{"id":35551,"date":"2026-10-25T16:07:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T21:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=35551"},"modified":"2026-10-25T16:07:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T21:07:33","slug":"adventures-in-historical-not-lego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=35551","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Historical (Not) LEGO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Facebook, you know me well.<\/p>\n

Imagine, for a moment, that was said in an outrageously broad French accent. If you’ve played Age of Empires III<\/i>, think of the Napoleon voice in that game. A deep register, kind of aggressive, very stereotypical French.<\/p>\n

Facebook wants me to buy some off-brand LEGO. I’m not sure if it’s real or not — could be AI slop, I suspect the images are<\/i> AI slop — but that’s not the point. It suggested three things that pique my historical interest, to greater and lesser degrees.<\/p>\n

\"Facebook<\/p>\n

Here wa have a set based on the coronoation of King Charles VII of France, during the Hundred Years War, as Joan of Arc looks on.<\/p>\n

I admit, this is pretty cool. Is it something I need<\/i>? No. It is not. But, the Hundred Years War? Certainly of interest.<\/p>\n

Next, we have this intriguing set.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Reign of Terror! Madmae Guillotine! And, is that the Scarlet Pimpernel atop the building, looking down on the French noble who has just lost his head?!?<\/p>\n

Is this something I need<\/i>? No. Is it awesome as heck? “You’re goddamn right.” If I had the money, this would go on the list of things to buy… if I were ever convinced this were real and not just an AI Facebook scam.<\/p>\n

Finally…<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The coronation of Napoleon at Notre Dame! Six months before the start of Tolstoy’s War and Peace<\/i>! (Though, personally, I believe some of the chapters in Part 1 that are supposedly set in 1805 are actually set in 1804. Time is a very strange thing in War and Peace<\/i>, especially when you trace Andrei’s comings and goings between January and June 1812.)<\/p>\n

Is this something I need<\/i>? No. Not even remotely. Would I buy it? Did I not just say to imagine Napoleon in Age of Empires III<\/i>? Have I not visited the grave of Napoleon’s nephew Jerome in Baltimore and possibly shouted, “Vive le France! Vive l’Empereur!<\/i>” in an outrageous French accent?<\/p>\n

I would, to be fair, be more likely to buy the Reign of Terror set than the Coronation of Napoleon set. There’s something deeply transgressive about a (not) LEGO set based on the French Revolution with a freaking guillotine.<\/p>\n

I am not buying any of these, but the Reign of Terror set would definitely get a look. If only it had a Robespierre minifig…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facebook, you know me well. Imagine, for a moment, that was said in an outrageously broad French accent. If you’ve played Age of Empires III, think of the Napoleon voice in that game. A deep register, kind of aggressive, very stereotypical French. Facebook wants me to buy some off-brand LEGO. I’m not sure if it’sContinue reading “Adventures in Historical (Not) LEGO”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[752,4199,5502,5500,4103,4545,362,5499,5501,4544],"class_list":["post-35551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legos","tag-facebook","tag-french-revolution","tag-hundred-years-war","tag-joan-of-arc","tag-lego","tag-leo-tolstoy","tag-napoleon","tag-reign-of-terror","tag-the-scarlet-pimpernel","tag-war-and-peace","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}