Which is why I can't stop giggling -- I mean, obviously, the first thing I worry about when I look at that toy was the toddler-throat-sized parts, don't know what everyone is going all cross-eyed for! The law doesn't require warning for brainbreak potential, perhaps thankfully (else where'd we get our Vibrating Potter Broomsticks?).
I have this dreadfully amusing mental image of the R&D fellow presenting it proudly to the board of directors, who all go purple and begin coughing -- except for the Legal head, who exclaims, "Are you serious? There's no way we can market that, we'd be sued six heartbeats after it hit the shelves -- that octopus is exactly the diameter of a toddler's trachea!"
Cue various comical expressions round the table, and the Head of Advertising murmuring sotto voce to the person next to him, "I don't know about toddlers, but I know *I* nearly choked on my own tongue!"
"Are you serious? There's no way we can market that, we'd be sued six heartbeats after it hit the shelves -- that octopus is exactly the diameter of a toddler's trachea!"
*dies*
It's apparently a Japanese company, and the Japanese, have kind of a thing for squid porn. They also have a very young age for consent, so I guess wouldn't see anything wrong with the 'toy'.
((shrugs)) I don't think it was ever meant to be a toy marketed to children. Japan's action figures, like its cartoons, are often aimed at a definitely adult audience. The West seems to have a (rather strange) conviction that certain things must always be child-safe, regardless of the audience they're actually intended for. (Strange, and no little frustrating.) They don't have a problem with making sexually explicit action figures, because they're not going to be sold to children, any more than you'd put porn on the shelf next to Barney -- whereas Westerners tend to assume that the genre can't be sub-sorted; if it's animated/a plastic toy, clearly it's the same as every other plastic toy, and therefore aimed at the same audience and under the same restrictions.
the Japanese have kind of a thing for squid porn
I totally don't blame them. ((wicked smirk)) If someone made an action figure of, say, Sephiroth being molested by tentacles, I'd be first in line to hand over the asking price. :D (Okay, the octopus is a little weird. I just can't find seafood arousing. But a tentacle monster? Or even better, Sephiroth as a tentacle monster? Oh, yes! :D)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 05:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 07:26 am (UTC)Not for children under 3? That TOY should have an NC-17 warning on it!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 02:18 am (UTC)I have this dreadfully amusing mental image of the R&D fellow presenting it proudly to the board of directors, who all go purple and begin coughing -- except for the Legal head, who exclaims, "Are you serious? There's no way we can market that, we'd be sued six heartbeats after it hit the shelves -- that octopus is exactly the diameter of a toddler's trachea!"
Cue various comical expressions round the table, and the Head of Advertising murmuring sotto voce to the person next to him, "I don't know about toddlers, but I know *I* nearly choked on my own tongue!"
no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 12:05 pm (UTC)*dies*
It's apparently a Japanese company, and the Japanese, have kind of a thing for squid porn. They also have a very young age for consent, so I guess wouldn't see anything wrong with the 'toy'.
I WANT MY POTTER VIBRATING BROOMSTICK!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-06 07:42 am (UTC)the Japanese have kind of a thing for squid porn
I totally don't blame them. ((wicked smirk)) If someone made an action figure of, say, Sephiroth being molested by tentacles, I'd be first in line to hand over the asking price. :D (Okay, the octopus is a little weird. I just can't find seafood arousing. But a tentacle monster? Or even better, Sephiroth as a tentacle monster? Oh, yes! :D)
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 07:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 02:10 am (UTC)