Mezco: Breaking Bad

[Shropt]

 

[Rambler]

I really hate the pussification and political correctness this country has sunk to. If this parent doesn't like it, then be a parent and don't let your kids buy that figure. People like this mom piss me off.

 

[YankeesFanboy]

Saw this story in my local paper. 'Breaking Bad' toy line angering some parents - Business - NorthJersey.com

It's all about the meth angle apparently. This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[DiFabio]

Man, that woman disgusts me.

These figures have been out for a long time now, and she decides to make a stink about them NOW? Shame on the people that signed that petition, especially with comments like "I question whether I'll be shopping at Toys R Us anymore". This hurts Toys R Us, Mezco and others involved.

 

[DiFabio]

https://www.change.org/p/toys-r-us-...-other-adult-collector-figures-on-tru-shelves

 

[Vulture Lives]

I work at Toys R Us. My store has pulled the figures from the sales floor, but I was told today that the figures are still able to be sold. They haven't been added to the stop sale list, which means that, if a customer attempts to purchase one, the transaction will go through at the register. To me, this suggests that Toys R Us is still trying to decide which way to go when it comes to this issue.

 

[Zodach]

Almost nobody cared to buy these figures until this news broke. Everyone is now buying them for eBay though, not because they actually want them. These are bad figures.

 

[DiFabio]

The figures aren't very good, but still, it's the principle of the thing.

Walter and Jesse (and all their variations) are harmless. I don't understand how or why she made so many headlines.

 

[Sachiel]

Bryan Cranston's Twitter

"Florida mom petitions against Toys 'R Us over Breaking Bad action figures." I'm so mad, I'm burning my Florida Mom action figure in protest

They pulled the figures.

In a statement that borrowed a line from the show, Toys 'R Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh told NBC News on Tuesday: "Let's just say, the action figures have taken an 'indefinite sabbatical.’”

The figures aren't very good, but still, it's the principle of the thing.

Indeed. She could easily have gone after The Walking Dead or Predators.

I guess Violence is OK. Drugs are bad, m'kay?

 

[shells075]

That's just a 2 up of their 6" figure - not a real 1:6 mixed media figure. Bad Mezco for getting our hopes up!

Go sign the petition to KEEP Breaking Bad and other adult collectibles in toy stores:

Petition

I signed the petition.
Crazy mom with nothing better to do.

 

[Rambler]

The figures aren't very good, but still, it's the principle of the thing.

Walter and Jesse (and all their variations) are harmless. I don't understand how or why she made so many headlines.

Bingo. I had no intention of buying any of those. But this one parent throws a hissy fit and causes what TRU believes to be a bad PR move. Screw her. They should keep them on the shelves.

 

[Desamo]

What a strange times we are living.

 

[adegregorio]

Signed!

 

[Michael Crawford]

With all the hubbub over the Breaking Bad figures, I thought it would be a good time to review the new Jesse tomorrow night. However, I'm going to be talking about the controversy at the start of the review, something I don't do a lot. I thought I'd give you a chance to read the intro first. Be warned - it's long:

Breaking Bad action figures have been all the rage this last week, thanks to one concerned parent in Florida. After a friend told her that Toys R Us was selling action figures based on Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from the hit AMC television show, she did what any true believer in the religion of children does - she rushed to the Internet to start a petition to smite the evil. As Helen Lovejoy would say "Will someone please think of the children?"

Now, I rarely get on my soap box when doing reviews. I'm a very opinionated person, but so rarely do those opinions and the cult of toy collecting cross. Let's face it - there's not really all that much that's controversial about collectibles, at least not to a sane person. About the most controversial I get is reminding people of the obvious, like how much the Star Wars prequels suck.

But I'm going to wheel out my trusty soapbox for this one. If you'd like to skip my blathering - and I certainly wouldn't question your judgment in doing that - just scroll down til you get to the Packaging section. I promise everything below that is the standard toy stuff.

This story has been hitting every news outlet this week, both in the states and abroad. I'd like to start out by offering a few helpful hints to the reporters wasting their ti...uh, covering this event.

First, spend a little time understanding the background and the show. I saw one article say this was an HBO show. I haven't seen any mention that these figures have been on the pegs for almost 18 months. Don't call this a 'doll'. It's an action figure, without a lot of action. I prefer Nerd Hummel, but I know I'm a lot more hip than those reporting this story, so stick with action figure.

And I haven't seen any article where they talked with either Mezco or AMC on their thoughts. All the reporting seems to be whatever they can pull together in under 3 minutes. Even the photos they are using with the articles are silly - most just went with whatever show stills they can pull off Google images, rather than anything to do with the toy. Some have had the good sense to use photos of the actual toys, and a few have had the good sense to use my photos. But hey, I might be biased.

I'm hoping we eventually see someone do more than a high level regurgitation of a four line story. There's some interesting angles here - why do parents seem to care about Walter, when Walking Dead zombies spilling their guts in their plastic bubbles and Sons of Anarchy murdering, gun running gang members are hanging on the pegs nearby? Is it merely his involvement with drugs, or is there something deeper going on here? And why does it always seem like Toys R Us is the retailer attacked? In this case, Barnes and Noble has these very same figures right out in the center of the store, where kids wander by regularly. Or at least kids that don't have Kindles.

This all makes no sense to me. If you were to complain about the aforementioned zombies, I'd get it. I wouldn't agree, but I'd get it. But this is a bald, middle aged dude in a Members Only jacket. Okay, this second series has him in the much sexier Hazmat suit, but I'm still not seeing how this is somehow appealing to kids. I just can't picture an 8 year old standing in an aisle at TRU, holding a Marvel Legends Captain America in one hand and a Mezco Walter White in the other, perplexed as to which he should beg his parents for. It makes no sense, unless you're smoking some of those little blue crystals yourself.

It's all about context - without it Walter is just another boring chemistry teacher. Your 8 year old doesn't know who he is, because as a good parent, you haven't let him or her watch the show. There's nothing enticing about the figure without the context.

I have heard some parents complain that having the toy there forces them to explain it to their children. Here's a crazy thought - why not actually take that opportunity and have a much needed heart-to-heart with your child about drugs and the damage they can do. Walter is a perfect example.

In the end, I feel sorry for a lot of the people involved. Not tragedy-sorry, but sorry nonetheless. I feel sorry for Toys R Us, who are trying to meet the demand from two markets - parents and collectors - and getting caught in the middle with no way to 'win'. I feel sorry for collectors who have only a handful of choices for buying action figures geared towards them in person, and instead are forced to take the inherent risks in buying everything online, sight unseen. I feel sorry for parents who do things like this and go to sleep at night thinking they've provided some valuable service, when all they've done is waste time and effort that could be much better spent. But I don't feel sorry for the children, because they never paid any attention to these figures when they were on the shelf, and aren't going to notice that they're gone. They were the one group this whole kerfuffle is supposed to be about, and they are the ones on which it has zero effect.

 

[SwedishHeat]

Here's an interesting article I found.

I mean, obviously no one here is going to agree with his viewpoint, I don't either. But it's funny to me how this guy takes his viewpoint so seriously. Though, he does approach a good point, one that I've often considered, about what the subject (were it a real person) would think about the idea of himself/itself as an action figure, i.e. Fight Club action figures. Why would you own an action figure of a character who extolled the virtue of not having any possessions. But as I said, he takes his approach far too seriously, and demeans an entire group of folks, which I think is pretty poor form

From the comments, it turns out, earlier he wrote an article about the joy of playing with Legos, but that it's completely different, yet never explains why. I'd wager because Legos encourage creativity, while action figures just stand there.

 

[Buttmunch]

With all the hubbub over the Breaking Bad figures, I thought it would be a good time to review the new Jesse tomorrow night. However, I'm going to be talking about the controversy at the start of the review, something I don't do a lot. I thought I'd give you a chance to read the intro first. Be warned - it's long:

Breaking Bad action figures have been all the rage this last week, thanks to one concerned parent in Florida. After a friend told her that Toys R Us was selling action figures based on Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from the hit AMC television show, she did what any true believer in the religion of children does - she rushed to the Internet to start a petition to smite the evil. As Helen Lovejoy would say "Will someone please think of the children?"

Now, I rarely get on my soap box when doing reviews. I'm a very opinionated person, but so rarely do those opinions and the cult of toy collecting cross. Let's face it - there's not really all that much that's controversial about collectibles, at least not to a sane person. About the most controversial I get is reminding people of the obvious, like how much the Star Wars prequels suck.

But I'm going to wheel out my trusty soapbox for this one. If you'd like to skip my blathering - and I certainly wouldn't question your judgment in doing that - just scroll down til you get to the Packaging section. I promise everything below that is the standard toy stuff.

This story has been hitting every news outlet this week, both in the states and abroad. I'd like to start out by offering a few helpful hints to the reporters wasting their ti...uh, covering this event.

First, spend a little time understanding the background and the show. I saw one article say this was an HBO show. I haven't seen any mention that these figures have been on the pegs for almost 18 months. Don't call this a 'doll'. It's an action figure, without a lot of action. I prefer Nerd Hummel, but I know I'm a lot more hip than those reporting this story, so stick with action figure.

And I haven't seen any article where they talked with either Mezco or AMC on their thoughts. All the reporting seems to be whatever they can pull together in under 3 minutes. Even the photos they are using with the articles are silly - most just went with whatever show stills they can pull off Google images, rather than anything to do with the toy. Some have had the good sense to use photos of the actual toys, and a few have had the good sense to use my photos. But hey, I might be biased.

I'm hoping we eventually see someone do more than a high level regurgitation of a four line story. There's some interesting angles here - why do parents seem to care about Walter, when Walking Dead zombies spilling their guts in their plastic bubbles and Sons of Anarchy murdering, gun running gang members are hanging on the pegs nearby? Is it merely his involvement with drugs, or is there something deeper going on here? And why does it always seem like Toys R Us is the retailer attacked? In this case, Barnes and Noble has these very same figures right out in the center of the store, where kids wander by regularly. Or at least kids that don't have Kindles.

This all makes no sense to me. If you were to complain about the aforementioned zombies, I'd get it. I wouldn't agree, but I'd get it. But this is a bald, middle aged dude in a Members Only jacket. Okay, this second series has him in the much sexier Hazmat suit, but I'm still not seeing how this is somehow appealing to kids. I just can't picture an 8 year old standing in an aisle at TRU, holding a Marvel Legends Captain America in one hand and a Mezco Walter White in the other, perplexed as to which he should beg his parents for. It makes no sense, unless you're smoking some of those little blue crystals yourself.

It's all about context - without it Walter is just another boring chemistry teacher. Your 8 year old doesn't know who he is, because as a good parent, you haven't let him or her watch the show. There's nothing enticing about the figure without the context.

I have heard some parents complain that having the toy there forces them to explain it to their children. Here's a crazy thought - why not actually take that opportunity and have a much needed heart-to-heart with your child about drugs and the damage they can do. Walter is a perfect example.

In the end, I feel sorry for a lot of the people involved. Not tragedy-sorry, but sorry nonetheless. I feel sorry for Toys R Us, who are trying to meet the demand from two markets - parents and collectors - and getting caught in the middle with no way to 'win'. I feel sorry for collectors who have only a handful of choices for buying action figures geared towards them in person, and instead are forced to take the inherent risks in buying everything online, sight unseen. I feel sorry for parents who do things like this and go to sleep at night thinking they've provided some valuable service, when all they've done is waste time and effort that could be much better spent. But I don't feel sorry for the children, because they never paid any attention to these figures when they were on the shelf, and aren't going to notice that they're gone. They were the one group this whole kerfuffle is supposed to be about, and they are the ones on which it has zero effect.

Well said. Its such lazy journalism that let this thing blow up. There are far worse toys out there at TRU than Breaking Bad. I mean NECA did a Fred Krueger figure. Not Freddy Krueger. Pre-burned, pedophile Jackie Earl Haley Fred Krueger. And nobody threw a fit over that! I mean maybe in a few years Walter White will be a pop culture icon and nobody will care about the drug connection then like Freddy's origins.

And frankly, I didn't see these Breaking Bad figures moving at all. I think the Nerd Hummel nature of them and the countless, lazy rainbow variants have put off a lot of people from the line. So I don't see ANY kid wanting these in the first place. And if they did its because they watched the show, and that just comes back to the parents in the first place. And did this stupid Mom forget that if a kid wants a toy, 99% of the time an adult/parent is going to be buying it for them? If they've got their own money and transportation to the toy store, they're probably old enough to make the adult decision of buying a toy like this in the first place.

Its just sad this thing blew up the way it did. I mean its not like Toys R Us suddenly started selling sex toys or something. Its just another action figure line based on a TV/movie series like so many other toys down the boy toy aisles. And lets not even bring up the type of M rated games they continue to sell without complaint

 

[comiclover47]

I also work at a TRU. I was unfortunate enough to work in the one where a dad threw a huge hissy fit when he found out that we had Dexter figures couple of years ago. so I have seen first hand what a crazy parent can do.

with the Breaking Bad stuff.I think if the retail game was stronger rather then in its weak state TRU might have just ignored the lady but hell she was on the Today show and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I fear she is going to go after other stuff pretty soon now that she knows how much power she wields

 

[Buttmunch]

She only has as much power as we allow her to have. She shouldn't have ANY power IMO. I could throw a fit about any number of products being sold, but because I'm a white male, nobody would care.

There are plenty of products I have no intention of ever buying at a store, but I don't throw a fit over the store carrying them! Its such a sad state we've let our world succumb to. There are far more pressing issues the media should be focusing on than immovable figures targeted to adults, based on a show targeted to adults. I honestly just don't get what people's problems are with these. If you don't like it, don't buy it. If you don't like that a store is carrying them, don't go there. Nobody is trying to subject children to these figures, and frankly I doubt any of them even notice them walking down the isles. They certainly aren't super heroes, transformers, or Star Wars. Heck, I barely even notice them

The pink teddy bear they may have a reasonable stance on, but nothing about the bear would make a child turn to drugs since there really is no context of the show just in the pink teddy bear.

I really want to know what things this woman is into and get a petition going to have them banned

 

[ditch]

I said this would happen as soon as the whole NECA Django figure situation exploded it was inevitable. I have just seen all my stock swallowed up by greedy speculators and i am glad to be rid of it. Mezco made a mini statue and then constantly repainted it making a mockery of collectors who had invested so much hope in this line. We still have the 12" reuse to come too.

How long until they start an attack on the Walking Dead toys. I expect this is one of the reasons that the upcoming Sons Of Anarchy figures lost their guns,the original designs had them holding guns which makes a lot of sense as they are gun runners. I assume Toys R Us were going to be carrying these too.

Giving these people to much power is what happened over here in the 80s with Mary Whitehouse she was a moral crusader and caused the whole Video Nasties era where censorship went into overdrive and we are only just recovering from it. There are some amazing documentaries about what Mary Whitehouse and her religious nuts got banned.

 

[crows]

She only has as much power as we allow her to have. She shouldn't have ANY power IMO. I could throw a fit about any number of products being sold, but because I'm a white male, nobody would care.

she has the power of 8000 people, thats the problem.
you go on facebook or to any of the news sites covering this, and there will be hundreds and hundreds of comments from parents agreeing with her, Some of them didn't even know what Breaking Bad was about but they were still agreeing, some of them don't even shop at Toys R Us, yet they were talking about signing the petition.

So yeah, she might be crazy, she might be egotistical, But a lot of people were following her and supporting her. That has to tell you something.
If no one cared about her and no one signed the petition, she would have disappeared. and I am not even talking about the news coverage, People are on the news all the time and most of the time they never go anywhere.

What bothered me the most was how huge the support was. How many people were behind her. That was the troubling part for me.
I won't be surprised when they go after McFarlane and NECA for the walkers and predators next.

There are plenty of products I have no intention of ever buying at a store, but I don't throw a fit over the store carrying them! Its such a sad state we've let our world succumb to. There are far more pressing issues the media should be focusing on than immovable figures targeted to adults, based on a show targeted to adults. I honestly just don't get what people's problems are with these. If you don't like it, don't buy it. If you don't like that a store is carrying them, don't go there.

And maybe you should. Maybe we all should throw a Fit over really stupid crap that we see in stores. Bratz Dolls are horrible, they are more harmful to kids than a breaking bad doll could ever be,
how come no one protests that? Kim Kardashian has a game online about becoming a celebrity attention seeking parasite, should All of us boycott that game?

That's the other thing that really pisses me off. There are SO many things that are really bad for kids, so many things that are actually bad influences, how come no one ever complains about that?
maybe we should all start complaining all the time.