, since it is meant to represent all colours. 

The issue at play here seems to be the lack of representation in licensed sets-which as you say is due to under-representation of coloured people in media. So the solution is to go pester Hollywood about it, since they are the ones in control.

One of the biggest hurdles with shifting over completely to flesh-toned figures, for fans, is the challenge of customizability. One of the nicest things about Lego is that I can take a decades-old brick and just plop it on any modern build and they will fit fine, no need to constantly buy upgraded parts packs, no 2nd or 3rd edition bricks needed to make a build. Now this is also true of minifigs; I can take a figure like the maiden that appeared in a few sets in the 1980s and 1990s and mix its torso parts (which include yellow skin showing on the print) with a modern fig without any issue. Now with such a change, ALL the parts showing any skin colour (ex: heads, hands, torsos showing skin colour, etc....) I'd have purchased before the flip would be worthless (or partly worthless), so I'd have to buy upgraded ones. Also, [Non White] kids would feel pressured to play with [Non White] minifigs and white kids with white ones (especially if skin colour is shown on the non-head parts), this would negatively impact play opportunities.

Then, the issue of representation, in the US, close to 40% of the populace isn't white, in Canada the % is much smaller, should TLG make different proportions to better reflect everyone? What about in Asia? South America? Everyone will want fair representation, but there are far fewer white people in Peru than in Norway, wouldn't there be a perception of under-representation if there were still too many people of one race compared to the local average? By comparison 0% of the world is yellow (source : National association for the advancement of yellow people, NAAYP), so EVERYONE is under-represented, and kids in China, Italy and Chile will all be able to project themselves on to the characters, they can all be doctors, mechanics, astronauts, etc... If that's not a progressive, accepting message and we need to shove diversity down these kids' throats to make them fit some arbitrary definition of acceptance, well then we have a problem.

TLDR I don't think the change to flesh-toned figs is coming, such a change would be for the worst overall possible result

Edited December 3, 2023 by Peppermint_M
Just a little edit to avoid offended people

[Yoggington]

Looks to me like YouTubers drumming up talking points for the sake of keeping busy. Gotta feed that algorithm with fresh 'content', and the more controversial the better, for the clicks.

In reality, it's a storm in a tea-cup, nothing to see here. We have some flesh-coloured minifigs because they represent real-life people, specifically the kids from that ad. That's in line with Lego's policy for a long time now. I strongly doubt Lego will ever move away from yellow figs completely.

Is there anything to actually suggest a change apart from speculation?

[Yperio_Bricks]

9 hours ago, Horation said:

Well, yellow being inadequate to represent any flesh tone is intentional, since it is meant to represent all colours.

Have to quote myself here from an earlier post in this thread:

On 12/1/2023 at 4:55 PM, Yperio_Bricks said:

Actually i think this is a explanation that has been applied retroactive and Lego was lucky that it fitted the narrative well for many years. I am sure that in first days of the minifigure and during development in the 70s nobody ever thought about yellow minfigs beeing of an other skin tone than white.

 

[Horation]

2 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Have to quote myself here from an earlier post in this thread:

Actually i think this is a explanation that has been applied retroactive and Lego was lucky that it fitted the narrative well for many years. I am sure that in first days of the minifigure and during development in the 70s nobody ever thought about yellow minfigs [being] of an other skin tone than white.

Well, from what I've heard, the main reason was the fact the colours available at the time and the machinery used meant that it was easiest to use yellow to print on. Regardless, if their intentions were to have it represent white they'd have changed it by the 90s for sure...

[TeriXeri]

27 minutes ago, Horation said:

Well, from what I've heard, the main reason was the fact the colours available at the time and the machinery used meant that it was easiest to use yellow to print on. Regardless, if their intentions were to have it represent white they'd have changed it by the 90s for sure...

Yeah Duplo's first articulated figures appeared in 1983, with flesh tone heads, so the color of plastic did exist within LEGO, also duplo had things like animals in colors that would not be seen in LEGO for decades later, a 1985 set 2647: Farm Animals .

So if LEGO wanted to change things, they would've had flesh tone minifigs probably in the 80s if they wanted to.

But when it came to Duplo bricks with faces on them, they were yellow as well, similar to system bricks with eyes at the time.

Duplo started making more varied non-licensed figure skin tones, since around the same time Friends minidolls appeared as non-licensed.

 

I don't see it impossible for LEGO to eventually switch all minifigs to skin tones, but I think minifigs have been way more iconic compared to like Duplo figs or Minidolls, and Minifigs even still have their own Patent, while bricks do not.

Edited December 3, 2023 by TeriXeri

[Yperio_Bricks]

26 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

and Minifigs even still have their own Patent, while bricks do not.

The patent(s) expired but the minfigure is protected as a 3D trademark in Europe and this protection probably lasts forever (unless something big happens like bankruptcy).

[TeriXeri]

2 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

The patent(s) expired but the minfigure is protected as a 3D trademark in Europe and this protection probably lasts forever (unless something big happens like bankruptcy).

Yeah that's basicly what I meant, it's protected.

[Yperio_Bricks]

Sorry if this is off topic but it is interesting. The difference between patents and 3D trademarks is very important. That also must be one of the reasons why Lego keeps pumping out new parts year after year. Patents expire, but if they can get a patent for a new part, their competitors can not copy and use it for 20 years (or whatever the number is). And even if this patents are not applicable in China, the import of sets into the EU which contain a single one of these parts, even if it is an original design, is illegal.

[Mikdun]

18 hours ago, Yoggington said:

Looks to me like YouTubers drumming up talking points for the sake of keeping busy. Gotta feed that algorithm with fresh 'content', and the more controversial the better, for the clicks.

I second this. There are more and more silly/stupid titles and thesis.

It's best to ignore this.

[Thebrickfig]

I think that’s not the right way to go. If Lego wants to create diversity keep yellow heads since they bring everyone together while not affecting their products at the moment.

[Murdoch17]

IF they did this, it will make the Great Color Switchover of 2003 and the fan backlash afterwards seem like nothing. But I think (I hope!) they learned a lesson from that debacle, and wouldn't dare touch this issue.

[MAB]

5 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

IF they did this, it will make the Great Color Switchover of 2003 and the fan backlash afterwards seem like nothing. But I think (I hope!) they learned a lesson from that debacle, and wouldn't dare touch this issue.

I agree, if they fully switched. I guess the difference here unlike the colour switch is that they can have both coexisting.  Friends was introduced with realistic shades in unlicensed themes, the football game is trying it. They can turn it on and off again in new themes or one offs. I cannot see them doing it in the City and Ninjago cash-cows, but I expect they'll do it again in future one-offs. 

[PaleozoicBricks]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:56 PM, Horation said:

The issue at play here seems to be the lack of representation in licensed sets-which as you say is due to under-representation of coloured people in media. So the solution is to go pester Hollywood about it, since they are the ones in control.

I mean couldn't lego make stuff based on stuff outside of Hollywood? I know im not the only person who would love manga representation  

[Horation]

1 hour ago, PaleozoicBricks said:

I mean couldn't lego make stuff based on stuff outside of Hollywood? I know im not the only person who would love manga representation  

Absolutely agree (even if Hollywood sells better amongst the wealthy populaces of America and Europe, which are the main sales drivers of TLG's products).

[PaleozoicBricks]

On 12/17/2023 at 11:53 PM, Horation said:

Absolutely agree (even if Hollywood sells better amongst the wealthy populaces of America and Europe, which are the main sales drivers of TLG's products).

There are 3 major licensed sets id love Lego to do outside of the big budgeted Hollywood projects.

1. I want either a Going Merry/Thousand Sunny from "One Piece". This one might be closer to reality than I realize with the live action version doing well. Lego loves Pirate Ships and making ones like the ones from one piece will be different from their traditional offerings

2. The Epoch from "Chrono Trigger". I know everyone loves the DeLorean  from back to the future but, the epoch is a better time machine. 

3. Faced Mechon/Ouroboros/Moebius from Xenoblade. Alright Lego, I know you love mechs, here's a ton.

Besides the first one the other 2 are not likely in the slightest. This could also be me yearning for Lego to attempt to go for a teen audience, besides just the standard Star Wars and Harry Potter collectors.  

[GarryTheMinifig]

If they're going to diversify non-licensed-or-Friends minifigs, they should just go full Doug with it and have them be orange, red, blue, purple, #FFFFFF white, etc. Keep the ambiguity (not drawing explicit parallels to real ethnicities, let people see what they want) but shake things up a little.

Edited December 28, 2023 by GarryTheMinifig

[MAB]

17 hours ago, GarryTheMinifig said:

If they're going to diversify non-licensed-or-Friends minifigs, they should just go full Doug with it and have them be orange, red, blue, purple, #FFFFFF white, etc. Keep the ambiguity (not drawing explicit parallels to real ethnicities, let people see what they want) but shake things up a little.

They already are diversifying Friends figures and have been for some time when it comes to skin tones. It makes sense to keep those colours to realistic skin tones, I cannot see brightly coloured unrealistic figures selling well. An issue with Friends is that they use core characters that repeat. I don't mind them showing representation by doing characters like Autumn, but when they repeat her then you can end up with lots of figures all missing a left hand which looks very strange. Those parts cannot really be reused for other generic people like other Friends core characters can.

[TeriXeri]

The thing with adding skin tones to all figures, is that figures suddenly become far less compatible.

Incompatibility of course already exists all the time with hand colors, dual moulded "shorts" , and collar/skin printed clothing, but going to 6+ skin tones across the board for everything will still change things drasticly.

Friends already have less mixing , matching going on, it still is very much possible, but with most legs having hands and leg skin shown, and the addition of more skin tones in recent years, the main characters that become compatible, are repeat of same characters, or their families, unlike something like a yellow figure 3-in-1 set which even suggests changing figure parts around.

 

Of course, there are also plenty minifigs without any sort of colored hands or skin prints (for 2024, the majority of City does not have yellow hands), where a skin tone head would be easily swapped, as long as it's simple like 1 piece.

Edited December 29, 2023 by TeriXeri

[Alexandrina]

On 12/28/2023 at 2:48 PM, GarryTheMinifig said:

If they're going to diversify non-licensed-or-Friends minifigs, they should just go full Doug with it and have them be orange, red, blue, purple, #FFFFFF white, etc. Keep the ambiguity (not drawing explicit parallels to real ethnicities, let people see what they want) but shake things up a little.

I don't know what "full Doug" means, but honestly this feels like it would be somehow worse by some margin than either other possibility.

Yellow heads are not only synonymous with the minifigure, but serve the purpose of not representing any real ethnicities by all being exactly the same colour. You'd end up with an ugly hodge-podge of bright colours that doesn't appeal to anybody who wants to keep the yellow minifigures, while still having room for perceived poor representation (some colours are darker than others, just as a physical property of the colour; the parallels are going to be drawn, even if only by malicious actors, regardless). But while not satisfying anyone who wants the yellow heads, you're also not satisfying anyone who wants the minifigures to actually represent real ethnicities, because you're using bright colours rather than any sort of representation of the real skin tone.

[Peppermint_M]

4 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

I don't know what "full Doug" means, but honestly this feels like it would be somehow worse by some margin than either other possibility.

A cartoon that was not as good as Hey Arnold!

 As you can see, there are characters who are teal, there were purple people also I think a few other odd colours. I suppose a good similar example would be The Tweenies in the UK...