Possibly. I tend to think a factory had overstock of the pink wands though and someone tried to turn them into a Halloween item on the cheap. The artwork can be chalked up to reusing the same die line graphics from a previous run, just change the name at the top. I think this is more out of laziness on the importer’s part and efficiency on the exporter’s part at all costs vs. outright maliciousness.
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It’s not even anything like the Cardcaptor Sakura wand. Why the weird bloody child picture?
Here’s the real one:
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Just to play devil’s advocate here, it’s in the kid’s section, the name is in a font that’s hard to read at a glance, I’m going to say it’s a fairly easy mistake to make.
It should really be in the novelty gift section not the toy section.
We must buy one and send it to his PO Box!
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So from what the store owner was saying, it sounds like nobody directly contacted them and asked them to remove it from the shelves, they just went straight to the press. Doesn’t that seem a little strange?
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Perhaps the problem is that she only spent $1.
To get a 100% fairy-certified free-range spellcaster you need to spend much, much more.
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I think this is sadly the norm nowadays. Who you gonna call? TV!
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Looking at it, I would interpret the title as a cheeky “ha ha your child can be an evil princess with this stick that makes the evil laughing noise”. The title itself isn’t the put off; I can imagine a perfectly innocuous toy called an Evilstick. Anyway the kid is supposed to play with the toy, not the packaging
OK. It’s called an “Evil Stick”, looks like a dildo, and you bought it at the DOLLAR STORE. I’d say your return on investment based on the 15 minutes of fame you’re getting now far outweighs the $1 spent.
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I usually buy things for children without looking at them, reading the package, or seeing what it does.
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It was absolutely in the wrong section of the store, but I doubt the store owner even bothered to look at it or see what it did. He saw a pink fairy wand, put it in the “girls toys” section instead of the “Hallowe’en gag gifts” section. Big deal, hardly something to call the press over. Go back to the store, tell him “Hey, we bought this fairy wand but it actually looks like it’s meant to be a Hallowe’en gag gift, you should move it out of the kid’s toys area”. Problem solved.
Edit: accidentally replied to dacree instead of replying to the whole thread. Whoops!
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Heh! The free market. Go figure…
I am looking forward to a New Wave cash-in version…
I think I saw another article where someone bought about a dozen and got a bunch of different weird pictures inside. The cutting-demon-chick was the weirdest, though.
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No, thanks for the story and the pics. As Mark didn’t provide the video link in the article, and the embed wouldn’t play at original speed in my mobile browser, I am really happy and thankful for your comment.
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You beat me to it.
In all fairness to the chain stores – and I can’t believe I’m coming to their defense – this happened at an independent one-off dollar store. In my experience, the independents have unbelievably crappier crap than the chain stores. I have to believe that the chains’ corporate layer might have prevented this sort of fuck-up. And I say this as someone who fuckin’ hates the Dollar Tree. Yet I keep being sent on errands there.
I have a niece and nephew who used to watch Dragon Tales. A lot. That was about 15 years ago but the theme song stuck in my head. Recently, it has morphed into the following little ditty, which I loudly sing whenever my better half dispatches me on an errand to the Dollar Tree:
♬ Dollar Tree, Dollar Tree ♬
♬ Drink my pee at Dollar Tree ♬
♬ If you wish to drink my pee you will find me at Dollar Tree ♬
♬ Dollar Trap, Dollar Trap ♬
♬ Imported crap at Dollar Trap ♬
etc.
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And all of the customers will be Goths . . .
