MAB

This already happens. Of course, on one level, they get the same range of choice as any race can buy a toy depicting any race. However, if the purchaser insists on the toy having the same colour skin as them, then it will be a narrower choice. Count the number of dolls on the shelves of a toy store and separate them into different demographics such as white, black, and a general shades in-between, or split further into Asian (or Indian/Pakistani and Chinese origin), Arabic, and for USA add Native American, Hispanic. Minorities do not get the same range as majorities. If they did, there would be many dolls or LEGO sets sitting unsold.

This is exactly the problem though - that male is seen as the default and that LEGO continue to pump out female minifigures with printing that makes this evident. If LEGO started to produce more females that didn't wear lipstick and had curly eyelashes, then the slow process of getting rid of the default no lipstick equals male will start. Even worse is that black kids will get little to no choice in the sets offered if they want black minifigures. For example, the black population of the UK is about 3%. US is about 15%. So first of all, they need different sets to cater for different populations. Even in the USA, that is 1 in every 7 that should be black. In the UK, only 1 in 33 should be black. Assuming roughly 3-4 minifigures in a set, the UK black child will see one black minifigure in roughly every 8-10 sets. If they want a specific gender, then that is one in every 16-20 sets. The US child fares better and gets one in every 2 sets (or 4 sets for specific gender). They could of course make a set containing only black minifigures, although they should expect sales of that to be 30x smaller in the UK than an equivalent white minifigure set. I can understand why they make yellow skins.

Here's a list I made six years ago, all Homer variants. Homer as a devil Homer as an angel Teenage Homer Underpants Homer Mumu Homer Safety Salamander Mr Plow Homer Santa Homer Stone Cutter Homer Isotopes Mascot Be Sharps Homer Radiation Man PinPals Homer Astronaut Homer USA tourist Homer Sanitation Commissioner Homer Although if I could choose one series, it would be a warriors series.

Even without the word guy in the name, we know it is male because the head does not have lipstick or curly eyelashes. Which is another problem with LEGO figures - nearly every adult female minifigure has lipstick and lashes, and normally curves on the torso too. Which means that if LEGO do not print these features, then it is assumed the figure is male. Compare this one to the dragon, and we can see why the dragon is male by default. Personally, I'd like to see more torsos like this (in that they are gender neutral and could be male or female) where possible and even better still would be a head with a male side and a female side. Of course some torsos can only be male or only be female and that is fine. Similarly, removal of the tiny bits of yellow (or flesh colours) skin on torsos would be great as it gives them much more versatility.

Whenever I have had a problem (which is rare) on BL, it has always been fixed by the seller. Although I tend to buy only from the better sellers. If they have more than 2 negatives in every 100, I'd tend to avoid them.

That looks like a site that has been set up (and only four days ago) solely to drive amazon affiliate sales rather than provide any useful information.

B+P is available again for UK.

Very nice. You missed one stage - although the guy in the cowl might be doing it - drinking it!

A problem here is that not all light-skinned people think the same, the same with dark-skinned. Some white people don't think that yellow represents them, whereas some black will. Personally, I don't like think yellow skinned people represent me as I am not yellow, and whenever I do MOCs representing me or family, I try to use "light nougat" were possible. Of course, sticking to flesh colours means that parts, especially torsos and heads, are somewhat limited. It is even worse if you want to use reddish brown or a shade in-between these such as nougat. If LEGO introduced another colour closer to brown skin to appease people that want to create dark-skinned minifigures within City or other themes, then they should ditch yellow completely. For light skin, they should also use a more appropriate colour, much like they quickly did in licensed themes.

I think you are making an assumption that white people only think about white people. I could equally well say that they represented generic people, and since they decide to use only one colour to represent all races, they went for a colour that was not white but one that looks like no particular race. After all, white was a common LEGO colour back in the 1970s, they could have used that like they did for early duplo figures. But the fact remains that there is only one colour of skin in City, yellow. Hence there is only one race in City. Yellow is not black or white or any shades in between, it is yellow. The problem only comes when people try to project a world of multiple races into a toy system where there is only one colour of skin. Personally, I prefer fleshies and would love it if they ditched the yellow. But I think it would be a huge mistake for the company to do that. It would limit the subjects they can do without being called out for being racist if they make a set that some people disagree with.

It is not really anything new though. Panini and other brands have done stickers in blind bags for decades. At least with CMF, the toy is something complete that can be used instantly. Whereas stickers are less useful unless you collect every single one. Sometimes, the stickers are only just part of a larger picture and need the other part to make sense.

Put them into file boxes, or into large envelopes inside a larger box. Or you can put them into plastic document wallets that hang inside a lever arch file.

And in most of that 20 years, they also didn't think that the minifigures would be standing in for white people either, as they didn't represent particular people. Remember that there was a backlash against the introduction of fleshies, and to some extent there still are some people that would prefer licensed to be yellow. I imagine their product testing or development team in 98/99 indicated to them to continue with yellow skins and, yes, maybe they didn't think about representing brown skin in the first couple of years. Star Wars was new (for them) at the time and could have flopped before they got to doing more minor characters like Lando. Even The Emperor was yellow-skinned back then, despite them using grey for Vader's head.

Why not? Consider this. Yellow equals race neutral originally. Then licensed sets come along and they start making all (human) characters yellow. But LucasFilm or LEGO object to Lando being the same colour as the other minifigures, especially as they have already used a non-yellow head for Vader, so LEGO have to act quickly to change him. Within a year they introduce the fleshie colours to represent licensed white people. If they had allowed yellow and brown characters to co-exist side-by-side for years, then yellow=white would be more apparent. But they didn't. They quickly got rid of yellow skin when there were sets with reddish brown skinned characters.

It depends on whether people dye their hair. I know of black women with (fake) blond hair, so the female one could be used on a reddish brown head if such a person wanted to represent their own characteristics in LEGO form accurately. But the point is in City and in-house themes, there are no racial differences. A yellow skin minifigure can have a hair style like any race in the real world. Just because a figure wears hair of one particular style does not define their LEGO City race, as there is no (or just one = yellow) race.

These will just be the same Chinese made ones that the sellers have imported into Europe first.

For thick areas, I also use a dremel style tool, or a hacksaw. It is also possible to use a hot wire (a taught wire that you run a current through to get it hot) if you are careful. You can score the surface with a thin blade first to keep the cut in the right place. An alternative to finishing with sandpaper is to dissolve the surface very carefully. Just a single drop of acetone on a q-tip can be used to finish the surface off quite nicely. You could even put a drop onto the part in the area you want to remove, and slowly mould it into the main part. If you cut off the puldron, you could also re-attach it on the other side. However, a better route is to start from a part that is closer to the one you want. Brickwarriors do a "harpy armour" that is symmetrical, so you could cut off one side of that if you want the pauldron over the other shoulder.

If it came to renewal time and the creator didn't care about it any more, then it makes sense that it just disappeared overnight. Did anyone still use it? I can't say I've looked there in years. I imagine the advertising revenue dried up and it is not worth the effort or cost of running it.

Maybe to you. But to others it is a family where both parents have black curly hair, and those genes have been passed on to the daughter.

No, it isn't the end of LEGO police. They are not retiring sets. This is the era of clickbait headlines.

For some people, the link back to a classic set of the past via the logo on the shirt is excellent, just like getting a shirt with a classic space or blacktron logo.

For in-house sets, I think the simple answer is no. Leave it is at is. With licensed sets, they get the distribution of skin colours from the characters being portrayed in the relevant media. But how to do in-house themes? Do they do equal numbers of each colour, or do they base it on the demographics for the world or the region or the country they are sold in and need to have different sets for different places, or do they base it on the demographics of the people actually buying the sets? Plus they have to show some advertising on the box and the minifigures are made up. If there is a set with a reddish brown police officer and a light nougat crook and another set with a light nougat police officer and a reddish brown crook, then people will complain that the second set is racist and it will be all over twitter that LEGO is racist for producing this set and stereotyping people of colour as crooks.

Yes, by better than now I meant for those wanting to buy blind. I was very similar to you, you only needed to learn the last few bars of the bar code to be able to pick out the ones you wanted. Same with the dot codes, I still remember some of those from 8 or 9 years ago, they are implanted in my brain. While that might work in a LEGO store, it is unlikely other stores. Most stores want to sell cheap consumer products rather than limit them.

No we don't. They would be irrelevant for both this thread (Dream LEGO Licensed Themes) and this forum (LEGO Licensed).

They've been in non-licensed sets, so chances are the part will be on there. However, they might still restrict the colours available.