Cancelled Lines: NECA Django Unchained

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This one wasn’t cancelled so much as “aborted”, produced for the release of the 2012 Quentin Tarantino film of the same name, it is rumoured that QT himself wanted a 70s Mego Style toy produced for the film, as it was an homage to the “spaghetti western” of the era.

The toys invited controversy due to the film’s subject matter being slavery and groups used the film’s PR effectively to get their point across. The new editor at Topless Robot (who admittedly greatly dislikes the Mego style) conjectured that this wouldn’t have happened if the toys were 6 inch Marvel Legends style figures and not “dolls”.

In light of the “Dexter” and recent “Breaking Bad” outrage at Toys R Us,  it’s safe to say that this theory is about as plausible as the “Ram Man” slash fiction they often enjoy.

I’m not going to debate the veracity of the outrage, this is neither the venue for that, nor am I enlightened on the subject to add an opinion of any  value.

Regardless that the toys said “ages 17 and up”, cost $30 a pop and that the film’s (R RATED) message condemns slavery (and pretty much promotes violence against anyone involved in the trade) some people will never get out of the mindset that toys = children exclusively.

Toy collecting is a weird fringe, we feel normal among our own but we always will be thought of as creepy “Sheldon” types by some percentage of the population. When these people become aware of R-rated toys, they say “those shouldn’t exist” and then comes the swift hammer of majority.

The bad PR had the Weinstein Company salt the earth, the dolls were yanked and destroyed,  everybody tried to pretend it never happened.

Flash forward two years later and NECA has smartly used that 8″ tooling to create some of the coolest 8″ horror characters ever made. I’m not denouncing these in any way, I love the line and i hope they make tons more but I’m not the only one who sees the irony here, right?

Django figures are banned on Ebay (seriously) but you can pay a King’s ransom for them on Amazon if you’re so inclined.

I’d really like a Schultz and Django, loose is fine, I’ll pay $50 a piece. Email me at kid70s *<at>* gmail.com if you done got a pair for sale.