Zak Designs has been selling products featuring popular children’s characters for 40 years. These days, the company’s focus seems to be on drinkware, and a quick look at their website reveals a variety of sippy cups and tumblers featuring Elmo, Bluey, and Winnie-the-Pooh, among others. Also available at press time are a number of officially licensed items relating to the Toy Story franchise. In fact, Zak’s history with Toy Story goes back many years, but not everything they’ve released on that end has gotten the warmest reception.
Somewhere around 2011, Zak put out what they called the Buzz Lightyear Funtime Tumbler. Going by the name alone, it doesn’t sound like anything out of the ordinary, but one glance at the product in question is all that’s needed to see why the internet lost its collective mind once pictures of it made their way online. You see, the unfortunate placement of the straw directly in front of Buzz resulted in it looking suspiciously like…well, a giant penis.
Since no description of what we’re talking about can possibly do it justice, this GIF right here will make the issue crystal clear for you.
This Controversial Toy Story Cup Was Quietly Redesigned After Fans Noticed One Problem
Now, we’re not saying that this was done intentionally or anything, but do you honestly mean to tell us that nobody thought this was a bad idea before it wound up on store shelves? They used to sell these things at Target, for Christ’s sake! Can you imagine how many kids were drinking out of them in public and getting (justifiably) laughed at? Eventually, someone at Zak Designs caught wind of the problem, and the cup was quietly redesigned so that the straw came out of the side instead, but according to one Amazon reviewer, it could still be twisted back into its original suggestive position with minimal effort.
Unsurprisingly, the “first edition,” if you wanna call it that, became something of a collector’s item due to all the controversy. The Buzz Lightyear Funtime Tumbler got so much attention that it even showed up in an episode of Robot Chicken years later. During a 2019 segment titled “Island of Recalled Toys,” the well-endowed sippy cup appears alongside other controversial toys such as Rad Repeatin’ Tarzan (whose arm movements made him look like he was masturbating) and Happy Family Midge (Barbie’s pregnant best friend). You can check it out for yourself below.
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