Slave doll action figures?

Django Unchained Action Figures Hit the Market!

"Slave doll action figures?" asked R. McGee on Amazon

 

More controversy for the movie “Django Unchained” as the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, Inc. (NECA), in tandem with the Weinstein Company, announced a full line of pose-able eight-inch action figures with tailored clothing, weaponry, and accessories in the likeness of characters played by Foxx, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Remar and Christoph Waltz. Why, because in a calculated move the Weinstein, NECA and Tarantino realize that controversy sells, bottom line (pardon the pun).

 CHECKOUTDjango Unchained Trailer

Academy Award-winner Quentin Tarantino is laughing all the way to the bank this week. The controversial film auteur and his longtime studio chief-partner Harvey Weinstein took a gamble on transforming the atrocities of American slavery into comedic, action-packed entertainment. And the new movie, Django Unchained, which opened Christmas day, bested the glitzy Les Miserables at the box office with numbers indicating that the flick could do as well as, or maybe even better than Tarantino’s top-grossers Inglourious Basterds ($120 million) and Pulp Fiction ($107 million).

Last fall, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, Inc. (NECA), in tandem with the Weinstein Company, announced a full line of consumer products based on characters from the movie. First up are pose-able eight-inch action figures with tailored clothing, weaponry, and accessories in the likeness of characters played by Foxx, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Remar and Christoph Waltz. The dolls are currently on sale via Amazon.com.

A press release announcing the deal stated that the line was similar to the retro toy lines that helped define the licensed action-figure market in the 1970s and that the collection will include a full apparel and accessories line. At the time of the announcement, NECA president Joel Weinshanker said the company was “very excited to bring the stellar cast of Django to life and honored to be working with another Tarantino masterpiece.”

On Facebook last week, a post from “Black Is magazine” posed the question: “Who's in the market for a Django Unchained action figure? Funny or offensive?”

"The movie is absurdly violent," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning movie critic Wesley Morris at The Boston Globe. "When a slave owner is shot up in the opening minutes, the blood doesn't splatter. It splashes like a bowling ball that fell 50 feet into a full bathtub." Morris, who is African American, also says that he's never seen anything "made with this much conscientious bravado and unrelenting tastelessness… on a subject as loaded, gruesome, and dishonorable as American slavery."

Which makes it even more difficult to understand why the movie makers would sign off on a series of realistic-looking dolls based on the film. The poseable 8-inch action figures come with tailored clothing and "authentic weapons and accessories"; the box tout's they're for ages 17 and up. Made by National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA), the dolls cost $24.99 to $54.99 each online at the Big Bad Toy Store and Amazon.com.

"Slave doll action figures?" asked R. McGee on Amazon. "Descendants of slaveowners are are still trying to make money off of Africans who were captured, enslaved, and tortured. That's just plain sick."

Some groups are calling for a boycott of the "Django" action figures; others called it an example of marketing gone too far.

“Selling slaves as action figures is a slap in the face of our ancestors. Tarantino and Weinstein didn’t have action figures for their movie 'Inglorious Basterds' " -- the violent, critically acclaimed Tarantino revenge flick in which Brad Pitt plans to kill Nazi leaders -- "because they know the Jewish community would never allow it and the African-American community shouldn’t allow anyone to disrespect our ancestors,” Najee Ali, Director of Project Islamic Hope, said in a statement.

NECA did not immediately respond. Shine's request for comment, but in a recent press release, NECA president Joel Weinshanker said the company was "very excited to bring the stellar cast of 'Django' to life and honored to be working with another Tarantino masterpiece."

But film critic Tim Gordon, who is African American, told the Daily Beast that race may have played a part in the "Django" marketing campaign.

"There were a lot of things that were done for 'Django' that would've never been done for 'Inglourious Basterds,' but people don't speak up," he said. "People have gotten so -- I don't know if the word is comfortable or naïve. We just want to go along to get along and it's very frustrating."

Tarantino is a huge Japanese Anime fan, and collectibles are a big part of that culture. We're fine with most movie memorabilia: slasher flicks are obviously fake, and a Rambo action figure is close enough to G.I. Joe that we wouldn't even bat an eye. But there's a difference between a collectible featuring a Katana-sword wielding Beatrix Kiddo (who obviously never existed in American history) and ones of a vicious slave owner and the female slave whom he has mercilessly raped and beaten -- even if the target audience is adults.

We found the action figure's going for as much as $200.00 dollars on Enterbay.

Hows that for a week of WOW?

From Enterbay. Bounty hunter Django from the Quentin Tarantino 

action-drama comes to life as a 1:6 scale Enterbay Real Masterpiece

 figure featuring lifelike sculpting, cloth costume, and detailed 

accessories taken directly from the film!

PREORDER Estimated to Arrive May 2013

Our Price: $199.99

Upgrade to Collector's Grade Add $2.00