Pre-Emptive Complaint About Lego Set Error

Lego_Lord_Mayorca

So, for all my fellow Star Wars fans out there of a certain age and disposition to a certain "Clone Wars" cartoon that came out a decade ago, isn't it awesome Lego is releasing in 2015 Anakin's Custom Jedi Starfighter, the Azure Angel? They even threw in Asajj Ventress as she appeared in the Yavin 4 duel to boot! This was the best and most surprising thing I saw in the entire 2015 Star Wars Lego lineup (UCS Slave I not included), but something caught my eye that I just wouldn't be able to ignore if I actually had the set in person. The Anakin minifigure has both of his flesh-and-blood hands! As even most lay-people will remember, Anakin lost his lower right arm in Episode II: Attack of the Clones. In the EU, during the Clone Wars, he progressively tinkered with it until you get the black-clad finished product in Revenge of the Sith. However, in the early weeks of the Clone Wars, he still had the golden arm seen prominently during the original Clone Wars cartoon. Therefore, there is a mistake in the Lego set.

I thought for the longest time that this could be chalked up to it being in preliminary pictures, but the final box images apparently persist in showing Anakin with two flesh hands. Granted, this is an easy fix. I could find a C-3PO figure from recent years and swap out hands with Anakin. But I am wondering if I can do something that benefits all Lego Star Wars fans. If I brought this up to Lego, do you think they would acknowledge the mistake and start producing the set with Anakins that have mismatched hands? Or will customer service just send me a gold-colored minifigure hand to shut me up ("Blasted Star Wars fanboys!")?

Anyone that has experience in dealing with Lego Customer Service, I would greatly appreciate your feedback. Looking back on the "Sheild" debacle with the DeLorean Time Machine, it seems like Lego might make an effort to correct a mistake in a licensed them set, but this is a little more severe than just a misspelled word. Should I contact Lego about it? Or would I just be wasting my time?

waynegg

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Go for it!

After seeing the Azure Angel is coming, my hopes are up that TLG will get around to doing the Tiger Shark Republic Gunship!

cheshirecat

Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:

If I brought this up to Lego, do you think they would acknowledge the mistake and start producing the set with Anakins that have mismatched hands?

No

Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:

Or will customer service just send me a gold-colored minifigure hand to shut me up ("Blasted Star Wars fanboys!")?

Yes, and they might write you a nice letter saying thank you, you're obviously a massive star wars fan yadayadayada.

Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:

Anyone that has experience in dealing with Lego Customer Service, I would greatly appreciate your feedback. Looking back on the "Sheild" debacle with the DeLorean Time Machine, it seems like Lego might make an effort to correct a mistake in a licensed them set, but this is a little more severe than just a misspelled word.

I suspect both Lego and most parents would consider a misspelled word more of an issue as it's clearly wrong/mistake. I suspect the number of people who would notice a clone wars hand being the wrong colour would be relatively small, and the number that would care even smaller. Presumably it also got approval from Disney where as the mispelt word might not have from Universal or whoever owns the rights to BTTF.

Lego_Lord_Mayorca said:

Should I contact Lego about it? Or would I just be wasting my time?

How much do you value your time?

CCC

The silly thing is that they'd probably get complaints that the hands don't match if they did it your / correct way.

Sethro3

I think a true fanboy might notice. I am not one, but I take the sets for what they are. I think it looks neat and I wouldn't have even considered a hand was the wrong color. Looking back at most LEGO sets, they don't always have the correct color, especially for hands. Plus, since their torso pieces are assembled to be one complete unit (as in arms, plus hands, plus torso) they wouldn't have any hands laying around to send to a person. They don't recommend removing any of those pieces, so I'm sure the company itself wouldn't send a hand to someone. Plus, they might even be located in a different area than the rest of their PAB/BnP supply.

Lego_Lord_Mayorca

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Yes, I am an unabashed Star Wars fan, and they type of person that would only notice this kind of thing. Lego shouldn't have a problem producing minifigures with two different types of hands. They've been doing it for Luke Skywalker minifigures since the theme began. When @Sethro3 discussed the implausibility of Lego just sending me a hand piece, it occurred that possibly they'd just send me an entire Anakin minifig (or at least the torso) with the correct hand.

I don't think complaints about mismatched hands would be that numerous, @CCC , even though I agree it is a possibility. Like I said above, Luke minifigures from Return of the Jedi have had mismatched hands (a black one for his mechanical hand) since the start of the theme. Even if the notion of Anakin's mechanical hand is not as ingrained in the common populace's mind as Luke's, most eager children (the target audience of the set) would either ignore it or be aware of Anakin missing a real flesh-and-blood hand.

All in all, I will do something about it. What I was really hoping for was to get the contact information for some entity or person in Lego that will actually understand my query, and not spit back some cheery, automated wordage to placate me and vaguely suggest the matter is being "investigated", with a little speech about the manufacturing and quality control process that Lego prides itself on. Then, a month or two later, get an identical Anakin minifigure in the mail because they thought I was missing the minifigure in the set. My dream is not just to replace a part. I would like to see this fixed!

legomatt

@Lego_Lord_Majorca

I actually think it's worth pointing out to the lego group, from the standpoint of being an eagle-eyed fan spotting a chronology error, but not if done as a complaint.

If done in a very friendly, good natured, 'FYI' type of way to point out the chronological story issue. i.e. that by this stage in the story that the set is based on, Anakin had lost his human hand, and was now in fact sporting a gold metal hand (or whatever it was) in the same manner that Luke wore a black glove by RotJ, then they might make an internal memo to re-evaluate the fig at some later stage and who knows, they might even act on it. (I wouldn't hold my breath, but nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that).

They could (most likely) also decide that the detail is too small to bother with right now, but who knows? It might become a future footnote in a 2017 edition of SW the visual encyclopedia, where they write 'Early versions of this set had Anakin with two flesh hands, whereas later versions included Anakin with a robot hand'. You never know.

But it's handy (hah) that the fix is an easy one should they not bother.

Dedgecko

Tweet it to them and hope it gets traction

jon_k

i think you should go on facebook, and then complain bitterly sight the fact you injuried your eyes looking at the error, as an avid fan its caused you pain and discomfort, blame your dog/cat or some such injury, lego related disease, so trying to angle something free or trying to get the compete star wars sets for the next decade .........

or failing that, a polite note to say how much you enjoy the lego brand and what a fine job they are doing producing Star Wars sets..

legomatt

Whoops, I got LLM's name wrong. My post above should have read @Lego_Lord_Mayorca

Lego_Lord_Mayorca

Thanks again for all the feedback, people. I went ahead and bought the set (it's too cool!) and promptly sent the following message to customer service via the S@H website.

Hi, First of all, I am a great fan of Star Wars, and I was really excited to see a LEGO set made from one of my favorite Star Wars stories, the Clone Wars micro-series that aired from 2003 to 2005. I am referring to the set #75087 Anakin's Custom Jedi Starfighter, which depicts one of the most exciting and pivotal moments of the series, where Anakin Skywalker faces his most fearsome opponent yet, the Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress, for the first time in the space battle above Muunilist. LEGO really went all-out getting the details right in this set, from the overall design of Anakin's starfighter to even the sticker for the console inside, depicting Asajj's fanblade starfighter right in Anakin's targeting sights!

As a huge fan of this show, however, I noticed one thing missing: Anakin's mechanical hand! A couple of my other friends (also Star Wars fans) also noticed when I got the set that the Anakin minifigure has two "flesh" hands. But since this set is from the Clone Wars timeframe, shouldn't Anakin's right hand be the mechanical, golden one seen at the end of "Attack of the Clones" and in the "Clone Wars" micro-series? Maybe it is a manufacturing mistake, but then again, every other set of 75087 has the same Anakin Skywalker figure, so maybe this is something that was overlooked. After all, my Luke Skywalker minifigures from "Return of the Jedi" sets have his right hand black to demonstrate the protective glove he wore over his mechanical hand. Could the Anakin Skywalker minifigure be similarly produced, except with a gold-colored right hand? Or are there no plans to fix this (like in a later production run of the set)? I don't want to sacrifice one of my C-3POs for the hand ("Oh no!").

Obviously, I really love the set overall, but the Star Wars geek inside me can't get it off my mind. Still, LEGO has my eternal gratitude for making a set I always wanted come true (now you guys just have to produce that Fanblade Starfighter! Hopefully!).

If I get some generic standard reply, I might go the handwritten letter route and mail it to their address here in the USA. Really, it is an awesome set, but I can't shake noticing how Anakin's hand is not the mechanical one! The set is clearly tying into the micro-series "Clone Wars" from 2003-2005, so it is surprising they omitted this. The hand actually plays an important role in the plot. For those who never saw it, there is a sequence of episodes where Anakin tracks down Asajj Ventress to Yavin 4. A duel ensues, each opponent seemingly evenly matched. It's only when Asajj disarms Anakin of his lightsaber that he finds his edge (unfortunately) by drawing on the dark side of the Force. He uses his mechanical hand to crush one of Ventress's wrists in order to steal her second lightsaber. He then proceeds to open up the proverbial can of whoop-ass on her, finally shattering the temple platform upon which they are standing and sending Ventress into an abyss. Anakin's howl of rage permeates the Force, drawing Yoda's attention away on Coruscant. The ancient master suddenly realizes the dark side is growing stronger.

waynegg

You missed the part where Asajj Ventress wore a long black dress, had braided tassels about her waist, a black wrap around cloak, and a black hood.

Lego_Lord_Mayorca

^I also "missed" the part where R4 was just a built-in astrodroid with only a dome head, but LEGO gave the set version a body anyways. The absence of the dress isn't terribly important, as both her and Anakin get their garments duly shredded over the course of their combat. That's what I'm getting at. Lego Star Wars sets were never meant to be taken as canonical, 100% accurate to the films/book/comics/TV show models. In order to appeal to kids and the limitations of size and design, Lego Star Wars sets outside of the UCS subtheme are often just evocative.

So yeah, Anakin and Asajj wore cloaks and hoods when they first met. And maybe she shouldn't have those faint purple tattoos on the back of her head that betray Lego's penchant to reuse old parts as much as possible. But that's a stylistic choice that has varied over the years and across all the media Star Wars is on. Anakin's mechanical hand is a constant, so that is why it stuck out to me so much in the first place.