The fugliest toys you have seen while collecting.

It's really abhorrent. I understand that different countries have different "recollections" of the past *cough,* but this is really a common sense issue at this point isn't it?

 

I knew the commentary for that toy would end up here of all places. It's not a fugly toy though, though it's an insentive one. You can easily see the difference in eastern and western culture in the comments. I'd point at the education system and say that ignorance is an excuse, but there are no subtleties here. I understand that the historical significance may not be properly conveyed to a Japanese high school student, but you surely must have some knowledge on the history of the 1930s and 1940s before you create a toy to glorify a nazi wearing a gas mask. It's not like he is the only guy to do it either, far from it.

 

Without going too far into your question and derailing the thread completely, no, I don't think it is considered common sense yet. At least not in Japan. My point from just above would still stand though.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21226068

 

A toy can be morally fugly.

And again, the president of Marmit should have known better. I don't think my expectations of him are unreasonable. He has been running that company for decades now and has done plenty of business outside of Japan. He should understand by now what the response to a cartoon Nazi toy is going be, which makes me think he does know, and doesn't care, or he does know, and he is deliberately trying to troll people.

 

The strange thing is he showed previews of it as just "gas mask soldier". And it has no swatikas or specific nazi imagery I can see. In fact with a different helmet and color scheme it could pass for an officer in almost any army of the time. So why specifically nazi? And why is it called a mutant when it looks like a SS officer funko pop?

 

Agree with you mostly here, but I'm not sure this is an East - West issue. There are plenty of creative decisions made by western makers that have made me cock my eyebrow here and there like the use of rising sun motifs or naming your brand after a German military tactic closely associated in popular culture with the Nazis.

 

Or SS-style skulls and lightning bolts? Yeah, I've seen stuff like that.

 

I’m really, really surprised to see that trash ass bullshit by Marmit. With how much original and licensed and awesome sofubi he’s released, to see him jump on this garbage truck of a trend is just gross. Tried leaving two comments expressing my disgust with it and Instagram immediately deleted both and threatened to delete my account.

 

Yeah, you need to be selective with the wording. My comment made it through, but who knows if he even reads them.

 

He likely does read them, though how he will interpret them it's hard to say. In Japan Nazis carry much less cultural stigma. No doubt at least partially due to whitewashing of their own history and their complicity in world war II. But he also might be confused depending on what his intent with the thing was. After all Americans make plenty of Nazi and pseudo-nazi crap themselves. How many Hydra action figures are on the racks at Target? Obviously we, with our cultural understanding, know the difference. But someone without that understanding might be legitimately confused.

That's really the part that confuses me the most: his intent. His works are varied but this one is particularly Funko-ish in its proportions and rather plain in its design. I could see him making some kind of grotesque Nazi mutant or monster, something out of Wolfenstein. But this is so plain, and so matter of fact. Not really a glorification or stylization just kind of random Nazi action figure. It stands out among his other works.

 

If he was a young Japanese person in his twenties who never left the country you'd have a point with the cultural stigma thing, but this is not the case. I am sure he hasva higher than average awareness of how this is being perceived outside of Japan.

Also, not to defend the honor of the Disney company, but Hydra's depiction in the movies and toys has few, if any of the Nazi elements they had in the comics.

 

Absolutely agree with all this.
I also know intent is irrelevant to the actual impact something has...

Yet, could totally see that for many people, at face value this wouldn't be any different than making a film like 'Overlord' or a game like 'Wolfenstein' (as you already mentioned). However, I certainly wouldn't put an action figure of the final boss of 'Wolfenstein' on my shelf to look at every day.

The proportions are a bit odd. Possibly Skull Head Butt compatible? Still, you're right, very clean compared to what he usually does. I've only really ever seen him do this very clean work on other toys based on licensed animated characters.

 

The "Mutant Nazi" post was taken down.

 

I guess we won't know until we see more but I am gonna assume it was taken down by Instagram and not self deletion. This happened with a TW piece once and he airbrushed the questionable part out and reposted. I could see the same post being allowed to stay if it wasn't captioned with the word "nazi."

 

To be fair, when he called it has mask soldier no one complained, even though the sculpt was identical

 

HAPPY 10 YEARS BABY!!! Page 8 Since 2013 (toy came out in 2012)

 

>posting your own toy to the fugly thread
Very alpha move

 

I didn't put it here in 2013. just feeling myself in 2022

 

Totally!
To be honest, I didn't even notice the name in the final reveal. I almost never read the text below an image. I just mindlessly scroll and click "like". I only learned about what he called it in this thread. I mean, I understand that the "stormtrooper" aesthetic was there all along, but there are SO many things that sorta have that gas-mask soldier look (Even the main character in Phil Tippet's 'Mad God' does a little bit). And I admittedly fall into the same category of drooling masses where I don't usually think too deeply about the implications or automatically associate it with sympathy towards fascism.

 

Thats the weird thing. Single filter gas masks are not unique to nazis. Long coats aren't unique to nazi officers. That helmet isn't unique to them either really. And it has no swastikas or other emblems. You could easily make him anything. These are Russian officers btw.

 

The simple fact is the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi. There is no glorifying them or their ideals, and depictions of them outside of a historical reference should be limited. And something as ridiculous as Nazi toys are 100% wrong. Full stop. And that’s what he called it. He’s an adult, he should know better.

 

The purple Amabies are cool!

 

Like I've said before, I enjoy celebrating the good toys out there, why not celebrate the bad/fugly? Its not time consuming (most of this stuff comes from a single FB page for lotteries). I appreciate though, that some people can find this endless torrent of shite quite stressful to peruse ...