WASHINGTON — Toys “R” Us on Wednesday said it was pulling “Breaking Bad” dolls from its shelves after a Florida woman complained about the kids’ store selling the drug-themed products.
“Let’s just say the action figures have taken an indefinite sabbatical,” the retailer said in a statement widely circulated by US media, a cheeky nod to the hit TV show whose main character quits his job as a chemistry teacher to become a drugs kingpin.
Toys “R” Us drew criticism after Susan Schrivjer of Fort Myers, Florida started an online petition for the retailer to drop the dolls.
Plastic figurines depict Walter White holding a handgun and White’s accomplice, Jesse Pinkman, wearing a protective suit used in the manufacture of crystallized methamphetamine.
The toys come complete with a little gas mask and a tray of blue crystals.
The Toys “R” Us decision to sell the dolls was “a dangerous deviation from their family-friendly values,” Schrivjer wrote.
“Get those taken off the shelves and put them in an appropriate store. Put them in an adult store,” she told a local TV station.
Actor Bryan Cranston, who plays the show’s Walter White, jokingly tweeted: “I’m so mad, I’m burning my Florida Mom action figure in protest.”
Schrivjer’s petition garnered more than 9,000 signatures.
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