Adam Gessaman 
Lego is a mirror for society.
Bob Thomson@adam Lego Dredd next year then. 😬
RalfMaximusNeeds a strip of black tape over the badge.
@adam oh I had no doubt :) 2000AD fans are a creative bunch.
paul
@amiserabilist @bobthomson70 if the current trend holds, this is plausible by 2043.
Patrick H. Lauke@adam reminded me of a similar observation i made back in 2015 about playmobil...
@patrick_h_lauke it appears that the trend toward fascism is still being reflected in newer Playmobil sets.
@adam fucking hell...
Olivier B
13 barn owls in a trenchcoat@adam @patrick_h_lauke was going to say. The Playmobil armed riot cops are fucking terrifying.
Adam@adam @patrick_h_lauke Holy shit...
Greg Wellman@adam @patrick_h_lauke The heck? I was looking for the "Obvious Plant" logo, but ... this is not satire? https://www.amazon.de/-/en/PLAYMOBIL-71146-Manager-Villain-Children/dp/B0BT8BV1XT
@gfwellman @adam hidden feature: at least one of those SEK figures is also a member of a right-wing whatsapp group...
@gfwellman @adam "Alternative fuer's Kinderzimmer"
bouriquet@adam Sad but true. Now police officers look like soldiers on a battlefield.
In the distant past, a small child would always ask a policeman for directions because they were supposed to be friendly and trusted. Now they look threatening.
In the distant past, a small child would always ask a policeman for directions because they were supposed to be friendly and trusted. Now they look threatening.
AT-AT Assault 🏳️⚧️Only for a white child. Cops in the US were born out of slavecatcher patrols which would have gone defunct post-emancipation.
Jérôme CarreteroMore people should know that the easy way is rarely the best way!
Torbenhttps://windbag.org/@adam/112355221770620603
@adam Yes, can't stress that enough. Lego is as much complicit as the toy companies producing toy tanks and battleships in 1930ies Germany.
LilyoftheRally
LaraK@LilyoftheRally @adam all cops are bricks?
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK@adam indeed, the whole Lego city is like that, the original ones were based around an idealised version of 1970s Northern Europe, with a lot of trains/metro and public transport. Modern sets have not only militarised/American style police officers; but a lot more emphasis on private motor cars and USA techbro futurist type landscapes..
@adam it was also a lot harder to find anything like the traditional Lego City sets (that remember from my own childhood), instead there are way more corporate branded sets than ever before..
@vfrmedia Good point. I grew up on the original sets and my kids have been playing with my old box of misc blocks. I haven't walked through the Lego aisle much in the past decade so I hadn't realized just how American the city sets had become.
Prunas Alin Ciprian@adam hello, my father is a plicemen
Mike Berg@adam I saw a thing once that showed the progression over time of what percentage of LEGO faces were printed with aggressive expressions, and it's... a lot.
Aman@adam omg this is a travesty. u know u fucked up as society when lego had to change their toys to match police brutality.
Daniel Gibson@adam
I'm not gonna argue about the fourth version, but I think the second looked like this because he came with a motorcycle, the third could be from a set with a helicopter?
I'm not gonna argue about the fourth version, but I think the second looked like this because he came with a motorcycle, the third could be from a set with a helicopter?
Max@adam @GyrosGeier similarly, the old road plates had sidewalks and crosswalks, the current road system (it's not a plate anymore) has lanes too narrow for the vehicles ...
Juggling With EggsThere seems to have been a huge array of Lego police mini figures over the years. I’m guessing not all were sold in every country as many appear location specific…
But there is definitely a drift towards looking angry, defensive and armed:
Ralf Stockmann@adam there is quite some cherry-picking going on here. This for example is from an actual 2024 set:
@rstockm There's definitely a range of expressions. The guy you included is more detailed than older minifigs. The original point was there's an overall trend toward representing police as more aggressive and hostile. Lego is more conscious of being friendly and positive than many toymakers (see the discussion of Playmobil elsewhere in the comments), and still it has crept into their toys.
How would "LEGO City Undercover Elite Police Officer 3" (i.e. #4) be viewed if you took him back to 1980?
Defend Democracy 🦋🌊
Maho 🏳️⚧️@BobC7000 @adam idk, the USA has been leaning towards fascism since literally always, at least as seen from the outside (disclaimer, I'm from Europe). The Obama era wasn't much less fascistic than the Bush era. Obama led the optimization on extrajudicial murders by drone (and attempts to hide the number of children killed by labeling them as "enemy combatants") for example. And the militarization and insane increase in funding of police departments is almost the same no matter if the mayor is republican or democrat.
Avernale@adam Wow. The last one isn't even smiling anymore. Also, the one before him is clearly the T-1000.
Gurre Vildskägg@adam
Cops training their dogs to attack people. What a wonderful toy for 5 year olds!
it's in the current Lego Police range: https://www.lego.com/en-se/product/mobile-police-dog-training-60369
Stefan Wagner@adam Come on, what nonsense. Please look at actual current minifigures. They have become more detailed over time, but there are many friendly police officers. The lower-right one isn’t even from LEGO.
Current minifigs (2022-2024) on Bricklink tagged with 'Police'. There are some smiling ones, but there are just as many smirking/frowning.
#4 in the original post is actually "Police - LEGO City Undercover Elite Police Officer 3". I've pasted the image of two of the minifigs from that set below and included a link to the Bricklink entry.
https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=60009-1&viewItemType=M
@adam ah, okay. Sorry! I missed that one. I still think this overinterpretation.
jwz@adam Lego has been all-in on copaganda for basically their entire existence. Lego is a cop.
Eh?!?@adam
Just a mirror or a precursor?
I'm pretty sure they already have stormtroopers in their catalogue.
Just a mirror or a precursor?
I'm pretty sure they already have stormtroopers in their catalogue.
Davip Prestnod@adam chin protection has been replaced with a scowl. #chinsandgrins
Wade Wainio@adam We can envision our world in miniature and imagine how we might build that world more equitably.
Princess Unikitty@adam
Came full circle with my antagonist from The LEGO Movie.
Came full circle with my antagonist from The LEGO Movie.
bartholin (war, war never changes arc)
🌪 MikeMathia 📡
Chris Pirillo
Zep
@Tiezep This reminds me of this visual essay. https://popula.com/2019/02/24/about-face/
xot@adam When I was a kid, faceless Lego cops didn't even have arms to salute their favorite führer.
Kevin RussellDoes the new lego police office grimace in anger as well as wear swat?
europlus 
@adam I'm just gonna say, I think the two in the middle of that progression are motorcycle cops (leather jackets and sunglasses), so those are motorcycle helmets, not riot gear helmets.
And, of course, it's possible to swap heads and helmets, so maybe the riot gear one is a Tie Fighter helmet, and that cop body originally had a head that smiled like the others!
Would love to see boxes/manuals for cop-related Lego sets over the years anyway - the "no arms" one in comments I find fascinating.
@adam helmet goes with that body in #4 and is a riot gear helmet, but at least in the "real" minifig he's still smiling! 🤣 https://www.brickowl.com/catalog/lego-policeman-with-riot-helmet-minifigure
@europlus With the eyebrows I’m not sure I’d call that a smile. Here’s a link to the set where number 4 came from: https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=60009-1&viewItemType=M