Pokemon, Take Two
I recently learned that the fast food restaurant chain
Burger King is
offering Pokemon toys in ther Kids' Meals. This is their
second time offering Pokemon toys. This time it is arranged
to coincide with the release of
Pokemon: The First
Movie on DVD and video.
You may have heard about the first time Burger King
offered Pokemon toys. The first time they did, the toys
were gold plated Pokemon trading cards, placed inside a red
and white Pokeball with a white button that you press to
open it. A couple of infants died after their parents
bought the toys and the infants somehow got the Pokeball
over their mouths and suffocated, because, being infants,
they couldn't move the Pokeballs. Burger King issued a
voluntary recall, offering a free order of small french
fries to anyone who returns their Pokeballs. This time, the
toys are small things like key chains and little bean bags,
and presumably are being included in the Kids' Meal bag
instead of being sold separately in their own boxes and
Pokeballs.
What I want to know is what the parents where thinking
who gave the Pokeballs to their infants to begin with??
Apparently they weren't physically developed enough to
manipulate the things effectively, or mentally developed
enough to understand the toys in the first place. Pokemon
is obviously developed for people younger than myself, but
it still requires some amount of concentration to play card
games and video games that involve seeking out, catching,
competing with, and trading various Pokemon characters. An
infant might like the colors of the toys and the cartoony
appearance of the characters, and touching the toys, but
that's why fast food chains offer alternate toys for
children too young for the regular ones. Apparently,
though, some adults thought it would be a good idea
to give their little infants something that could cover
their mouth and nose and that the infants were too
uncoordinated to remove. Why?
I wonder how many kids are going to have, or who already
had, their own Pokeballs (I just love typing
that...Pokeballs..) returned for a small order of french
fries, whether they want to lose them or not, because of a
senseless and preventable, though still admittedly tragic,
loss of the lives of some babies who couldn't appreciate
what it is their parents bought for them to begin with. I
wonder how many futile protests will be given and "temper
tantrums" will be thrown. I don't approve of throwing a
temper tantrum, of course, but I can understand the
frustration of some infants and their parents sullying their
own parents' trust in them, compounded by the loss of a neat
toy, for a few measley french fries. "Don't you trust me,
Mom? I'm like twice their age.."
Of course, years down the road, the original gold plated
cards with their Pokeballs will probably increase in
monetary value because of this whole recall thing. The
kids, however old they will be by then, will be frustrated
all over again. How ironic that the loss of their own
Pokeballs will have contributed to the value of the
surviving ones. Of course, there'll probably be a local
comic shop owner like that guy on The Simpsons, who will
have all six of the cards and the Pokeballs they came in,
and the boxes that contained them. When approached about
it, he'll impatiently fold his arms and proclaim "Not for
sale."
Eat up, kids.
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