Jack the Ripper Toys

[Fantomas]

Macfarlane Toys have newly released a "chamber of Horrors" style Jack the Ripper figure and MCW toys website details a history of Jack the Ripper action figures and other toys (the vaguely connected Mattel figure from Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Last action Hero' notwithstanding) here.

Ripper action figures are a small sub section of my own collection of Dracula ephemera, so I already know a little bit about all of this. However it is always fascinating to see JtR represented as a toy - or, indeed, many of his fabled accoutrements sold as childrens' costumery and role playing toys (plastic knives and pocket-money priced top hats for example) Worth a skim through:

http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_112305b.htm

[Christian]

Interesting but a little odd!! Thanks for sharing

[erobitha]

I will have to side with Hallie Rubenhold with stuff like this. It’s pretty distasteful at the very least. He was an actual serial killer with real victims. To release toys that depict him as some kind of cartoon character does not do much for those who study the murders and the time period. It plays right into the stereotype HR promotes is your typical Ropperologist.

Where does it end? Will there be a range of Ted Bundy toys with customised VW beetle to match? Harold Shipman and a set of syringes? John Wayne Gacy toy clown?

I think it’s pretty appalling to be honest. Maybe it’s just me.

[Herlock Sholmes]

A while ago I posted a link to someone selling a ‘serial killer colouring book.’ I’m the world’s least politically correct person but I totally agree with Erobitha on this issue. Frankenstein, Dracula etc …no problem but JTR had very real victims.

[Losmandris]

I think this happens a lot with the passage of time. Somehow some historical figures are 'softened up' and made acceptable, just look at the likes of Ghengis Khan or Julius Caesar (Really nasty pieces of work). All sense of humanity is removed. In the case of JtR because of the all the films, media etc. to most people he has become ranked among the likes of Dracula and Dr Jekyll, a fantasy person, not a real person (I also suppose not actually knowing his identity has helped in this). However as mentioned above his victims remain very real, especially in the eyes of people like us. I can of understand how this has come about but I agree, for me its all rather distasteful.

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

As action figures go, it's pretty crappy in it's own right.
I'd have to agree with Tristan though, it's promotion of the myth of Jack. It's not a model of a real person, it's a presentation of legend, a bogey man. For many, that's what 'Jack The Ripper' is.
It's like the popularisation of Pirates with children. It's odd when you stop and think about it, but the passing of time has changed the perspective. Maybe in 200 years we'll have kids dressed as Nazi's?

[Losmandris]

As action figures go, it's pretty crappy in it's own right.
I'd have to agree with Tristan though, it's promotion of the myth of Jack. It's not a model of a real person, it's a presentation of legend, a bogey man. For many, that's what 'Jack The Ripper' is.
It's like the popularisation of Pirates with children. It's odd when you stop and think about it, but the passing of time has changed the perspective. Maybe in 200 years we'll have kids dressed as Nazi's?

Totally. It seems impossible but could well be the case. Your point about pirates is a great example. The mind boggles sometimes. Though we often see the past through rose tinted specs sometimes, with all its pointy edges removed.

[Fantomas]

I take many of your points on taste on board.

Without the folkloric aspect - and with it all the manifestations of merchandise that come with it (Jack the Ripper and the murders, however informatively and sensitively handled, are to modern Whitechapel, Tower Hill and London what the Loch Ness Monster is to Drumnadrochit and Fort Augustus, no?) - I think the cash-in aspect would be more tactfully approached. However, when JtR is usually a surefire bestseller in a writer's canon of books and time and tide have created this parallel mythical monster, memorabilia production isn't unexpected.

[Ms Diddles]

As action figures go, it's pretty crappy in it's own right.
I'd have to agree with Tristan though, it's promotion of the myth of Jack. It's not a model of a real person, it's a presentation of legend, a bogey man. For many, that's what 'Jack The Ripper' is.
It's like the popularisation of Pirates with children. It's odd when you stop and think about it, but the passing of time has changed the perspective. Maybe in 200 years we'll have kids dressed as Nazi's?

It's already happened!

311852_8901669_updates.jpg (300×540) (geo.tv)

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

It's already happened!

311852_8901669_updates.jpg (300×540) (geo.tv)

Ein Kristallnacht on the tiles!

[Fiver]

A while ago I posted a link to someone selling a ‘serial killer colouring book.’ I’m the world’s least politically correct person but I totally agree with Erobitha on this issue. Frankenstein, Dracula etc …no problem but JTR had very real victims.

I'm uncomfortable with profiting from the death of real people, but I don't think the action figures and coloring books are as bad as many books "solving" the case. It is one thing to honestly analyze the facts about a Ripper suspect, but "true solution" books generally consist largely of speculation and selective interpretation. Usually they also require actively ignoring inconvenient facts that undermine the theory.

[Damaso Marte]

Sigh, another top hat. Not even George Hutchinson dared to propose a top hatted killer.

[John Wheat]

This toy is based on the myth of Jack the Ripper as a top hatted toff. Despite that it still find it in bad taste.