HIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
For many fans, ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race‘ isn’t just a television show. It’s everything. It consumes you. It *IS* life, and you must fill every aspect of your life with queens, ‘shantay-you-stay’-ing, calling everything ‘SICKENING’ every opportunity, more queens, watching Youtube tutorials to learn how tf those talented gals do their makeup, and last but not least – buying merchandise so you may be surrounded by RPDR at all moments of your day.
And hopefully soon, you will be able to fill your living room with a ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ LEGO set. And racers – it looks goddamn incredible.
Seriously. Just look at it:
And there’s even the Snatch Game scene, complete with a bunch of the segment’s most memorable performances, including the gorgeously kooky Katya Zamolodchikova as Björk, the honourable Bianca Del Rio as Judge Judy, the tongue-poppin’ Alyssa Edwards as Katy Perry, the game-changing Milk as Julia Child, and the silver screen queen Jinkx Monsoon as Little Edie. (P.S. You can read P.TV‘s interview with the Jinkx HERE.)
There’s also multiple different version of RuPaul: Racesuit RuPaul, Snatch Game Host RuPaul, and Runway RuPaul. And by popular demand (including from the woman herself), regular judge and RuPaul’s right-hand gal Michelle Visage has now been added to the Minifig list:
.@RuPaulLEGO I’ve celebrated #Valentinesday by adding your BFF @michellevisage to the @RuPaulLEGO project > https://t.co/ZRksYS2pwH pic.twitter.com/z7IJJjowkp
— RuPaul’s Brick Race (@RuPaulLEGO) February 15, 2017
Omg we LOOK SO LEGIT https://t.co/dZMvchnIsb
— michelle visage (@michellevisage) February 15, 2017
Masterminded by Mark Fitzpatrick, the ‘RuPaul’s Brick Race’ (that’s its official LEGO name, awwww) is currently up on LEGO Ideas – the aim of the game is for people to design and vote for sets that the iconic company may not have thought of themselves. What happens is that people design and pitch sets, then if it reaches the 10,000 vote mark, LEGO will consider building that particular set. Obviously not every single one does get made, but with enough support, an idea from your brain could legitimately exist as an official LEGO product.
Crowdsourced options? Hell yeah. In the past, some of the successful LEGO Ideas models have included ‘Big Bang Theory‘, an anniversary ‘Ghostbusters’ set, and The Beatles’ hugely influential ‘Yellow Submarine’.
PEDESTRIAN.TV News Editor Chloe Sargeant spoke to Fitzpatrick, who explained to us exactly why he’s made this insanely detailed and good RPDR concept.
What’s your connection to RuPaul’s Drag Race?I’m just an admiring fan. I get together with a group of friends to watch each new episode and, within that group, there are super-mega fans who know everything there is to know about RuPaul’s Drag Race. Their knowledge and fan love puts mine to shame! We have a great time watching the show together, it’s one of my favourite things.What impact do you think RPDR Lego could have on LGBTQIA youth and adults?The reaction from fans across the globe has been astounding. A common thread in their comments and constructive criticism is that this LEGO set would inject some welcome diversity to toy departments around the world.LEGO is a wonderful company and they’ve made great progress in recent years in diversifying their product range. I know that if there is a toymaker in the world who will be prepared to evaluate this idea on it’s merits, its those wonderful folk in Denmark.That said, I know that it’s entirely possible that even if the set reaches 10,000 votes, the LEGO company might not select this idea for production (for any number of logistical reasons that might rule it out) – but just getting this set to the official review stage sends a positive signal to the LEGO company that there is interest in diverse toys and the representation of LGBTQIA lives in LEGO land 🙂 I think that’s worth getting behind, regardless of the outcome for this specific project.
The project so far has ~4000 votes out of the necessary 10k to be considered, and both RuPaul and Michelle Visage have thrown their Twitter support behind it. Says Fitzpatrick of the Twitter RTs:
“[I was] absolutely thrilled! RuPaul must get hundreds of messages and tweets every day and I was so pleased that this idea caught her eye.”
— RuPaul (@RuPaul) February 1, 2017
WE NEED VOTES https://t.co/dZMvchnIsb
— michelle visage (@michellevisage) February 15, 2017
It’s pretty easy to write campaigns like this off as “just LEGO“, but lemme put it this way – some young LEGO fan out there, feeling othered and alone because of their sexuality could feel over the moon, welcome and included in their chosen communities if toys like this were made. The LGBTQIA community has managed to tackle the lack of representation on television and movies (and lets be honest, it could obviously still be much, much better), but inclusivity extends to every single medium. And if there was LGBTQIA representation in LEGO… well, that is just sickening as hell.
And honestly, it’s not a kid thing – there’s bucketloads of adults out there who would absolutely kill to own this too (this writer included). LEGO is dope, regardless of age.
So, be a total legend and give us LGBTQIA/drag-lovin’ LEGO-fiends a hand, would ya? Vote for inclusivity and vote for a ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race‘ LEGO set here:
MINIFIGS, start your engines, and MAY THE BEST LEGO SET WIN.
Source: Mark Fitzpatrick / LEGO Ideas.
