Image: Lego/Jalopnik
Lego’s new Speed Champions series for 2022 is pretty awesome across the board, covering a wide range of cars – from oldies like the Ferrari 512 M prototype and Lamborghini Countach LP5000 Quattrovalvole to new stuff like the Lotus Evija and Aston Martin Vantage GT3. Probably the most popular addition to the squad will be these Mercedes-AMG W12 E-PerformanceMerc’s F1 challenger of 2021, shares a pack with the Mercedes AMG Project One hyper car. It also includes two minifigures, neither of which are what you would expect.
The F1 car pictured on the box has the number 44 from Lewis Hamilton’s car on its nose. However, Hamilton himself was not immortalized as a minifigure to match the set. Rather, there’s a pair of generic yellow minifigures in the box – a driver and a mechanic – who have it disappointed some fans. On the outside, it looks like Lego fell short of a fairly simplistic presentation here, although there are some notable details that might explain what’s going on.
Image: Lego
First, Lego also includes an optional #77 W12 number plate – you can see it in the image above – for Valtteri Bottas’ car. Lego has been making F1 kits for decades, but they don’t always come with the right drivers. Most Ferrari sets from back then had one generic, balaclava-covered typewhile others – usually larger kits Display of the entire garageor including both cars – had minifigures for Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello or Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, complete with theirs current helmet designs.
This isn’t Lego’s first Mercedes F1-licensed set either. One came out in 2016 with both carsbut this one also lacked Hamilton’s resemblance as well as that of his then-teammate Nico Rosberg.
Second, while it’s not clear what the terms of Lego’s agreement with Mercedes-Benz are, you’ll note that neither the Formula 1 logo nor the names of Hamilton or Bottas appear on the packaging. Some drivers retain the rights to their likenesses, so it’s entirely possible that Lego simply couldn’t or wouldn’t pay for both. We’ve reached out to Lego and will update this with anything we learn.
Image: Lego
Now you might be wondering why, aside from licensing, Lego didn’t include a black minifigure in the interest of representation and inclusivity. the really, really important for the toys that children play with. But the company’s official line – one that exists drawn criticism over the years – is that it uses figures colored yellow because yellow is a “neutral skin color” that does not represent a racial or ethnic background. Lifelike skin tones are only given to “characters we didn’t create,” according to the company. from Lego’s own website on the subject:
We want to inspire the builders of tomorrow – that is, children from all over the world! We want each of our fans, no matter where they live or what color their skin is, to imagine themselves as part of the action. When we invented minifigures nearly 40 years ago, we chose yellow because it’s a neutral “skin color” – nobody in real life has bright yellow skin, so LEGO® minifigures don’t represent any particular race or ethnic background and nobody will boisterous.
Although we’ve created some minifigures that aren’t yellow, they’re usually based on characters we didn’t create. We try to make them look exactly like these characters so kids can recreate the story at home.
The history of the minifigures and the colors Lego uses to create them is surprisingly interesting, and includes just the kind of cultural insensitivity you’d expect from a Danish company that’s been in business for more than 70 years. I have a strict do not link to Quora policy when I write things, but Lego fan David Eaton – who explained it quite a bit of Lego history On the question/answer page it needs to be said – spell it out in detail here. The TL;DR is Lego actually used several different colors for its pre-minifig people before settling on yellow, and it really was just the toy company’s deal with the NBA that ultimately forced it to reconsider things.
In short, there are likely several reasons why Lewis Hamilton is not included in the Lego set along with the car he drives: money, precedent, and Lego’s own need to justify a decision it made decades ago, probably among them. These things are often complicated and the answers are seldom satisfactory.
Update Feb 3, 2022 at 10:40am ET: A Lego PR manager responded to our earlier request with the following explanation:
In the case of LEGO Speed Champions, the intent of the product is to celebrate the cars. The characters included increase play value and role-playing opportunities and are not intended to represent real-world personalities, which is why we use yellow minifigures in Speed Champions sets.
