A Long Long time ago in a galaxy Far Far Away...there was Lego's. And the great god Lucas shined down on Lego's and said "you may create and manufacture Lego likenesses of my creations." And Lucas and Lego beheld their creation and, look! It was very good! and there came to be profit for both parties, and both parties were pleased.
OK enough with the dramatic. So Lego, of course, has a standing contract with George Lucas to create recreations of recognizable landmarks, vehicles and characters from all parts of the Star Wars Movie franchise. Well now they have a new Star Wars Lego set that's hit the markets that has some people...more than a little upset.
So the Lego product in question is a recreation of Jabba The Hutt's palace from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The complainers? Some Turkish unnamed leaders. and are saying that a watchtower and model of Jabba the Hut's palace are in fact exact replicas of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and the mosque Jami al-Kabir in Beirut - and of a minaret.
Some of the other complaints about it is that the characters look evil and that Jabba the Hutt likes to smoke a hooka (or water pipe as the Austrian times calls it) and have his victims killed. the Austrian times even refered to Jabba as a terrorist. Added to the list of laughable charges are: Shocking red and black devil's scowl (Darth Maul from Episode I), the palace is populated by criminals and has a machine gun and since in thier mind its modled after after this mosque, its sacraliage to have those two things included, and slamming the toy maker for contexual errors and that they toy was aimed at indoctrinating children against Muslims and a whole gambit of ridiculous claims that they say back up thier charge.
OK so, what incredibly stupid people we are dealing with here! First of all, Jabba's Lego Palace is based of the palace as it appeared 30 years ago in 1983. If this is such a problem now with the Lego set, why wasn't it a problem then with the movie itself? I would have thought that people this picky and over the top would have "caught on" to this seemingly racist hit to thier culture, which of course its not. So you waited 30 years after the movie was released world wide for the Lego toy to come out to complain?
And by the way, Jabba is not a terrorist, he is a kingpin of a smuggling operation which is why he wanted Han Solo so badly because he kept dropping his shipments and owed him money because of it.
I have never delved deeply into the character make ups, but in a movie like Star Wars there is always a clear line between bad guy and good guy. If there isn't then the movie really makes no sense. This is in no way a claim, accusation or god forbid a lawsuit that should even be remotely taken seriously.
If they want to have a real dialogue about an actual legitimate problem, how about talking about the shameful demeaning way you treat women for starts? But don't come up with these bullshit weak complaints about a toy based off a movie that, in reality you just simply don't like.
Original Story found on Huffington Post Here and the Austrailian Times story found Here
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