Jesus, Barbie To Share Shelf At Wal-Mart
LOS ANGELES — A foot-high plastic Jesus doll that quotes Scripture and a three-inch Daniel in the lions' den are about to do battle with Barbie and Bratz in toy aisles across America.
The nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has announced that it will start carrying a line of faith-based toys in 425 of its 3,376 stores later this month to see if characters such as Spirit Warrior Samson can rival the popularity of superhero figures like Spiderman.
The move is a first for the chain, which has carried religious-themed products including stationery and books before but never a line of toys.
A spokesman for Wal-Mart said the "faith-enriching toys," made by One2believe, a Californian company, would go on sale mainly in stores in the Midwest and South, the country's religious heartlands. David Socha, the chief executive of One2Believe, described his products as "real superheroes they [children] can believe in" and part of a "battle for the toy box" that offers parents an alternative to dolls and figures with violent or sexual overtones.
"The gradual decline of what children are offered is definitely heavy on our heart," said Mr. Socha yesterday. He is a father of two who first started working with toys as a child in his parents' New York toy shop. "If you walk down the toy aisles, you see a lot of reproductions of Satan," or dolls that promote promiscuity.
"I think we have to glorify good, not bad, and most parents want an alternative to what's out there. That's what we aim to provide, and I believe there is a very large market here."
The company hopes to tap into a feeling shared by many parents about the inappropriateness of toys such as the mini-skirted Bratz dolls, which earlier this year were described as "worrisome" by the American Psychological Association for their association with "objectified adult sexuality."
