I'm
going to talk about LEGO again. If that's not your thing, please
examine the sidebar for other websites you might enjoy for the next
two weeks.
Remember
last year when I was getting all excited about LEGO minifigures of
Disney characters and the Cinderella Castle set and the prospect of
more theme park sets to come?
Well…we
haven’t had any more theme park sets, but the character minifigs
were enough of a hit that we expect to get another wave of them. The
speculation about which characters will be included in Round Two has
been madder than a Tea Party…but you can probably guess where my
mind is going in all this. As long as we're going to have collectible
Disney minifigs...why not collectible Disneyland minifigs?
Think
they wouldn't sell? I beg to differ. I can't really think of any
minifigure concept that is so
specific to Disneyland as to hold no interest for the adult LEGO fan
community at large. “Disneyland minifigs” potentially fall into
two main categories: 1) Disney characters, which have already proven
their appeal, and 2) general characters, whose potential appeal can
be demonstrated by...basically all the other non-licensed waves of
collectible minifigures.
To
further illustrate what I mean, I offer this hypothetical set of
minifigs designed to satisfy fans of both Disneyland and LEGO, so
that the true breadth of their appeal will be evident.
In
fact...I'm going to offer two
sets: one for each of the two main categories mentioned above. I'll
cover the pre-existing Disney character this week and the others next
week.
So,
a standard LEGO Collectible Minifig series consists of 16 individual
figures. But with the first set of Disney characters, The LEGO Group
literally gave 110%*—it includes two extra! So we'll use that as
our standard—18 characters in a set. As it happens, 18 is twice
nine, and nine is the number of themed lands Disneyland is soon to
have.** So let's make this interesting with a few rules: two
characters per land. In fact, let's specify one male and one female
character per land—the collectible minifig lines tend to be pretty
dude-dominated.
Since
these are minifigs, obviously the characters have to be human, or at
least humanoid. I'm going to restrict myself to Disney-owned (but not
necessarily Disney-created) characters that were introduced outside
the parks, in movies or TV shows. Each character must have an
identifiable connection to the land where I assign them, not just fit
in a general thematic sense. I'll try to avoid just picking two
characters from the same film or franchise.
You
know what? One more restriction, just for the challenge: No
characters that have already
been made into minifigures. To be clear, I am specifying minifigures,
and not the “minidolls” used in the sets targeted at girls.
Observe:
And
now I'm going to make things a smidge easier
on myself. Series 1 of the Collectible Disney Minfigs includes only
animated characters. I'm going to allow live-action as well.
Let's
do this thing.
Main
Street, USA:
For the gal, I'm thinking Mary Poppins. She's a well-known character,
Disney wants to keep her on the radar in order to promote Mary
Poppins Returns,
and she is associated with Main Street via the Jolly Holiday Bakery.
Coming up with a male character for Main Street is a lot tougher.
It's just not a very character-heavy area to begin with, and most of
the male characters you might expect to see there are disqualified
under the standards I've laid out. After some deliberation, I've
decided to go with: Pluto. He, with the rest of the Sensational Six,
greets arriving guests in Town Square—as a dog Pluto is
particularly tied to the Firehouse. And the theme park version of him
is
bipedal, so he fits the “humanoid” qualification.
Adventureland:
This time, it was easier to decide on the male character. Indiana
Jones already exists in LEGO form, so he's out. So do Aladdin and the Genie, courtesy of the Disney series. But Tarzan is still available—yes, LEGO
has already created an Expy of him, but not the named character himself. As for the female character...let's
give minifig!Aladdin his lady love, Jasmine! If the fact that she
already existed as a minidoll in the Disney Princess theme didn't
stop them from creating Ariel as a minifig, there's no reason Jasmine
couldn't follow suit.
New
Orleans Square:
This one was easy: Jack Skellington and Tiana. Yes, I said
Skellington and not Sparrow, because the latter has
been done.
Critter
Country:
Here I hit my first big roadblock. Male characters connected with
Critter Country are easy to list. I hemmed and hawed and ultimately
decided to go with Winnie The Pooh, because as much as I don't think
his ride fits in Critter Country, so few people have seen Song
of the South
anymore that Splash Mountain may as well be a park original. Lots of
people want Pooh Bear to be in the next Disney series anyway.
Female
characters, though...the only possible candidate actually present in
Critter Country is Kanga, who is not humanoid enough to be rendered
as a minifig per se. I wound up having to break one of my own rules
to fill this slot with Judy Hopps, who does not have any actual
connection with the area, but whose movie would fit in reasonably
well there.
Frontierland:
This was another land that gave me basically no trouble, and as a
bonus, I was able to do a sort of old/new contrast. Davy Crockett and
Pocahontas.
Fantasyland:
Wow, where to start? I can basically take my pick. So I'm
picking...Snow White for the gal. Her importance to both Fantasyland
and the Disney Animated Canon is indisputable. For the dude, I'm a
bit torn between Pinocchio and Mr. Toad. (Peter Pan is out
of the running.) I think I have to give the nod to Pinocchio, for
the same reason as Pooh Bear: Toad just isn't well-known enough
outside
of Disneyland anymore.
Mickey's
Toontown:
Okay, now what? Four of Disney's flagship characters from the classic
shorts already exist as minifigs, and I assigned a fifth to Main
Street. Well...we still don't have Goofy, so he can fill the male
slot.*** The female one is going to be trickier, though. The most
popular lady associated with Toontown who isn't already a minifig is
probably Jessica Rabbit, but I feel that when body shape is so
central to a character's concept, transformation into a trapezoid
defeats the purpose. Instead, I'm giving this one to Gadget
Hackwrench of Chip
& Dale's Rescue Rangers,
the inspiration for Gadget's Go-Coaster.
Tomorrowland:
This one was very troublesome. You'd think it would be very easy what
with all the IP saturation, but most of the suitable characters have
been rendered as minifigs already, even Buzz Lightyear (not only as a
collectible minifig, but in the Toy Story theme that was released to
coincide with Toy
Story 3).
What eventually came to my rescue was meet-and-greets. Specifically
past
meet-and-greets—it's ironic, but it will have to do. For the male
character, I chose Big
Hero 6's
Baymax, who is, I suppose, technically genderless but whose voice
codes him as male. The female character is even more of a stretch,
but I've always thought she (and her entire movie) deserve more
recognition from both the company and the public: Princess
Kida from Atlantis:
The Lost Empire.
Star
Wars Land:
At last, I have found a land that...completely stymies me. Star
Wars
is LEGO's longest-running license, and I'm pretty sure every
named character from every movie and TV series, and even some of the
Expanded Universe, has been made into a minifig at least once. So it looks like I won't be able to include it after all, at least this time around. In order to make this a proper 18-figure Disney series, I'm going to
have do something a little
different with the last two minifigs:
Parades
and Shows:
Can we talk music and audio for a moment? I collect Disneyland music
and audio like whoa, and I do something a bit idiosyncratic with the
organization. Most people seem to classify parades and fireworks
under Main Street, and Fantasmic! under Frontierland, since, you
know, that's where they take place. I give them their own separate
folder, because not only do these things technically cross land
boundaries, they are not specifically themed to the areas where they
appear. Parades and fireworks, in addition, are planned as temporary
attractions, with new ones replacing them every few years. They're
outliers in many ways, is my point.
The
upshot is that the last two minifigs in this series will belong to
this category of Disneyland entertainment. I'm going with Sorcerer
Mickey as the male character, alluding to his climactic appearance in Fantasmic!, and the Blue Fairy, who has led multiple
Disneyland parades,**** as the female character.
Next
week: More of this!
*
Technically 112.5%.
**
See how nice I'm being to Star Wars Land, acknowledging it left and
right? Hang on...did I make a New Year's resolution without noticing
or something?
***
I feel like there's a Toontown Post Office joke to be made here.
****
Starting with, and most famously, the Main Street Electrical
Parade—welcome back!
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