Upcoming Queen Figure

Discussion of official LEGO Castle Theme sets and products
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Aharown
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Post by Aharown »

Blueandwhite wrote: More than anything, the colour of the Queen fig intrigues me. The current fantasy Knights have typically been dark and light blue, whereas this queen fig is a neutral tone. Moreover, unlike the crown princess and the jester, the Queen fig doesn't seem to have the crown insignia on her torso. Could this be hinting at a new (non-crownie) faction?
Judging by the designs on her dress, she may very well be the Queen for the rumoured new elven faction. Time will tell.

Nice figure at any rate, though.
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CVfan13
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Post by CVfan13 »

I thought it was already confirmed by TLC that there would be no elves?
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Post by Username »

CVfan13 wrote:I thought it was already confirmed by TLC that there would be no elves?
At BrickCon 08 it was said by the Lego reps that there won't be any elf sets in 09.
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Post by Tower of Iron Will »

I like the figure, hard to say whether it's for Castle or Pirates. I'm thinking that the dress is a little to modern for the Castle line, perhaps the renaissance era? Ether way either line would be happy to have her included. I can't wait to see what sets she's in. She's the bomb.
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Post by Karalora »

Tower of Iron Will wrote:I'm thinking that the dress is a little to modern for the Castle line, perhaps the renaissance era?
Is this really an issue? I've always allowed fantasy settings more leeway when it comes to period elements than settings that are supposed to be faithful historical representation.
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Post by Tower of Iron Will »

Karalora wrote:
Tower of Iron Will wrote:I'm thinking that the dress is a little to modern for the Castle line, perhaps the renaissance era?
Is this really an issue? I've always allowed fantasy settings more leeway when it comes to period elements than settings that are supposed to be faithful historical representation.
Yes and no. For some factions are different culturaly than others, such that the "Wolfpack" faction I have wouldn't wear that dress (the females of that faction) but some of the Lion faction's females would. It doesn't affect my liking the style for figures. It would be nice if LEGO did some earlier medieval period style dresses to give some balance.
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Post by Mog »

Blueandwhite wrote:
Mog wrote:I like it! All LEGO themes (but especially Castle) tend to be male-dominated so it will be nice to see some female figs (who aren't peasants) for once. :D
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I think you might have it backwards :wink: .
I was speaking more generally. Like, yeah, when there is a female minifig in Castle, it's usually a queen/princess (because that's the most obvious choice). There just isn't very many female minifigs in Castle. Take the Castle 2007 line. There was one female (the princess in need of saving in the Skeleton Tower, of course) and countless males. Well, skeletons are of indeterminate gender, I suppose. But you get my point.

And then the only other recent female minifig in Castle (excluding chess sets, where queens are more or less required) was the peasant in the advent calendar. Appreciated, but again, not exactly a strong female character.

This is actually an issue I have with LEGO in general. I really don't understand why LEGO sees fit to position itself almost exclusively as a "boy's toy." To be honest, I don't understand gender typing in toys period, but especially in something as universal as LEGO. LEGO bricks are building blocks. We don't think of blocks as an exclusively boy toy, do we? And yet, outside of Clickits, Belville, and the pink brick bucket, LEGO seems to target boys exclusively.

Go to the S@H holiday section and browse the "boy" and "girl" sections. The only "real" set in the "girl" section is the nurse and patient, presumably because of the female nurse. Almost every other set, even seemingly gender-neutral ones, was placed in the "boys" section. Other retailers do the same thing, and I can't blame them, with LEGO themselves setting such an example.

Look at the City 40-figure set. Count the female minifigs. (No, really.) According to LEGO, girls can grow up only to be nurses, princesses, or a bunch of generic women with identical ponytails. ;)

I s'pose this is getting off topic. This isn't meant to be some sort of feminist rant (for starters, I'm a dude), just an observation. Like I said earlier, I don't really understand gender typing through toys to begin with, but especially not for something as universal as blocks. LEGO bricks are really the only sort of block that targets boys so exclusively (the LEGO clones are just following their lead).

I'm sure LEGO's answer to this, of course, would be that boys are simply the ones buying the most bricks, and LEGO is just responding to the market. Perhaps...but I can't help but feel that, if LEGO hadn't been positioning its key product as a "boy's toy" for decades now, girls would be more apt to try it out.
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Post by Zacku »

Mog wrote:*snip*
Yeah, I agree. I went to the nearby LEGO store the other day, looking for cheap sets with (yellow) female heads and useful hairpieces, and well, there was nothing. I want my female peasants, LEGO! D:
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Post by Teherean »

Nice queen fig. The crown is a bit exaggerated, but that doesn't matter, it is still LEGO.
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Post by Karalora »

Off-topic: Mog, you can be a dude and still be a feminist. A feminist is just someone who believes in gender equality.

On-topic: One thing I find strange about the preponderance of princess/queen minifigs in the Castle line, as opposed to other female minfigs, is that there is a huge tradition of female warriors, sorcerers, and other adventuresome types in fantasy fiction. The point is often how unusual this character is for being a girl who nonetheless wields a sword, but plenty such characters exist. You'd think LEGO would have given us more than one such character (Princess Storm) at some point. Bizarre.

The new witch from the Advent Calendar and the upcoming orc shamaness are a step in the right direction, but it would also be nice to have their good counterparts. I'm halfway to deciding that the witch actually is good; she's just taken it upon herself to test the Crownies by pretending to oppose them, to make sure they're strong enough to handle the real threats from the Skellies and Orcs. But then I'm the sort of person who concocts elaborate stories for bugs I see on the way to the bus stop.
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Post by Mog »

Karalora wrote:Off-topic: Mog, you can be a dude and still be a feminist. A feminist is just someone who believes in gender equality.
Well, then I am a feminist. I think that all people are equal, and I don't really "get" people who think otherwise, but I suppose that's something for another thread (or board).
Karalora wrote:On-topic: One thing I find strange about the preponderance of princess/queen minifigs in the Castle line, as opposed to other female minfigs, is that there is a huge tradition of female warriors, sorcerers, and other adventuresome types in fantasy fiction. The point is often how unusual this character is for being a girl who nonetheless wields a sword, but plenty such characters exist. You'd think LEGO would have given us more than one such character (Princess Storm) at some point. Bizarre.

The new witch from the Advent Calendar and the upcoming orc shamaness are a step in the right direction, but it would also be nice to have their good counterparts. I'm halfway to deciding that the witch actually is good; she's just taken it upon herself to test the Crownies by pretending to oppose them, to make sure they're strong enough to handle the real threats from the Skellies and Orcs. But then I'm the sort of person who concocts elaborate stories for bugs I see on the way to the bus stop.
Totally! Like, a requirement of a fantasy story is the Megablocks-kicking girl who hates being looked down upon because she is a girl. It's practically a cliche. Maybe we'll have a strong "good" female character when the elves arrive, because an Megablocks-kicking elven girl (who will usually turn out to be a secret elven princess) is equally cliche. ;)

But you're right - there's tons of stories like that, from Joan of Arc to Mulan. It'd be nice if LEGO let us create some of them.
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Post by Sir Kohran »

But you're right - there's tons of stories like that, from Joan of Arc to Mulan. It'd be nice if LEGO let us create some of them.
Well there was Princess Storm in the shortlived KK1:

The Princess does not embroider or sing like the other girls of her age; she prefers sword fence. The king does not like this, so Storm has to sneak off in the early morning hours before her father wakes up.


But that was 8 years ago and yes, it would be nice to see some female figures who do more than sit around waiting to be saved.
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Post by Heir of Black Falcon »

What about the forest woman from river crossing... never thought of her as anything but a fighter. She came around way before Princess Storm...

I like princesses and other non-combat female figs. Hard to have a civilization without them! :D

Think the fact we are getting some new non-military men is great as well.

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Post by Crusader »

I'm sure Lego has spent thousands and thousands of hours on ways to market their bricks to girls. It is in their financial interest to sell bricks to girls and by all reports, Lego is a very "progressive" company anyway. For years they tried to keep their toys as politically correct as they could. For example, the first Bionicle figures had "tools" not weapons (yeah, right).

In more recent years, they have dropped some of the more peaceful leanings, and have developed more "conflict" oriented sets ("conflict" is Lego's term for violence). Of course Lego has been more profitable in recent years as well.

What this comes down to is that Lego knows what it is doing to make money. They would probably love to have more female figs in their sets, and they would certanly like to sell more Legos to the other half of the population. The bottom line is the bottom line--they need to make money as a company and sets with more female figs don't sell well to either gender.

As for the prevalence of fantasy warrior women, these are stories marketed to teen boys and up, not the standard Lego range of boys aged 6 to 10. Seven year olds are just not as into large breasted women in skimpy chain mail bras as their fourteen year old counterparts are.
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Post by Karalora »

Sir Kohran wrote:The Princess does not embroider or sing like the other girls of her age; she prefers sword fence. The king does not like this, so Storm has to sneak off in the early morning hours before her father wakes up.
Yeah, that's typical of the genre...the warrior princess has to do it in secret, because the men in charge don't approve. It just underscores how "unnatural" the whole affair is. Yawn. I want me some loud and proud LEGO warrior women!
Heir of Black Falcon wrote:What about the forest woman from river crossing... never thought of her as anything but a fighter. She came around way before Princess Storm...
Was she a fighter? I have the River Crossing instruction booklet, but she's not depicted with weapons the way the fellas are.
I like princesses and other non-combat female figs. Hard to have a civilization without them! :D
That goes for both sexes. What we have with the upcoming Medieval Market is a non-combat set with non-fighter male minifigs and a non-fighter female minifig. The combat-oriented Castle sets, on the other hand, have had across-the-board fighter male minifigs and...a non-fighter female minifig. *sigh*
Crusader wrote:As for the prevalence of fantasy warrior women, these are stories marketed to teen boys and up, not the standard Lego range of boys aged 6 to 10. Seven year olds are just not as into large breasted women in skimpy chain mail bras as their fourteen year old counterparts are.
Who said anything about big breasts and chainmail bras? That's so thirty years ago. These days, the fantasy warrior women dress more sensibly.
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