LEGO Indiana Jones Versus, Er, Some Guys...
I've been staying up-to-date on the coolest stuff to hit Toy Fair 2008 this week. What really caught my eye was this amazing life-size Indiana Jones rendered in LEGO (see right). Not only do we have a new Indy movie to look forward to this year, LEGO is also releasing tie-in playsets and a video game!There is one catch to the latter products, however.
The Interweb has been all aflutter ever since it was announced that both the game and playsets will be Nazi-free. Well, that certainly does change things, doesn't it? I'm not sure how I feel about this, frankly. I mean, Indy kicked a lot of Nazi butt in two of the three original films!
Does this mean we won't see a LEGO minifig's face get melted off by the Arc of the Covenant? Nein! Apparently, Traveller's Tales (makers of the LEGO game) are keeping their story lines faithful as far as baddies are concerned. LEGO has merely "replaced them with an anonymous genocidal, occultist, trenchcoat-wearing master-race."
Er, okay. So, there goes the argument that LEGO was going for a light-hearted approach by censoring the Nazis. It seems the villains are just as evil, they just don't wear Nazi regalia. That would certainly help out in foreign markets where they pretend WWII never happened.
I'm guessing the video game cut scenes will look something like this:
LOVE the Faulty Towers reference.
Well, it may be that they are just trying to make it work for foreign markets (you know, cause I am sure they are hoping for the Japanese market and having Nazi's might not go over so well there. I know in anime we watch that depicts that era they gloss over all such things.
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Swastikas and such are definitely banned in Germany, as well. We've run into this b/c Brian plays a WWII wargame.
Hey, I'd be a bit touchy about the Nazi thing if I were German, too, but you can't erase history!
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What are you talking about? Nothing happened in Germany between 1939 and 1945. They were on vacation.
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LMAO! That is an epic reference - if I could have found a clip of that, I would have stuck it in the blog.
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I definitely understand where Germans may get upset; but honestly, Swastikas are originally not "Nazi" related and you are correct; it is part of history.
But hey, some here in Virginia have tried to keep people from displaying the Confederate flag because it "symbolizes" slavery to them. I think that is hog wash...it is just part of history...that's it.
Back on topic now...hehe. My son loves his Indiana Jones Legos he received for his birthday in January. I guess we will purchasing some more huh?
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Have to admit they did a fair job with the LEGO baddies for the Indy sets -- soldiery desert fatigues and nasty faces (same as have been used for outlaws, bank robbers, and henchmen).
No swastikas or eagles, not on the grunts, anyway. But I don't think the desert grunts wore much insignia in the movie, either. Don't know what they'll do for the officers and SS men -- maybe recast them as Gen. Veers & Adm. Piett?
Doesn't really matter -- a Nazi by any other name gets just as minced / crushed / squashed / pierced / melted.
Also missing for PC reasons: the Hovitos from the South American temple set. Belloq, Jock, Satipo, even the impaled skeleton of Forrestal are all there. But no natives. Fssssht! Fssssht!
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I think my head is going to explode, Lost Ark style from all this PC crap. Wait, that would be offending any polytheists out there to recognize the Ark, angels or whatever. Let's say Scanners style or would that be offending the telekinetic folk out there?
Ah forget it,
B
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I'm not really surprised by this at all. That's a very nice lego indy though.
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