Minifig company OYO has announced that they are releasing a line of 2020 presidential candidate figures, which might sound pretty exciting to the political geeks out there.
Less exciting is the fact that if you’re on this site to begin with, there’s a good chance you’re hyped to see so many exceptionally qualified and badass female candidates in this race. And if that’s the case, than OYO’s existing lineup is going to be a bit of a bummer for you.
ABC News reported Thursday that figures of Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Beto O’Rourke were currently available. “But customers will have to wait for female candidates such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Kamala Harris, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand or other candidates,” they wrote.
Here’s the current collection: with Bernie, Cory, Beto, and Pete. pic.twitter.com/ZOy9dVsWeL
— Brittany Shepherd (@blrshepherd) March 22, 2019
Are you having #WheresRey flashbacks? Me too.
In case you’ve forgotten, that was the campaign that called out Star Wars merchandisers for leaving their main new protagonist off the shelves, despite how excited young (and not as young) fans were to buy it up. As with these OYO toys, the immense excitement for female candidates wasn’t enough to keep the company from releasing all the men first.
OYO has since responded to the negative attention on their men-only lineup, releasing a pre-order option for the Kamala Harris figure and saying the others are coming soon. The reason for the delay, they say, is the hair mold.
We have announced the majority of Candidates already at https://t.co/oxo8lQJApY. The new minifigures are being rolled out weekly as new hair is molded. As it works out, Pete and Beto have similar hair, Cory has none, and Bernie got a cap, as we could not come up with that mold! pic.twitter.com/NjZO6RLpEW
— OYO Sports (@OYOSports) March 22, 2019
That makes a lot of sense, seeing as OYO’s main focus is sports figures, though as far as I can tell they don’t feature a single female athlete, team, or league. They have a tiny handful of female figures in their non-sports fringe categories, like “#1 Mom,” “Female Graduate,” and, in this same new American Pride category, they also have Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
It’s international women’s day!
Celebrate with Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s American Pride minifigure! #balanceforbetter #internationswomensday #RBG #minifigures #toys #americanpride #toys #play #collect #politics #nationalwomensday #together #oyosports #madeinamerica #playlikeapro pic.twitter.com/FumkhvA4WW— OYO Sports (@OYOSports) March 8, 2019
In fact, those are the only three female figures I can find. (There are a number of variations on the graduate toy’s robe colors but essentially, it’s one figure.) By contrast, they have hundreds of male minifigs in their NFL, MLB, and other sports categories. So it makes sense that they had Beto and Buttigieg’s seemingly identical hairstyles ready to go, as well as Bernie’s cap.
That is an excuse for not having female candidates ready to go as quickly, but it is not a great reason. All it does is shine a light on the lack of female representation in the company’s toys up to this point.
This is a private company and obviously, they can sell whatever they choose to, including this tiny nightmare:
New, American Pride minifigures from OYOToys! Available now! #trump #makeamericangreatagain #usa #minifigures #collector #collection #toys #playlikeapro #oyotoys #oyosports #madeinusa #Trump2020 #president pic.twitter.com/vEDP3PCxIs
— OYO Sports (@OYOSports) March 15, 2019
But it’s depressing that in this day and age, a company wouldn’t include a single female athlete in their collection. Based on that lack of inclusion, though, it’s not even surprising that they didn’t have the forethought to wait until all their 2020 candidate figures were ready before releasing them.
(via ABC News, image: OYO)
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