How Evil Is Too Evil: Collectibles and Nazis

[CelticPredator]

It's not evil. It's a plastic Nazi.

I have a few Nazi's in my collection. Indiana Jones??? I have 4 4inch Nazi's, and Toht.

I'm an evil person.

 

[Skiman]

Off topic from the Nazi stuff as I don't think that would bother my household since Red Skull doesn't bother my wife, only if I were to wave a Nazi flag around the house then we might have trouble.

My wife would not allow something like Lord of Darkness in our house, she's not a prude of any kind, heck she'd like all of the AH! or nude women in our place before a Devil with horns comes to display. I think she is thinking about us being Christian and definitely not for the sight of our kids.

Thank god she sees my point on Darth Maul being a part of SW other than he looks like a Satan creation as well.

 

[King Darkness]

Really just dont care

With everything that goes on in my life on a daily basis I just cant find the time to be offended by a toy.

I have no desire to collect nazi figures, not because they are nazis but because I have zero interest in them.

 

[karamazov80]

I don't think Hitler ever murdered anyone directly, so one could argue that if you were British (or black) living back in those days, Washington was probably no better and perhaps worse to them than Hitler is to us. He was either directly or indirectly involved in the deaths, some murder, some by war, of thousands of Brits. He was a traitorous villian that was turning his back against God and country and killing his/their own people.

I don't know. Being responsible for a death for a narrow political/military purpose that is ultimately concerned with some "greater good" (as opposed to one's own selfish ambitions for the maintenance of power) and attempting genocide aren't remotely comparable in my book. I guess that's a discussion for philosophers or would-be philosophers, but it seems pretty clear cut in my subjective conception of ethics/morality.

Also, I have two Red Skull Minimates, and a Toht action figure that I had since I was 4 years old or so. But again, these aren't really Nazis and never actually killed anybody. The fact that they do fictionally have a connection with a real life mass murderer is a bit disturbing on some levels, but I personally don't mind it because Captain America/Indiana Jones need somebody to beat up on. And after zombies, terrorists and robots, Nazis are the best enemies around.

 

[d_jedi1]

Just gonna toss out that I have a Nazi for my Indy and given the right set of figures/diorama, WOULD have a Hitler for the SAME purposes. (ie: Indy)

Might eventually do a Boston Tea party bash just for the fun of it.. one man's patriot is another man's terrorist.
If I have a purpose within a given frame of reference, dio., whatever I'll have figures of real, historical monsters and madmen.
Which reminds me.. I need to start looking for reference on Nobunaga.

 

[Minimodel]

The Hassenfeld brothers(HAS-BRO) nearly came to blows over the issuing of a German Stormtrooper uniform as part of the "Soldiers of the World" collection for the original G.I Joe line,but saw past their differences and the uniform went on to become one of the most popular in the entire range.

 

[King Darkness]

I said a murderer was worse than someone whose worst sin was having slaves.

I would rather be murdered than enslaved. Slavery is in everyway as bad or worse than murder imo.

 

[LordAzrael]

I think if you ONLY collected Nazi's then it might be a bit of a concern, but if you are collecting them as VILLAINS, then its not really a problem for me. That said - they did have the best looking uniforms.

I for one could have a Hitler figure signing Indy's Grail diary - for instance. Or a Red Skull getting beaten up by Captain America. Or Kroenen to pose with Hellboy.

 

[Cloud]

...for example having a figure of a member of the klu klux klan I would find very strange and probably racist.

That's funny. A lot of people seem to like Mt. Rushmore, which was designed and sculpted by a member of the KKK.

 

[King Darkness]

That's funny. A lot of people seem to like Mt. Rushmore, which was designed and sculpted by a member of the KKK.

Is it wrong to appreciate the artistic quality of something because of its creators beliefs or behaviors?

 

[BadMoon]

He was? I didn't know he murdered women and children en masse.

Yeah he killed everyone. He didn't care.

"I have killed men and women, old and young... 23,884 Turks and Bulgarians without counting those whom we burned alive in their homes or whose heads were not chopped off by our soldiers..."

 

[Dash]

I suppose it would be the owner's intentions regarding the piece. It's one thing to own a Nazi figure because you collect military figures from the WWII era, another thing altogether if you're buying them because you find heroism in what they stood for.
Regarding Landa: He's simply a fictional character from a movie. Sure he's a Nazi, but he's fictional. He's guilty of no more real life evil than Jason Voorhees (although I'm sure that there's a lot of people who'd turn their nose up at the thought of owning a figure of an hockey mask wearing, undead murderer as well).

 

[Valfar]

Who gives a rats ass, they are displayed in the privacy of your own home.

 

[Skiman]

Really just dont care

With everything that goes on in my life on a daily basis I just cant find the time to be offended by a toy.

I have no desire to collect nazi figures, not because they are nazis but because I have zero interest in them.

If it were up to me I guess I wouldn't care either, I would have all the demons and nastiest evil stuff, not that it makes me a evil person but I can see my wife's point of view so I will have to respect it.

 

[The Ween]

It doesn't matter to me. I don't worship my figures and PFs.

If someone gets offended by, say, my Hellboy figure, I guess they don't need to come to my house then if they're gonna judge me by a figure I own.

My father used to build models all the time and he prefered WWII German planes and tanks. He hated Nazis more than anyone. It didn't make him a bad person in building those.

As for a Hitler, I wouldn't have a problem owning one if it was a figure of an actor that was playing a role in a movie that I was collecting the line for. An actual figure of Hitler I probably wouldn't have a need of owning. I wouldn't care about anyone else having it either unless they were a skin head, but then I wouldn't have anything to do with such a person anyway.

We had a discussion some time back about a statue that someone made and was being banned from showcasing because it depicted a child performing a sex act on a teacher. As I said then, I would not like walking into someone's house and seeing that and I would question why someone would want to own it. This is not the same thing though.

 

[Skiman]

I have a feeling my mother in law is going to walk into my collection room whenever we have a house this year and look at my Maul bust and go "ohhh my, I'm not sure about that...." while my father in-law would just laugh and can't wait to look at everything along with the detail. My mother would just call me crazy and laugh but she's known me with all the fantasy, sci-fi, movie stuff...

 

[-Super Hans-]

I have displayed generic nazis in the past and had no problem with it. I do draw the line when it comes to real life nazis being made into figures ie; DID's rienhard heydrich, 3r's adolf or even sideshows vlad. I see a big difference between generic representations and real life figures.

 

[Darth Cruel]

I would be OK with owning a Hitler figure. I know that I am not buying it to idolize it but rather to mark an event in History that needs to be remembered whether that is for making sure to follow the example or to make sure the example is never allowed to happen again, as would be the case with a Hitler figure.

Movies are made about him, he is included in books about him as well as books about others associated with him. His photograph is in nearly every History book on Earth. His story is taught to nearly every child, and for good reason. So why discriminate between mediums. I would not have an issue at all with buying a figure and my son asking me who it is and then telling him about how terrible a man Hitler was.

And this goes with any Evil Character. Vlad the Impaler has figures. Blackbeard the Pirate has figures. And I see no difference between them and Hitler other than the overall scale of their attrocities. My own opinion is that people like that are kindred spirits.

But we need to not hide these people in a closet. We need to place them in the light right next to (well, maybe on the shelf below) our heroes. We just need to remember why we are doing it.

And I think it would be a perfectly acceptible display to set Hitler's action figure right next to the leaders who defeated him as a testament to the scale of their victory.

 

[wofford29]

If Hot Toys made a Bruno Ganz Hitler from Downfall I'd be all over it.

 

[Shai]

who cares....