Pastor’s annual ‘warped toy’ list fails to tone down shock
Religion Today, December 8, 1999
A Connecticut minister keeps raising his voice against objectionable toys, even though it seems to be a voice crying in the wilderness.
Christopher Rose, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Hartford, Conn., has issued an annual list of “warped toys” for 14 years just before the beginning of the Christmas buying frenzy. National media publish the list, which is meant to highlight toys that should be avoided.
But toys just get more shocking, Rose says. What was shocking last year is passe this year, so toy manufacturers and marketers keep upping the ante, he says.
Top of the list
The toy that tops his list this year is Curse of Spawn action figure Ryan Hatchet, a former high school student who has returned to life as a bloody, disemboweled corpse. Others include the Ice Man Cryogenic Lab with fake autopsy accessories, which Rose says reminds him of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
The action figure “Tormentor,” described on its package as “a savage brute with no soul” who terrorizes others and inflicts pain, also is highlighted on the list. The Tormentor makes the pain of its victims everlasting by grafting their body parts to his own. It is manufactured by McFarlane toys, and Rose has debated Todd McFarlane, creator of the series, on television, The Hartford Courant said.
The impaled Mummy/Severed Mummy series from Toy Island and Universal Studios also made Rose’s list. They include two plastic action figures with a plastic sword for the child to slash and stab the mummy so it will fall apart.
Stronger warnings urged
Most toys on the list come with labels saying they are inappropriate for children under 5, but Rose says he wants stronger warnings.
He started compiling his list in 1986 after wandering into a store to look for a toy for his son, now 14. Most of the toys Rose found objectionable then were gross rather than gruesome. Now he attends a huge New York toy show each year, subscribes to a toy industry magazine, and shops for toys all year.
Most of the toys on the list are made in factories that exploit child labor so “we are exploiting children on both ends,” he told the Courant. Rose also focuses on other social issues. He is former chairman of the Connecticut Human Rights Organization, speaks to business groups about using their organizational skills to lessen poverty and hunger, and runs a food pantry out of Grace Episcopal Church.
Rose’s efforts come at a time when the federal government is taking a closer look at violence in computer and video games. Sales of video game software and computer entertainment titles are expected to reach $7 billion this year, the industry says.