All Sorted Ep 39: LEGO and Disability

On a diverse episode of All Sorted Jeff and James:

Ask, “What exactly is the big deal?”:

The Set
- 60134: Fun in the Park – City People Pack
The Press:
- CBC
- CNN
- NBC
- CBS
- The Daily Mail
- The Guardian
- NY Post
- NPR
- Times of India

Examine past LEGO wheelchairs:

363: Hospital (1975)
- Pointed out to me by @JP_Sirois on Twitter.
45010: Community People Set – http://brickset.com/sets/45010-1/Community-People-Set

Check if LEGO has ever made a disabled minifigure:

Ask, “Why now?”:

“LEGO was pressured into including a disabled minifig by special interest groups.”
- “Toys Like Me”
  - Petition
- Negative reaction DUPLO wheelchair in 2015
LEGO knew this set would generate a lot of free publicity and sell really well!
- This doesn’t hold up for me for a couple of reasons:
  - If LEGO was prepared for an onslaught of media attention on this set, they sure didn’t show it. LEGO didn’t have images or a press release ready to go at the start of the Toy Fair, which is why you just see the same few images in all the news articles.
  - LEGO had no reason to believe adding a wheelchair to a set would automatically make a set sell.
    - LEGO Ideas has had dozens of projects that feature wheelchairs
      - None of the projects have ever received the 10,000 votes needed to move to the review stage.
      - Only one has managed to pass the 5,000 vote mark.

Look towards the future:

Hope this is not a Share-a-Smile Becky, Barbie’s wheelchair friend one-and-done situation.
- If, three years from now we look back and see that only one disabled minifig appeared in one set, we can go ahead and call it a cynical attempt to cash in on good press.
- Hopefully, In a few years, seeing disabled minifigs in a set will become common enough that no one really notices or cares.

Finally, we ask:

Has LEGO done enough to add diversity to the LEGO world?
Would you like to see LEGO go farther?
Let us know. Please leave a comment, or hit me up on twitter, I’m @StillSorting.

When he's not podcasting, playing board games or building LEGO with his kids then he's LEGO gaming boardcasts in his pod. Also, not a Time Lord.