Monday, July 26, 2010

Warning: there may be some swearing in this post. Scratch that, I've fucking had enough and it's time to vent.


LEGO PotC Captain Jack
Originally uploaded by Yupa-sama

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean. OK. Yes. I absolutely loved the first movie and lord knows my wife loves Captain Jack so I'm all for this (probably) single year co-branding. You may ask, "What's all the anger and annoyance about?" I'll tell you:

Know it all idiots on the Internet who make forum posts before they rub two fucking brain cells together. There are LEGO fans out there who in their fervor to show everyone that they know from whence they speak are saying things like:
"How can LEGO do this? Megabloks has the license for Pirates of the Caribbean." or:
"This is obviously fake, just look at the quality of the piece. It's not a LEGO piece at all, just a really good custom." or:
"Why is he riding a camel?!"
Some are even saying all three of those at the same time. Experts. HA!

I'm not about to link to the myriad news posts about the LEGO/Disney license because I think it's good Internet exercise for you to just google the damn thing yourself. I even gave you all the best words to put into the search engine in my last sentence.
I'm not an expert in licensing agreements and what would be Disney Studios property but I can and have been following it since we first heard about it so just keep this in mind; even your grandmother knows that Disney is an evil conglomerate. They own 1/4 of the entire planet. The other 3/4 are pretty evenly distributed between Coca-cola, Pepsi-co and Hasbro. How's that for a League of Super Evil? Shit I'm getting off topic.....

Yes, Megabloks had the Disney license. They no longer do; it has expired and LEGO now has it. So far they have produced DUPLO Cars that will likely tie in with Cars 2, LEGO Prince of Persia sets based on the movie that came out this past summer and LEGO Toy Story sets. The Toy Story line gave us some sets from Toy Story 3 and some sets based on the two older movies. Megabloks also did Cars sets but AFOLs didn't freak out over that because it's DUPLO and they don't give a fuck. Same situation simpleton, pay attention and think before you type. That information is some pretty basic know-it-allism for anyone who has been in the hobby for longer than six months.

As for the conspiracy that this is a custom fig....I bang my head on my desk at this. /head-desk It's a prototype LEGO element. For the last few years we have seen many, many prototypes of pieces with the same type of look; this is because The LEGO Group has started using a 3-D printer to prototype parts and items produced this way have that strange sandy texture to them. Again....AFOL's not paying attention and go flying off the handle before taking a breath and having a good look. Never mind the fact that this minifig is very carefully placed into an official LEGO display at San Diego Comic-con. If it weren't supposed to be there you can be damn sure it would've disappeared quicker than you can say "Bob's yer uncle." This brings me to the question of why he's on a camel. I asked myself the same question, BUT, I applied just a bit of logic to answer the question. He's on a camel because LEGO put him in the Prince of Persia display as an 'Easter egg'. Captain Jack is "hiding" in there.
Another explanation could be that in PotC: On Stranger Tides, we see Cap'n Jack on a camel but seeing as filming of PotC4 has only recently begun that may be quite a stretch.

2 comments:

  1. But Jake Gyllenhaal isn't in pirates of the caribbean so why is he there!!? I'M SO CONFUSED

    On a more serious note: I do not like this minifig at all (it's the hair. I fear this license will be a more expensive, less LEGO-like version of the previous pirates line.

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  2. I totally understand your fears Harry. Those are yours to deal with. :P I'm sure I don't have to remind you that the beauty of LEGO is that you don't have to use all the piece you get. Be sure to sell those Cap'n Jack figs early before the market floods like it did with Dastan and Indy and they become flotsam on the minifig bin. :D

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