Is it Just Me, or is That Kid's Meal Toy Trying to Make a Statement?

First off, I would like to congratulate Cristin for officially accepting her authorship invitation to this blog. Get to writing!

Now that the niceties are over, let me get into this post. Sometime ago, I was rummaging through the Goodwill Clearance store. It's hard to believe that Goodwill actually has a "clearance" store...eh, a whole other post of it's on, I guess, so let's not think on that for too long...anyway...For some reason, I've always enjoyed digging through other people's crap. At the clearance store, it is especially fun since everything is in these big blue bins and it's just one giant free for all. They charge you by the pound for items that you buy. Once you get past the odd odor of the place, it is pure bliss. That particular day I walked out of there with a few random t-shirts from places I've never visited, a safari looking shirt made for a plus-sized woman, a cookbook and this peculiar little toy.

The toy was a little action figure from the Rocket Man movie. I examined it closely and saw that it was part of a Burger King Kid's Meal.


While I do like toys, this was not the main reason why I decided to bring it home with me. This Rocket Man, like most rocket men, I would assume, shot "fire" out of his feet to propel him off of the ground. The thing about this toy is, I've never seen fire like that before. (See image below).


Now, I'm no scientist, but I do consider myself a pyromaniac in my spare time, and I have never seen fire that looked so...flesh colored. Nor have I ever seen fire that looked kinda...circumcised?


I was shocked, yet amused to see that this had been approved to be distributed to children. I mean, there has to be someone who approves the toys for kid's meals, right? While I'm sure it isn't easy to make realistic looking plastic fire that shoots out of an action figure's feet, they could have at least given it more of a reddish orange tint...and maybe jagged up the edges a bit. I don't know, is it just my imagination, or did some toymaker get one in over the censors like the animators of the Little Mermaid did when that movie originally came out on video?