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When Fox's The Simpsons celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2009, there were those who lamented that the show had lost some of its initial anti-establishment luster, having fallen foul of the wider societal changes that America has experienced since its debut. In a world where people declare wars on marriage, Christmas, and even all women everywhere, suddenly the idea of complaining about a cartoon about a god-fearing suburban family who ultimately mean well and love each other started to seem a little ... unnecessary. For most of America, *The Simpsons *simply aren't worth getting upset about ... unless you're a hardcore Lego fan.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Lego would be issuing a small line of Simpsons toys in 2014, with the potential for the line to be expanded depending on customer reaction. In itself, this isn't really news; Lego has been partnering with outside licensors for years to release sets based on Harry Potter, Batman, and Star Wars, amongst many, many others. But you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise based on the oversized reactions of part of the Lego fanbase.
That Lego has a passionate fandom all its own shouldn't be surprising; we are living in an age where everything has a fandom, no matter how obscure, so why should Lego be exempt? It is, after all, a massive international brand that has survived for more than 60 years and diversified far beyond its initial brick-building origins. What is surprising, however, is the level of vitriol being leveled against the very idea of the *Simpsons *by those Lego fans.
"LEGO, DO NOT make the Simpsons! It is not a kid-friendly theme!" pleaded Superfox9783 in a forum thread entitled "No LEGO The Simpsons!" on the official Lego website. "If you do, I will boycott your products. You've remained a kid-friendly business until now. It's a bad idea."
The pseudonymous Superfox wasn't alone in his indignation; his message appeared on one of seven separate threads on the forum devoted to how bad an idea it was for Lego to release Simpsons figures, with the tone of others ranging from outrage ("Lego is supposed to be a children's toy!") to cynical dismissal ("Lego will probably only get 100 dollars if not less from the theme and also, many people hate it"), but always circling back to the the sweeping statement "there are no Simpsons fans who like Lego."
The problem doesn't really seem to be The Simpsons, per se. Instead, it's the idea of creating Lego products based on a franchise that supposedly lies outside outside the perceived child demographic for Lego--and the idea that this a betrayal of what Lego represents as a company.
This is, in many ways, a flawed argument. Even dismissing the presumption of the complaint--that the fans understand the Lego brand and and what will succeed in the marketplace better than those who work at the company--there's a case to be made that Lego has already created toys for audiences other than children. Were the Lord of the Rings Lego sets truly aimed specifically at children? What about the Marvel and DC Universe lines, particularly given their far more adult-oriented comics?
The core problem may be that The Simpsons lacks the ability to be easily reduced to child-friendly terms, regardless of the source material; superhero comics are still often perceived as children's media, even if that isn't the reality for most titles, and The Hobbit can be reframed as "good vs. evil" adventure fiction. Treating The Simpsons as significantly more inappropriate is a very conservative distinction, not to mention one that's imbued with a certain amount of irony, since the Lego fans complaining that Lego is catering to adults instead of children are, of course, adults. But that seems curiously fitting: Who but the most conservative could truly be upset by The Simpsons in this day and age?
