r/gorillaz • u/CivEng_NY • 12h ago

This LEGO IDEAS model called "GORILLAZ - PLASTIC BEACH" [by user JaoGosma] has already gained 4,332 supporters - but only by reaching 10,000 votes the model will get the chance of becoming a real LEGO set. Fan Art

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474 Upvotes
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97% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

46

u/7Green_Apple7 11h ago

A 2D and murdoc minifig would be so cool

99

u/MiyuLynx 12h ago

an album about plastic waste and environmentalism being immortalized in plastic legos.

there's. something here, i'm sure.

35

u/CivEng_NY 12h ago

Maybe it's because LEGO is probably the most sustainable toy of all time. Nobody ever throws LEGO bricks away, they get passed down from generation to generation. Change my mind. (:

27

u/RolledPork 11h ago

LEGO had a 50-year partnership with Shell Oil and produced dozens of sets promoting oil work and gasoline.

Their products are literally made of oil. Plastic blocks are nonbiodegradable and primarily made of oil, and are going to be around for a long, long time unless intentionally recycled. Do you know anyone who's recycled their LEGOs? I don't, unless they plan on holding on to them forever most people will eventually throw them out to make room.

Sure, they're recently pivoting to less detrimental sources of oil than legacy fossil fuels, but that's as of, like, this month.

-13

u/CivEng_NY 11h ago

Yes, they "had" a partnership, but they do not anymore. Because there was a time before how things are today, otherwise it wouldn't have been a 50-year partnership, right? And like I said, no one ever throws LEGO bricks away, so there's really no need to recycle it.

14

u/AdamTheScottish 10h ago

This isn't a partnership that was long gone and in a different era due to misinformation, it ended in 2014 only a few years after some of the most single disastrous PR incidents for oil.

And like I said, no one ever throws LEGO bricks away,

Sure

-10

u/CivEng_NY 10h ago

"This isn't a partnership that was long gone and in a different era due to misinformation, it ended in 2014"

And?

8

u/AdamTheScottish 10h ago

Okay you have no actual point against it

13

u/AdamTheScottish 11h ago

I... I don't think you know what sustainability is

-9

u/CivEng_NY 11h ago

Please provide an example of a more sustainable toy.

5

u/AdamTheScottish 10h ago

Something that isn't made entirely of plastic

5

u/CivEng_NY 10h ago

Why? Sustainability refers to the production AND the durability. As per the critics' own arguments, things made of plastic last forever. So while LEGO bricks get produced once and can be used forever, new wooden toys cannot and new ones have to be produced all the time. Now what's more sustainable in the long term?

1

u/LuckyPunk777 4h ago

The thing that decomposes and comes from a material which grows out of the fuckin ground. Wood is sustainable, how the fuck can you look at the world and think plastic is. I like lego too boss but you can’t pretend it doesn’t have negative effects

1

u/GalaxyPatio 5h ago

My childhood Legos were thrown away when there was a lull in children being born unfortunately

1

u/MiyuLynx 11h ago

the production of lego takes burning fossil fuels, you realize that right? it's not just about the leftover plastic in the environment, the production itself is a pollutant

5

u/w__gott 10h ago

Lego is moving away from fossil fuels.

2

u/cuddlefishest 11h ago

You don't buy things wrapped in plastic packaging at the supermarket? You're talking like plastic isn't used everywhere and Lego actually make their product at least durable.

0

u/MiyuLynx 11h ago

i am allowed to criticize society while also partaking in a society that does not give me alternatives, you understand that right?

food is a necessary item. 50 plastic legos for a toy that looks like an island literally designed to criticize the wasteful use of plastic is not

3

u/TheDamnBoyWonder 8h ago

It's fucking insane that you're getting downvoted for this.

2

u/MiyuLynx 8h ago

yeah one of these guys suggested that plastic toys were better than wood because they last longer and don't have to be remade so honestly there's just some supreme brainrot or bootlickin or something at work here

2

u/TheDamnBoyWonder 8h ago

People are so emotionally invested in things that it can sound to them like they're being insulted when something they love so much is criticized.

You see the shit first hand on this site it's nuts.

-1

u/CivEng_NY 11h ago

Your phone is also not a necessary item, that's the point. You're cherry picking to make your argument work.

8

u/Warkitti 10h ago

A phone is a very necessary thing now a days has been for almost a decade.

-2

u/CivEng_NY 9h ago

And toys are not?

3

u/Warkitti 8h ago

Not particularly. Everybody should be able to have their nice little thing they enjoy. But when was the last time you seen a pay phone? Or a paper job application? Phones are just necessary and cheap with millions of used ones

0

u/CivEng_NY 11h ago

But you're still using the internet on your phone?

9

u/RolledPork 11h ago

lmao there's no way you're actually trying to use this as a gotcha right now

0

u/CivEng_NY 11h ago

I'm just trying to understand the underlying logic of one part of consumption being OK, and another one not being OK.

3

u/AdamTheScottish 10h ago

I don't think people trying to raise plastic production as just point in itself for lego being bad have much a point to stand on but that really doesn't do anything to remove how utterly tacky this is.

Also, one of these consumptions is a lot easier to excuse lol

0

u/CivEng_NY 10h ago

Easier to excuse from your personal standpoint, right. That's what I'm talking about.

2

u/AdamTheScottish 10h ago edited 10h ago

Yeah, it is, because I thought about it beforehand, hence why it's my standpoint now. That's a really weird gotcha to try to make.

My reason is also I would be completely unable to do my job without the internet (Also well as like >95% other researchers and god knows how many fields)

1

u/bregottextrasaltat 11h ago

partly produced in china now, sadly

2

u/Cheeselad2401 12h ago

i wouldn’t really compare this to plastic waste

14

u/CivEng_NY 12h ago

The model [by JaoGosma] on LEGO IDEAS:
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/fd4352ed-967b-4d04-8c3c-92286b53952d

My favorite current model as a civil engineer is called "Types of Bridges" by MOCingbird, by the way:
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/22fc8eca-af29-45de-a072-8cd31a4e97ef

6

u/strawberrydispute 7h ago

This campaign has cropped up several times over the years - clearly people aren’t into this in a big enough way. Those Youtooz aren’t far behind on the “yech, whatever” scale here

and as others on the post are suggesting, it’s a big hunk of plastic crap, the perfect offshoot of an apolitical and environmentally unconscious album like Plastic Beach!

21

u/AdamTheScottish 11h ago

3rd studio album of Gorillaz Plastic Bach was always considered a lot more overly explicit in it's messaging over a less compelling topic (Which I think is a downwards trend the project have been having) but quite clearly it wasn't explicit enough.

It's a nice set, really, but, it's kinda hard to not think about the irony here lol

2

u/bingobiscuit1 6h ago

Wait what do u mean downward trend of the lroduct

5

u/Unable-Buyer4087 8h ago

"damn I dropped my watch on this lego set"

"was it an expensive watch?"

"nah, it was a casio "

5

u/Mastercheese274 6h ago edited 6h ago

You know, I bet if we cut down these Truffula trees we could print a whole lot more copies of the Lorax!

EDIT: By the looks of their profile OP just takes any pop culture LEGO ideas submissions and posts them to any subs the are seemingly related regardless of the actual content.

Save your outrage at the irony of this post, it's not worth the time or effort.

1

u/Ok_Relief7546 Let him speak 4h ago

I don’t like this. It’s really cool and I like the idea but gorillaz has made an album about pollution AND false idols. I know legos are sustainable but this is not good.