They’re in for a helluva night

A heartwarming Coney Island in the bad old days diorama put together by Jonathan Gilbert (Shmails), to show off some of his new custom minifigs inspired by the movie The Warriors.

LEGO Shmails custom Warriors boardwalk

8 comments on “They’re in for a helluva night

  1. Shmails

    Thanks for the blog Thanel! I was planning to do some graffiti on the buildings, but I do not have the time right now.

    Marc – They are coming, although I will not be doing pinstripes since I cannot get the entire minifigure covered 100%. Other gangs in the works: The Rogues, Turnbull A/C, The Riffs, Lizzies, Orphans, and Punks.

    Thanks again!

  2. Thanel Post author

    ^ A legit question. Back to the old yellow, black, pink fleshie etc discussion. I’m not naive enought to think that TLG meant the original yellow ‘fig as truly universal. I’m pretty sure it was meant to eurocentrically represent “people” (ie white people). But like any LEGO creation, it seems to me the most significant thing is how the builder uses the LEGO elements to represent something that they’re trying to, well, represent. In this case yellow = white & brown = black, in the lexicon of socially constructed American ethnic terminology.

    This was not posted as one of my attempts at political statements, but I welcome the debate since it happened to come up.

  3. ThisSideOfSteinway

    On that subject, are there any custom retailers out there who sell minifigs with varying skin tones? I was hoping to create a facsimile of my wife, but so far I’ve had little luck finding anything.

  4. Shmails

    Well, I always love to see my creations spark a philosophical debate! Brown refers to Black because black would have forced me to make the facial features in gray, which would look wrong. As for the yellow, the truth is it is a financial choice first, and an aesthetic one second. Yellow arms, heads, and hands are half the price of their light flesh siblings. Also, I am not a fan of the Light flesh color, and will only make a custom figure that way if it is requested.

    ThisSideOfSteinway – feel free to contact me on Flickr and I will see what I can do for you!

  5. skippy_magoo

    @ThisSideOfSteinway
    Unfortunately the demand for realistic weapons far outstrips the demand for realistic skin tones.
    Draw your own conclusions ;)

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