Something interesting I noticed about the Spy minifigure from CMF 16.

CaptainLego

Apologies if this is not allowed, but, I felt like this was worth sharing.


Well, not the minifigure itself, but rather, that hose nozzle thing in his left hand. I assume it's meant to represent some sort of weapon, but, to most people, it probably doesn't look like a gun. That included me, until a while back when I stumbled on a real but very obscure gun.



This is the Welrod. The Welrod is a British made pistol from WWII. The weapon has a built in silencer, and is supposedly very quiet gun. Aside from looking like that piece, how does a Lego minifigure tie into this? 

Well, because said minifigure is called Spy. The Welrod was meant to be an assassin's pistol with no markings to identify its origin, just in case one fell into the hands of the Germans. It was meant for use against high value targets. It was developed in extreme secrecy. 

It may just be sheer coincidence and I'm just overthinking things. While the minifigure itself most likely does not have anything to do with WWII, a spy minifigure with an existing Lego piece that convienently resembles an extremely obscure gun that was basically a spy gun seems a bit too coincidental to me. What do you think? 

oldtodd33

Since this part was released in 2007 it's possible that a designer at Lego is a gun aficionado. 

Aanchir

The part definitely dates back several years, so it wasn't designed specifically for this figure. That said, some of its earliest uses as a gun were in Agents, which itself was a spy theme.

Overall, though, I think it's less likely that the use of this piece as a gun is an obscure firearms reference than that LEGO simply didn't want it to look realistic, given that their secret agent products tend to be situated closer to the modern day than most of their other themes with firearms.

elspankdog

I thought it was more of device to shoot a grappling hook and rope...hence the rope

CaptainLego

elspankdog said:

I thought it was more of device to shoot a grappling hook and rope...hence the rope

Guess it could be seen either way.

CaptainLego

Aanchir said:

The part definitely dates back several years, so it wasn't designed specifically for this figure. That said, some of its earliest uses as a gun were in Agents, which itself was a spy theme.

Overall, though, I think it's less likely that the use of this piece as a gun is an obscure firearms reference than that LEGO simply didn't want it to look realistic, given that their secret agent products tend to be situated closer to the modern day than most of their other themes with firearms.

No, I know the part isn't exclusive to the figure. What I was saying that maybe someone just happened to notice a similarly, as I'm sure they do some research when designing these figures.

I just thought that it was rather interesting that the use of the part in this case can be such as some sort of weapon, in which something in real life actually looks like it to an extent.

Penkid11

That's really interesting, actually.

If we want to get into references though, the minifigure is closely based off of lead agent of the Alpha Team theme, Dash Justice.


You'll notice his entire outfit nearly matches the CMF too, aside from the little planet on the chest. The CMF's logo has a similar planet, but rather than going with a red ring, the designers put the letter "A" there, which matches the letter "A" at the beginning of he word "Alpha" in Alpha Team's original logo.

CCC

I think it is coincidence. It was designed as a hose gun. The 2007 sets it appeared in were mainly City fire and petrol station sets. It has been pretty much dual use since then, as a hose and a gun.

It is plain enough to not be too realistic compared to most modern handguns while still acts as a gun.

Klintan

For me it looks like a pistol with silencer and there really no need for more details.

Jern92

I've always seen it as a gun, so am surprised that other people don't.