Baby Beer Bottles and 4 More Questionable Children's Toys
Hilarious or inappropriate? Would you buy these toys for your children?
— -- Watching a baby throw back his head to take a long sip from his bottle is a common adorable sight for parents. But what if the bottle is tinted brown with a tin top and labeled "lager"? Still cute?
Fred And Friends, the manufacturers of a prank baby bottle called "Chill Baby, Li'l Lager Baby Bottle" apparently think the idea is hilarious. They are selling pre-orders of the 8-inch item for $12 on the company's website, noting that the bottle is "BPA-free, phthalate-free plastic bottle with a food-grade silicone nipple. Cheers!"
Fred and Friends did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment on the product, and whether the company has any concerns about the Li'l Lager Baby Bottle encouraging children to consume alcohol.
Is it hilarious or ill-conceived? Here, four more unconventional toys that some find questionable and others think are quite funny.
Roadkill Toys' Smudge The Squirrel
"He measures a statuesque 32 cms from twitchy nose to bushy tail, and 10 cms from squished flank to flank," the display copy begins describing Roadkill Toys' Smudge The Squirrel, a plush doll designed to resemble a rodent that has recently been run over by a car. For $26.28 on Amazon, the toy includes multicolor entrails that can be pulled out from a zipper pouch, as well as a body bag and death certificate.
But while the "manufacturer recommended age" on the Amazon product page is "4 years and up," creator Adam Arber told ABC News that the toy is intended for an older audience.
"It isn't designed and marketed for children," Arber said, noting that, "it's a grown-up toy for collectors and students." But, he added, "It's in a similar vein to Tom and Jerry and Itchy and Scratchy humor. It's cartoon humor, and parents don't usually get upset with those programs."
He admitted that not everyone was a fan.
"Sometimes we do get detractors and people who just don't understand humor," said Arber. "These people are generally fundamentalist Christians or animal welfare activists. PETA rang me up once and said that they've bought all the toys and have some on display in their headquarters."
Archie McPhee's The Avenging Narwhal
"The narwhal is an arctic-dwelling whale, who, thanks to his long, pointy tusk, has been nicknamed 'the Unicorn of the Sea,'" notes the introductory copy on The Avenging Narwhal's product description. "Our Avenging Narwhal is made of hard vinyl and comes with a detachable tusk to impale a devious penguin (included)."
Sold for $7.50 on the Archie McPhee's site, the hard plastic toy is considered unsafe for children 3 and under due to small parts that could present a choking hazard. But despite a tongue-in-cheek fictional origin story detailing why the narwhal seeks revenge, there is no warning that the toy might be considered violent to those 4 years old and up.
Whether it is or isn't is a matter of personal taste, though narwhals feed on fish, not penguins. McPhee's did not respond to ABC News' requests for comment.
I Heart Guts' Tremendous Testicle Plush
Puns abound in the affectionate product description for this 9" x 9" x 5" plush doll created to resemble a large blue testicle with a smiley face, leading one to believe that the item may be geared toward adults. But the copy does note that the $20 doll is safe for all ages. Do kids really want to play with this?
Prank Star Poo-Dough
"Create your own turd creations out of brown dough," advertises the product description for a $7.99 package of Poo Dough on the Toys 'R' Us website. The malleable riff on Hasbro's Play-Doh arrives with pots of brown and yellow dough and a mold to recreate, well, you guessed it.
"Prank Star Poo-Dough is intended for all ages," John Ardell, VP of marketing & sales for Skyrocket Toys, told ABC News. "Kids love it because it is funny, and they can play jokes on their parents by hiding the 'poo' and tricking people to think that it is real. It is also a great gag gift for adults.
"The packaging and logo are both really funny," he continued, "and the yellow dough to make corn and peanut molds puts it over the top."
While Ardell acknowledged that the company has received complaints on occasion that the product was "in poor taste," he noted that Poo Dough was one of the top-selling novelty toys at Walmart last holiday.
"Additionally, it was part of the Prank Star display in Walmart stores that had a motion sensor and 'farted' whenever someone walked by," said Ardell.
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