Yes. There is a new doll coming into the children’s toy marketplace, and his name is Mac Mason. He’s a 14-year-old boy, he’s living in 1943, and he eschews things like magic, superpowers and brute strength for stuff like “creativity, imagination and smarts.”
Obviously we share the same name, but we aren’t related.
Mac’s inventor is Laura Hale, a mom with entrepreneurial spirit and a Kickstarter page trying to put together a startup budget for her concept, the parent company called “Generation Grit.”
I support Ms. Hale and her efforts, I am inspired by people who put their ideas - and themselves - on the line. I hope her project is successful so I wish her luck.
But I have issues. First, I’m all for creativity and imagination. Without those things I don’t have a job, so “Mac” and I have that in common. Second, a retro guy in the real world makes sense to me, because I am, if nothing else, the definition of “retro.” Come on! I DO VENTRILOQUISM! WHAT COULD BE MORE RETRO!
But after that, things get dicey.
My question for this highly motivated mom is: WHY CAN’T MAC BE MORE LIKE ME!? WHY NOT NAME HIM TAYLOR MASON!? Yes, a doll that caricatures me! A small-time comedian/ventriloquist/musician with a cult following of rabid and influential fans! A character who embodies everything: smarts, imagination creativity, but also has a superpower. (Again, ventriloquism - my superpower that I have chosen to use for good as opposed to evil… let’s be honest, most ventriloquists use their superpower for no good. Go ahead, take your pick. They’re all trying to subvert the world and bring us to our knees; whereas I promote love, harmony and a little on the side for myself....)