A mother from Ft. Myers, FL is unhappy with the fact that Breaking Bad dolls are being sold in children’s toy stores.
Susan Schrivjer created a petition to have Toys R Us remove the action figures from the shelves.
A bit of her explanation for her petition is here:
Toys R Us is well known around the world for their vast selection of toys for children of all ages. However their decision to sell a Breaking Bad doll, complete with a detachable sack of cash and a bag of meth, alongside children’s toys is a dangerous deviation from their family friendly values. That’s why I’m calling on Toys R Us to immediately stop selling the Breaking Bad doll collection in their stores and on their website.
Here’s a few images of the Breaking Bad figures from ToysRUs.com :
Now although we can agree that the show depicts violence and drugs, Toys R Us sells other graphic figures that can arguably be more disturbing and gruesome than characters who just deal meth.
The company has their own section for “horror figures,” which features many violent dolls including Jason holding a bloody knife, Freddy Krueger, and Chucky also holding a knife:
This leaves controversy as to what identifies a product as “too violent” for children. CBS10News states that Schrivjer said even though the action figures are advertised for kids 15 and older, they still promote drugs and send the wrong message to children.
So is Chucky the Doll or Jason holding a knife sending the right message to children?
Schrivjer says that her main goal is to have them removed from the shelves and only be sold in an adult toy store.
If the petition gets enough signatures and Toys R Us cancels the production of the Breaking Bad dolls, the company may need to reconsider selling their horror figure products as well.
