The Best Star Wars Lego Corporate Response Ever

[Rich Johnston]

The Early Learning Centre is a British retail chain specialising in toys for young children with an educative agenda. Videogame developer Ross Mills found it odd that they would be selling Anakin Skywalker toys there, from a variety of manufacturers including Lego, and decided to write a letter.

And received a reply.

We thank Ross for allowing us to reprint them here.

From: Ross Mills

To those responsible for choosing the toys they wish to sell at the Early Learning Centre, as well as in-store advertising.

I was recently walking past the Dundee Early Learning Centre, and was shocked and disgusted to see an advert for Star Wars toys, prominently featuring the characters Yoda and Anakin Skywalker as positive figures.

Personally, I could not be more shocked. I thought the Early Learning Centre was a place for positive reinforcement of positive actions for children, but yet, here it was, actively promoting one of the most evil characters in the Star Wars universe. Anakin Skywalker.

Now, I am aware that Anakin was not always evil, and was in-fact an innocent in Star Wars: Episode 1 ? The Phantom Menace, however, I wish to press on you the severity of his actions starting upon joining the Jedi Order as a Padawan:

* Consistent and flagrantly ignoring the rules, orders and limits set on him by his Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. * Killing an entire tribe of sand-people on Tatooine * Killing the unarmed Count Dooku * Cutting the arm off a Jedi Knight, Mace Windu. (Need I remind you that the Jedi Knights are the PROTECTORS of peace and justice throughout the Star Wars saga?) * Pledging himself to the Dark Side of the force, an organisation based on the teachings of the Sith, involving Brutality, Fear, Anger, and Hatred, including severe humanistic racism when they came into power forming the Empire * Acted as the right-hand of the Sith Emperor * Choked his wife using the power of the Force, nearly killing her and undeniably an act which eventually led to her death. * Attempted killing of Jedi Knight and Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

And, last of all, and the most important

* The massacre of an entire school of young Jedi Children.

Now, I ask you, how can you sell such toys, promoting such individuals, in your establishment?

Sincerely, Ross Mills

xxxxxx

Dear Mr Mills

As an avid Star Wars fan myself I can relate to your points below and see the perspective that Anakin Skywalker (in his teenage years onwards) is by no means a ?positive? role model, nor is he intended to be represented as such.

We sell a wide range of characters from the Star Wars universe, including stormtroopers, scout troopers, Commander Cody and so forth. With particular reference to the two former characters both are generally considered to be ?bad? and unlike Anakin have had no periods of being ?good? or ?redemption? and are provided to give the ?good guys? someone to triumph over. While ideally the Jedi Council would have no enemies and would sit in their chambers sipping Bothan rum, it?s not particularly interesting for a small child (unless of course they wish to populate their ?tea parties? with Star Wars characters in which case we fully endorse this!)

For a child to fully immerse themselves in the Star Wars products we sell I would hesitate a guess that said child is a fan of the Clone Wars cartoon series (the prequels and sequels being of an age most would agree is unsuitable for the age range we cater for). In this series Anakin is very much portrayed as a force of good, and our aim is to provide fans of the series with both heroes and villains so they can replay the epic battles of the show in the comfort of their own home.

It?s unlikely that children of that age have seen any of the Star Wars films, however if they have I beg to offer the following counterpoints to ?the sins of Anakin?

* Anakin loved his mother a great deal and always treated her with respect * Rescued his master several times from assassins, pit monsters, droid troopers etc. * Rescued Amidalla from assassin snakes, pit monsters, the Trade Federation and even found time to romance her in the fields of Naboo * Built C3PO * Won the Podrace * Killed the evil emperor to save his son * I would also argue that if a child has seen all the films they?ll see Anakin as a hero who went wrong but ultimately paid the supreme sacrifice to atone for his sins.

There may be better role models out there for a child, but for the period our toys are aimed at (the Clone Wars), Anakin remains very much ?hero material? and is a popular and welcome addition to our range.

Kind regards, Paul ******** Client Support Manager The Early Learning Centre

Wonderful. Marketing 101.

[Evan Meadow]

Outnerded.

Love it.

[Joe Kalicki]

I'm going to write letters complaining about every stupid thing under the sun one day, since it must be a really fun pastime.

If it was up to this guy kids would only get to play with Ewok toys. But not Logray, because he's a wizard.

[nietoperz]

That's a brilliant reply, but with apologies to the original complainant for my bluntness I have to say that complaining about stocking bad guys is asinine. Most of us grew up with a pretty firm understanding of good characters vs. evil ones: hell, I had a Darth Vader action figure when I was seven and I used him to battle my Luke and Obi-Wan ones. If there were no villains, the stories we all love so much would not be quite so much fun.

[toodoor]

Credit to Ross for putting himself out there and letting BC print the letters.

[S-G]

Just wanted to jump in and say that Ross wrote those entirely as a joke to see what they'd do and if he'd get a reply.

- Ross Mills' flatmate

[Joe B. Pangrazio]

Just wanted to jump in and say that Ross wrote those entirely as a joke to see what they'd do and if he'd get a reply.

- Ross Mills' flatmate

I wonder how many of the more asinine decisions through history resulted from jokes like these?

The part of me that has faith in humanity hopes it is more than not.

[Fysh]

I've got to say, given that the ELC has, AFAIK, a bit of a reputation for being if anything overly cautious about what might be "appropriate" toys for children, that response to a pretty %$&^ing stupid complaint was surprisingly level-headed and well-handled. Hats off to them for evidently having smart and knowledgeable people employed in their customer services department.

Just wanted to jump in and say that Ross wrote those entirely as a joke to see what they'd do and if he'd get a reply.

- Ross Mills' flatmate

I suppose it's just a mercy he didn't route the correspondence through the Daily Mail, really...

[Gibsonian]

I found out that the other night my three year old (four in one week) nephew went to bed singing a song about Anakin Skywalker that he had composed himself.

He's going to be in for some disappointment soon.

[Pennyworth]

Well played, Paul ********.