Toys Depicting 9/11 Attack Recalled

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 8:35pm

MIAMI (Aug. 27) - Small toys showing an airplane flying into the World Trade Center were packed inside more than 14,000 bags of candy and sent to small groceries around the country before being recalled.

Lisy Corp., the wholesaler that distributed the candy, said Friday that the toys were purchased in bulk from a Miami-based import company.

The toys came in an assortment purchased sight unseen from L&M Import in Miami and included the toys depicting the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the twin towers, whistles and other small toys, said Luis Pedron, Lisy's national sales manager. The invoice said the toy was a plastic swing set.

"I hate to blame the importer. He probably did not know what he was getting. He brings them in 40-foot containers. But whoever made it knew exactly what they were making," Pedron said.

Pedron said Lisy did not notice the small plastic figurines until two people complained, but there is no mistaking what the toys represent: At the bottom of each is the product number 9011.

"When we found out what happened, we recalled them immediately," said Pedron, who said the toys do not reflect the company's view. "I was offended by them."

The company's 100 distributors sent out the candy bags. Most are sold to small Hispanic and Mexican groceries, Pedron said. He estimated about 90 percent of the bags have been collected.

Anna Rodriguez, who bought a bag of the candy for her grandson, said she was stunned when she saw the toy.

"It makes me angry," she told television station WFTV. "I was offended because I couldn't believe that someone would give something like that to a kid."

Pedron said he is saving the toys to return to the distributor.

A woman who answered the telephone at L&M and refused to give her name said Friday she did not know anything about the toy.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 8:38pm

Updated On: 8/27/04 at 08:38 PM

[voidiflostorstolen]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 8:42pm

Not cool. Do you think they are selling on E Bay yet?

[POLisPOL]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 8:44pm

also, a company is selling this t-shirt:

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 8:50pm

this guy that went to school with me bought that t-shirt, no lie.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 8:50pm

A non-sequitor observation. What's bizarre: as nasty as this is, it doesn't really look like the 9/11 tragedy, or easily conjure up the imagery. It looks like ... a toy plane innocuously stuck between two buildings, right? I mean, the towers were identifiable because they were so close together, one symbol, the number "11" in profile. Once you separate 'em and put a chubby little plane in there... The existence of this "toy" reminds us that there is little in the world that isn't exploited. From price gouging in Florida after Charley to this nonsense, the quest for a buck trumps everything.

Updated On: 8/27/04 at 08:50 PM

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 8:51pm

And who can forget the WTC "Jumper" trading cards that surfaced a couple of years ago?

I'm never sure where the line is when it comes to dark humor...but there are some instances where you just know that the line, where ever it is, has been crossed.

[POLisPOL]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 8:52pm

I've seen the I plane NY tshirt three times in different people in spain...

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 8:53pm

Updated On: 8/27/04 at 08:53 PM

[SamIAm]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 8:56pm

somehow funny? How?

Posted: 8/27/04 at 9:07pm

iflitifloat - that imaginary line you're talking about is the one that separates humaneness from savagery. Anyone who can't see this for the dispicable thing that it is has no sense of the connection they have to the rest of the human race - if indeed any connection at all exists for them.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 9:09pm

Updated On: 8/27/04 at 09:09 PM

[shlamdiddly]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 9:14pm

When I saw that and read the article I laughed...then again...I'm an insensitive b****

Posted: 8/27/04 at 9:16pm

To me this is no different than someone manufacturing little plastic gas chamber replicas and sending them to Israel.

[voidiflostorstolen]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 9:19pm

lol!

[CJR]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 9:27pm

If I post my feelings on this, the thread will be deleted and I will get banned.

For the first time ever, I'm keeping my mouth shut

[nystateomind04]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 9:32pm

I think it is disgusting, especially that t-shirt. There is nothing funny about a situation where thousands of people lost their lives, I repeat NOTHING funny, and I find a serious character fault in anyone who does find humor here.

[CJR]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 10:03pm

Alright, nevermind keeping my mouth shut. But I am going to try and keep this as clean as humanly possible.

I find this entire thing dispicable. These toys, the tee shirts, the jumper cards (I remember seeing those)... all the tasteless tee shirts and headbands that vendors were selling just a month after the attacks.... It's absolutely disgusting that people would try to make a profit off of anything, even a tragedy like this. Why anybody would want capitalistic gain from this is beyond me!

I was working at a bank at the time. People kept coming in saying terriorists were blowing New York City up.... a co-worker who's husband is an NYC cop was in tears, freaking out, because the attack had happened while she was driving in from Carmel, NY and she couldn't get her husband on his cell phone. All the executives in my company were accounted for, and in the board room watching on the TV, except for one: our board chairman who'd had a meeting in the towers that morning. Another co-worker who was on vacation had made plans to visit NYC that morning and visit all the typical tourist spots that she's never gotten the chance to visit (including the WTC)... we couldn't find quite a few people.

We were put on lockdown around 11am and nobody was allowed to leave the bank. We all just waited. Carmen finally found her husband (the NYC cop) and Marina called in to make sure we were all okay and let us know she was still in Stamford. Still no word from Angelo (the board chairman). Around 1:30pm we got a phone call from him -- he was walking across one of the bridges with an entire group of strangers who didn't know where they were going. They'd all left about 10 minutes before the first plane hit.

The father of a girl I went to school with for years worked in the WTC -- his office was on one of the floors right around where the first plane hit. They never found him.

My godmother sat on the expressway in traffic and saw both planes hit. I can honestly say she has not been the same since.

I came home from work that day and I sat in my room (which had a view of the manhattan skyline) and watched the towers smolder, burn and smoke for hours to follow. The father of the family I was living with (I was a live-in nanny) worked in the same vicinity as the WTC... as he and his co-workers walked, ran, and whatever else out of the area, they were pelted with debris and body parts.

Now I ask you, do you really find this amusing? Do you really want to make a profit off THAT??? How insensitive can one person or one company be?

I'm stepping off my soapbox now.

[insomniak]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 10:08pm

I'm sorry about that CJR, and I agree with you entirely. 9/11 is not funny, toys and t-shirts making fun of it are disrespectful and inhumane.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 10:11pm

Spiderdj: How come all your posts have been erased? I've noticed that in some other posts to, unless you've decided to erase them all.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 10:20pm

because I take back what I put.

[bythesword84]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 10:22pm

I've got to say that I don't see why this shocks people at all. The world has reached a point where the "line" people keep talking about simply does not exist anymore. It just doesn't. The idea of human decency just does not matter.

Before everyone goes attacking me, no I'm not saying I condone things which make fun of these topics in any way, shape, or form. If I did that I would be a pathetic human being. Do I think they should be made? No. Do I think they should be distributed? Of course not.

However, I also don't see the need for this to come out in some big article. This is the kind of thing that should just have been done and recalled. What's the use of getting people all up in arms over it? It's a stupid toy. It's a stupid, inappropriate toy. They'll recall a toy but they won't stop a T-Shirt which blatantly makes fun of the time.

I'm not going to sit here and go through all of the various ways in which my life was tied to that day. I know all about lockdown, I was in one. Etc, etc...but life goes on- as messed up as it may be. The fact that we're all up in arms over a stupid toy is rediculous. The more attention people pay to these things the more people are encouraging it.

You're not going to change people from doing things which are not decent or appropriate. I don't know see the need to bring this thing to people's attention in the first place, why dig it up and cause people to get upset? Recall it quietly and brush it over. People don't want to be censored because of "freedom of speech" and then they get mad when people start saying things which are crude, disgusting, and should just never even be thought let alone said.

As stupid as I think it is, there's really no surprise to it anymore.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 10:24pm

I believe that initially Spider found the toy to be "somehow funny", but has reconsidered.

[LadyGuenevere]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 10:24pm

Those things really disgust me. Especially that t-shirt. That's sad that people can make money off of a national tragedy.

If my 3 relatives didn't make it out of the WTC, I don't want anyone making a single BUCK off of their deaths. Or anyone in that matter. That's horrible.

[insomniak]

Posted: 8/27/04 at 10:29pm

I know people may say that's it's restricitve of free speech, but those 'toys' are just cruel. Let the dead rest, and it's never funny when people die. It frightens me to think that someone would make those toys. I can't even fathom why someone would make those, or why the terrorists did what they did in the first place.