The specter of war won't go away, so Barbie's (TM) new house is reflects what will happen if we wage war:
TOYS OF THE TIMES
"Something that looks too much like home is more likely to be disturbing than comforting. It's a creepy toy, like an adult showing pornography to a kid."
"Clay Ramsey" may be a new superaction counterspy hero, but as the PBS special about John O'Neill of the FBI shows, if he's too good at what he does, mediocre chiefs will censor him.
Manufacturers market current events as U.S. ponders war
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, October 4, 2002
-The two-story house looks like any on the block, with pale yellow walls, checkerboard floors and charming, wood-framed windows.
But something's wrong -- its glass panes are cracked, and bullet holes decorate the walls. On the balcony stands a helmeted soldier in battle fatigues clutching an assault rifle. At his feet, a rocket launcher lies poised where a pot of geraniums should be, its muzzle aimed at all who approach.
The scene is not the West Bank, or Kuwait during the Gulf War. It's the "Forward Command Post," a new toy for kids as young as 5.
Complete with U.S. flag, the 10-pound "fully outfitted battle zone" sells for $45 at J.C. Penney. Another version, the "Elite Operations Forward Command Post" for children "0-5 years," is by Toys R Us and sells for $30 on Amazon. com.
"This bombed-out version of Barbie's Dream House is sure to excite bloodthirsty passions in even the most passive of preschoolers," writes a customer from Minneapolis who reviewed the toy on Amazon. "Unfortunately, the set does not come with charred infant or mangled toddler action figures."
The Minnesotan may not like the dream house of the 21st century, but toymakers are banking on the idea that Americans will thrill to the weapons- laden action figures available everywhere this season for children of all ages.
As Congress ponders war, toy companies ponder profits from such terrorist- inspired trifles as "Clay Ramsey, US Counter-Terrorism Advisor," "American Freedom Fighters Live From Afghanistan," "Command Headquarters Tent and Tunnel Combo," and the inevitable Osama bin Laden head, offered by Protect and Serve Toys "to allow enthusiasts to enact what it may be like when we finally catch him."
Even Fisher-Price, that bastion of educational aids for babies, offers a weapons-free version for $32 called "Rescue Heroes Command Center." In it, emergency vehicles, warning sounds and hospital helipads let 3-year-olds "map out rescue plans."
COMPARISON TO GI JOE
For those concerned about inflicting war toys on toddlers, some manufacturers have made sure "peace" is in the title. J.C. Penney sells the "World Peace Keepers Battle Station" for $25.
The peacekeeper -- for children ages 3 and up -- just happens to be surrounded by grenades, assault rifles, rocket launchers and, for protection, a set of sandbags.
"I don't think it's anything different from when I was a boy playing with my GI Joe," said Matt Golding, senior marketing manager for Bandai America, which makes the hugely popular Power Ranger fantasy series and Digimon toys.
Although Bandai products tend to be abstract and magical rather than militaristic, Golding said both approaches come down to the same thing: cops and robbers.
"Kids are smart, and they realize we are living in times where there are good and evil. Toys are a good way to let that out in a safe manner," he said.
Neither J.C. Penney nor Toys R Us returned repeated calls for comment. But other experts in toys, marketing and children's habits said plastic guns and fighting figurines offer an outlet for the natural aggression that lurks in the brain and bloodstream of many a child -- usually boys.
And it makes sense, said trend-watchers, that manufacturers tailor such toys to events that concern everyone, even kids.
"There's been a growing interest in war-themed and military-themed games since 9/11," said John Davison, editorial director for the Ziff Davis Game Group, the San Francisco publisher of Electronic Gaming Monthly and other magazines for video game enthusiasts.
ARMY OFFERS VIDEO GAME
Even the Army is capitalizing on the game connection. On Tuesday, it will release its own video game to teach teens how the military works, Davison said.
But unlike most video games, whose costs can wipe out a kid's allowance faster than a heat-seeking missile melts a warm target, the Army's will be free.
Valance -- that's his entire name -- sells the Osama bin Laden toy over the Web from his Indiana company, Protect and Serve Toys.
"Prior to last year, World War II toys -- especially German stuff -- were it," he said. "Customers were going broke just to be able to buy this stuff. But after Sept. 11, everything seemed to turn toward the modern U.S. equipment -- especially the desert gear."
To British citizen Stephen Cole, an American history professor at the University of San Francisco, the trend -- as seen in some of the toys -- is "ghastly."
"How would Americans feel if a young Afghan child or young Yemeni had a burning and collapsing twin towers toy?" he asked. "These games of 'might makes right' for children 3 and up create a sort of unquestioning apprehension of the world. They're the kind of things I'd expect to find on the back pages of Soldier of Fortune," not a toy store.
Others are more forgiving -- of some toys.
Gerard Jones of San Francisco, whose book "Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence" was published in April, says some war toys make sense.
"I'm one of an awful lot of pacifists who grew up playing with guns," he said.
EVEN PACIFIST LIKES SOME TOYS
A former comic book artist who now teaches a free storytelling workshop for children in which they make up their own tales, Jones said he has a good sense of what kids fantasize about. And in every group there are kids, even some girls, who lean toward fight stories, he said.
"Kids love to play with things violent and aggressive -- but they usually like them fairly abstracted and not too threatening," Jones said. "They don't want their fears stirred up. They want to get rid of them through play."
So Clay Ramsey, the $45 counterterrorism guy from VoyagerToys.com, is OK in Jones' eyes, as are $40 action figures Hugh and Dean, the American Freedom Fighters from the "Live from the Afghanistan Frontline" series by EHobbies.
But Jones said a toy like the Forward Command Post is not likely ever to be popular with kids.
"The bombed-out house really feels like some grown-up trying to exploit what he or she imagines is the current mood, and thinking that kids will want to play with something so gruesomely realistic," he said. "Something that looks too much like home is more likely to be disturbing than comforting. It's a creepy toy, like an adult showing pornography to a kid." |
