Strollerderby : toy

An Amy Winehouse Lego? Really?

SunnyChanel — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:02:00 GMT

Now here’s something I wouldn’t want my offspring to play with. The Amy Winehouse Lego. Yeah, that’s a role model I wouldn’t want within twenty feet from my child, even in Lego form. But fortunately, I don’t have to live in fear that this possessed plastic figure will get any where near my baby. This was a one of a kind Lego made to celebrate 30 years of Lego magic. Along with Winehouse they also created custom tributes to Madonna, Victoria and David Beckham, Simon Cowell and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie holding babies of course, ‘cos that’s what they do. To check out the other figures in the series go here.

Best of FameCrawler: 9-19-08

Whit Honea — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Pam Anderson Marries Fat Old Guy (Photos)

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Megan Fox in a Bikini!

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S&M Barbie

Brett Singer — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Let me take you through my reactions to this story.

Hello, what's this? S&M Barbie? The toy? The overdeveloped, underfed doll? The one dating a man with no genitals? That seems… odd. Let's take a look.

Yowza! Barbie in fishnets! F'real! All right. We had the high heels for babies. But those were supposed to be a joke (not a funny one, but still). This is just bizarre. I hate agreeing with the Christian Right, but when they say, "Barbie has always been on the tarty side and this is taking it too far," I'm tempted to agree.

I have to admit, though, that she sort of looks like Black Canary from DC Comics…

Wait a minute! That IS Black Canary! So it's Barbie, dressed up like Black Canary. That… still seems odd. Why would they choose her? For a non-JLA fan (that's Justice League of America, in case you are yourself one of those non-fans), she's a bit of an obscure character. Why not someone better known, like Wonder Woman? Black Canary is a blonde, I guess. Well, actually she's a brunette but she wears a wig instead of a mask… I'm sorry, did you fall asleep? OK, I'll stop geeking out.

So it's Black Canary, which makes it an action figure. But there already is a Black Canary action figure. Actually, there are several, but here's one for comparison purposes:
Source: flickr

For what it's worth (excuse me while I geek out again) Black Canary is, despite her appearance, a fairly positive female role model. She's considered one of the best hand-to-hand fighters, male or female, in the DCU (that's "DC comics Universe") and is currently the leader of the Justice League. She takes no crap, kicks major ass, and asks questions later. Barbie once said, "Math class is tough!" (source) So you could make an argument that Black Canary is a better role model than Barbie, and therefore the doll is empowering.

I don't really see the point of doing this, especially since Barbie's target audience is young girls. So while I think the Vast Christian Right Wing Conspiracy is a bit over the top, I do think it's kind of an odd choice for a Barbie doll. What's next, Big Gay Ken? Oh wait, they did that already.

Source: flickr

A commenter on Boing Boing says that this is a collectible meant for an "older" audience and that young girls don't play with such things. Another commenter says "uh-uh, they totally do." (Not a direct quote.)

So there you go.

It's weird, but is it really offensive? Would you buy one of these for your daughter? Is this sexist, empowering, just a bad choice for a doll?

image: boingboing.net

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The Doll Island of Dr. Moreau

Brett Singer — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:00:00 GMT

I know that this is an innocent service to those with dolls that are ~~injured~~ broken. But this photo is just plain creepy. It brings up too many memories of Chuckie movies. To paraphrase the great Bart Simpson -- can't sleep... doll will eat me...

I mean, look at this picture. The loose appendages, with wires sticking out... the shadow eerily cast by the completed doll, whose hair seems bizarrely long... thank goodness I have boys. They just like to play with guns and swords. Nothing as creepy as DOLLS.

Diane (as in Dolls By Diane) -- nothing personal. I'm sure you do excellent work. Please don't send your evil army of plastic nasties to kill me in ways too horrible to imagine.

image: dollsbydiane.com

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American International Toy Fair 2007: More Crap Your Kids Want That You Can't Afford

JasonAvant — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:35:00 GMT

Remember when you were a kid, and your dad would say things like, "Eh, back in my day, all we had to play with was a dried chicken bone and a ball of navel lint and we were happy!" and you'd say, "Yeah, pop, sounds great" and go right back to your prized possession, the new electronic game you had to have because it was the culmination of thousands of years of toy development? Well, as much as we'd like to think that ours is a unique generation, the toymakers still have kids' numbers, and they continue to push high tech - and high price - products out into the market.

The American International Toy Fair kicks off this Sunday in New York City. The fair's motto, "Inspiring Growth", surely refers to the profit margins of the companies that will be in attendance. Manufacturers will be rolling out the latest in cutting edge toys, with advances in electronics making it possible for 50 percent of toys sold in stores to have "some sort of microchip in them" (you know, people laugh at me when I take them to my fortified bunker, hidden somewhere in the Sierra Nevada range, but when TMX Elmo and his legions of robot toys become self-aware and rise up to slay their human masters and dominate the world, well...).

But these toys aren't cheap. Squawkers McCaw doesn't say "Polly wanna cracker" for nothin'; if you want him to annoy the shit out of you, you'll need to shell out $70.

Hot tickets toys that run into the $100+ dollar range are common; even so, the article points out that although the toy industry rakes in over $22 billion a year, growth over the past few years has been relatively slow. And the average price of a toy is still relatively low - $7.52 in 2006. Experts have several theories as to why this is, but parents know why: TBICI. TBICI has, and will remain, the toy that little kids show the most interest in, and when TBICI is around, the expensive toys just sit there and collect dust, and discourage parents from ever dropping a couple hundred bucks on a plastic talking parrot again. Toy manufacturers still don't get it.

(New parents might be asking: "What's TBICI? And where do I get one?" Veteran parents, say it with me now: "The Box It Came In".)