Japanese Toy Section Fail O_O

[Danoz]

So I was in the local toy store picking up some props for an English-lesson game-- and this was the actual view:

Apparently Japan doesn't have the "orange-cap" law on all toy guns O_O. Those things are shocking! I think it would look real from far enough away...

Reminds me of this guy in the local store...

"The first thing we want to do is to get kids to start smoking"

 

[RoJoHen]

I always hated those orange caps.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I've read way less police and criminals carry guns (at least regularly) in Japan so there are way less accidental shootings.

As for Smoky The Cuddly Death Stick, Japan is a country where Tofu has its own cute and cuddly mascot. Go figure.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Danoz, it's definitely one of those culture shock moments. My former students were often shocked at how the bathroom stalls in the US were so... open.

I find it a little odd that there are vending machines for beer over there. I also find it odd that public kissing is frowned up while there is a very public penis festival.

 

[Dukhat]

Being a G1 Transformers fan and collector, I recently bought a Takara reissue of Megatron. No orange cap. I can now play with him in robot mode, and then hold up a liquor store with him in gun mode.

I find it a little odd that there are vending machines for beer over there. I also find it odd that public kissing is frowned up while there is a very public penis festival.

Apparently there are vending machines for other things as well

 

[Danoz]

Danoz, it's definitely one of those culture shock moments. My former students were often shocked at how the bathroom stalls in the US were so... open.

I find it a little odd that there are vending machines for beer over there. I also find it odd that public kissing is frowned up while there is a very public penis festival.

Hahaha, the penis festival is crazy. Vending machines with beer I am VERY used to, so much so that I was kind of confused when I was in New York and I wanted a beer or chuu-hai and it wasn't just readily available without any care for open container laws.

 

[scotpens]

And Japan has a low violent crime rate, yet has some of the world’s most violent, gross and generally icky pornography.

"The first thing we want to do is to get kids to start smoking"

Just because it’s an anthropomorphized cartoon cigarette doesn’t mean it’s aimed at kids. The peculiarly American “cartoons-are-for-children” mentality started in the early days of television, when stations bought blocks of old theatrical cartoons as filler for Saturday-morning kiddie programming. At the same time, animation studios began cranking out cheap, limited-animation cartoons for TV. But even those weren’t aimed exclusively at children. The Flintstones, for example, was originally broadcast in prime time and considered a family show.

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And remember Joe Camel? Was he really a cute, appealing character created to sell cigarettes to kids? He looked more like a man’s privates.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Danoz, it's definitely one of those culture shock moments. My former students were often shocked at how the bathroom stalls in the US were so... open.

Compared with what?

I'm not trying to be stupid...I'm honestly asking a question. How is it different where you are?

 

[Emher]

You mean to say that you're surprised that there's no silly orange cap on disproportionate, plasticky looking, huge triggerguard endowed H&K53 toy guns? No ushc things here either. Most of the time toy guns are pretty damned weird looking and do not at all look proportioned like real guns. And even if they did, or gun control laws are strict enough that the chance of someone, let alone a kid, having access to a light carbine, is pretty damned small.

Look at it this way: how much do you think a criminal has to think before he realizes that putting some orange paint on his flash suppressor might work in his favor?

 

[sojourner]

Yeah, as a kid the first thing I did with toy guns that had incorrect colors was to spray paint them black. Tho this was back in the late 70's early 80's.

 

[trampledamage]

Danoz, it's definitely one of those culture shock moments. My former students were often shocked at how the bathroom stalls in the US were so... open.

Compared with what?

I'm not trying to be stupid...I'm honestly asking a question. How is it different where you are?

I don't know about where the students that Peach taught were from but I can remember first arriving in Colorado and being a little freaked out by how high off the ground the doors are for the stalls in the washroom. I felt very exposed

This is compared to stall doors in the UK - they go much further towards the ground.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I've read way less police and criminals carry guns (at least regularly) in Japan so there are way less accidental shootings.

This.

Japan is not nearly the crime-ridden wasteland we are, where every odd loser on the street is packing. And little kids (the demographic for those toy guns) are a lot less likely to be mistaken for junior gangsters and gunned down by police in Japan.

This is not really fail, IMO. This is just the result of a very different cultural norm.

 

[C.E. Evans]

The orange caps are no longer enough. Toy companies are now releasing toy guns in bright colors like white so they can look even less like real guns.

It's even extending to Star Trek and Star Wars toy weapons.
http://img.escapade.co.uk/SALEHIRE/Large/8766.jpg

http://www.starwarshalloweencostumes.com/v/vspfiles/photos/RU8242-2T.jpg

 

[JarodRussell]

I wonder when criminals get the idea to simply paint their own guns in bright colors.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I wonder when criminals get the idea to simply paint their own guns in bright colors.

Well, there are pink guns, y'know, for the ladies market.

 

[Bob Karo]

I wonder when criminals get the idea to simply paint their own guns in bright colors.

I haven't seen criminals do it, but there are some really cool colors out there for the various after market baked on coatings. Personally, I like the more subdued finishes because I hunt. I have seen various target guns in orange, hot pink (even hello kitty themed ARs), and alloy parts annodized in some really flashy colors.

 

[Davros]

I wonder when criminals get the idea to simply paint their own guns in bright colors.

About as long as it takes kids to paint their orange guns black.

 

[Trekker4747]

You mean to say that you're surprised that there's no silly orange cap on disproportionate, plasticky looking, huge triggerguard endowed H&K53 toy guns? No ushc things here either. Most of the time toy guns are pretty damned weird looking and do not at all look proportioned like real guns. And even if they did, or gun control laws are strict enough that the chance of someone, let alone a kid, having access to a light carbine, is pretty damned small.

Look at it this way: how much do you think a criminal has to think before he realizes that putting some orange paint on his flash suppressor might work in his favor?

To be fair, if you're a cop and you see one of those things you're not going to take even the second or two it'd take to realize the flaws in its looks compared to the real thing. You're going to see a "gun-shaped object" and react on that.

Now, I don't think the plastic-caps are a great thing either but at the same time I can see the need for it as at least being something to distinguish a toy gun from the real thing. But, of course, the cap can be painted black and cops should be smart enough to use the situation to know whether or not the 8-year old wildly swinging a gun-shaped object in the air and saying "pow" is holding a real gun.

If there's to be any "solution" it'd be to not make toy guns that look so much like real guns.

But if a cop were to see someone pointing one of those toys above at him in a threatening manner I doubt he's going to take a moment to consider the size of the trigger-guard or to see the screwholes in the magazine. He's going to just see a gun and react.

 

[Showdown]

Reminds me of this:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo3uxeI_sB4[/yt]

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Danoz, it's definitely one of those culture shock moments. My former students were often shocked at how the bathroom stalls in the US were so... open.

Compared with what?

I'm not trying to be stupid...I'm honestly asking a question. How is it different where you are?

In Japan, the stall doors and divider walls go all the way to the floor. Where I live, the stall doors and divider walls are at least 8 inches off the ground. So to the Japanese... not as... private.