Bizarro's Toybox: Lil' Killers

I don't pay much attention to the superhero toy scene....but at what point did we start marketing cyborg assassins, naked berserker-ragers, heavily-armed vigilantes, psychotic hitmen, vampire hunters, and demons with flaming skull-heads to three year-olds?

Selected figures from Hasbro's Marvel Superhero Squad series.

(click for a larger view)

It's official: I don't get it.

Comments

[David Morefield]

Let's see...Deathlok, Tinkie-Winkie...Deathlok, Tinkie-Winkie...

I don't know, are we sure one's really worse for a 3-year-old?

[phillyradiogeek]

I've had a hard time imagining Wolverine as a kids icon, but these really do take things to another level. Doesn't anyone think about this stuff when making these toys?

[Mystik Tomato]

They're really not helping the whole "Comics are for kids" thing.

[Wes C]

I thought the first groups I saw were pretty neat and odd. I wondered about the cutesy Galactus. The real kicker was the Capt. America vs. the Red Skull with the cosmic cube. The little cute figure of a genocidal Nazi with infinite power in his crazy little hands was just too much.

I'd still like to have that one.

Of course those all seem tame compared to the ones you pictured.

[Mark Engblom]

My guess at what's happening here is that the line might have originally been intended exclusively for a child audience, but after their marketing wing saw that adult comic book fans were scarfing up the figures, probably went ahead and did these decidedly kid UN-friendly characters.

So, I would imagine the primary buyers of this stuff are adult fanboys looking for that "ironic" effect of cutesy Punishers, Deathloks, and Deadpools.

At least that's what I hope to be the case. God help us if the little tykes are playing with this garbage.

[Z Ryan]

I saw one of these toys of Heath Ledger Joker.

Creepy.

[Mark Engblom]

Z Ryan-

Was this the one you saw?

(scroll down a bit when you get there)

[zubzwank]

A few years back, I was playing with my nephew. He had these 90's Ninja Turtles figures that were ugly and downright scary.
I don't know the back stories (if any) on the characters, so I don't know if they were assassins, killers, gun-wielders, etc.

Just visually, though, some of them seemed a little strange for toddlers.

A historical bit-In 1979, Kenner marketed an 18-inch very accurate ALIEN toy that was deleted because of parent groups complaints that it was too scary for kids. The toy became a much-prized collectors' item.
In 1993, Kenner released a whole line of smaller ALIEN toys marketed at the same kids' demographics. Nobody cared (except for the primarily adult collectors who mostly bought the things).

The parameters had changed, and they keep changing.

[Z Ryan]

It may have been, Mark. The kind of toy it was reminds me more of these though. But these are all Marvel. . .

I don't recall a stabbing-action feature. Creepy all around.

[Dr. OTR]

The "3+" designation doesn't necessarily mean they're being marketed at 3 year olds. I think all toys have to have an age guideline--things with small, removable parts aren't safe for younger kiddos who like to put things into their mouths. I'll bet you can find an age guideline on, say, a $25 DC Direct figure that is clearly being bought only by adults.

[Freaknerd]

I had the same feeling when I saw a similar line of Star Wars figures. Especially the Bounty Hunter series.

[S. Lamb]

I definitely wouldn't be buying those for any 3 year old that I know. Scary!