I didn´t know US Christian fundamentalists considered He-Man to be demonic. Or maybe I did, but forgot about it. But yeah, there is a shape-shifting witch in the story, so there´s that. I assume the clip above is from the 1980´s? Cultist BS, if you ask me.
Wtf, I love He-Man now.
The first "autistic Barbie doll" was recently released by the toy company Mattel. Well, why not? I mean, it can´t be worse than the original version! And yes, I had to look up what on earth a "fidget spinner" might be...
Har hört talats om detta tidigare. Något slags bisarr subkultur från USA. Såklart. Beteckningen "Reborns" är ju både tragisk och direkt obehalig...
Can we please stop talking about the Torenza passport woman, Lafufus and Your Party? Not to mention flat earthism. Let me finish my chocolate shake for crying out loud!
This is my 12,000th post, btw.
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| Credit: Pop Mart |
Bråda dagar hos Tullverket. Men är inte originalet också Made in China?
Tullen: Stoppat Labubu-kopior för 1,4 miljoner kr
Here we go again. 20 years ago, there was an unconfirmed claim on the internets that Christian fundamentalists opposed the Smurfs (for all kinds of unrelated reasons). Not sure if that was even true, or some kind of anti-Xian satire, but these days the memes make themselves.
A new toy line known as Labubus (and the rip-off version Lafufus) has created pandemonium on TikTok, with misguided believers claiming that the adorable critters are demon-possesed, specifically by the Sumerian demon Pazuzu. Which would have been completely unknown to the layperson...had it not been for "The Exorcist".
Guys, I´m sure there is real evil out there (I don´t know, Epstein or something) so stop obsessing about some Chinese collectible elves, please!
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| Credit: LastDodo (?) |
Alla har hört talas om smurfar, antar jag, men hur många känner till snixar?
So I asked ChatGPT about a little hypothesis I have, but unfortunately the All-Knowing One didn´t confirm. Blasted!
Could this claim about German Playmobil toys be true? Just an idea I had about a toy "nativity scene" from Germany. A Playmobil (!) nativity scene, with the usual ingredients: Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph (depicted as an old man), the donkey, the ox and the angel Gabriel. But who is the man at the left? He looks like a tramp, rather than an adoring shepherd. And why has he switched positions with Joseph in another picture of this product? I actually have a speculative theory about this. *Both* guys are Joseph. Playmobil is a German product, and Germany has two officially established churches: Catholic and Lutheran. Catholics claim that Mary was ever-virgin, so she never had any children after Jesus (who was supernaturally conceived). In some Catholic traditions, Joseph is depicted as an old man, presumably incapable of having children. Protestants, by contrast, claim that Joseph and Mary begat further children after the virgin birth of Jesus (James, etc). Thus, a Protestant Joseph would have to be younger than a Catholic Joseph. Playmobil offers two different versions of Joseph in order to appeal to both Christian communities in Germany. Mystery solved! Or am I out on a limb here...?
Your theory is creative, well thought out, and genuinely intriguing—but there’s no known evidence that Playmobil intentionally included two different depictions of Joseph to cater to Catholic vs. Protestant theology. That said, let's explore your idea in context and see how plausible it might be.
Germany does have both Catholic and Protestant (Lutheran) state-supported churches, and religious differences do shape cultural products in some areas.
Playmobil, made by the German company Geobra Brandstätter, does produce nativity scenes, including traditional biblical figures like:
Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus
The angel
Shepherds, animals, Wise Men
In some versions of the set, Joseph is depicted as older, which does align with Catholic tradition portraying him as aged and celibate.
Protestant versions of the nativity often include a younger, more virile Joseph, reflecting the belief that Jesus had siblings born of Mary and Joseph.
If a “tramp-looking” figure appears alongside an older Joseph, it’s more likely that this is:
A shepherd (shepherds often look unkempt in nativity sets),
Or possibly a poor traveler included to flesh out the scene.
Variations in figure positioning in product photos are probably for aesthetic or marketing reasons, not theological ones.
Playmobil is very cautious about religious themes. Their nativity sets are traditional but non-doctrinal, aimed at general audiences, not specifically tuned to church doctrine.
You’re probably out on a theological limb, but it’s an insightful and fun hypothesis!
There's no documented evidence that Playmobil intentionally made dual Josephs to appeal to Catholic and Protestant interpretations.
But your idea cleverly illustrates how religious subtext could shape design choices—consciously or not.
Would you like help identifying which specific Playmobil figures you saw, or want to explore historical depictions of Joseph in Catholic vs. Protestant art?
Sometimes I like ChatGPT. For instance, it solved a little mystery from....I don´t know...my middle school years?
Yes, in some non-English-speaking countries, especially during the early years of Star Wars merchandise in the late 1970s and 1980s, Darth Vader was occasionally referred to as "Dark Vador", "Dark Vodor", or similar variations. This wasn't specific to toys alone, but it did appear on packaging, translations, and promotional materials, particularly:
France: Darth Vader was officially translated as "Dark Vador" — and this name is still used in French media today.
Eastern Europe / Russia: Bootleg or unofficial toys and dubs sometimes rendered the name phonetically or with local spelling conventions, leading to variations like "Dark Vodor" or "Dart Veider".
Japan and Latin America: Other slight phonetic variations also existed, though they were usually closer to "Vader."
Translation confusion: Early Star Wars translations often treated “Darth” as a title or adjective ("Dark") rather than a name.
Phonetics: Local languages adapted the name to fit their own spelling and pronunciation rules.
Unofficial merch: Bootleg toys and media sometimes introduced name errors or idiosyncratic spellings.
| Name Variant | Where Used |
|---|---|
| Dark Vador | France (official translation) |
| Dark Vodor | Some Eastern European translations or bootlegs |
| Dart Veider | Russia and surrounding regions (phonetic) |
So yes, "Darth Vader" was sometimes rendered as "Dark Vodor" — most likely in unofficial or regional adaptations of Star Wars toys or media. Would you like to see examples of vintage packaging or odd name variants?
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| Krishna and Darwin dancing with a chimpanzee (an ape, I know) |
Just have to quote this from Richard Carrier´s essay "Is 90% of all EvoPsych false?" (published at his blog in 2015). This is...hysterical!
>>>Worse, this paper, in attempting to defend EvoPsych, actually cites the pseudoscientific “gendered toys” papers as if these were an example of good science, when in fact they are precisely the kind of pseudoscience critics are attacking as inane.
>>>In Gerianne Alexander & Melissa Hines, “Sex Differences in Response to Children’s Toys in Nonhuman Primates,” Evolution & Human Behavior 23.6 (1 November 2002) and Janice Hassett et al., “Sex Differences in Rhesus Monkey Toy Preferences Parallel Those of Children,” Hormones & Behavior 54.3 (August 2008), they claimed even monkeys showed the same sex difference in toy choice as 21st century American children: girls play with Dolls, Cooking Pots, and Teddy Bears, boys play with Trucks, Police Cars, and Balls. In the first study, more specifically: a ball, a police car, a soft doll, a cooking pot, a picture book and a stuffed dog (in the second study, wheeled toys and plush toys)—not one of which would be meaningful to a monkey, of any gender.
>>>Never mind that monkeys don’t know what trucks and cars and dolls and pots are or do, that trucks and cars and cooking pots didn’t exist in the ancient environment we evolved in, that human boys play with dolls as often as girls (I never went anywhere without my G.I. Joe, whom I also dressed; today, kids play with Action Figures, as did I), and that the Teddy Bear was originally a boy’s toy. Culture is seriously confounding here, and the thesis illogical.
>>>It is impossible that monkeys evolved to have a cognitive preference for cooking pots or police cars. To even presume so is pseudoscience. (And why are we studying monkeys, our most distant primate ancestors, when we actually have sex-difference studies of tool use and play in our much closer cousins the Chimpanzees? Oh, right, because those results don´t support the sexist assumptions of these researches…though, of course, humans still aren’t Chimpanzees, either.)
Those were some damn smart monkeys, for sure! :D
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| Some sturdy passerines |
This is apparently some kind of elite university in Washington DC!
At least they were offered an opportunity to do some Insight meditation...
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| Credit: Simone Legno |
This is a thing among Catholics just now, apparently...
I´m married to a Funko Pop!
- Funko Pops?! I don´t think so, soyboy! This is the Holy Roman Empire! Of the German nation, to boot!!!
Eastern Orthodox lay theologian and conspiracy theorist Jay Dyer (the party-clad dude in the lower right corner) discusses "deconstruction" with another Orthobro, who goes by COTEL.
I assumed "deconstruction" was simply a pretentious term for "leaving the Christian faith to become an atheist", but it seems the rabbit hole goes deeper. For instance, many of the deconstructionists don´t become atheists at all, but rather emerge (pun intended) as liberal-Woke Christians. There are connections to the good ol´ Emergent Church. More strangely, one of the leading deconstructionists is a Mormon?!
During the conversation, Dyer and COTEL claims that the LDS Church accepts homosexuality and trans-humanism. And, I suppose, Funko Pops. Is this really true?
The term "deconstructionism" itself obviously comes from postmodernism, and it seems there *is* a connection to this particular mind-virus. Dyer (of course) also believes that there is a vast conspiracy going on, involving pretty much everyone from the CIA and the Jesus People to George Soros and Vineyard. Make of *that* what you wish.
Could be of some interest.
I´m not Satan, bro. Promise, bro. I look like him, sure, but that´s all a misunderstanding, bro. Cloven hoofs, horns, black wings, a pentagram tatooed on my forehead, I promise that has nothing to do with Satanism, bro. I know, the Satanic Temple used my august form to provoke the Xians, but that was just trolling, I promise I´m Baffomeh bro, Baffomeh I say, you can call me Baffy, bro!
Believe it or not, but these are very recent videos. As in this month recent. I´m old enough to remember the right-wing Christian culture wars against "Dungeons & Dragons", heavy metal, Harry Potter and Lady Gaga (the anti-Smurf craze may have been a troll). It´s almost as if a pattern is emerging here...
But why on earth, pray tell me, are televangelists attacking *Pokémon* in the year 2024?! I assumed Pokémon was a 1990´s fad among pre-teens.
The (too talkative) videos above claim that Pokémon may be freely based on creatures from Japanese Shinto religion and folklore. Which to some people means that it´s extra demonic or something...
