Jen Yamato is a Deadline contributor.
Action figures created for Quentin Tarantino’s slave pic Django Unchained are going for $300 apiece and up right now on sites like eBay after distributor The Weinstein Company announced today it was pulling they toys off the shelves. The dolls based on the Best Picture Oscar nominee prompted pundits and civil rights groups including Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network to call for a boycott. The NECA-issued toys had been selling for $39.99 on Amazon and had been created “as a matter of course” for fans 17 years and older, according to the studio, which released a statement today announcing the move. “In light of the reaction to the Django Unchained action figures we are removing them from distribution. We have tremendous respect for the audience and it was never our intent to offend anyone. Action figures have been created for all of Quentin’s films including Inglourious Basterds, and as a matter of course produced them for Django Unchained as well. “They were meant to be collectibles for people 17 years and older, which is the audience for the film.” Right now, a complete set of the toys is bidding up past $1000 and counting on eBay.
The toy line, announced by NECA and TWC in September, includes six poseable 8-inch-high action figures crafted in the likeness of its stars, including the titular freed slave Django (Jamie Foxx), his enslaved wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington), and German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz). The line also includes figures for Leonardo DiCaprio’s plantation owner Calvin Candie, Samuel L. Jackson’s Stephen, and Candie’s confidant Butch played by James Remar.


“In light of the reaction to the Django Unchained action figures we are removing them from distribution.”
Yeah, right. “We are soooooo sorry about that, we absolutely could not have guessed it would be controversial, we are so surprised.”
Harvey will be Harvey…
So how many of the dolls did Sharpton buy and stash in a closet before he started driving up the price? Nice scam.
@Geewhiz – Haha, funny man. If what you say is true ‘Big Rev Al’ is coming up on these ‘Django’ figures baby.
I wonder when the Al Sharpton’s of the world are going to realize that whipping up a media controversy over this sort of thing is only gonna make them hotter sells.
I’m Black and really only raised an eyebrow to this before I learned that it had been done for EVERY OTHER TARANTINO MOVIE. It’s not as if they were selling plantation sets with little holes in them to pop in your toy slaves in different parts.
“It’s not as if they were selling plantation sets with little holes in them to pop in your toy slaves in different parts.”
Ok now that made me laugh out loud.
Amazon just refunded the order I made a week ago. I’m so mad! I love movie themed collectibles and as much as I loved this film, these would have been my prized possession. Screw you Sharpton! I can’t believe this BS!
I remember watching Antiques Roadshow once and someone brought in some pre-Civil War slave I.D. tags and ankle chains and other items related to slavery in the South. The appraiser, a black guy, put a value of several thousand dollars on the items and seemed almost gleeful to be holding them. Go figure.
so some black kid cannot make believe his django action figure is beating the hell out of the candie figure anymore – how’s that a step forward in civil rights?
what the fuck–a toy ban?
this is unbelievably stupid.
I’m black and I”m not offended by these at all. Not the movie, the figures, nada
People are fucking morons anyway for not looking at the context of the fucking story; Quentin made a movie about blacks beating up white for fucks sake how much more apologetic does he need to be. That’s like US GI’s hating Inglorious Basterds for its realisitic yet fictional portrayal of how the US kicked hitler’s ass. Peple are fucked up.
Wonder what I could get for my “Moses in bondage/10 Commandments” action figure…
Django Unshelved.
Amazon refunded my money I don’t want the $$$ I want my Action Figure!!!I am within my rights to sue I purchased said Action Figure on the 11th of January way before Al “Bitch all Day ” Sharpton requested if off the Shelves! This Is An Outrage!!!!! #Court Time!
Slavery is a very real part of life. Thank god it has been eliminated for the most part in the world. We as a society are smart enough to know that it is JUST a movie. No humans were really enslaved to make it. I’ve always wondered what church Al Shaprton belongs to anyways, that allows someone to be who he is. A fame seeking leach.
Best. Oscar. Campaign. Ever.
Now that’s classic!!! Django Unshelved, LOL!
I cannot believe the people that actually supported this crap.
@RLS “I’m Black and really only raised an eyebrow to this before I learned that it had been done for EVERY OTHER TARANTINO MOVIE.”
Yes, dolls were made for every other movie, but let’s look at HOW they were made for every other movie, including the best comparison: Inglorious Basterds.
That “dreamed up” tale of fiction didn’t take place in the heart of the holocaust. We didn’t see one concentration camp or one emaciated, enslaved, starving and tortured Jew. Mr. Tarantino (who answered to Jews mainly) knew very well what was sacred and not to touch it when he was messing with Jewish history, but with Black Americans? Oh, do whatever you like, Quentin! (Laugh, wink, wink.)
Now, let’s get to the dolls in question. Inglorious Basterds had all of TWO dolls that I saw (not a set of 6), and both of those dolls were SOLDIERS on opposing sides of the war. Had Django’s dolls just been 2 soldiers, one confederate and one Yankee, then I don’t think you’d be seeing anyone having an issue with this, but of course that’s not what happened…
The equivalent to slave dolls and their twisted, sadistic, evil master would be holocaust victims and Hitler. That NEVER would have happened for Inglorious Basterds. Hey — It didn’t even happen in the film!
None of the dolls are clearly slaves and slave owners.
These figures are being pulled down by EBay and they are sending emails to sellers telling them that since the manufacturer stopped selling them because they were “potentially offensive” that Ebay would not allow them to be sold there either.
There were several hundred auctions up earlier today and now there are less than 80. I guess they are working their way through them all.
I can see how a toy of a Dentist might be offensive, his suit was totally out of style…fashion crime.
Do an eBay search for lawn jockeys then see how ridiculous this really is