Last fall, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, Inc. (NECA), in tandem with the Weinstein Company, announced a full line of consumer products based on characters from the movie. First up are pose-able eight-inch action figures with tailored clothing, weaponry, and accessories in the likeness of characters played by Foxx, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Remar and Christoph Waltz.
A press release announcing the deal stated that the line was similar to the retro toy lines that helped define the licensed action-figure market in the 1970s and that the collection will include a full apparel and accessories line. At the time of the announcement, NECA president Joel Weinshanker said the company was ?very excited to bring the stellar cast of Django to life and honored to be working with another Tarantino masterpiece.? (source)
Spike Lee tried to tell y’all… but you wouldn’t listen!
[FLASHBACK: Spike Lee & Tavis Smiley Speak Out Against ‘Django Unchained’ (VIDEO)]
Now enter Al Sharpton and the National Action Network… *sigh*
Details + more photos of the ‘Django’ slave dolls below…
Rev. Al Sharpton?s National Action Network has officially called for a national boycott of the action figures based on the controversial and blood-soaked slavery revenge flick ?Django Unchained.?
A 10-doll assortment of characters from the film was going for $299 on Amazon Tuesday and still for sale online as of today’s date (January 11, 2013).
?Selling this doll is highly offensive to our ancestors and the African American community,? Rev. K.W. Tulloss, NAC’s president in Los Angeles, told the Daily News.
?The movie is for adults, but these are action figures that appeal to children. We don?t want other individuals to utilize them for their entertainment, to make a mockery of slavery.?
Fellow activist Najee Ali from Project Islamic Hope spoke alongside Tulloss in Los Angeles Tuesday and said he?s seen ?Django? two times already.
?I actually enjoyed the movie, but we cannot support this type of commercialization,? Ali said.
?I don?t seen any dolls representing Hitler that came from Tarantino?s (Holocaust movie ?Inglourious Basterds?)…I don’t see them making dolls of Holocaust survivors who are bald and starving in concentration camps.?
Yes… the controversial film was highly entertaining but the dolls are highly offensive in my opinion.