Toys

Friday

Oliver Jia

The $1,000 LEGO set and the infantilization of America

What can you buy for $1,000 these days? The latest smartphone? A discounted laptop? A nice trip to Mexico? Or what about a 9,000 piece LEGO set of the Death Star? The toy firm’s most expensive model yet. That’s right, a toy for $1,000 – the same as 35 Labubus (if you can find them), 150 packs of Pokémon cards or 80 Hot Wheels cars. It’s more pocket money than most boys and girls can afford. And as the fully built model is only a cross section of the spherical spacecraft from Star Wars, they won’t actually be able to play with it, even if they do rustle up enough cash to buy it. Really, the gigantic diorama is designed to sit on an adult’s shelf – a 31-inch wide symbol of LEGO’s shift toward an older demographic.

Lego

Saturday

Veronica Clarke

I love Labubu

I don’t recall how it happened. One moment I was a sane member of society, the next I was at an arcade, slotting coin after coin into a claw machine – and on the other side of the glass, taunting me with her feral grin, was the object of my desire: Labubu. Labubu is a mischievous, furry elf-monster with bunny-like ears and distinctive sharp teeth. Depending on who you ask, she is either incredibly cute or incredibly creepy. She exists in many forms – most notably as a key-ring collectible plush doll – embodying an ugly-cute aesthetic called kimo-kawaii in Japanese that both unsettles and endears. Her creator, Hong Kong–born and Netherlands-raised Kasing Lung, was inspired by Nordic folklore.

labubu

Tuesday

Cockburn

Allan’s big moment: discontinued doll’s price rises thanks to Barbie

If you saw the Barbie movie this week, chances are you enjoyed Michael Cera's performance as the long forgotten Allan doll. Cockburn must admit he doesn’t have much experience with kids’ toys (thanks to his lawyers, who fight paternity suits like pitbulls), but even he’s surprised at how lucrative a market the doll market is becoming. After its opening weekend, where Barbie raked in an estimated $155 million, now anyone with an Allan doll can make their own small fortune by selling it. Over the weekend, several eBay listings for old Allan dolls increased their prices. Before the film came out, some were priced as low as $30; now, the valuation has increased to over $300.  Since the movie's release, Allan has turned into a fan favorite.

michael cera allen barbie

Tuesday

Julia Sirmons

M3gan is a tale of millennial mothering

If horror films today are largely read as political satires or commentaries, then the “moral” of Gerard Johnstone’s M3gan, about a sentient robot doll unwisely invited into the family home, is clear enough. Playing on our fears of the AI technology increasingly being used as “labor-saving devices,” M3gan is a tale of bad mothering and the price to be paid by career-oriented millennial women if they try to “have it all.” This may make it catnip for trolls and conservative commentators who love to chide women for any parenting style that doesn’t involve frilly aprons and a plastered-on smile. But you need to squint a bit to see this latent message. If you do, you’re missing a more complex (and more horrifying) story.

Wednesday

Gilbert T. Sewall

Woke California bans boys and girls toy sections

Last week, signing a batch of pet bills to end the legislative session, Gov. Gavin Newsom made California the first state in the nation to require gender-neutral retailing. The law, which will take effect in three years, is limited to toys and 'childcare products' sold by big companies. It will never be enforced, since in essence it's already happening. Target dropped boys and girls toy sections in 2015, and for years retailers have been moving away from gender-specific labels. But the law’s emptiness is immaterial. The point is not to weed out a bias or fix a pressing wrong. The act is a victory for LGBT advocates who claim that sellers pressure children to conform to gender stereotypes and stigmatize non-conformers.

california

Monday

Jacob Heilbrunn

Beware the Trumpy Bear

There is a new reason to feel bearish about the Trump presidency. Brian Klaas, who writes a column for the Washington Post about the serial threats that Donald Trump poses to American democracy, was one of the first to identify a new ad on Fox for a plush 22” Trumpy Bear that comes with a 28” by 30” American flag tucked inside it that is supposed to serve as a blanket. Two payments of $19.95 plus shipping, the purveyors of the teddy bear assure us, will permit anyone to own an authentic piece of American history. The bear has a blonde combover, a red tie, cufflinks, and he loves golf. https://twitter.

trumpy bear