To go serious for a second, I believe it is less about parent groups potentially complaining, and more about fear of some nutbag redhat going on social media and praising Hasbro for finally making a KKK action figure. Which is insane, since CoCo doesn’t look like that at all in a hood. This whole stupid tempest in a teapot goes back to Lorenzo di Bonaventura running his mouth about the hood back when he was working on his crap Joe movies. It’s the silliest, most reactionary, least logical thing ever regarding this brand. I mean he’s the leader of a terrorist organization for shit’s sake. Not only is the “ban” ridiculous and unnecessary, it also dilutes the very real need to root out *actual* redhat/fascist/nazi dog-whistling in media. This topic seriously grinds my gears.
Yeah, unfortunately, I think it's just a product of the world we live in currently. Obviously, Nazis have been and always will be lower than the scum of the earth, but even a decade or so ago, when they were a quiet minority in the world, it didn't seem like such a big deal. Hell, they even became the butt of the joke or the punching bag (as they should). But now that the world is back to increasingly vocal and violent hate groups, it rubs people the wrong way to see any sort of cult-like imagery, however antiquated it may be. I suspect that's part of why things like the Indiana Jones Adventure Series didn't go deeper (aside from poor sales)- its villains are literal Nazis, and it's weird to both produce that, and have that on your shelf, even if you leave the literal insignia itself off. It's a really fine line, and like you said, it doesn't matter that said figure is clearly presented as the bad guy, you're going to get both parents/human rights groups that complain, but also the worst person you've ever met in your life is going to praise them for doing it, so it's easier to just not attempt. I think you can get away with it on something like Star Wars because there's so much else to the story, that the themes are hidden behind cool alien designs and space lasers, whereas Indiana Jones, and even GI Joe to an extent, are rooted more in realism.
I definitely agree it's a bit silly. I of course see both sides, but I've always been of the mind that you can't try to bury these sorts of ideas, lest you be doomed to repeat it. It's definitely a double-edged sword and a tricky balance, but you've gotta keep those sorts of people in the discussion so you can teach people that it's not okay. Yeah, it's an uncomfortable topic for many to discuss, but it should be- we shouldn't ever be comfortable with these kinds of people (especially enough to make them an elected official). We definitely, as a society, shy away from having difficult discussions with our kids (everything from sex to politics), and it does effect people's ability to absorb and process such topics later on.
Anyway. I fear I'm losing the plot a bit here, and I don't mean to derail this already political thread with even more politics.