I first heard of the game Halo when someone died from playing it. The 20 year old, Chris Staniforth, had developed deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and died of a lung blockage – as he was spending too much time playing the game on his Xbox 360. Of course, this could be argued that it wasn’t the game in question that caused his death, but it did lead me to discover that this was indeed not a game for children. It has a 15 certificate too. So I was very surprised to find that you can buy Halo Mega Bloks toys!
Now maybe I do not understand what a “normal” teenager is like because my children (all of them even the 4 year old) have grown out of Mega Bloks, they’ve moved on to Lego. Maybe it’s because they feel that Mega Bloks are babyish – and that, in actual fact, the Mega Bloks have a fresh new appeal in providing such a more grown up toy? It’s not a risk I am prepared to take this Christmas though I tell you.
The only other thing I can think of is that Mega Bloks are indeed aiming this product at children who are indeed too young for its content. Arguably the actual toys are just figures that shoot (at aliens by the way, so that apparently makes it okay). I know lots of parents let their children play games that they are not old enough for the certification, but surely that is different from a large retailer of children’s toys such as Mega Bloks actively seeming to encourage it? What is this saying about the distributors too?
May be I am missing the point. Is it a clever oxymoron? Mega Bloks obviously know a lot more about children’s toys than I do – is there a market? Have you bought Halo Mega Bloks toys as a present? What age are the children that are playing with them? Do they know the link to the game or are they just appealing due to the “in-game sounds” and enhanced weapons?
You may also be interested in this post about whether Grand Theft Auto is suitable for a 9 year old.
This is not a sponsored post.