DS 2021

[Macruran]

Just looked at the pics - the viking tents with Indians isn't a May-ism, I think it's just the sloppiness we've seen for a number of years now. Just a lack of caring. Note too that one of the Vikings has a buffalo headdress (buffalo in Norway  ) not to mention a Vikingette with no head protection. 

[tahra]

When I first saw the pics, my idea was fakes too - but considering the source, I thought they were probably legit...

The klickys are especially odd choices...

And yes, the playmoindians are the indians from the movies of my childhood.. so maybe that is why I don't find them abnormal.. those are the indians I grew up with as well.

Looking forward to pics of the vikings and the firehorsy, especially...

(I like the "vikingette"... well.. if done right )

[Tiermann]

Vikings having visited the European mainland would have potentially had contact with European Bison (Wisent) so actually plausible.

[Macruran]

 

[playmofire]

My wallet is safe.

[PMatt]

I have very little knowledge about Native cultures – the inconsistencies Ismene pointed out would have flown straight under my radar. I think what Macruran explained about the romanticization of Indians applies to most of Europe. Even then, the viking tents are a most unsightly element... if the definitive version is unchanged, that set was phoned in big time.

[Hadoque]

The Knights & Pirates are also a romanticization of reality.
Georbra is catching up though on some aspects: the new DS-Indians seem to have the more realistic (dark) Asian skin-colour.

Tahra, thanks for the news and the link to Amclicks.

[Macruran]

The Knights & Pirates are also a romanticization of reality.
Georbra is catching up though on some aspects: the new DS-Indians seem to have the more realistic (dark) Asian skin-colour.

Right, but my point is that that romanticisation is itself a reality. Becoming "more realistic" is moving away from the romantic image towards an image that is closer to historical facts - it's swapping one idea for another idea. (The real reality is that no Indians live in the traditional ways anymore, but sets representing real modern Indians would not sell well.)

[Oliver]

The Viking-Tents-with-the-Indians is a little odd. I assume there's a technical/cost issue with original Tee-Pee, but I'm not sure that the set would lose anything by not having the tents at all. I'd think they were left over from something, but I think they're new in white?

I'm quite fond of the 'Little Town' theme, so nice to have the empty building (though it'd be nice to have the extra floors available too, since they make a bit of a point of the inter-changeability of them).

The biggest change seems to be including figures with the sets. Not a great deal to get excited about though.

[Ismene]

The "movie Indians" excuse may have worked 40 years ago. In 2020, it just comes off as lazy and insensitive. Your average modern-day child is not going to be nostalgic for old westerns. How do you sell a fantasy image to a market that has no reference for it? And on the USA site at least, these sets are being marketed as "Native Americans" not white guys with makeup and feathers (which is what most Indians in old westerns were).

The Knights & Pirates are also a romanticization of reality.

Sure, but I'd be weirded out if the knight sets came with cacti, much like I find the bananas in that Ancient Greek set discordant. Lava catapults are fantasy. Complete disregard for geography is sloppiness.

(The real reality is that no Indians live in the traditional ways anymore, but sets representing real modern Indians would not sell well.)

These are clearly meant to be set in the past. The reality of tribal lands is pretty bleak right now.