How the hell did these get made?
Photo credits: WFTV.com
To be perfectly honest, they actually look like they've had a shocking amount of thought put into them. If you look at the base of both toys, it looks like a coffin. And what's really hard is trying to nail down the point the designer of this toy was trying to make. I suppose the plane toy is easier because the plane looks like a big wacky cartoony plane, but the Osama toy--that looks like an anatomically incorrect Osama cheering like Rocky, naked in between the two towers as if to say "Hey! I'm dickless and I knocked down these towers!"
In case you're curious about the real story behind these toys, it's a bit of a mystery actually. Everyone is passing the buck until one company actually says "we don't think they're offensive." I guess we know who needs a brain enema.
Still, there's something oddly fascinating to me about them. I don't think I'm being morbid, I'm not sure what I'm being. Although I do know one thing, I'm curious what the hell anyone was thinking actually producing these things.
Read about the original plane toy's discovery at WFTV.com.
Read about the company that sold the toys and their defense of this action again at the WFTV.com site.
Read about the discover of the Osama toy, also at WFTV.com.
From WFTV.com:
Toy In Candy Bag Appears To Depict 9/11 Attack
POSTED: 4:43 pm EDT August 26, 2004
UPDATED: 5:00 pm EDT August 27, 2004
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A bag of candy shocked a local grandmother and will most likely shock you. The toy inside looks like a plane flying right into the Twin Towers. Now, that toy is off some local store shelves because of our story.
It doesn't stop there, though. That grandmother was surprised, again, when she read the numbers imprinted on the toy.
Until Thursday afternoon, the little toys were on sale to kids around Central Florida -- two towers with a jetliner in between that appears to be crashing into one of the buildings. They come in packages along with candy.
We talked to a grandmother who couldn't believe what she'd inadvertently bought for her grandson.
"It makes me angry," Anna Rodriguez says. "I was offended because I couldn't believe that someone would give something like that to a kid."
When Rodriguez let her grandson pick out a bag of toys and candy, she never realized what was inside until her own son noticed the disturbing toy.
"[He said] look at the toy. I said, 'Let me see it,' and when I looked at it I was outraged. I was like, what? No way," Rodriguez says.
She purchased the toy at a local grocery store. We found more packages still hanging on the candy rack. The storeowners were appalled when they saw what a distributor for Lisy Corporation, based in Miami, brought to their store. The store pulled the bags from the shelf Thursday.
Rodriguez has pictures of the Twin Towers in her living room to remember the victims of 9/11. She says there is no mistake what the toy represents, especially when you look at the product number on every single toy: 9011.
"Everybody knows it's about the twin towers and it's nothing to be joking around about," says Rodriguez. She believes someone out there did it on purpose. "Whoever did this knew what they were doing, they definitely knew."
A company called Lisy Corporation distributes the candy bags. They said they are also offended by the toy and have pulled 17,000 of the toys.
Lisy says they bought the toys, sight unseen, from L and M Import/Export of Miami. We talked to L and M and they say they have no problem at all with the toy and don't consider it offensive at all.
We even pointed out to the import company that every single toy has a stock number on the front that reads "9011." L and M Imports didn't find it all coincidental and said it's just a toy. Asked if they'd talk on camera, they said there is nothing to talk about.
Copyright 2004 by wftv.comCompany Defends Itself Over Toy Resembling 9-11 Attacks
POSTED: 4:51 pm EDT August 27, 2004
UPDATED: 5:01 pm EDT August 27, 2004
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Channel 9 prompted some quick action after we found a children's toy that had a plane between two towers. Lisy Corporation officials are defending their company and say they feel they were tricked into putting the toy in their candy bags.
It's hard to imagine how the little toy could make it into the hands of children. It shows a jetliner flying into a set of Twin Towers.
Moises Soto is just 11 years old, but he doesn't need school to know right from wrong and good toys from bad.
"It looked like a plane crashing into the Twin Towers," he says.
Moises knew immediately what this toy was all about when he saw his 2-year-old nephew, Isa, playing with it.
"It's not appropriate. It was a tragedy that happened and it's not good to have a toy like that," Moises says.
The toys are packaged with candy sold at Hispanic groceries. They were distributed as far away as Boston.
The company that sold them, but now has recalled them, is called Lisy Corporation, a Miami-based spice, snack and candy company.
"We gave our people, immediately, the authority to get it from the stores and to send it back," comments Luis Padron, Lisy Corportation.
Upon realizing the nature of the toy, and the product number 9-0-1-1 on each toy, Lisy Corp. sent a letter to stores saying the toy "resembles the Twin Towers and an airplane. [It is] "totally inappropriate"
Lisy says they were sold the toys by L&M Import and Export. The product was coded as a plastic swing play set and sent in two versions, one with a man swinging between the towers. The product was packed in bulk, with the airplane version out of sight.
"So when they packaged it, that box has many toys inside and they never realized it, 'cause they called it a swing set," says Padron.
Lisy Corp. says they are angry and blame L&M. They believe the product was manufactured in China.
For the second day in a row, the importer of the toy, L&M Import and Export refused to comment. But, they told Channel 9 they didn't think it was a big deal, saying they consider it just a toy for children and don't think it's inappropriate.
Copyright 2004 by wftv.comSecond Toy Found In Candy Appears To Depict Osama Bin Laden
POSTED: 10:43 am EDT August 30, 2004
UPDATED: 2:18 pm EDT August 30, 2004
MIAMI -- In Miami, a wholesaler has announced that his company will recall 14,000 bags of candy.
The bags contain a toy that looks like a plane flying into a building and, we found, a second toy that looks like Osama Bin Laden suspended between the two buildings.
Eyewitness News broke this story, but, for the first time, we had the chance to speak with a representative from the corporation that distributed the candy.
"Importers did not realize what they were buying. They were buying assortments of toys and they get to people like us trying to sell authentic Mexican candies. Nobody caught it and it went out into the stores," explains Lisy Corporation manager Luis Pardon.
The manager of Lisy Corporation says the candy was originally purchased sight unseen, but now he'll send back all he's collected.
Copyright 2004 by wftv.com
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