Sociologists are clever people. A recent study showed that an increasing number of Lego figures' faces are scowling, frowning or snarling rather than smiling. What does it say about the human condition? Maybe just a reflection of more evildoers in the mix of minifigs? More dividing of the world into good and evil, black and white?
That's very interesting. On a related note, my son opened up a random Minifigure package we bought for him and it contained the super rare Mr. Gold figure. Apparently there are only 5,000 of them in the world and they are going on eBay for $700-$1000. Of course my son is all smiles!
That's cool! Woohoo. A quick check of solds shows $100-1,200 US. It's always a gamble, hold because the price will go up, or sell because the price will go down.
We all like a story. Even if we don't call them villains, we can sometimes call them antagonists. It only seems natural that toys would start to reflect the way our imaginations work. We may be influenced from society a lot, but before society man was a hyper violent creature. Having scowling faces and making them do mean things is a lot better than actually doing mean things. May even subvert it, through allowing small release, instead of explosion. (though anyone who explodes is nuts)
[MENTION=44992]JJ_Maxx[/MENTION] How exciting for your son! My sister and dad got me into buying some minifig packages. I didn't used to like Legos, but it is fun guessing what we're going to get. We always joke about getting Mr. Gold. Awesome picture by the way! And that is an interesting article. I think it's sad that people don't smile enough...and now kid toys aren't smiling? Even more sad.
Interesting comment. That would seem rather odd... But, thinking more about the kids market; what really surprises me is this fact (this is just a personal feeling): Years ago, the cartoon industry seemed to be focused in making kids laugh. These days, when you pick randomly a tv cartoon, I bet that you´d most likely see fighting, crazy characters, or sarcasm, or .... I´m really not sure, but it seems to me that cartoons today are not really made to make kids laugh. Of course, there are exceptions, (Garfield? to name just one) Has anybody else the same feeling?
On our college TV channel they play some of the really old cartoons on occasion. They are hardly what I'd call funny. Seen any reruns of the original Dumbo or Bambi recently? Definitely not funny. The progression of kids' cartoon programs over the years is a fascinating subject.
it's indeed sad that villains outnumber happy folk in legoland... but not surprising, in the current culture of violent playthings/games being ever more on the rise... which is much worse than sad, imo... to me, it's bordering on the 'e' word...
I tracked down the original paper. It's full of all sorts of interesting findings. Agents With Faces - What Can We Learn From LEGO Minifigures? Abstract: (bolding mine) The finding of skin color variation effect is misleading. They used a skin toned Harry Potter and a classic yellow Harry Potter. Perhaps ethnicity was a too-hot potato? Selected quotes from the conclusions: Market forces, a whole other toy topic.
