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Sacramento mother outraged over ‘racist’ Playmobil Pirate Ship

Ida Lockett explained to CBS in Sacramento that the birthday gift, bought for her five-year-old son by his aunt, has one accessory that made her eyes go wide and her jaws drop. The figurine is of a shoeless character in tattered clothing with a metal collar clearly placed around his neck.

Lockett said how excited her son was to receive the gift from his aunt on his birthday and she spent the entire weekend putting the Playmobil Pirate Ship together. It was when she was constructing the popular toy that she realized what the toy came with.

“You cannot have this specific accessory and call it anything else.”

“The fact that you can Google it, look it up, say what it is—it’s a slave collar.”

The figurine in question acting as a lookout on the Playmobil Pirate Ship.

The figurine in question acting as a lookout on the Playmobil Pirate Ship.
YouTube screengrab

According to Lockett the toy contains a cargo cell just below the Playmobil Pirate Ship’s deck, which she believes looks exactly like a slave hold.

She said that the toy is clearly racist, adding that the instructions told her son to put a slave cuff around the black character’s neck.

People took to Twitter to comment on the story, clearly also horrified by the toy, with one person commenting, “How does every major company not have someone to sit there and do nothing but say: ‘Hey, maybe you shouldn’t…’”

Twitter users supported the mother s view of the toy.

Twitter users supported the mother’s view of the toy.
Twitter screengrab

A spokesperson from Playmobil told E! News the toy is designed to depict life on a 17th century pirate ship, out on the high seas. Saying it is pretty much accurate to those historical times, the spokesperson pointed out, “If you look at the box, you can see that the pirate figure is clearly a crew member on the pirate ship and not a captive.”

According to Playmobil, the figure is not meant to represent a pirate who was formerly a slave and it was not their intention to offend anyone in making the Playmobil Pirate Ship toy.

No action was taken by the company and the toy is still available at Toys “R” Us.

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