Let's also put the Chinese Toy recalls in perspective. 30M is a drop in the bucket. They produce billions of toys. The problem is not the craftsmanship but when they take shortcuts and buy substandard materials, materials the designers had never intended, that cause the problems. And let's also not forget that ConAgra hasn't been boycotted for its tainted peanut butter. Taco Bell's still in business after the green onion scare.
With the chinese, the U.S. manufacturers who are out for the almighty dollar aren't just going to up and kill off one of the cheapest manufacturing ports in the world because a handful of lawsuits...
2010 Olympics mascot's revealed - a sarcastic take on the whole event
Oh shit! They ARE made in China. I cannot believe it. 30,000,000 toy recalls, and they are still selling Chinese toys.
I imagine, though, to the 54% of the population of Metro Vancouver who are Chinese and Chinese/Canadian, it will not matter, and, indeed they are flying off the shelves at outrageous prices to all and sundry. No word yet as to whether they are 100% "safe", though. Also no word yet whether our grandkids want them for Christmas. Sincerely hope not!
Edited By cam on 1196391215
I imagine, though, to the 54% of the population of Metro Vancouver who are Chinese and Chinese/Canadian, it will not matter, and, indeed they are flying off the shelves at outrageous prices to all and sundry. No word yet as to whether they are 100% "safe", though. Also no word yet whether our grandkids want them for Christmas. Sincerely hope not!
Edited By cam on 1196391215
To see the four mascots you can try...
www.vancouver2010.com/en
www.vancouver2010.com/en
Ta-da . . . meet the Four Profits
Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2007
They did not, as I was campaigning for, go for the Taser mascot.
(Motto: "Come to Vancouver in 2010! We'll electrify you!")
They went adorable, instead, while quadrupling the franchise's earning potential. As Maclean's magazine writer Ken MacQueen said to me when we first saw them, getting off the day's best line:
"Aren't they the cutest little profit centres you ever saw?"
Cute, but weird, too. They seem to take their design cues from Japanese anime. There's something blankly happy about them. Black button eyes. Well mannered smiles. Those big kewpie-doll heads.
And, as usual, Vanoc went native, and heavily so, since it believes the only culture worth promoting to the world is first nations. That, or it's the most marketable.
There was Miga who, according to Vanoc, is "the sea bear inspired by the legends of the Pacific Northwest first nations," and is supposed to be a hybrid between an orca and a Kermode bear.
Miga is a she, though that wasn't my first guess. Miga surfs. Miga snowboards. Miga wears a scarf that makes her look, well, frankly, gay. But for the life of me, I take one look at that dorsal fin/cowlick on top of her head and can't help thinking that she looks exactly like Alfalfa from Our Gang. Miga's dream is to land "a corked 720 in the halfpipe," whatever the hell that is.
Sumi, "whose name comes from the Salish word 'Sumesh' which means 'Guardian Spirit,' " and who "flies with the wings of the mighty thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear" looks like an Ewok wearing a colander on his head. Sumi likes hot cocoa. Isn't that nice?
Quatchi, the sasquatch who, according to the purple-prosed Vanoc press release, "reminds us of the mystery and wonder that exists in the natural world, igniting our imagination about the possibility of fantastical creatures in the great Canadian wilderness," has the barrel-like dimensions of a contestant on The Biggest Loser. Quatchi looks like the unfortunately hefty guy at the school prom, a teddy bear with a thyroid problem and a stoner's chin beard. He is shy, and a little clumsy, we are told, which is why Quatchi "dreams of becoming a world-famous goalie" and why, with his shaggy tan coat, he reminds me of an old moccasin slipper the dog chewed up and left under the sofa. He wears blue earmuffs and has a tattoo of an inukshuk on his right arm. Either that, or he's been branded. And instead of going barefoot, in traditional sasquatch style, he wears mukluks, which is a native word for "mukluks."
Which sounds a lot like the name of our last, and least, member of the Games gang, Mukmuk, official fourth banana of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Mukmuk is a Vancouver Island marmot who gets his name, according to the press release, from "the Squamish First Nation word 'muckamuck' which means food, because he loves to eat!" (As in, "My, how the high muckamucks of the International Olympic Committee love to eat well on the backs of taxpayers!")
I don't get Mukmuk, or the reason for his existence. Mukmuk is not officially one of the main mascots, but for some reason has had his status notched down a level to just a "sidekick" mascot "who always supports and cheers loudly for his friends during games and races" when "he is not hibernating or sunbathing on rocks and logs." Something of a schlub, in other words. A watcher, not a doer. A guy content to stay at home and scarf down nachos instead of getting some exercise. Mukmuk wears a toque, the uniform of the Ugly Canadian, and a vacant smile, ditto. He didn't even make an appearance at Tuesday's show at Surrey's Bell Performing Arts Centre, presumably because he was busy going extinct.
And, oh my, the show. I should say a few words about the show. Vanoc bused 800 elementary school kids in from around Metro Vancouver. They all looked to be about eight, and they sat there fidgeting, waiting for things to begin.
To ramp up the excitement before the show, somebody installed a video camera on the end of a big 30-foot boom, and its operator would swing the boom like a fishing rod over the kids' heads. The kids, thinking they were on TV, would leap out of their seats as the camera coasted overhead and scream and wave their arms at it. They looked like schools of minnow rising.
Then the show started, and three annoyingly upbeat kids in winter gear came out on stage. They had that A-type air of student council presidents, and they yelled out things like "That was awesome!" and " Fan-tas-tic!" and "Now let's pretend Team Canada just scored the winning goal! Ready? One! Two! Three! Yay!"
Then the show started in earnest, the part where the kids were introduced to Miga, Quatchi and Sumi one by one, who came out in their velour mascot costumes and danced around the way mascots do, but not Mukmuk, and it was the usual upbeat, irrepressibly chipper Olympian musical extravaganza -- Busby Berkeley out of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm -- and there were girls twirling in giant lampshades that were supposed to represent jellyfish, and things that looked like giant corkscrews dancing around, and surfers doing the mashed potato to surfer music, and dry ice, and phalanxes of kids hip-hopping to a disco beat. It was, I have to say, awful, and when it was finished, my notebook was full of exclamation marks, not because I liked any of it, but because that was the show's entire emotional range. Everything was fan-tas-tic! Yay!
At the end, I went up to the stage to do interviews and on the way, I passed a pretty little girl who was there with her mother. The mother's name was Monice, and she was the wife of the Vanoc director of design. It was the first she or her daughter had seen of the mascots. Her husband had kept the mascots' identities secret from them. The little girl couldn't take her eyes off the mascots up on stage.
"My name is Dakota," she said, "and I'm four. I like Miga."
It was the way she said it, and the way she bounced in her seat with excitement that I knew right then and there:
They're going to make a killing selling these things.
Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2007
They did not, as I was campaigning for, go for the Taser mascot.
(Motto: "Come to Vancouver in 2010! We'll electrify you!")
They went adorable, instead, while quadrupling the franchise's earning potential. As Maclean's magazine writer Ken MacQueen said to me when we first saw them, getting off the day's best line:
"Aren't they the cutest little profit centres you ever saw?"
Cute, but weird, too. They seem to take their design cues from Japanese anime. There's something blankly happy about them. Black button eyes. Well mannered smiles. Those big kewpie-doll heads.
And, as usual, Vanoc went native, and heavily so, since it believes the only culture worth promoting to the world is first nations. That, or it's the most marketable.
There was Miga who, according to Vanoc, is "the sea bear inspired by the legends of the Pacific Northwest first nations," and is supposed to be a hybrid between an orca and a Kermode bear.
Miga is a she, though that wasn't my first guess. Miga surfs. Miga snowboards. Miga wears a scarf that makes her look, well, frankly, gay. But for the life of me, I take one look at that dorsal fin/cowlick on top of her head and can't help thinking that she looks exactly like Alfalfa from Our Gang. Miga's dream is to land "a corked 720 in the halfpipe," whatever the hell that is.
Sumi, "whose name comes from the Salish word 'Sumesh' which means 'Guardian Spirit,' " and who "flies with the wings of the mighty thunderbird and runs on the strong furry legs of the black bear" looks like an Ewok wearing a colander on his head. Sumi likes hot cocoa. Isn't that nice?
Quatchi, the sasquatch who, according to the purple-prosed Vanoc press release, "reminds us of the mystery and wonder that exists in the natural world, igniting our imagination about the possibility of fantastical creatures in the great Canadian wilderness," has the barrel-like dimensions of a contestant on The Biggest Loser. Quatchi looks like the unfortunately hefty guy at the school prom, a teddy bear with a thyroid problem and a stoner's chin beard. He is shy, and a little clumsy, we are told, which is why Quatchi "dreams of becoming a world-famous goalie" and why, with his shaggy tan coat, he reminds me of an old moccasin slipper the dog chewed up and left under the sofa. He wears blue earmuffs and has a tattoo of an inukshuk on his right arm. Either that, or he's been branded. And instead of going barefoot, in traditional sasquatch style, he wears mukluks, which is a native word for "mukluks."
Which sounds a lot like the name of our last, and least, member of the Games gang, Mukmuk, official fourth banana of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Mukmuk is a Vancouver Island marmot who gets his name, according to the press release, from "the Squamish First Nation word 'muckamuck' which means food, because he loves to eat!" (As in, "My, how the high muckamucks of the International Olympic Committee love to eat well on the backs of taxpayers!")
I don't get Mukmuk, or the reason for his existence. Mukmuk is not officially one of the main mascots, but for some reason has had his status notched down a level to just a "sidekick" mascot "who always supports and cheers loudly for his friends during games and races" when "he is not hibernating or sunbathing on rocks and logs." Something of a schlub, in other words. A watcher, not a doer. A guy content to stay at home and scarf down nachos instead of getting some exercise. Mukmuk wears a toque, the uniform of the Ugly Canadian, and a vacant smile, ditto. He didn't even make an appearance at Tuesday's show at Surrey's Bell Performing Arts Centre, presumably because he was busy going extinct.
And, oh my, the show. I should say a few words about the show. Vanoc bused 800 elementary school kids in from around Metro Vancouver. They all looked to be about eight, and they sat there fidgeting, waiting for things to begin.
To ramp up the excitement before the show, somebody installed a video camera on the end of a big 30-foot boom, and its operator would swing the boom like a fishing rod over the kids' heads. The kids, thinking they were on TV, would leap out of their seats as the camera coasted overhead and scream and wave their arms at it. They looked like schools of minnow rising.
Then the show started, and three annoyingly upbeat kids in winter gear came out on stage. They had that A-type air of student council presidents, and they yelled out things like "That was awesome!" and " Fan-tas-tic!" and "Now let's pretend Team Canada just scored the winning goal! Ready? One! Two! Three! Yay!"
Then the show started in earnest, the part where the kids were introduced to Miga, Quatchi and Sumi one by one, who came out in their velour mascot costumes and danced around the way mascots do, but not Mukmuk, and it was the usual upbeat, irrepressibly chipper Olympian musical extravaganza -- Busby Berkeley out of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm -- and there were girls twirling in giant lampshades that were supposed to represent jellyfish, and things that looked like giant corkscrews dancing around, and surfers doing the mashed potato to surfer music, and dry ice, and phalanxes of kids hip-hopping to a disco beat. It was, I have to say, awful, and when it was finished, my notebook was full of exclamation marks, not because I liked any of it, but because that was the show's entire emotional range. Everything was fan-tas-tic! Yay!
At the end, I went up to the stage to do interviews and on the way, I passed a pretty little girl who was there with her mother. The mother's name was Monice, and she was the wife of the Vanoc director of design. It was the first she or her daughter had seen of the mascots. Her husband had kept the mascots' identities secret from them. The little girl couldn't take her eyes off the mascots up on stage.
"My name is Dakota," she said, "and I'm four. I like Miga."
It was the way she said it, and the way she bounced in her seat with excitement that I knew right then and there:
They're going to make a killing selling these things.