Film Noir Detective
Lift this one out of the box and the first thing you notice is what is missing. The Film Noir Detective has no colour anywhere on it, from hat to shoes, as though it had walked off a black-and-white crime picture from the 1940s.
Data Matrix codes: Film Noir Detective
One of these codes is printed on the bottom of the box, next to the barcode.
6472866first batch6472899production batch 26471965production batch 3
LEGO prints a different code for each production batch and region, which is why one item has several. The scanner recognises all 3.
About this minifigure
Film noir is a whole style of cinema: the private eye in a trench coat and hat, wet streets at night, venetian blinds, and a client who is definitely holding something back. LEGO caught that mood in the simplest way available, by taking the colour away. Surrounded by bright plastic, a figure in nothing but greys catches the eye faster than most monsters do.
Monochrome minifigures are rare, so on a shelf this one works as a deliberate accent. In a diorama, a grey desk and a small lamp are enough to make a detective's office. The greyscale runs unbroken across the figure, so in a row of colourful minifigures nothing else looks remotely like it.
The dark styling does not mean anything frightening. It is simply a detective, a job children grasp instantly, and one that turns into a hunt for a missing brick within a minute. Next to the other characters it looks like a visitor from another world, and that alone gets the play going.
Did you know: The term "film noir" was coined by French critics just after the Second World War, when American crime films that had been held back finally reached France. The filmmakers themselves never used the label.
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