I shouldn't have waiting so long to grab them from amazon...at least you can still get a few on ebay.
When was the last time action figures got people so worked up they tried to ban them? Was it Al Snow and his mannequin head that some people thought endorsed violence against women? I kinda reckoned that after seeing toys of fictional rapist The Comedian hanging from the pegs at Toys R us, we were past any possible furor.
Not so. An activist in Al Sharpton's National Action Network - who actually claims to like the movie Django Unchained! - has come into the picture with a fundamental misunderstanding of toy collecting.
"Selling this doll is highly offensive to our ancestors and the African American community," Rev. K.W. Tulloss, NAC's president in Los Angeles, told the Daily News. "The movie is for adults, but these are action figures that appeal to children. We don't want other individuals to utilize them for their entertainment, to make a mockery of slavery."
These appeal to children? Ehhh, not so much. As I wrote originally, these are primarily designed for those adult collectors who, like Quentin Tarantino himself, have a particular nostalgia for the '70s Mego style of toy. A kid would rather have superheroes that fire missiles over a Christoph Waltz doll with removable clothes. A reasonably well-adjusted kid, anyhow.
"I actually enjoyed the movie, but we cannot support this type of commercialization," [activist Najee] Ali said. "I don't seen any dolls representing Hitler that came from Tarantino's (Holocaust movie 'Inglourious Basterds')...I don't see them making dolls of Holocaust survivors who are bald and starving in concentration camps."
Okay, a few things worth discussing here. One, there actually has been a Hitler doll, albeit not one too widely available. With that said, none of the characters here is directly analogous to Hitler. If they were Zero Dark Thirty toys and one of them was Osama bin Laden, you'd have a better point. There was a doll made of Christoph Waltz's ruthless, Jew-killing Nazi. On a more banal level, the Indiana Jones toy line featured Nazi-era German soldiers, as well as evil Soviets from the fourth film. All representative of regimes that caused real-life mass deaths.
Two, none of these figures are of slaves in chains. The closest is Broomhilda, a slave in a maid's outfit. Assuming anyone were to play with these figures rather than simply displaying them, however, the most likely scenario is to have her and Django kicking ass on the bad guys.
Three, NECA makes toys based on R-rated movies. It's their forte. Kids shouldn't be buying Freddy Krueger toys either.
And finally...people would probably have mostly ignored these figures if you hadn't said anything, folks. Now, they're going to snap them up and put them on eBay as "RARE Hot CONTROVERSIAL Action Figures Banned!!!!"
Maybe hold out for the 12-inchers that are set to see release in March instead.
I don't preach sermons. Ministers shouldn't pontificate about collectible toys without knowing the basics.
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39 comments
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I never trust anyone on anything regarding current events when their viewpoint is stuck in their lower intestine.
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There is a huge group of older people who assume that all toys and video games are for children period. Nothing can seem to change their minds about this, no amount of reason or media coverage of grown people playing video games. You remember, the ones who called your action figures "dolls" (shudder, fists clench) when you were a kid.
They just don't get it.
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I'm waiting for the official Django Unchained: Mandingo Fighting Game to come out..................
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@arivalscientist I know one man who would approve of this game...
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'A kid would rather have superheroes that fire missiles over a Christoph Waltz doll with removable clothes.'
A kid would rather have superheroes that fire missiles over a Christoph Waltz doll with removable clothes than what?
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You almost had me world. Almost had me. But luckly I ran into these wise philosophers.
http://www.dumpaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/cat-chasing-the-laser-funny-pictures.jpg
Someone please come get me when we move on. I'll be at the Honey Boo Boo post where rational thougt is.
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Al Sharpton?
There's your cue to stop reading and ignore the story. He has the same amount of credibility on any issue as Jack Thompson, but he's not as fun to to listen to as Jack was.
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That Samuel L Jackson figure with keep the rest of my action figures in
line. One look at that face and you know a bitch slap is coming.
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I read about this last and out of curiosity immediately did a price check on ebay and amazon, and while ebay prices are in the normal range, some jackass on Amazon boosted his Django up to 250 bucks.
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To be fair, I think this has a lot more to do with the crazy person doing the talking than his position as a minister.
There are plenty of reasonable, intelligent ministers out there who don't blow their top without having all the facts.
I think enough people mentioned the craziness of Rev. Tulloss prior to this comment, but I figured it was worth putting out there because of the generalization.
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@rabidronnie Titles are always tossed around like this. Heck one of my friends is a documented Reverend of a Christian Church and he's Jewish. Thank you internet.
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@Someguy @rabidronnie Alright! I'm gonna become a Doctor Detective Professor!!
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@Someguy @rabidronnie *sigh* just makes all the money I'm spending on grad school seem so pointless. . . .
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"When was the last time action figures got people so worked up they tried to ban them?"
That would be a little over two years ago, with the Dexter action figure:
http://www.aolnews.com/2010/09/06/serial-killer-action-figure-at-toys-r-us-stirs-debate/
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@skycaptain (And on that note, you gotta love how a toy of a vigilante serial killer marketed towards adults is bad, but toys of mass murdering villains lilke TDK's Joker that are marketed at kids are perfectly acceptable.)
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@GeneralTekno @skycaptain Well, unless the toy based on the Joker is something like this, in which case it is only acceptable for Eldritch abominations.
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@GeneralTekno i think the Penguin thing for Batman Returns was more laziness than anything. The line was mostly repaints save the Robin, Catwoman and Penguin Commando figures.
@Kozmik_Pariah @TheConjurerOfCheapTricks @GeneralTekno I have one of the Jokers in the purple jacket...the likeness is below average on mine though- I don't know if it has anything to do with the paint apps.
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@TheConjurerOfCheapTricks @GeneralTekno Too bad the MM Joker in purple coat didn't look as good. I snagged one for about 4 bucks at a Kmart shortly after they came out, but was very disappoint.
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@TheConjurerOfCheapTricks @skycaptain @SlyDante777 I couldn't find one that didn't have spotty paint apps on the mouth - the red tended to spill over where it should.
(That said, I keep forgetting that I have a Movie Masters Joker MOSC in storage, still.)
All the same, making Joker vastly different for the kid-targeted line has precedent - they did the same thing with Penguin in the Batman Returns toyline back in the day. The movie toy looks like the Silver Age Penguin rather than the freakishly creepy child-eating design Danny DeVito sported.
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@skycaptain @SlyDante777 @GeneralTekno The Joker action figure from Mattel's Movie Masters line is pretty good.: http://www.thefwoosh.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/moviemasters.jpg
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@SlyDante777 @GeneralTekno Why cite weird variations; the official Joker action figure for the movie was astonishingly bad. They didn't even get the *colors* right on that peg-warmer.
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All they're trying to do is get media attention, methinks.
Seriously, this is like those people who think that all cartoons/animation are for kids and then get offended when one that isn't for kids does something that offends their sensibilities.
Any kid who wants these figures... well, unless Mego's made a resurgence among kids, I don't know if any would. From my own 1990s childhood I was all about action figures and posability. I loved removable costume accessories, but I would not like one of those Mego figures.
(And considering it's only 70s styled Superfriends Megos and stuff NECA does that's on TRU shelves. neither of which are marketed at kids, I'd wager my guess is correct.)
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Yes, there's people unaware that adults collect toys, and thus, there's some "toys" marketed only to grown-ups.
And likewise, geeks forget that there's people out there who still think the idea of adults collecting toys is strange, and are even more confused that there's toys aimed only at them.
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I make it a habit to do the exact opposite of anything Sharpton wants. He is a scheming asshat that does more harm than good. The only thing he is looking for is publicity.
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@vangald Well, he IS the Emperor of Black People.
It's what he told Randy Marsh in that South Park episode, after all.
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"The movie is for adults, but these are action figures that appeal to children."
Dude, it says "Ages 17 & Up" right there on the damn box, clean as day.
Then again, if problems like these were actually solved by paying attention to content ratings or anything, at least 65% of all video game controversies would be over in a second. So for now, I'll just tell the reverend to get some damn glasses & let us grown ups properly enjoy our collectibles with kung-fu grip action.*
*If NECA has not made a figure yet with kung-fu grip action, I will be severely disappointed.
Some people, including parents are stupid. Last year, a Hasbro rep said the company got complaints/nasty letters from parents saying that Hasbro makes bad action figures because their kids losing hands, heads and other parts, or really ripping parts off and losing and doing their best to break them like kids have been doing for decades. Why is this a concern? Because parents buy their brats toys that they aren't old enough for yet, because the parents too are lazy/stupid to look at age recommendations.
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@SlyDante777 I'd argue the same with parents who blame fast food chains for making their children fat instead of blaming themselves for taking their children there, and not encouraging them to engage in physical activity.
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@TheConjurerOfCheapTricks @Lithroe I'm now offended and hurt that I've offended you with my being offended.
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@Lithroe @TheConjurerOfCheapTricks I'm offended that your offense hurt those offend...ed...which...offen...
SMOKE BOMB!
