Lego pulls V-22 Osprey after peace petition -repercussions for Revell?

[Truro Model Builder 5,229]

Lego has cancelled the release of a Technic V-22 Osprey kit following intervention from the German Peace Society:

 

http://alert5.com/2020/07/23/lego-cancels-42113-bell-boeing-v-22-osprey-kit-just-10-days-before-release/

 

Now when you consider how many kits in the Revell range are subject to licence fees to the likes of Boeing or Lockheed Martin, it makes you wonder if the Peace Society might go looking for other targets.

[bentwaters81tfw 6,793]

On ebay now for between £800 and £1300. Someone is cashing in!!!

[RobL 476]

Oh good, more politically correct nonsense.  Just what we all need right now.  I'm guessing the German Peace Society didn't have anything better to do...

Edited July 23, 2020 by RobL

[qn30jEkPz7 3,712]

Lego had a fairly longstanding policy about non-military toys in their range. I think even the castle and pirate sets caused a kerfuffle way back in the 80s when they introduced swords and bows and arrows

[Richard E 1,480]

15 minutes ago, LostCosmonauts said:

Lego had a fairly longstanding policy about non-military toys in their range. I think even the castle and pirate sets caused a kerfuffle way back in the 80s when they introduced swords and bows and arrows

Hmmm - didn't realise that when I used my collection of Lego bricks to create some very interesting Ray Guns and Laser Pistols back in the day 

[dogsbody 8,954]

When my 3 daughters were young, they loved Lego and build lots of their kits. They also mixed and matched as they wanted. There were some kit with various style weapons. I also acquired some older Lego from a workmate, whose sons were late teens and didn't want their Lego.

 

I well remember the skeleton figure with a robot head, wearing a knight's helmut riding a horse while carrying a ray gun. 

 

My girls used their imaginations. 

 

The German Peace Society can kiss my grits!

 

 

 

Chris

[Beardie 3,228]

Can't say I have ever been a fan of Lego. Never enough of any particular part to make what you want and too, well, blocky, for my liking, I feel the modern versions are like an unrealistic pixelated version of an Airfix kit of something I wouldn't want to build anyway and boy is it bleedin' sore when you stand on the stuff. My autistic stepson is mad on the stuff (although he hates the company for charging so much for their kits as he feels they are ripping their fans off) but I just can't see the attraction. 

[Tzulscha 2,522]

That is silly.

All Lego needs to do to release the kit is to get an expert on the V-22 to testify that this model does not represent the actual aircraft correctly in any way. "It is NOT a V-22 Osprey"

Then call it the "Jonny Lego Action Rescue Vertibird tm."

[dnl42 2,596]

Try Cobi. No V-22 but they do have many other subjects commonly found on this site.

[Tim R-T-C 1,299]

I wonder if there are other reasons behind the withdrawal? It would be a massive loss for the company to withdraw a product already produced, based on a petition alone.

 

The argument is hilariously spurious too. If you book a flight with any airline, you are paying towards Airbus or Boeing, both of whom make military equipment.

[Rick Brown 1,820]

The World's just gone madder.

 

 

Our family can't survive without Lego, it's part of our make-up.

 

5 minutes ago, Tim R-T-C said:

 

 

The argument is hilariously spurious too. If you book a flight with any airline, you are paying towards Airbus or Boeing, both of whom make military equipment.

Shhhh!

 

Rick.

[Toe 98]

I would assume that it won't get as far as Revell as it could be seen modelling is a more "grown up" pastime for want of a better word and efforts of the Peace Society would fall on deaf ears

Bell isn't an exclusively military manufacturer either, 

[Truro Model Builder 5,229]

43 minutes ago, Toe said:

I would assume that it won't get as far as Revell as it could be seen modelling is a more "grown up" pastime for want of a better word and efforts of the Peace Society would fall on deaf ears

Bell isn't an exclusively military manufacturer either, 

I wouldn't assume anything. Revell aim their products at children in Germany in exactly the same way Airfix does in the UK.

[cmatthewbacon 3,958]

I very much doubt that it was the German Peace Society’s petition that stopped them. It’s because of the brand: LEGO has always said it won’t build military stuff as kits (Planet-exploding Death Stars apart...). Cobi and Megabloks exist because of that. The petition was just one symptom of many Lego loyalists reminding the company of that. I absolutely understand why they made the call; why it got to the stage of having kits made and even on sale in shops is a bigger question for their management.The company is still mostly family owned with the Lego Foundation owning the rest, so my guess would be the family and trustees put their feet down...

best,

M.

[Graham Boak 6,597]

As opposed to bloodthirsty vikings, feudal knights and pirates?  I guess history adds a certain romance to these things, but there still seems some double standards somewhere.  Though there's nothing particularly romantic about an Osprey...

[Rick Brown 1,820]

4 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

... Though there's nothing particularly romantic about an Osprey...

Really?

I can see it now "I had my very first kiss under the wing of an Osprey...".

Rick.

[Aeronut 1,118]

How did the Sopwith Pup, the first Lego set I ever bought, get past the 'Lego ban on warlike subjects'?

[RobL 476]

9 hours ago, Toe said:

I would assume that it won't get as far as Revell as it could be seen modelling is a more "grown up" pastime for want of a better word and efforts of the Peace Society would fall on deaf ears

Bell isn't an exclusively military manufacturer either, 

 

8 hours ago, Truro Model Builder said:

I wouldn't assume anything. Revell aim their products at children in Germany in exactly the same way Airfix does in the UK.

 

 

Neither would I.

 

Let us not forget that Revell, not too long ago, had a similar problem with their Nazi Flying Saucer kit...

[klr 1,865]

So Lego models of the Death Star (and heaven knows what else in the line of Star Wars models alone) are all OK, but not this? Interesting ...

[malpaso 2,256]

Not to mention Lego Nazis in their Indy Jones kits!!!

 

My first Lego came with the old grey tyres, and I seem to recall the company intended the colour choices were meant to make militaristic subjects difficult.  Not that it stopped us!

[alt-92 3,282]

23 hours ago, Truro Model Builder said:

Now when you consider how many kits in the Revell range are subject to licence fees to the likes of Boeing or Lockheed Martin, it makes you wonder if the Peace Society might go looking for other targets.

They have a back-catalogue of 65+ years to go on then. 
Not to mention DFG-VK (as a peace pacifist movement) already precedes that longevity by several decades being founded in 1892, and we haven't seen them do it. 

 

Ultimately, this is a PR campaign with a toy manufacturer (i.e. Lego) being held to it's own standards. 

 

[Duncan B 7,703]

9 hours ago, Rick Brown said:

Really?

I can see it now "I had my very first kiss under the wing of an Osprey...".

Rick.

Two big burly US Marines no doubt? 

 

Duncan B

[Rick Brown 1,820]

And who remembers the Lego L85 A2?

Oh, wait, maybe had too much chocolate today.

 

Rick.

[-Ian- 224]

55 minutes ago, malpaso said:

My first Lego came with the old grey tyres, and I seem to recall the company intended the colour choices were meant to make militaristic subjects difficult.  Not that it stopped us!

 

Now you mention it, in the 2 big boxes full of probably a few 1000 lego bricks I had when I was a kid in the 80s I think the only green I had was the odd tree and a few 1 stud square transparencies, more distressing was black bricks were almost as rare.

 

Luckily  that wasn't a problem when I built a Lego model of the previously unseen 3rd prototype Firefox because of course as we all know the Soviets painted it blue and grey and fitted it with a snot green coloured canopy 

 

 

 

 

[alt-92 3,282]

....or that 4,5 ft long submarine with deck gun, working periscope (technic lego) and missile launcher doors... funny how their space stuff smaller engines looked like a Polaris RV shield.