Toy analysts and manufacturers expect this holiday season to bring a boom in sales of toys with rescue themes, like Matchbox firetrucks and muscular police officer action heroes, as parents look for playthings to inspire their children after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The recent terrorism has prompted toy makers to take a second look at the toys they are offering as programmable firetrucks and doctors' kits move up on children's lists of must-have toys and Halloween costumes.
PHOTO: NY TIMES
Fisher Price, a unit of Mattel that makes toys for preschoolers, has increased production of a special New York City Firefighter version of its Billy Blazes Rescue Hero.
But many toy makers are also worried that some playthings that once seemed fantastical now seem all too real.
This week, Lego said it was ordering one of its construction kits off store shelves after a US consumer complained about illustrations of an aircraft bombing a city in the toy's instruction book.
FAO Schwarz, a toy retailer based in New York, has stopped selling a missile-launching helicopter made by Mattel. The toy's packaging includes a prominent reference to a "diabolical villain" who is "blasting urban buildings to pieces" from the top of the World Trade Center.
The changes are coming at a particularly delicate time for toy makers. Most of their holiday shipments have already left warehouses, and November and December sales account for most of their annual revenue.
In addition, critics of toy makers are renewing their push against violent playthings. In the aftermath of the attacks, critics of violent toys, including the chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, are arguing that manufacturers should pull their most violent toys from store shelves. And some child advocates are urging parents to buy toys that have more wholesome themes.
Many toy retailers and toy manufacturers insist, as they long have, that consumers want a range of options. Some children want to play with action figures and guns, while others want to play with rescue squads. And toy makers argue that it is up to parents to guide their children away from overly violent play.
"We are looking at everything through a different set of glasses," said Wayne Charness, a spokesman for Hasbro. But, he added, the company would not abandon war toys. "GI Joe or an action figure, it is good versus evil and that play, it's been around for centuries."
Chris Byrne, an independent toy analyst, said he believes manufacturers will pull back from adventure toys that involve terrorist attacks. But he said that kids still want to act out heroic scenarios. That means firefighters, police officers and GI Joe may all become more popular gifts.
"If American servicemen become realistic heroes, that makes GI Joe relevant in a play mode in a way it hasn't been in a long time," Byrne said.
There are some early indications of a small boom in rescue toys. Wal-Mart said that its New York stores have reported strong interest in firefighter and police officer Halloween costumes.
Fisher Price executives have noticed the same trend. At a focus group conducted by Fisher Price on Sept. 13, parents began talking about the Rescue Heroes, describing how their children were using the toys to reenact rescues at the site of the World Trade Center.
But the terrorist attacks have put some toy companies on the defensive. Officials at Lego, which is based in Denmark and is the world's third-biggest toy maker, said they have asked retailers to stop selling the "Alpha Team: Ogel Control Center" set, and they acted apologetic about the toy. The Ogel Control Center instruction books include illustrations that show an aircraft speeding toward a city skyline and then show it dropping what seem to be bombs on the city.
The toy went on sale last February, but Lego did not receive any complaints until last week, said Eva Lykkegaard, a company spokeswoman. Lykkegaard said the illustration accompanying the toy was not consistent with Lego's ethics and values.
"It was totally unacceptable," she said. "There has been a mistake. We will see to it a thing like that will never happen again."
Mattel's Max Steel line of toys features a theme similar to Lego's Alpha Team. Max Steel, a bionic 19 year old who practices extreme sports, does battle with terrorists who threaten to blow up buildings.
Several of the Max Steel action figures talk of a bad guy named Psycho who is threatening to blow up a sports stadium. The packaging for the Max Steel MX99 Heli-Jet Vehicle presents children with a scenario where a villain is attacking New York. Inside, a card says the villain Vitriol is standing on the World Trade Center and children must stop him from destroying New York.
Mattel officials said they were asking retailers to remove the mission card from the heli-jet and would provide retailers with a black or blue sticker to cover product descriptions that talk about urban terrorism on all Max Steel products.
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