Entertainment

Tina Fey & Amy Poehler Action Figures? Yes, Please

by Kadeen Griffiths

What is the true mark of success as a comedian and as a person? Is it the projects on your résumé? Is it the number of people who would follow you to the ends of the earth? Is it using your considerable social cache to promote feminism? No, the answer is someone making an action figure in your likeness, and that level of success is about to come to everyone's favorite best friends. That's right: Amy Poehler and Tina Fey have Weekend Update action figures based on their time on Saturday Night Live, and it's the greatest thing you will ever see. The action figures, which are only available for purchase at San Diego Comic-Con, are in short supply, with only 2,400 of them in existence, but they are available for pre-order while supplies last. I can't imagine why they would, though.

But can we talk about how awesome this is for a second? The first time these SNL-based toys were created, they were in Seth Meyers' likeness, and it was the success of that that opened the door for Fey and Poehler. "Last year our Seth Meyers Weekend Update Bobble Head was well received," said toy company Bif Bang Pow!, the mind behind this awesomeness. "So we wanted to continue with bringing fans more Weekend Update product."

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There are two things about these action figures that are very important to me. The first is that they are, of course, action figures of ladies. Since we exist in a world where even Avengers actor Mark Ruffalo is questioning the lack of Black Widow action figures when it comes to merchandising for the film, any and all action figures made in the likeness of ladies is to be celebrated and snatched up as quickly as they hit the shelves. For some reason, the stereotype that action figures are only for boys and, worse, that boys won't play with a female action figure, continues to be perpetuated to this day. Sure, Weekend Update dolls that look like Fey and Poehler aren't going to change that overnight, what with them being more collector's items than toys for tots, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

The second thing that is very important to me is that Fey and Poehler's action figures get to come in the box together, rather than sold in separate boxes and thus in competition with one another. Oh, sure, I'd love for there to be 2,400 Fey action figures and 2,400 Poehler ones, just for the sheer joy of having more female action figures in the world, but Fey and Poehler are a duo, a team, an inseparable galmance for the ages. It makes perfect sense that their dolls would be sold together as a set rather than separately, forcing people on limited funds to choose between which actress they like more. Plus, they ruled the Weekend Update desk together, and that is reflected in the set which comes with a fold-out desk diorama. It's literally perfect.

Even if you, like me, can't get to San Diego for Comic-Con, let alone only go to buy these action figures, I pretty much encourage anyone with money to burn to pre-order the dolls so Bif Bang Pow! and every toy company in America knows how successful female action figures can be. I'm not saying it will have a ripple effect that will launch us forward toward being a society where Black Widow dolls come out immediately with the rest of the Avengers toys, but it would at least be taking a step toward dispelling the idea that female action figures don't sell.

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