Lego invokes the wrath of social media with a WTF 'back-of-the-bus window-licker' toy
Lego has sparked outrage after describing one of its zany Mixel toys for kids as a 'back-of-the-bus window-licker'.
The Danish toy brand listed Turg, a half-chicken, half-frog figure for young kids, with the term on its official website. Ultimately, 'window-licker', a perjorative term for disabled people seemingly from a by-gone era, riled social media users.
The full description reads: “Turg looks like an experiment that’s gone very, very wrong! Part frog, part chicken, part back-of-the-bus window-licker, this Mixel has the longest tongue of them all.
Lego's ‘Everything is Awesome’ vibe failed to placate social media users who felt the term was derogatory to the handicapped.
@LEGO_Group your new mixel description is so offensive! 'Part back of the bus window licker' #EpicFail pic.twitter.com/rQ4rhKzGWZ
— Shelley Warren (@ShelleyWarren20) June 8, 2015
Lorraine Bellamy, a spokesperson for MenCap criticised the toy.
Lorraine responds to @LEGO_Group describing new charcter Turg as a 'window licker': http://t.co/bAlKOzLQ4E pic.twitter.com/wM6iI294K7
— Mencap UK Charity (@mencap_charity) June 10, 2015
The description has since been altered with Lego vice president for the UK and Ireland, Fiona Wright, releasing the statement: “Lego Mixels' aim is to inspire creativity using quirky fictional characters to help children express their imaginations.
"We have very high expectations of our products. This also includes the text we use to describe them towards consumers. We are sorry that wording which could be considered offensive has been used, as this has not been our intention at all.
"As an immediate result of the input we have received, the product description for the Mixels character Turg has been changed on our website Lego.com.
She concluded: “We have looked at our processes to make sure this does not happen again."