Monday October 27, 2014


Collector Daniel Picket, Editor and Publisher of actionfigureinsider.com, was angered by Toys R Us’ quiet capitulation to a complaint over the store carrying the adult-oriented Breaking Bad collector figures (see "Toys 'R' Us quietly withdraws drug dealer Breaking Bad dolls"), so he started a petition to return the figures to the shelves. Since October 19th, the petition has collected nearly 60,000 signatures, boosted in part by Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul tweeting a link in support.

The original complaint petition, which collected 9,299 signatures, declared victory when the mass merchant quietly put the figures on "indefinite sabbatical" last week. That signature count has been dwarfed by the counter-petition, which has received 59,107 signatures as of this writing. Most of those signatures were collected after Paul, who played Jessie Pinkman on the show, signed the petition himself, and took to Twitter last Thursday to defend the figures. "Wait, so @ToysRUs pulled all of the Breaking Bad figures from their shelves and still sells Barbie? Hmmmm... I wonder what is more damaging?" he said in one tweet. After posting a link to the petition, he tweeted "Dear @ToysRUs, We have close to 30,000 signed on the petition, that is 3 times the amount that caused you to remove the toys. Talk to me. Ap."

"Toys R Us is well known around the world for their vast selection of toys for children of all ages, and we do mean ALL ages, that includes the adult collector market," the petition states. "Toys R Us' decision to sell a line of Breaking Bad action figures... in an aisle designated for adult collectors, featuring properties of a more mature nature that might appeal to older collectors, and away from the other "kid" toys, shows that TRU understands there is more than one group of collectors that regularly come through their doors each day."

"Just like TRU doesn't sell ‘M’ rated video game titles to young kids, they will not sell age-inappropriate toys to kids," the petition continues. "PARENTS should be the one dictating what their kids watch, buy, read, play and consume, NOT the buyers or employees of Toys R Us."

Petition creator Pickett credits Star Wars toys with creating the collectibles market, but added that it wasn’t until 2008 and 2009 that big companies realized it was a significant enough market to target. It’s one of the few healthy segments of the action figure category, which has been on a slide recently.