Introduction
According to a quote from a 2010 Lego report, “the purpose is for the LEGO brand not to be associated with issues that glorify conflicts and unethical or harmful behavior.” There isn’t much research available on the increase of conflict or violence found in Lego sets; however, a 2016 research paper called “Have LEGO Products Become More Violent?” discusses the trend of Lego products skewing towards promoting a greater level of violence and conflict. The study found that “scenarios involving shooting and threatening behaviour have increased over the years.” This result contrasts with Lego’s “aim to discourage pretend violence as a primary play incentive,” as “the designs are meant to enrich play with engaging conflict scenarios where aggression might be used for the purpose of overcoming imaginary evil.” While Lego aims to present conflict in terms of imaginary situations outside the context of reality, it is important to point out that shooting is one of the primary means of violence that has risen over the years. In particular, shooting is very much a situation that is associated with violence in real life. The level of violence contributes to the exclusion of women from Lego, as the idea of conflict found in play is related to how toys are marketed toward boys. For example, some scholars have argued that the proliferation of increasingly violent toys relates to a broader issue, a crisis of masculinity. Boys are often expected to play with toys promoting some form of conflict and violence where there’s a clear antagonistic force to fight against.
As part of the research on conflict and violence, we decided to take a look at the Lego City sets to see if there was an increased level of conflict in a theme that is supposed to reflect real life and is marketed toward everyone. First, we looked at the total number of Lego City sets focused on automobiles because of how prominent the theme was in a city environment.
Figure 1. Barplot showing the number of Lego City sets containing an automobile
Automobiles make up the majority of Lego City sets, which is interesting because cities are typically associated with skyscrapers, shops or markets, schools, hospitals, restaurants, and other important infrastructures. Instead, the majority of Lego City is focused on cars, which then relates to the idea that the sets are mostly based on the idea of a chase or some form of conflict rather than depicting realistic cities.
Figure 2. Barplot showing the number of Lego City sets containing an automobile that promotes conflict
We define conflict by looking for keywords such as policy, chase, patrol, challenge, crook, robber, escape, foil, stunts, reckless, attack, and challenge. As such, we narrowed down sets related to one of these words among the automobile Lego City sets. We found that almost half of the car-themed Lego City sets promoted some form of conflict, which is important to point out as the violence is situated in the context of a real-life situation rather than an imaginary, distant opposition.
Figure 3. Barplot showing the number of Lego City automobile sets themed around the police
The overrepresentation of police and detainment in a Lego-themed set marketed to everyone and meant to represent a real-life city directly ties into the increase of violence promoted in Lego products. The majority of conflict or violence in Lego sets is related to escalations between the police and a robber, which as stated above continues to emphasize that the violence promoted has implications in the real world rather than being contained in a fantasy setting. Lego’s initial stance contradicts the trends found in its recent large-scale releases, as the escalation of conflict-themed sets has risen even in sets geared towards everyone in a more mundane, realistic setting.
Lego Friends is another city-oriented set that is targeted toward girls; however, there is little to no presence of conflict-oriented situations involving actions, stunts, policemen or firefighters, and robbers. The one police in Lego Friends is meant to keep the peace; however, all of the police in Lego City are portrayed in violent situations as perpetrators of some form of conflict or escalated chase. Lego continues to perpetuate the idea that conflict-oriented sets, especially revolving around firefighters and the police, should be targeted at boys, which is rooted in sexist stereotypes as well as promoting aspects ingrained in toxic masculinity.