Hasbro unleashes 'Spastic' Transformer

Kiddies toy outfit Hasbro has pulled off a bit of a branding blinder with the release of its "Spastic with Stunticons" Transformer, which apparently forms part of its Power Core Combiners 2011 Wave 2 range. The Spastic Transformer Transformer fan site Seibertron.com contacted Hasbro when it discovered that the word spastic …

[Gordon Pryra]

70's Artwork?

Is it just me or does anything that comes out of the states look like its come from the 1970's? (Or Germany)

Maybe its just the filter on the camera used...

Anyway, I want one!!

[Lottie]

I can just see

Megatron ordering him to go lick the autobots windows TO DEAAATH!

[Michael Habel]

Wait wat?

There are times I really hate this Politically Correct Bullexcrement!

Yeah I know that Spastic ~could~ be a derogatory term in certain contexts but, I fail to see it here.

I suppose "Fluffy Furry Kitten" would be a more acceptable name for this Character then?

[Sarah Bee]

Re: Wait wat?

Erm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Really

You want to call a transformer "Furry Pussy?"

[Nipsirc]

If you fail to see it here...

I'm hazarding a guess you are in the good ol' US of A. Spastic is seen as a derogatory term in certain contexts - such as the UK...

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: Wait wat?

This is not political correctness gone mad.

Spastic became a particular derogatory term in UK schools a few years back, to the point that the Spastic society charity renamed themselves "Scope".

Can you see Hasbro marketing the Transformer RETARD, or "Short bus edition" in the US?

[johnnytruant]

while I no longer hang out in playgrounds

I hear that the choice of insult among the young'uns these days isn't "spastic", but now "scoper"

Rebrand success!

[ravenviz]

Re: while I no longer hang out in playgrounds

...or Scopey...

[HaplessPoet]

RE: RE: Wait Wat?

That sadly reminded me of hearing some schoolkids a few years ago, shouting "Scopey" across the playground.......

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose......

[MeRp]

Er, yes

In the US, at least where I am, spastic is equivalently offensive to retard, merely derogatory terms for different conditions. Really, I suspect this would be seen as offensive here as well.

Personally I would neither be offended by this nor a transformer named Retard, or the dastardly Short Bus decepticon. But my skin is not so thin.

[DZ-Jay]

Re: Er, yes

Oh, I so want to see a "Short Bus" Decepticon! I would purchase it!

-dZ.

[Paul_Murphy]

More like cardiac

Since spastic is a medical term.

Neither is a term that I would associate with transformers.

ttfn

[Steve Roper]

Euphemism Treadmill

Political correctness does nothing to stop the prejudices prevalent in society despite the nanny brigade's best efforts to eliminate them. As one word becomes offensive and is replaced with a new PC term, the PC term itself becomes offensive after a while and the nanny brigade have to endlessly come up with new ones. Spastic -> Scoper being a notable example, as mentioned here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Words_describing_disability.2Fhandicap

[The Metal Cod]

It's true

That "spastic", "spazz" and variants thereof aren't seen as being as offensive in the US as here. Witness the outcry here over the Colours In Motion wheelchair model called the Spazz. In the US there's no big deal over it. The Spazz-G is the next version up but has the unfortunate blurb "Have you been dreaming of that unique custom wheelchair that would not cost you an arm and a leg?"

That said, this would surely raise a laugh from some of my less politically correct friends and be a good choice of Christmas gift for them.

[Michael H.F. Wilkinson]

Foot-in-mouth disease!!

"Have you been dreaming of that unique custom wheelchair that would not cost you an arm and a leg?"

Reality is stranger than fiction.

Maybe some add-exec thought it that ANY publicity is good publicity.

[David Lawrence]

I guess they.....

...disabled that option then.

That's mine over there, next to the corn and cheese.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not available in UK

Quite right, the correct term in the UK has been scope-y for many years now.

[20legend]

sounds...

....Timmy-tastic!!!

[There's a bee in my bot net]

I can't wait for...

them to release the 'Joey'...

This made me laugh, but I still don't understand why they called it Spastic.

[Anonymous Coward]

'Joey'

I shouldn't laugh, but I can't help myself. Takes me back to childhood.

[Zingaiya]

This sums it up quite well.

http://www.shortpacked.com/2010/comic/book-12/05-neww-2010-comics/spastic/

[Neil 7]

Level: 3, Intermediate

"Level: 3, Intermediate"

WTF? It's a plastic model toy!!

[Eponymous Cowherd]

Next up....

Wankatron with Kleenex...........

[blackworx]

Buffy

Me and my partner* have been working our way through Buffy the Vampire Slayer from start to finish and what I find odd is that whenever the word "spaz" comes up (which it does, once or twice) it does seem to be in connection with physical disability/malcoordination. So it obviously /means/ the same thing, but it's not seen as offensive? I am confused.

* It would be really witty and clever to reply with some sort of masturbatory implication here. I'm handing it (hur hur) to you on a silver platter.

[ravenviz]

Re: Buffy

It's the usual prejudicial stereotyping of groups, not all people called Spazzes suffer from spasticity, but may be disabled otherwise. Group stereotyping is only natural by the way, shunning "other types" or those genetically non-viable to the point of procreation is part of the process of evolution. In the meantime however us homo sapiens apparently evolved intelligence, introspection and empathy so I'd be surprised if such prejudice was commonplace these days.

[Anonymous Coward]

My understanding of "spaz"

...growing up in the states is that it's a term somewhat commonly used to describe a person who is acting erratic and/or hyper. IIRC, I have heard the term very rarely whispered to describe a handicapped person exhibiting spasms (but not really the disabled in general, which as I understand is the pejorative usage in the UK), so the usage and connotation in the UK isn't *completely* foreign but maybe I could sum up the difference as such:

In the states, the use of the word spaz is not considered offensive provided: 1.) you are describing a non-handicapped person and, 2.) that you are not in the presence of a handicapped person that would be properly/medically described as spastic/exhibiting-spasms.

Mind you... I'm not saying any of that is right or wrong in a moral/ethical sense, just describing the usage I've seen.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes

Here in BC, Canada, I regularly hear the phrase "spazzing out" indicating aforementioned erratic or unpredictable behaviour involving violent motion or just generally getting miffed off.

I think the origin is the same as in the UK playground of my childhood, but they don't think of it as offensive, merely a simile to describe the behaviour.

[The Fuzzy Wotnot]

Hmmm...

Whenever I hear the word 'spastic' or 'spazz', I always think of The Young Ones. No not Cliff and Hank!

Viv : I can't get in the fridge!

Rik : Why? What are you, a spazzy?

Viv : No there just happens to be an atom bomb in front of the door!

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Sir

They missed a trick, they should have called it a SPASTICON! instead.

Is the robot in question actually disabled? If it gets upset by the name I doubt it would use the courts to sort this out.

[Anonymous Coward]

Joey Deacon

would be turning in his grave.

[ravenviz]

Re: Joey Deacon

I heard some teenagers refer to someone as a Joey for the original reasons but no doubt they haven't a clue why. Big respect to Blue Peter for bringing these issues to the young of the 70's, I don't know if disability issues are addressed on today's kids' TV, but I suspect it's much more inclusive in the mode of Kid-A is in a wheelchair but we don't notice. Didn't McDonald's or some fast-food chain a few years back have a kids meal featuring a larger than representative disabled contingent?

[sinisterpictures]

Nnnnnnnnnn

That thing people do where they push the tongue into the bit below the bottom lip and go "nnnnnnn" also comes from poor old Joey Deacon too, though I doubt many know that either.

I still feel bad he lost a shoe in the Thames, I hope the Blue Peter production team got him a new pair.

[Anonymous Coward]

Joey!

Come on, did no one watch Blue Peter as a kid?

[Seanmon]

Re: Joey

Friend of mine referred to a mutual friend as "ya Joey" in the pub recently... beer sprayed everywhere.

Yes, I am going to hell.

[taxman]

Itsp(l)astic

Perhaps showing an age thing here but the original 'toys' were mostly all metal and were really cleverly put together. This modern plastic stuff is simply not the same - hence the title perhaps?

The Decepticon planes were simply ace!

[Alastair McFarlane]

Mario Party

Mario Party did the same thing a couple years back, they called you "spastic" if you did badly in a particular game (or something like that), and there was outrage when the game was released here.

[andy gibson]

Family Guy

"No Meals on Wheels" episode, where Joe Swanson and his wheelchair buddies change into a Transformer.

[Anonymous Coward]

Spastic

Does anyone actually know what they intend by the term? Why is it relevant to Transformers? Is the toy mentally disadvantaged or physically disabled in some way...?

[Ken MAC]

Whats an "ISTON" ?

That is "ISTON" as in the gor blimey rhyming speak phase "StuntIcons". Whatever it is I bet they feel like one now...

Years ago I remember the look of blank emptiness on the face of a US software guy; He just couldn't undersand that his reports didn't work because we Yerpeans used A4 paper and not Legal, which he'd hard coded in to the system.

[AlistairJ]

What happens?

When you pull the arms and legs off, does it transform into a FLID?

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Sir

Conratz, first post in a very long while that *forced* me to laugh out loud, well done sir.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not entirely sure why

but "Stunticon" sounds quite rude as well

[Cowardly Animosity]

Cunning stunticons

is just brimming with it

[Sir Runcible Spoon]

Sir

That's probably because in the back of your mind you have the old Evel Knievel joke about him having a cunning array stunts, as opposed to the all-girl track team.

Sorry Miss B, I'll get my coat, oh - you've already thrown it out the door, thanks :)

[Alpha Tony]

But...

WIll it be cunning?

[Naughtyhorse]

ooooh errr.

perhaps cunning stunticon would have been better

[Dave in the States]

Spastic, Spazz, etc.

I'm a Midwest boy and being called spastic or a "spazz" was never meant as a compliment. I'm as much confused as many others to why they associate spastic with a Transformer.

Dazed and Confused (Paris appears that way as well)

[Ned Ludd]

Spazzing out!

On the bald-ass Canadian prairie of the 1980s, a Spazz was a kid who was hyperactive or blathering nonsensically ("spazzing out")... I've always understood that "spastic" could be used to describe something that moves in a jerky, erratic fashion – which could make sense here.

[Petrea Mitchell]

Ditto

Same out here on the West Coast. For those outside the US, it's not downright obscene here, but this is a pretty bad branding choice even in this country.

[Tigra 07]

Lucky...

That could have become a bit of a marketing disastercon

[Ned Ludd]

Wait just a minute...

It looks like they've even gone so far as to trademark the word "spastic". I like that.

[Anonymous Coward]

midwest spazz attack

Generally being called spazz was just a commentary on a particularly uncoordinated effort on someone's part as opposed to calling names at someone who was actually spastic (and that type of thing was kind of frowned on even back when i was young...in spite of how much fun kids made of each other).

Maybe they should have just called it (after Paris) a spunkedicon.

[Noodle]

Eee when I were a lad..

.. Transformers had proper names like "Grimlock", "Cyclonus" and "Shockwave". These modern Transformers are rubbish.. "Spastic"? Megatron must be turning in his grave..

Terminator cos.. well it's all robots innit?