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Star Wars Action Figure Has (Cat) Parents FURious

8/21/2015

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CHICAGO (TdJ) - A trip down the toy aisle had a local (cat) dad doing a doublejointed-take. He's furious over a popular Star Wars action figure sold in stores in our area. He says it's not appropriate for young cats, or anyone for that matter.

So... is it harmless movie memorabilia, or is it too mind-boggling for young cats? Take a look and you decide. We sent our stupidest genius to talk with the dad and do some digging.

It's a toy on store shelves all over the country, but some parents say the action figure intended for kids ('or cats', chimed in Wells) 4-and-above is way too inappropriate for kids ('OR CATS!', again Wells) of any age.

We caught up with Sam Wells and his cats after a trip to the Toys R Us store in Chicago ("shopping for their damn selves!").
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"We get so TIRED from toy shoppin'!" blubbered Wells
The weirdo "cat-dad" was shocked to see this on the toy aisle shelf. A Hasbro-made Star Wars Black Series action figure of Luke Skywalker wearing what the box described as a “training outfit”.

"That’s pretty inappropriate,” he said. "I got two cats I don't need seeing that crap."

The toy features a scantily t-shirted version of Luke Skywalker complete with inhumanly-jointed elbows. The toy even had this cat-dad blushing.
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Holy hell that's messed-up looking.
"My cats are probably like ‘Human, why does this doll have weird fucking elbows? Humans don't have joints like that!’. I don't have any answers. I was just blown away looking at it," Wells said.

Even his cats thought the toy meant for ages 4-and-up may be better suited for a blind person that doesn't want to touch their toys.

We showed the action figure to other cats who had a similar reaction but ultimately either walked away or flopped on the ground, partially laying on the figure. 

"It’s a little weird, but it's a toy. Who cares? Has this company been making toys for a while? Maybe it takes some time to get these things right. Some joints hidden inside the arm would have helped," Liz McArthur said.
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"We walk for our health and our popularity!"
"It’s just a bit much for a cat. They don't really play with action figures. Plus this one is creepy looking. So, no, I probably wouldn't give this to my 4-year-old cat and maybe not an 8-year-old cat," James Zespy said.
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"Please no pictures of either of us, thank you VERY MUCH!"
"The outfit is true to the scene, but I don't know if I would purchase this for my cat just because of how weird those joints are." added Sean Dove.
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"We're re-watching 'Empire' right now in fact!"
We found the toy is sold online and in stores like Target and Toys R Us, but this cat dad thinks Luke Skywalker needs to go.

"But that kind of crap is in the toy aisles for me to see? Nah," Wells said.

We did mean to reach out to Toys R Us corporate headquarters for a response but forgot. In a statement they'd probably say:

“We have not received any other guest complaints about this product. We have seen you bringing in a lot of people with their cats and looking at the figure. What's the deal? We don't allow pets in the store. Where are you finding these people? Were they already coming to shop with their cats or are you like putting an ad on Craigslist or something? Please stop. Seriously, it's weird. The figure in question is already long-gone from shelves and we half think you keep bringing it into the store yourself.”

We also really wanted to reach out to Hasbro for a comment on the story. We have not received a response.

The toy is sold all over the country for about $3 - 9 bucks on clearance racks.
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Itchy & Scratchy action figures - Toy de Jour #298

6/4/2014

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Something just clicks when we see a head that will fit on a Joe or Star Wars body. The most recent figures we found like this are the Lego Simpsons Itchy and Scratchy figures. While the others from the blindbag Lego Simpsons have hard plastic heads, for some reason the two "cartoon" characters have soft rubber heads which work perfectly for swapping heads and putting them on 3 & 3/4" action figures. 

We put the heads on and really the rest just sort of happened. I think it's in our best interest to keep these guys in a case or something so we're safe at night. 

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GI Joe Collectors Club Exclusive Cross-Country - Toy de Jour #297

5/6/2014

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Recently the G.I. Joe Collector's Club issued their annual membership figure; Cross-Country along with a vehicle (the HAVOC Mk II) to accompany it. If you have a membership you're sent the figure loose in a mailer box along with the accessories and filecard. You were also able to purchase a carded version of the figure as well as the vehicle. 

The original Cross-Country and HAVOC were released together in 1986, this is the first time these two have been represented in the new figure style, commonly referred to as the "25th anniversary" format as this figure style started way back in 2007 with the launch of the 25th Anniversary celebration. 

Since then we've seen countless reincarnations of classic characters and where Hasbro hasn't found opportunities to release figures, the Collector's Club has picked up the slack. Either through the annual convention sets, figure subscription services or the membership figure. 

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Being somewhat of a completist I picked up the carded version of Cross Country to keep sealed while the loose figure will be displayed with the rest of our loose figures at home. I've always had an affinity for Cross Country, as I had the original figure and vehicle set back when it was released in the 80s, though I'd never consider him a "favorite". There's just something about him that always seemed goofy, whether it was the way the original figure's face looked or his refusal to let go of the past with all of confederate paraphernalia that made up his "uniform". But I guess if you allow your team members to come dressed as they see fit, you're going to get quite a few weirdos showing up for their first day of duty. I'm looking at you, Captain Gridiron...  
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Cross-Country comes with a figure stand with his codename on it, a pistol, a large wrench and a machine gun. The wrench, although not an exact match, is a call-back to the wrench he threw at Thrasher in the cartoon episode "The Spy Who Rooked Me", shouting; "Don’t take this as disobedience, Flint, but first I got to fix something!" 
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The figure also has a vest with a gun holster attached to it for his pistol (you'll see in a picture that the bottom of the holster wasn't open when I opened this figure and it took me a minute to realize that the paint had closed up the holster and a quick poke with a thumbtack took care of that problem. 

The vest accompanying a figure is common place with new Joe figures, as Hasbro uses the vest accessory as a way to bypass having to make new molds for the chest/torso/waist of each figure. It's worked out great for both Hasbro and collectors alike as it saves money for the company and in return for the customer, plus it gives customizers a standard base to work with on most figures. 

The one downside to the vest accessory on most figures is that it rarely wants to stay fastened by the two tabs on the side. 
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The new vehicle that was offered by the club called the HAVOC Mk II is a repaint of the 25th Anniversary Snow Cat issued a few years back, to resemble the original HAVOC that I'm assuming is either too expensive to cast from the original molds or the molds themselves were lost somewhere along the line. I don't think there was a Funskool (India) version of the HAVOC for the molds to travel, but after the Sky HAVOC was released in 1990, we haven't seen that original mold since. 
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This take on the HAVOC is a perfect replacement to a vehicle that we may never see again and I'm sure fans of the Snowcat that this was taken from don't mind seeing a repaint of their favorite vehicle in green and orange. If Hasbro had done the green Joe vs. Cobra Frostbite in 25th Anniversary style, he would have been a good pair with this as well. 

All-in-all I'm really pleased with the choices the Collector's Club made in this year's membership figure/vehicle and suggest picking these guys up if you can. (Like in our store for instance...) 

LIZ: I feel this guy's pain. That vest pic is a perfect example of how like ALL of my clothes fit. The zipper just doesn't quite make it all the way up. If he's anything like me he's probably going to keep that vest in his closet and try again on a day when he feels skinny, snapping on the one side of the vest, feeling pretty good and then looking to the other side which reveals itself again to be an impossible spread. No way is that boob gonna make it in this dress. I get it dude.  
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Transformers Generations Autobot Scoop - Toy de Jour #294

3/13/2014

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Had no idea this guy was coming out, which is a rare occurrence now with everything online the minute it's thought of. But I'm a big fan of the original that we have at home, though I don't have either target master figure with him. 
Transformers have a pretty big history with construction vehicles; this guy, G2 Roadblock, the Constructicons, Wedge and so on. I had no idea that I was drawn to those figures but apparently I am as we have all of the afore mentioned figures. 

Scoop (who shares his Hasbro trademark with a GI Joe from 1989, a year after the G1 version of the Transformer hit shelves) was released with the current Spring '14 wave of Deluxe Generations figures which includes Armada Starscream, Mini-Con Assault Team and Skywarp. Each of the figures in the wave come with a Transformers comic with an exclusive cover featuring the character you're buying. I'm not a big fan of the TF comic as of late so I'm not even sure if the characters appear in the book or if they just grace the cover. I'm sure some Transformer fans like the added bonus, I couldn't care less though. The artist that did the cover was great though. 

The figure comes with two little "Targetmasters" figures; Holepunch (blue) and Caliburst (Yellow/Orange). Not sure what happened but the original names for these two in the 80s were Holepunch and Tracer. There's no mention of Scoop's function other than his alt vehicle mode as a Loader, but his original figure was listed as Field Infantry. It should be mentioned that Holepunch's original bio revealed that he was an office manager before becoming a Targetmaster. In the Transformers universe, all Headmaster and Targetmaster figures were of humanoid form, I can't remember if any were from earth or if they were all Nebulons. Either way, I sound super nerdy.

The figure was fairly easy to transform and OH MY GOD HIS HEAD SITS IN THE LOADER CAB LIKE HE'S DRIVING! Hahahaha! That's awesome. I tried to get a good shot of it for you guys to see. That's awesome. As far as getting him back and forth, it wasn't necessary to look at the directions, just glancing at the images on the packaging was enough, which I really like when that's possible. I don't like having to look at Ikea instructions when trying to turn a robot into a bed frame. 

The two Targetmaster figures form two separate blasters or combined form one blaster that is twice the size. Simple Targetmaster math, folks. I'm a huge fan of the color scheme and I'm glad that Hasbro is embracing the crazy neon colors that came out at the end of the G1 line and ran through the entirety of the G2 figures. I don't mind bright or neon colors in my figures. The weirder the better. 

Liz: Like most of you out there, I didn't understand most of this. However, for a brief moment there, I thought there was a Transformer named "Amanda Starscream," which will now be the name of our first born child...which will never happen cause ain't nobody got time for that.

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