Tag: LEGO Star Wars (Page 114 of 134)

Today, LEGO has released their press release on what happened with the Jabba’s Palace criticism. We reported yesterday that LEGO will stop production in 2014 but not because of the issue at hand but because of the normal shelf life of different LEGO sets. LEGO has clarified that in their press release seen below.

The LEGO Group’s reaction to criticism of LEGO Star Wars product: “Jabba´s Palace”

The Austrian Turkish Cultural Community has criticized a LEGO Star Wars product for looking similar to a mosque in Istanbul. The product is however not based on any real building but on a fictional building from a scene in the movie Star Wars Episode VI.

All LEGO Star Wars products are based on the movies of the Star Wars saga created by Lucasfilm. Jabba’s Palace appears in Star Wars Episode VI and appears in a famous scene on the planet Tatooine. The building is the palace of Jabba – a fictional movie character.

The picture shown above depicts the building from the movie scene. The LEGO designers try to reproduce all buildings, space ships and characters from the movies as close as possible when creating a new LEGO Star Wars product.

This is done to allow both young and old Star Wars fans to act out the scenes from the movies at home. The LEGO Star Wars product Jabba´s palace does not reflect any non-fictional buildings, people, or the mentioned mosque.

The LEGO minifigures shown on the box and found inside the box (Jabba, Salacious Crumb, Bib Fortuna, Gamorreanic

Back in January, we reported that LEGO was being accused of being racist by the Turkish Cultural Community of Austria because the Jabba’s Palace (9616) looked too similar to the Hagia Sophia mosque. The group also claimed that the set’s Asian and Oriental characters had “deceitful and criminal personalities” and the minifigures were portrayed as terrorists, criminals, and murderers.” This comes from a Muslim man’s son receiving the set as a present.

In response to these allegations, The LEGO Group as agreed to cease production of the Jabba’s Palace set from 2014 forward. This decision came between LEGO executives and the Turkish community leaders in Munich, Germany. Birol Killic, president of the TCA, states that “We are very grateful and congratulate Lego on the decision to take Jabba’s Palace out of production.”

As a result of this decision by LEGO, the Jabba’s Palace set may have just became an instant collector’s set because of this blemish. By the time 2014 rolls by, the set will already be at the end of it’s shelf life so this is really doesn’t hurt LEGO that much and they would rather concede this moral victory to the Turkish Community. Buyers and sellers on the secondary market can expect prices of the set to rise as they are being taken off the shelves. You can still pick up the set right now on Amazon for $87.99, a 27% savings, or you can pick it up at Shop@Home with double VIP points.

Today is April Fool’s Day and I wish this was … Continue