What's Missing in Action Figures.

[eastofthemoon]

secondlina post today, reminded me of a few thoughts I had the other day while I was in the toystore.

I was in the toy section and I happened to discovered they made action for Storm Hawks Not one of my favorite shows, but there are worse cartoons out there and a couple of the characters do make me laugh. But I digress. Anyway, I was curious, picked up the toy and looked at the back to see the whole list of the action figures that were made. Sure enough, there were no action figures for ANY of the female characters (even for the one main female and the one female villian, who is pretty much the reason for the show's plot).

This also reminded me years ago, when I was in middle school, they made action figures for the cartoon "Mummies Alive" and they actually did make a toy based on the one female main character, Nefertina. However, finding her to buy was almost impossible. I think there were many fans that didn't even believe the toy itself existed. I didn't know it existed until I looked up on the internet and saw it on e-bay a couple of years later.

This has ALWAYS annoyed me. When I was a kid, they was always at least one female character in cartoons for the girls to relate to (recalls her April O'Neil action figure) and they would normally make the one main female character into a toy for the girl fans, but now they don't even bother doing that anymore. I know that this is one issue that has irrated many of my fellow Avatar: The Last Airbender fans. There are plenty of actions figures on Aang, Sokka, Roku, Zuko, even King Bumi but there are none for the female characters like Katara, Toph, or even Azula. Considering the fact that some of the most powerful fighters in the show are the girls (especially Toph and Azula) so it would only make sense that there should see toys on them.

Now, I realize that the toy companies arguement is that if a cartoon is aim towards boy and therefore the toys would be aimed towards boys and they wouldn't want the female action figures as much as the male ones and thus wouldn't make good sales. Personally, I don't really buy that. There are plenty of girls who watch the show and would love to get their hands on a Katara figurine (and many of them are not children I might add). Besides, I can't help but think if I was a boy, I would like to have a complete set with all of the main characters. It just not fair to the fans of the show that love all of the characters, both the male and female.