Toy's to help our kids acclimate to the police state, page 2

What better way to teach the next generation how to behave in a police state then with a toy such as this? I'm really hoping that they come out with a toy in which the kids can play "interregator". Think of all the fun the little folks can have waterboarding those who "hate our freedom".

Wow! So much better than playing school or house for brainwashing---I mean, acclimatizing today's tots to the realities of the Global War on Terror. I especially appreciated the enclosed signed photo of Michael Chertoff and his letter explaining how necessary it is to start educating today's youth early with toys like these, especially as their elders just don't seem to be taking the whole thing seriously, what with posting snarky reviews on Amazon and all, and it's going to take a while to get KBR's re-education camps in Nevada up and running properly. I know my little four year-old grandson was really impressed with this set. He's now so scared it's undone a whole year of potty training and he's now wetting his pants about five times a day. He's back to playing with his old set of wooden blocks Melissa and Doug 100 Piece Wood Blocks Set and crying "Make the bad man stop, Mommy!" Last week he saw Mr. Chertoff talking about terrorists on his parents' fancy new plasma TV and he threw first the Playmobil set, which didn't do much damage, and then the wooden blocks, at the TV, which cracked the screen. His dad, who worked at Countrywide Finance, was just laid off, so it looks like they won't be getting a replacement plasma TV. I'm taking the broken TV, the Playmobil set, and the photo of Michael Chertoff to the toxic waste dump tomorrow. I have an old black and white set and pair of rabbit ears in my attic which I will loan them. Perhaps it's better this way.

This is just a sop to the authoritarians among us. I am holding out for the release of the Guantanemo Playset. Hopefully this will come with an extrordinary rendition option.

[Additional accessories include the Safe-Cracker and Jail from playmobil.
I kid you not...: Search for playmobil and Jail on amazon's site. They are there. Read the reviews on the jail one ;-)
/quote]
like the basic idea. I applaud Playmobile for attempting to provide us with the tools we need to teach our children to unquestioningly obey the commands of the State Security Apparatus, but unfortunately, this product falls short of doing that. There's no brown figure for little Josh to profile, taser, and detain? Where are all the frightened plastic Heartlanders pointing at the brown figure as they whisper "terrorist?" Where are the hippy couple figures being denied boarding passes? And shouldn't someone be forcing a mother figure to drink her own breast milk?

When I bought this toy, I was looking forward to placing my minority-action figure through the metal detector, and then running the little script I prepared: "Excuse me sir, but you have been 'randomnly' selected for additional scans. Please let us take a sample from your shoe while the computer analyzes findings for any radioactive or biohazardous material".

It's too bad that they never came out with the "Pat-Down" edition, where fat guards are groping women for weapons, and turning customers away who refuse the degrading method of search.

My only suggestion is that if this is based on the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, please don't forget to include the bums who torment you for spare change. Thanks!

This TOY IS GREAT! But there are some things that should be added make it more realistic. I'd like to see some diversity in one of the guards and perhaps the other guard could have some drool dripping from it's lip to reflect the extremely low IQ needed to obtain this type of position. Also, add a 80 year old woman with (remove able clothes so she may be stripped searched) and a 20 something middle eastern looking man. (no need to make his clothes remove able as we are going for realism)

After your passenger spends 4 hours getting past airport security ("I Love Freedom" T-shirt draws extra attention from security) you can have your character attend a George Bush rally from behind the 1st amendment barbed wire fencing 3 miles from Bush's appearance where your character will be maced and beaten for being there. Then, to complete the trifecta of freedom your character can travel to the U.S.- Mexico border and help build the border fence while patrolling for hordes of brown skinned devils trying to sneak into our country and cut our grass.

Finally a toy that gets our kids used to living in a police state. Benjamin Franklin said that those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. But then again, he lived in France for awhile, so what did he know about anything.

Before this toy came out I was afraid my son would not know how to cope with the new reality of American life; how to prepare him to the future, I was wondering. Boy am I relieved; so many lessons learned! Now he knows that:
1) Some people can make a decent living treating others like cattle, and the best part: the cattle is paying their salaries.
2) You only have the rights that the government gives you; you can move around the country only if you comply with government regulations, no matter how frivolous they might be. No liquid you say? except if in a ziplock bag? Check. Lighter ok because the cigarette lobby fought the no-lighter rule? Swell. All passengers searched but cargo mostly un-scrutinized? No problem.
3) You should always bow to people in uniforms, even though they might be in this job because they could not qualify for police work (because of the rap sheet or the drug abuse).

Unfortunately, this toy comes short in a few areas:
1) It does not show that if you're rich, you don't have to wait in line for hours. If you can travel first class, you get your own fast-track screening. Too bad the terr'ists have plenty of Saudi and Pakistani cash and can easily travel first class should they want to. They should have included another screening set in the box.
2) It does not come with the 300 tired-looking playmobils you would need to show the passengers waiting in line behind the screening area.

However, it does some things very well: for instance, the screening apparatus is not actually functional. This represents faithfully the actual TSA system, which, every time it is tested or audited, fails to catch anything (weapons, even bombs).

So, thank you Playmobil. I hope they will expand their product offering and give us more toys that can help our children prepare for the new reality of a much safer America; specifically, I am eagerly waiting for the Staline-style Guantanamo American gulag set, the North-Korean-style CIA water-boarding set, the KGB-style NSA phone-tapping set. Some people will whine about the loss of their civil liberties, but my son knows that the North-Korean are some of the safest people in

When we first set it up we tried it with my daughters African American Magic Jewel Ken Doll and Barbie Princess of the Nile Doll but they were pulled out of line before the security checkpoint and taken to a back room for "processing."

We haven't seen them since but received a phone call from a buddy at the state department: something about "extraordinary rendition." I hope they make it home it time for the holidays.

I want to thank Playmobil for adding Item 11 to "How To Tell if Your Country is Turning Fascist". Now we can add "pro-authoritarian propaganda showing up as children's toys" to the list. I'm sure 1930's Germany had Nazi propaganda bombarding children as well, right from birth.

This toy is a wonderful start but...I think expansion packs would really increase the enjoyment. Could you imagine the fun kids could have with the "Mother forced to drink bottled breast milk to prove it's not explosive" expansion, the "What do you mean I'm the No-Fly List?" and especially the "Body Cavity Search, Wait, What?" set.

This is a great product, but it has several shortcomings. It's a shame that Playmobil has allowed itself to be swayed by the ultra-liberal political correctness mongers. When I opened the box I was dismayed to find that all of the characters in the set are Caucasian.

We all know that only people named Muhammad, Khalil, Ahmed and Haji are selected for the random security search. I was really looking forward to my 3 year old daughter getting use from that small tube of KY jelly and that latex glove that fits the female security guard with the short-chunky hair-cut.

Also the boom box hidden in the suitcase, that has the c4 inside hooked up to a barometric altimeter doesn't work even if brought to 35,000 feet. Apparently it hasn't functioned since Pan Am went out of business.

Lastly, buying the additional gas chromatography system, has made the toy so much more enjoyable. The only bad thing about that is that I can no longer blame my flatulence on the dog, the system is that good!

purchased this product (along with the Playmobile ambulance/mass casualty incident set and the Playmobile road construction set) for my five year old son. After a few hours my son asked me why our society was so keen on infringing on the civil liberties of its citizens in the name of safety and security. Like all the other five year olds whose parents purchased this product, he is precocious and wise beyond his years.
I answered that everyone still has the right to walk anywhere in this country, and that everything else is a privilege and not a right. People who voluntarily surrender their freedoms on the altar of personal convenience have no right to complain about it afterwards. My son is now well on his way to becoming an anarchist.

I wish this toy had been around when I was a child so that we might have learned important life lessons rather than the fluffy sugar-coated false utopia of Rainbow Bright and Friends.

Excitedly I tore open the package so the little ones could start playing with a model of their future. Boy were they disappointed when they tried to get the "passenger" through the detector but he was pulled aside because he is on the "No-Fly List". I don't see the point of a toy you are not even allowed to play with.

I think the issue here is that Playmobil is a European-based company, where they don't believe in destroying their citizens' souls just because they choose to fly compared to other forms of travel.

A US-themed version however would need significant expansion
- 200 more "customers" to line up behind the security checkpoint
- some of the customers need to be business travellers who wait until the last minute to begin loading their bins and devote one bin each to their laptops, blackberries, cell phones, keys, etc etc etc
- other customers must have huge American flag t-shirts and look perfectly willing to experience this process
- extra guards to bellow instructions to the customers in line
- the ubiquitous plastic bags and bins for putting everything through X-ray
- there should be extra airport security on hand for when a "troublemaker" questions the arbitrary nature of the screenings

However, Playmobil has always been a company willing to allow you to build your sets at your own pace, so hopefully soon they will be coming out with various accessory packs to enhance this set up to a full-on American flight experience.

How about a lethal injection table? Kids can practice putting "just the right amount of" chemicals into the convicted man?

My family was planning a vacation to Europe, so I purchased this item to teach my twins about what to expect at the airport and hopefully, alleviate some of their anxiety. We also downloaded the actual TSA security checklist from the American Airlines website and then proceeded with our demonstration. Well, first we had to round up a Barbie and a few Bratz dolls to play the other family members, so that cost us a few extra bucks at the Dollar General and it is aggravating that the manufacturer did not make this product "family-friendly." Of course, since the playmobil Dad could not remove his shoes or other clothing items, unlike the Barbie, the playmobil security agent became suspicious and after waving her wand wildy a few dozen times, called her supervisor to wisk the Dad into a special body-cavity search room, (which incidentally led to quite an embarasing and interesting discussion with my twin daughters about personal hygiene and a slight adjustment to the rules we had them memorize about touching by strangers). But worst of all, since the suitcase did not actually open, the baggage inspector made a call to the FBI and ATF bomb squads which then segregated the family's suitcase (which btw was the only suitcase they provided for our educational family experience) and according to the advanced TSA regulations, had to blow it up, (since they could not otherwise mutilate the luggage, break off the locks and put one of those nice little advisory stickers on it), which we had to simulate out in the backyard with a few M-80s and other fireworks. The girls started crying. They became so hysterical by the whole experience that we could not even get them in the car when the time came to actually take our trip, and so we had to cancel the whole thing at the last minute, losing over $7,000 in airfare and hotel charges that we could not recoup do to the last minute cancellations. We've now spent an additional $3,000 to pay for the girls therapy and medication over the past year since this incident occurred, and the psychologists have told us that this will affect them for life, so much for their college fund and our retirement. Then, to top it all off, when we tried to use to playmobil phone to call the company to ask for reimbursement, as you might expect, of course the damn thing didn't even work; neither did our efforts to e-mail them using the computer screen on the baggage checkpoint; and our real-life efforts to contact them to obtain re-imbursement have also likewise been ignored. Worse yet, we had the product tested and found out that it was positive for both lead paint and toxic chemicals, having been manufactured in China by workers holding formerly American jobs, so now we all have cancer and have been given only another year or so to live. My advice - educating your kids about airport security with this toy may actually be more harmful to them than just packing them in the damn luggage with some bottled water & hoping they survive.