NationStates Jolt Archive

I've got mixed feelings, (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11501081/) I have to say.
Those of us who enjoy military history usually just switch on the History Channel for our daily fix of guts, gore and armed conflict. But if you’re a serious war buff, and you want to relive one of the most horrifying moments in the deadliest war in human history, an Italian toy maker has just the thing.

Brumm recently unveiled miniature models of “Little Boy” and “Fat Man.” Those names may conjure up images of cuddly cartoon characters, but they’re actually the codenames for two atomic bombs that the U.S. military dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the final days of World War II....

Tiny weapons of mass destruction are an unusual departure for a company that to date has focused on miniature models of Ferraris and Fiat Pandas that it fashions from a metal alloy of zinc, copper and aluminum at its factory near Como, Italy. Each bomb costs around $10 and comes mounted on a fetching display inscribed with the location, date and exact time of detonation.

Not surprisingly, Brumm has been roundly condemned for making the atomic toys. Critics say they are in poor taste, but the criticism, apparently, is unwarranted. A Brumm spokesman said the company was only trying to do its bit for world history, protesting “against the insanity of nuclear-war” according to a report in the U.K.’s Scottish Daily Record. We reckon actually producing these tasteless model bombs will end up being a fairly insane act too.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060223/060223_AtomBombToy03_hmed_6p.hmedium.jpg

The idea that someone would market these is disturbing to me, although the difference between this and toy soldiers is one of scale, not of type. And yet, I have to admit that I think they look kind of cool.

So would you buy them? Take the poll.

Oh Yes, because I enjoy thinking about the destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki! YAY For Atomic Bombs !!!! :rolleyes:

If it does only get sold to museums or buffs fine but the chances of that probably aren't very high.

Tacky. Not something I'd relish if I received it as a gift item... likely something I'd exchange, if possible. Yeah. Tacky.

They'll sell like Muhammed cartoons in the middle east. :D

What the heck would I do with them? The only thing I can think of is to use them as a white elephant gift at the corporate christmas party next year.
Who thinks this stuff up?

Hey, you don't like historical toys? Why not refuse to teach kids about the bombs at all. After all ignorance is bliss.

*Psst: Hate to tell you this, but we are a nasty, violent species, and our kids are :eek: the SAME species.*

You know what? They should have toy nuclear bombs that grow mushrooms.

So would you buy them?

only if they came with little nagasakis and hiroshimas that get vaporized :rolleyes:

genius that is marketing triumphs again!

Hey, you don't like historical toys? Why not refuse to teach kids about the bombs at all. After all ignorance is bliss.

*Psst: Hate to tell you this, but we are a nasty, violent species, and our kids are :eek: the SAME species.*

I understand teaching, and maybe it would be a good educational toy, but I don't have kids, and plan not to have any until 2010. Also if I sent them to my sisters kids they would disown me.

Uhm...well, maybe someone who's seriously into history...but the rest of us probably have little interest in a little egg-shaped dealie and an oversized torpedo sitting in our desks gathering dust. Poor taste? ehhh...I suppose...I mean...hmm. I guess it is. I mean, a model of the planes that hit the twin towers wouldn't exactly be too tasteful. But given a few decades, maybe someone will make models of those, too. But then, I guess there'd be nothing at all to distinguish them...except for tail numbers or something...so I guess no one would bother...
WOW that went onto a tangent...

only if they came with little nagasakis and hiroshimas that get vaporized :rolleyes:

genius that is marketing triumphs again!
The real genius, I think, came in introducing the toys at a toy fair in Nuremberg. That would probably be second on my list of bad places to introduce such a toy behind, oh, anywhere in Japan.

Just models? Megh, come and get me when they have working replicas.

For, um, home defense, of course. I wouldn't, not just so I could, um, not . . . er . . .
*waves Second Amendment*

y'all probably dont even live in towns with pieces of atomic bombs mounted in the city plaza!

i wonder what makes them think they will be big sellers.

I'd buy them if I was in to collecting random models of military equipment, but I'm not so I can't say that I would.

I don't see the controversy; why are atomic bombs considered "in poor taste" while it is perfectly acceptable to make and sell realistic models of historical guns, ships, planes vehicles and soliders?

I mean, those things surely killed many times more civilians than those two bombs, so obviously it would be in poor taste to make them as well?

I just don't understand the almost religious reprehension towards nuclear weapons when in reality conventional weaponry has caused tens of thousands of times more devastation but is not viewed in the same light...if anything, these models are a great historical tool for instruction, and look cool to boot.

Plus, you could probably use them as paperweights or a part of some kind of cool alternate-history diorama...

cool. something new to add to my collection of doom. It will fit in right alongside my various other (some real, some models) displays of ways humans have come up with to kill themselves.

I think it would be kinda cool to have some thing like this!
I wonder what scale these are, and if they would match my B-52 model, 1/72 scale! I just need a B-29 model and I'll be set!! :)

Are they working models?

Are they working models?

"Hey, whats this little switch do?"

(click)
*BOOM!!*

I'll admit it, I read this and all I could do is blink. Is this even supposed to be a toy?

I'll admit it, I read this and all I could do is blink. Is this even supposed to be a toy?

No, however this article ever made the editorial page of anyone's rag is truely amazing.

You know what? They should have toy nuclear bombs that grow mushrooms.
Now that would be cool.

I have to agree with Nazz about it being a matter of scale. We have plenty of models of the planes used to drop these bombs and the bombs that set fire to the bulk of Tokyo etc. Military fetishism has always offset me a bit, collecting tools meant to kill people in volumne, delighting in watching gun cameras and bombing footage. Certainly a curiosity, a historical interest, but it's the ones who cheer-that smile while they tell me what the gun on that truck would do to me. The glee for war, kind of disturbing.

But if we have the planes that carried the bombs, it seems only natural to have the bombs themselves. If you had asked me before this article if there was a model of Fat Man and Little Boy I would have been sure it already existed. The only suprise is the time it took.

No, however this article ever made the editorial page of anyone's rag is truely amazing.

I dunno. I've seen editorials in gaming magazines on people needing to pick up their dog's crap when they walk them, after all. Often times, an editorial's standard is simply to be filler.

Series 2 will include a small canister of Sarin gas and a suicide bomb vest the kids can actually wear! In harmless pastel colors, of course. :p

Series 2 will include a small canister of Sarin gas and a suicide bomb vest the kids can actually wear! In harmless pastel colors, of course. :p
"You hear that? It's empty. This one was used, man..."

Yay...

"You hear that? It's empty. This one was used, man..."

I used it to recharge my air conditioner. :)

*cough cough*

Those look pretty damn good. I would buy.

Now that would be cool.

I have to agree with Nazz about it being a matter of scale. We have plenty of models of the planes used to drop these bombs and the bombs that set fire to the bulk of Tokyo etc. Military fetishism has always offset me a bit, collecting tools meant to kill people in volumne, delighting in watching gun cameras and bombing footage. Certainly a curiosity, a historical interest, but it's the ones who cheer-that smile while they tell me what the gun on that truck would do to me. The glee for war, kind of disturbing.

But if we have the planes that carried the bombs, it seems only natural to have the bombs themselves. If you had asked me before this article if there was a model of Fat Man and Little Boy I would have been sure it already existed. The only suprise is the time it took.That's pretty much the point Vetalia made on the page prior to this one, only he noted that the other weapons that are produced as toys have killed a far greater number of people than the two a-bombs did, and yet they're still considered toys.

My guess as to why I had such an instinctive negative reaction to theme (other than the fact that I've never liked guns or soldiers as toys) is because the a-bomb is a different animal. It was so powerful and so destructive that even though the major powers did all they could to get as many of them as possible, they've not been used since. There's something terrifying about them that just doesn't translate into a machine gun, for instance. It was why, in the run up to the Iraq War, the Bush administration constantly raised the specter of uranium and the mushroom cloud more than anything else--because it puts people into panic mode.

Who cares? I can't see these toys being interesting or popular. I wouldn't buy them myself, because I avoid wasting my money on crap.

The idea that someone would market these is disturbing to me, although the difference between this and toy soldiers is one of scale, not of type. And yet, I have to admit that I think they look kind of cool.
Welcome to the wonderful world of unfetted capitalism.


To answer your Q, yeah I'd buy them. Do they come with scale models of before and after Hiroshima/Nagasaki? They should consider marketing build your own radiation victims. Wouldn't matter if you lost a piece or two when making them.

Slick, I'll take a pair.

Someone should make them into Transformers, though.

I would buy one

Someone should make them into Transformers, though.

Look here comes the Ice Cream truck! OMFG!!! ITS A NUKE

that would be so awesome

I dunno. I don't see it as being much different from fake guns or swords. Of course there is a difference, but not much. Also, some of the pieces look a bit delicate (the little wire pieces on the bombs) for little kids to use, so I think this is more of a grown up toy or something.

Of course, it would be hypocritical saying you wouldn't buy these but still be OK with other violence toys. As if killing is OK as long as you make every killing exclusive.

Sure, buying them is no different then buying a model Tiger tank or F-16

I've got mixed feelings, (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11501081/) I have to say.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060223/060223_AtomBombToy03_hmed_6p.hmedium.jpg

The idea that someone would market these is disturbing to me, although the difference between this and toy soldiers is one of scale, not of type. And yet, I have to admit that I think they look kind of cool.

So would you buy them? Take the poll.

I'd buy them. They're pretty cool. Do you have to buy extra uranium for them?