Marvel replaces Black Widow with Captain America for its toy line

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Apologists are generally the ones in a place of privilege who make up reasons why the person who feels disenfranchised shouldn’t feel that way.

“She hasn’t had her own movie.”… because it’s a bunch of male marketers who are calling the shots. Hence…

“There should be a woman president!”
“Well, there’s never been a woman president. It’s always been men. Maybe there could be a woman vice-president…”

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You’re not alone! I’m all in for this boycott. Easy for me, though, since I’m a grownup and stopped watching such stuff years ago.

ducks and runs

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True. No supporting character has ever gotten a comic of their own in the history of comics. Also, past performance completely guarantees future results. Women only represent half of the population so anything marketed to them isn’t worth the effort.

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[quote=“soulb, post:25, topic:57534”]
“Well, there’s never been a woman president. It’s always been men. Maybe there could be a woman vice-president…”
[/quote]I don’t think they’d win.

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I believe you’re right. Cap has often used a bike in the comics, and had one in Winter Soldier. Notice also that the bike in the movie had a convenient place to hold his shield. I’m pretty sure at one time I saw an article about Cap’s new bike, but that could have been for Winter Soldier, but if it was for this Avengers movie then perhaps scenes with him riding it were cut.

It would be nice if the movies had more women in them. There have been the two Captain Marvel characters, as well as the Wasp, although if she were anything like the comic books everyone would probably complain about her.

The movie-going (and toy-buying) audience isn’t the comic-reading one*. (You don’t sell a billion+ dollars worth of tickets by appealing only to comic book readers.) So that’s rather irrelevant. I am hearing people complaining that they want to buy Black Widow toys and can’t find any, however.

*Although I should also distinguish between the '70s/'80s comic-book audience, when comic books were targeted towards young, white male readers and modern readers, who are about 50% female.

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I do have one possible and valid explanation on this. ETA - Never mind, others pointed out the scene was in the teaser trailer months and months in advance.

These toys had to be made and designed months in advance. It is possible they were given story boards or concept art of what was going to be in the movie, and at the time it was Captain America or Iron Man on the motorcycle. Only later did they change the scene and have Black Widow on it.

That said, at least with the Lego version you can swap out who rides it.

Haha! What kind of person would complain about such a thing?

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Must. Always. Find. A. Way. TO COUNTER FEMINAZI AGENDA!!

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I was thinking about that possibility too. For example, I was freelancing at Mattel when they were coming up with toy designs for Cars long before that film came out, most of us just had some model sheets for the characters and a top-secret-but-still-brief synopsis of the film to go on. (I had to carry the knowledge of how Lightning McQueen lost the Piston Cup race but won the hearts of the crowd for months before I could legally tell anyone).

On the other hand, even if that scene was changed this isn’t exactly a toy that would have to be redesigned from scratch. The Black Widow version of the scene has been in there for a while—it was in some of the earliest teaser trailers. That seems like more than enough time for LEGO to swap out one minifig for another.

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SPOILER ALERT, YO!

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Lightning McQueen had his spoiler removed when he got that makeover in Radiator Springs, remember?

(That’s what’s known as a “spoiler spoiler”)

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The toy is clearly based on a specific scene, and I don’t believe for a second that it was ever anyone other than Black Widow, even in the script. (Iron Man on the bike doesn’t even make sense.) The fact that Black Widow was riding around on an electric Harley was being promoted at least a year ago, too, and the toy just came out.

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Only crazy feminists with agendas who aren’t going to actually buy the toys… oh, um, right.

>Come now, that isn’t fair. I think it is a very real and possible explanation to consider. Some of the other suggestions are possible as well.

ETA - NVM

Fair enough then. I honestly can’t remember the early trailers. I still haven’t seen the movie. For some reason I am not really excited about seeing it, though I am sure I will enjoy it.

I WILL be seeing Mad Max this weekend.

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That’s okay, posturarity has preserved it from, oh, October of last year.

Seven months should be enough time to get a mold done with motorcycle grip for her.

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@LetToysBeToys have been doing this on twitter for a few years now, running a more than a little successful campaign to get toy retailers in the UK to display toys by category rather than gender.

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