POLITICALLY INCORRECT XMAS TOY OF THE DAY: "Spastic" The Transformer from Hasbro... : Tech Digest

Oh dear, oh dear: toymakers Hasbro have made quite a blunder here. Is your kid into Transformers toys? Then maybe you'd like to get your loved one "Spastic the Transformer" for Christmas? Or not, as the case may be.

Spastic forms part of the "Power Core Combiners 2011 Wave 2" range, and comes with "stunticons", whatever they are.

It appears however that somewhere down the line the Hasbro team didn't quite do its regional market research thoroughly enough though, as they were unaware that the term "spastic" isn't the most savoury of brandings in some territories, especially in the UK.

Transformers fansite Seibertron brought this to their attention. Hasbro had this to say:

"Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and for the opportunity to respond. The TRANSFORMERS brand intended no offense by use of the name "SPASTIC" for one of its products which has not and will not be available via traditional retail channels in Europe, including the UK. Thank you once again for notifying us about your concern. As a marketer of children's products, input from parents, families and fans regarding their experiences with our brands is extremely important to us. Our goal is to have all families who enjoy our brands feel good about their purchases and experiences."

So in a wise move, Hasbro have now pulled the UK launch of this model. Expect it to change hands between toy collectors for extortionate amounts in the years to come.

Via: The Register

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and comes with "stunticons", whatever they are.

Well, you know, looking at the photo there, and seeing that it says "Spastic(tm) with Stunticons(tm)," and the box appears to have a robot and several little cars, and versions of the word "combine" appear in two different places, and there's a picture at the left side of the box of a fellow who looks a lot like Mr. Spastic but has an arm that is clearly made out of a car similar to the one located right above it in the package, I would assume that "Stunticons" are little cars that Spastic can combine with in Voltron-like fashion.

If I wanted to be really fancy, I might take two seconds to type "stunticons" into Google. If I did that, then the very first result would be a Wikipedia article, the first two sentences of which are:

The Stunticons are a group of Decepticons feared for their psychotic behavior and their capability to do death-defying vehicular stunts and wreak havoc on the streets. They combine to form a powerful giant robot called Menasor (Pentacar or Ultrax in Italy).

Hm. That seems to match up with the previously mentioned theory. And hey, on the Google results, the next thing it gives me is a few sample image results. One of these Stunticons turns out to look quite a lot like Spastic here. I think we have a winner!

But I suppose all this critical thinking is too much to expect from a TD.tv writer.