Oederland

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.

Thanks for the info so far! The different plastic as such would be no problem to me, but the legs get loose very quickly indeed (at least one of my black Senseis suffers from this problem although I hardly moved him). And changing the legs doesn't work in this case due to the printing I just noticed that the Sensei Wu in 2012 outfit is included in the 853404 Magnet Set as well. And there's a on Youtube, it seems one can get rid of the clued magnet part with 75 °C hot water... still, if you have some information about its plastic, just let me know. Thanks!

I'm trying to collect some of the Ninjago figures to use them for Asian mods, but I don't want to spend much money (and I don't want to build armies anyway). Now I wonder how to get some more Sensei Wu figures. I have one white Sensei Wu from set 2504 and two black Sensei Wus from the spinner set 2255. I'm aware that these early spinner sets are made out of different plastic, but I really did not want to buy the Fire Temple or Lightning Dragon Battle. Now I would like to get a second white 2011 version and at least one white 2012 version. For the 2011 white version, there's the 853111 Exclusive Weapon Training Set (e.g. here), the 853106 Ninjago Battle Arena (e.g. here), and the Sensei Wu key chain set (e.g. here). Do you know whether these sets are made of "Chinese plastic"? I guess 853111 and 853106 are, because they are spinner sets, on the other hand, they seem to be more expensive (?). About the key chain set, I know that the body is fixed to the legs, but this would be no problem to me. Is this Chinese plastic as well? For the 2012 white version, does anyone have information whether it might appear in any spinner set / booster pack or as key chain? Or is this figure limited to 9446 Destiny’s Bounty and 9450 Epic Dragon Battle? Thanks for any comments!

That's not true. I got the attack wagon promo set at a local store (Germany) because I bought Kingdoms stuff for about 30 € or 40 €. I think this store somehow belongs to "Idee und Spiel" ( www.ideeundspiel.com ). It might be the same for other stores that are linked to this company somehow.

By the way, here's a list of the minifigs' heads... that's just too much of "3626bpb312", this strange angry Dragon Knight with brown beard... the photos are taken from bricklink, hope it's ok. Otherwise I'll remove it of course. Kingdoms.pdf

Concerning the printing of the battlepacks, there is a slight difference indeed, although it doesn't matter in my opinion. But it's true, some of the figs have quite loose legs and on some there seems to be a problem with the hands somehow as outlined above. But I was really angry when I opended the dragon's battlepack and noticed that the leader's black cape was crinkled. And my 7950 Knight's Showdown did not include the dark sword for the dragon's knight. This already happend to me when buying last year's christmas calender in which the bow was missing. LEGO should definitely pay more attention.

Can anyone give me a hint where to get the battlepacks in Germany? I DO need them

And concerning the new helmet, this type was common since about 1250. Because of the introduction of the stirrup it was now possible to use longer and heavier lances in the way we know from jousting. But in contrast to tournaments, you aimed on the head. Therefore it was important to improve the protection of the head. It was common to wear a so-called cervelière ("Hirnhaube") and later on the bascinet ("Beckenhaube") below the great helm (the cervelière was a close-fitting cap of metal around the head). The great helms were quite heavy, you had a limited field of view and it was not that easy to breathe. That's why knights did not even wear the great helm all the time during battles.

Actually I don't think it was especially typical for teutonic knights to wear wings or horns. It should be the same for knights from other countries. Only rich knights were able to afford a horse and expensive weapons including impressive crests probably. And normally, they were worn only for tournaments. To get an impression, you might want to have a look at the illustrations included in the Codex Manesse which dates back to about 1300 (see http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Codex_Manesse ).