While shopping at Walmart last night I happened to pass by the internal Mcdonalds(yes this Super Walmart housed a mcdonalds) on my way to get milk and yogurt(was a late night and why not be the good son/brother/employee and go the full long haul *sarcasm*) and I happened to notice these toys in the Happy Meal display case. As usual they break them up by the sexes so "masculine" action figures for the boys(my blog we are not having the dolls/action figure argument they're toys leave it at that) and more feminine fair for the girls.
The boys toys were "Young Justice" themed. Now the members of Young Justice are the side kicks of some DC heavy hitters(for the most part):Robin(if I have to tell you who's sidekick he is just wow), Kid Flash/Impulse(yeah that's a dead give away too in the comics kid flash changes his name to Impulse so, yeah), Aqualad(real name Kaldor/Caldor an citizen of Atlantis who earned the honor of being Aquaman's "apprentice", in the comics he was ORIGINALLY Aquamans son, changed for the show he's been pretty good so far), Meaghann(the niece of Jon Jonnz the martian manhunter, I know Jon was the SOLE survivor of Mars, not going there), Superboy(the teenage clone of Superman, dunno if he's also half Lex Luthor they haven't said yet. He's not a sidekick though for now Superman keeps his distance), and Artemis(the New sidekick for The Green Arrow, Speedy stormed out in a Huff). So I look at the the case expecting to see those five characters depicted and maybe a few villains, so who do I see?.
Robin on a motorcycle-check
Kid flash "running"
Superboy flexing
Aqualad posed
Superman
Batman
Manta Ray
Captain/Commander Cold
Wait? Where are the girls? I get Superman and Batman are DC's 2 top grossing icons but um Manta's Aquamans villain and not very well known(hell he was barely used in Justice League), and Cold while a flash Villain I can't even remember his correct name. So how do these two low tier(since their heroes aren't really top billing at the moment) get into the happy meal and the two female members of the team don't. Isn't that counter productive if you're trying to reach a broader audience base? Now this could have been a mild oversight, a feeling of well Meaghann is new so nobody knows her, and THIS version of Artemis was a late edition to the team thus is a relative unknown.
But still why not add the girls as an "introduction", just odd, real odd if you ask me. Okay late post, but I'm posting this anyway linkage to be added later
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It seems to be a really common trend not just at McDonald's but with toys in general. I still remember seeing the new G.I.Joe ones a couple years ago where they had every single member of a six member team...except for Scarlet. The only female member. For someone who grew up watching/playing with her, Lady Jay, and one other one I can't recall the name of just now, it's really sad to see companies trying so hard to separate things into 'boys stuff' and 'girls stuff'.
ReplyDeleteYeah it is, I mean I could SEMI forgive Artemis. Since they actually borrowed the name of an amazon character from the Supergirl introduction to replace the lame comic name of Green Arrows real new female side kick. But Meaghann was a founding member she should be in there.
ReplyDeleteBut wow to not include Scarlett or Lady jay, but especially Scarlett she was in every episode of any of the GI joe submissions. She kicked major butt like many of the other Joe's. I guess since Fiona was a staple member of the Shrek cast you had to include her which is also probably why this was more of a shock to me. I've cut down on the fast food a lot in the last few years, and rarely do I see the "Happy meal Displays".
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