Banning Toys!?!? Toys R Us vs Breaking Bad
Recently a woman in Florida (of all places) complained because Toys R Us was selling a Breaking Bad action figure in their store. I could go on for hours about this but I'm going to make it short. Toys R Us has been selling adult themed figures for years now and no one has said anything. Most likely the parents weren't aware of it because they were too busy with their children in the isle of the toys they are interested in. I've been to TRU many times and every time I've been there I never see children even pay attention to the collectables section of the store, most likely because their favorite character isn't there. I keep seeing people posting that the Breaking Bad toys need to be pulled because of various reasons. One reason is they think carrying the toy "glorifies drug dealers and makes them seem like heroes". Just because there is an action figure of something doesn't make it a "hero". There are companies that make custom action figures, you could have yourself made into one, does that mean you are a hero? No. Some companies make action figures and bobble heads of serial killers, they exist but parents aren't complaining about this. I have seen a few people complain that if a child sees this figure it's going to inspire them to do drugs. I ate a hot dog today but that doesn't mean I want to go out and suck dicks. Here's the one that I am still trying to figure out. The Breaking Bad figure comes with a bag of meth. I Googled the toy and what I saw was it's a small bag of blue stuff. For someone that has never seen the show and doesn't know what it's about they wouldn't know that the bag is meth. So unless your children are watching Breaking Bad I highly doubt that they are going to see the blue bag and go "that's drugs". If that is the case you are a bad parent for letting your kids watch the show. Just like with the Devil's Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses action figures I used to have, but sadly sold.(which had for ages 18+ on the box! Just like the other adult collectable figures). The Tiny figure came with a tree stump. Now if you haven't seen House of 1000 Corpses this wouldn't mean anything to you, but for those people that have seen it would remember the scene with the knock knock jokes and would understand why the stump is in there.
Let me share a story with you, I once went to a chili cook off event, this is where all the fire departments make chili and have people eat it to see which department makes the best. Each booth is themed, there was a classic Hollywood themed one, Duck Dynasty, surfer and so on…one of the booths was Breaking Bad themed. The booth was in the shape of an RV and when you gave them your ticket they handed you a cup of chili and a small bag of blue rock candy. This was a family event and children were there. No parents had an issue with this. If they kid would ask what the blue stuff was the parents would tell them "it's rock candy" and that was it. There are party stores that sell 'rock candy' or 'candy crystals' which could be seen to some as resemblance of meth. Why aren't people offended by this?
Back to the subject of Toys RUs, I recently went to a location in Arizona and saw some other toys that these parents should be seen as "offensive" but they are not pulled off the shelves. Sons of Anarchy, Sin City, Walking Dead….just to name a few. These were on the shelves of the collectable section. They also had in their clearance section a talking Mr. Hanky from South Park, a cartoon rated M. I could see how this would be offensive to parents because it's an adult toy, a poop, and it was on the clearance shelf meaning it was next to Pokemon, Marvel characters and other stuff intended for kids.
Here's the kicker! A few of the comments on the Toys R Us Facebook page from parents where making it seem like the Breaking Bad figures were 'marketed towards kids', which they were not. But let me tell you what I did see on my last trip to TRU that WAS marketed towards kids which no one has complained about. In the section where they have toys for $5 and under there was a package of ping pong balls, yet the package read "aim them, bounce them, sink them" with a picture of the ball going into a red party cup. Included on the back of this package (which I didn't get a photo of) was a diagram of how to set up to play beer pong! Remember that toy that came out a few years ago, Cuponk! It's basically a toy for kids to practice your beer pong skills, that was my first thought when I saw it on the shelves. Parents don't have an issue with this?!
The other thing that I saw that was marketed to kids was Mega Blocks (which are larger Legos intended for younger children) that were Call of Duty and Assassins Creed, games intended for adults.
Here are some photos of what I saw….think about it.
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