Posted on 04/19/2003 6:43:32 PM PDT by Indy Pendance
DANBURY, Conn. (AP) -- Emil Vicale's business really began to surge when he put Osama bin Laden in a pink dress.
His new hit is Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, who comes in two versions, "dumb" and "dumber." The dumber one talks.
Vicale's Danbury-based company, Herobuilders.com, makes action figures of notables in the Iraq war and the war on terrorism, from President Bush to Saddam Hussein.
For those who find bin Laden too menacing in military fatigues, Herobuilders offers another outfit.
"We made him a nice pink dress," Vicale said Friday. "The demand was so much we had to look for a seamstress who specializes in these little clothes."
Vicale ran a design firm when he acquired toybuilders.com, a maker of custom toys, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He said he was inspired by President Bush's speech at Ground Zero, when he declared, "The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." Vicale made a doll of Bush that speaks those words.
He then decided to make a bin Laden figure, and discovered the villain was a big seller.
Vicale, 42, won't provide exact figures, but says he has sold thousands of the dolls, mostly in the United States and Britain.
"It's just unbelievable," Vicale said.
As he talked, the phone at his small company rang continually and orders came in over the Internet. One employee took orders while another sculpted the action figures.
Doll parts were placed on shelves under signs that marked the different products, including "Dirty Terrorist," "Saddam Insane," and "Ally," for British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The talking doll of al-Sahhaf, who gained notoriety by steadfastly denying coalition gains as U.S. troops stormed toward Baghdad, includes audio clips from him such as "There are no American infidels in Baghdad, Never!"
Vicale has a long list of new dolls he's planning, including the leaders of France, Russia and Germany, who opposed the Iraq war.
Action figures are a $1.2 billion annual industry in the United States, said Chris Byrne, an independent toy consultant. Herobuilder's novelty items are a small but profitable part of the business, he said.
"It's sort of capitalizing on what's going on right now," Byrne said. "It's a very jingoistic time right now for the United States. People express themselves through the toys they buy."
Vicale gets his share of hate mail, which he publishes on his Web site. One critic said the dolls capitalize on tragedy, while others call them racist.
Vicale denies those charges, saying he is poking fun at America's enemies while nonviolently venting his anger over terrorism.
"There's another way to do this - that's to put the leader of al-Qaida, in a nice dress on the Internet where his picture will be viewed forever. At the end of the day it's probably more therapy for me," he said.
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