A company (BrickArms toys), making Lego-like (Lego denies any affiliation) figurines based on military history recently (about a year ago) started selling the guy pictured here. He is called "Bandit-Mr. White" and the company describes him as "a generic bad guy minifigure with a Ninja scarf head wrap". The company started as a family business because the father and son wanted to use Legos to recreate battles from military history but the necessary military style toys were not available prompting them, as good entrepreneurs, to build their own and then sell them. This figure has been on sale for a year now and is only just now being condemned as being offensive to Muslims and promoting terrorism. The companies statement about the controversy is: "[the figure] does not represent anything; it is simply a bandit — a bad guy for the good guys to battle. Attempt to assign it a 'personality' only serves to create controversy that does not exist". So, if you are a company dedicated to making toys that can be used to recreate military battles from history, does this little guy fit in with the kind of figure that might be needed? The company has also created a Nazi SS figure for use in WW2 battles. Is this somehow outrageous or offensive? I submit that if the company is simply trying to make toys that can be used to recreate historical or modern military battles, then this figure is certainly appropriate to that goal. I would not personally buy these products because I find them inappropriate for my children, but are they offensive or demeaning or do they promote terrorism? No.
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