Ananova reports that Herobuilders.com, the firm that brought us action figures of George Bush, Tony Blair, Osama bin Laden and various other “heroes and villains”, has now turned to religion, with a talking action figure of Jesus Christ. From Herobuilders’ product description:
Talking Jesus Christ Action Figure
Play the sound clip from our Talking Jesus Christ
12″ action figure dressed as shown in image (staff & sandals not included). Talking Jesus Christ action figure recites the 10 commandments.
The choice of monologue dovetails nicely with Kurt Vonnegut’s observation back in May that while while there is a vociferous campaign to ensure the Ten Commandments are promoted in public spaces in the USA, the Beatitudes appear to be out of fashion:
I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.
Clearly, Herobuilders knows its market.
Herobuilders is part of the Vicale Corporation (founded 1990), which in turn belongs to the BBC Design Goup. All three appear to be owned by Emil Vicale, a former designer for Habitat International now based in Danbury, CT. An interview with Vicale is available here.
The Jesus action figure comes just in time for Doug Giles, whose morbid horror of “Precious Moments” figurines seems to be driving him over the edge (scroll down).
(Ananova reference via the Religious News Blog; Vonnegut reference via Fiona and Dr Omed)
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Talking Jesus Christ action figure recites the 10 commandments.
That’s strange, since I don’t know that Jesus was ever known to have spoken the Ten Commandments. From a fundamentalist perspective, isn’t putting words in Christ’s mouth blasphemy?
Isn’t the whole “Jesus as an action figure” thing sort of blasphemous?
Who cares? It’s funny. Here’s my choice for the online store that sells Jesus stuff:
http://www.merch-bot.com/product_info.php?products_id=193
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