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Mixing yellow and fleshie skin parts in the same minifigure

CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,553
in Everything else LEGO
It looks like this is now an official thing...



Poor quality control or does yellow skin now mean white people? It looks like lazy reuse of a printed part without considering what colours are printed on it.

Is this the first time it has happened? I cannot recall another figure where they have made this mistake. This occurs in the figures for the Crocodile train, compared to Alan Grant from JW.







Comments

  • 560Heliport560Heliport Member Posts: 4,235
    Perhaps it's an effect of seeing it on my phone, but that little sliver above the red bandana looks yellow on the train workers, and flesh on Alan Grant.
    klintonandheCymbelineAstrobricks
  • andheandhe Member Posts: 4,000
    It's common knowledge all rail workers wear 'flesh' coloured undershirts. 
    panchox1KungFuKennyDoktorL
  • Speedman29Speedman29 Member Posts: 2,337
    Two totally different parts according to BS listing. The Alan Grant torso is this one. The Crocodile loco drivers are this version. I'm staring at my two minifigures from the train and you can barely see the sliver of neck line, but it looks yellow on mine.
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,553
    They are different parts because they have different coloured hands. This is nothing new. There are other torsos where the hands are different and they use different elements IDs to distinguish them.

    For example: 




    https://brickset.com/parts/6153512/mini-upper-part-no-3451
    https://brickset.com/parts/6310369/mini-upper-part-no-5195

    Here one is licensed, one is yellow-skin. Using the same torso and changing the hand colours is nothing new. However, for the one I mentioned the torso has skin printing on it - so light nougat printing at the neck and yellow hands.


    andhe
  • madforLEGOmadforLEGO Member Posts: 10,833
    edited July 2020
    If it is 'fleshie', then they probably wanted to save some cost at not using a whole new torso, and figured it would not be noticeable and it barely is, even with the good pics above..unless it really stands out on the actual figure--I have not had a chance to open mine yet. I doubt LEGO now thinks that 'yellow' means 'white'. Other than nitpickers, who really cares?
    Why do people need to make a big deal out of this?

    Speedman29panchox1
  • 8BrickMario8BrickMario Member Posts: 29
    I think LEGO has been working harder in recent years to combat the "yellow=white" problem started by Lando Calrissian. Many yellow figures in recent years have been depicted with traits that indicate they are people of color, with some yellow figures getting hairstyles and face printing that suggests they may be black or mixed-race, and in The LEGO Ninjago Movie, black news actors Michael Strahan and Robin Roberts are represented with yellow figures like every other character. Lando in the early years of LEGO Star Wars definitely created an unwanted "yellow figures are all white people" association, but I think they're trying to overcome that by implying racial diversity with yellow figures today.
    560Heliport
  • madforLEGOmadforLEGO Member Posts: 10,833
    If I recall correctly, the reason why LEGO figures were yellow is so as to not represent one specific race, but all races by using such a color. It was licensed sets like SW that introduced the 'fleshie' figure in the first place.
    560Heliport
  • 8BrickMario8BrickMario Member Posts: 29
    madforLEGO said:
    If I recall correctly, the reason why LEGO figures were yellow is so as to not represent one specific race, but all races by using such a color. It was licensed sets like SW that introduced the 'fleshie' figure in the first place.
    Right, but fleshies were only introduced after the early yellow Star Wars sets included Lando using the reddish brown skin tone. That accidentally implied that because the black character got a different minifig color, all yellow minifigures were meant to represent light-skinned people. Lando was the catalyst for licensed themes switching to fleshies. Now, yellow minifigures are treated less as aracial and more as multiracial, with some yellow figures being implied to represent people of color.
    560HeliportAyliffe
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,553
    edited July 2020
    madforLEGO said:
    If it is 'fleshie', then they probably wanted to save some cost at not using a whole new torso, and figured it would not be noticeable and it barely is, even with the good pics above..unless it really stands out on the actual figure--I have not had a chance to open mine yet. I doubt LEGO now thinks that 'yellow' means 'white'. Other than nitpickers, who really cares?
    Why do people need to make a big deal out of this?

    It is interesting because :
    There are plenty of torsos that have been made for train workers.
    There are plenty of torsos that do not have flesh printing on them that could have been used.
    It is apparent that Lego do not keep a description of their prints in terms of colours. They choose to print a flesh neckline on the torso rather than take the neckerchief design all the way to the neck.
    It is apparent that there is no double checking, or if there is, not very good checking.
    It has not happened before.

    Mistakes are interesting, whether it is wrong bags in packaged sets, design errors, printing errors in manuals or on parts, and so on.


  • AstrobricksAstrobricks Member Posts: 5,555
    I can just hear someone at Lego saying, “Don’t worry about that. Nobody will ever notice.”
    560HeliportmadforLEGOCymbelineandhe
  • madforLEGOmadforLEGO Member Posts: 10,833
    CCC said:
    madforLEGO said:
    If it is 'fleshie', then they probably wanted to save some cost at not using a whole new torso, and figured it would not be noticeable and it barely is, even with the good pics above..unless it really stands out on the actual figure--I have not had a chance to open mine yet. I doubt LEGO now thinks that 'yellow' means 'white'. Other than nitpickers, who really cares?
    Why do people need to make a big deal out of this?

    It is interesting because :
    There are plenty of torsos that have been made for train workers.
    There are plenty of torsos that do not have flesh printing on them that could have been used.
    It is apparent that Lego do not keep a description of their prints in terms of colours. They choose to print a flesh neckline on the torso rather than take the neckerchief design all the way to the neck.
    It is apparent that there is no double checking, or if there is, not very good checking.
    It has not happened before.

    Mistakes are interesting, whether it is wrong bags in packaged sets, design errors, printing errors in manuals or on parts, and so on.



    I'm not sure there is another in printed torso they could have used.. I guess long johns maybe? Yes, they have two 'train' torsos for the Hidden train set but those are more 'conductor' type torsos and not 'Engineer' type of torso. Plus it appears that they wanted this specific color for this set (not sure if that is how conductors used to look that were operating this specific locomotive or not). I guess they could have used a part combo like the engineer for the #10194 but they chose not to (maybe they should have, as the bandana piece around the neck would cover up your pain point).
    I just do not think it is a big deal as I would be genuinely surprised if you had a majority of those looking at the train saying "wait wait wait... I see a sliver of flesh color on this torso" (unless one specifically points it out to the observer).
    You are right, mistakes can be interesting, but not when I also see remarks about how maybe the company is assuming 'LEGO yellow' is 'white'. That is just smacks of someone try to stir a pot that does not need to be stirred IMO.
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,553
    I think it is a lack of quality control about prints rather than anything to do with race, that was a throwaway comment referencing the other thread.

    I just find it amazing that they go to the expense of using an extra colour print if they think the amount of print is so small that nobody would notice the wrong colour of they use it with another colour skin minifigure. If the skin print is so inconsequential, it would have saved a colour printing. 

    I removed a lot from the original post as I've mentioned it many times before, but I would not have used this torso for yellow skins, or a torso like the police constable cmf for fleshies. Any skin print rules of switching between yellow and flesh tones. This is why I prefer torso prints not to have neck printing if possible. I'm just surprised Lego missed this. Either someone didn't check, someone didn't care, or they don't keep proper records of print colours.
  • 560Heliport560Heliport Member Posts: 4,235
    I agree neck printing on torsos is unnecessary. Here's one of the figures from #60267 Safari Off-Roader. She looks fine. And the neck printing only looks good from straight on- from any viewpoint above the figure, you see the unpainted top of the torso, and it looks weird.
    AstrobricksBumblepants
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,553
    edited July 2020
    Yes, that is exactly the sort of thing I'd like them to do more of. If the print is so inconsequential that it gets used with both fleshie and yellow skin body parts as nobody will notice, then it might as well be left off.

    For some parts, it is necessary to show the skin (like a dress with straps or a beach torso) and that is fine. But where it is unnecessary to show the skin, leave it off.

    PS. Are you taking it to the max? :-)

  • 560Heliport560Heliport Member Posts: 4,235
    It's just coincidence that Red Son's Inferno Truck is in the background. Ignore the clone-brand baseplate.
  • 8BrickMario8BrickMario Member Posts: 29
    edited July 2020
    I think LEGO has been more conscious about avoiding skin at the neckline of torso prints. There are more and more cases where the torso seems designed to easily work for both fleshie and yellow figures. One of the strangest is the new Triwizard Task Three Harry Potter, who loses the visible skin from the previous version...but the torso is still hard to reuse because his name is on the back.
  • AstrobricksAstrobricks Member Posts: 5,555
    Now I know why minifigs never wear tank tops.
  • 560Heliport560Heliport Member Posts: 4,235
    Astrobricks said:
    Now I know why minifigs never wear tank tops.
    What about the striped-shirt Pirates?
    Astrobrickspxchris
  • AstrobricksAstrobricks Member Posts: 5,555
    560Heliport said:
    Astrobricks said:
    Now I know why minifigs never wear tank tops.
    What about the striped-shirt Pirates?
    I knew *somebody* would correct me on this, and I’m not surprised it was you! 🙂 I’m not familiar with the Pirates line.
    560Heliportpxchris
  • 560Heliport560Heliport Member Posts: 4,235
    😁😁😁 Here's part of the crew of my #6285 Black Seas Barracuda. 
    KungFuKennyAstrobrickspxchris
  • 560Heliport560Heliport Member Posts: 4,235
    The Pirates were the first minifigs to have face printing that was more than just the classic "smiley", though they all still had the "smiley" as well. I don't know if they used standard "smiley" heads and then added more printing, or if they just designed the faces to look that way.
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,553
    There are also other vest tops, both male and female. But they'd not look like vest tops without the skin showing, so they are fine.
  • andheandhe Member Posts: 4,000
    Astrobricks said:
    I can just hear someone at Lego saying, “Don’t worry about that. Nobody will ever notice.”
    "But isn't the Osprey a military aircraft?"...

    "Don't worry about that....."
    560Heliport
  • ShibShib Member Posts: 5,477
    edited July 2020
    To be fair given that it’s such a small amount of flesh colour and considering the general quality of lighter coloured printing on LEGO it’s pretty easy to handwave it off as an off white t-shirt underneath the shirt.
    Ayliffe560Heliport
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,553
    Similarly given it is so small it need not have been printed in the first place.
    560HeliportCymbeline
  • ShibShib Member Posts: 5,477
    edited July 2020
    While that is true and a fair point it’s also worth considering that as it’s from a licensed figure it’s entirely possible that an initial design didn’t show any flesh there and got rejected by someone at the other end as a result - some IP holders are notoriously difficult about weird little details.

    I suspect it’s more just a case of LEGO assuming it’s such a small section no one would notice it being reused for a yellow fig - honestly the pics don’t look obvious at all, I’d have assumed it was yellow in the newer figs  from those pics if it weren’t pointed out.
    AyliffeAstrobricks
  • CCCCCC Member Posts: 20,553
    Yeah, given what else Lego seem to think people won't notice such as releasing military vehicles, it is minor :-)

    That said, some people (me included) look at the prints on figures. 
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