New York Post - August 13, 2003
DUBYA A REAL DOLL By VINCENT MORRIS
WASHINGTON - Meet GI George, a high-flying, helmet-carrying Navy pilot who should be strutting into a toy store near you by September.
Blue Box Toys, a Chinese company that also produces "Little Kitty" products, is hoping to sell at least 5,000 of the 12-inch-tall Bush figurines commemorating the president's May 1 landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, when he declared that major combat in Iraq was over.
Since that declaration, 58 Americans have been killed by Iraqi soldiers and guerilla fighters.
An artist in Hong Kong carved Bush's likeness from photos of the event, and all of the figure's clothing and accessories are modeled precisely on what the president wore the day he landed in a S-3B Viking aircraft.
The hair on the fully poseable doll is cropped close, and he wears the steeled look of a man with many missions under his belt. He carries flares, a helmet, extra oxygen and a parachute harness. Even his zippers zip.
In reality, Bush avoided any Vietnam flights by signing up for a quiet tour of duty in the Texas National Guard, a time period the president rarely talks about.
But there's nothing mysterious about the aviator action figure, which is intended to "commemorate something historical, something we all watched," according to company spokeswoman Lauri Aibel.
Aibel, who told The Post that she did not vote for Bush, says he's worthy of his own action figure because he transfixed America by doing something no president had ever done before.
But she said the company has received some very negative feedback on the action figure.
"They say, 'How can you do this?' " Aibel said.
The president's likeness, packaged with a $39.99 price tag and marketed as "Elite Force Aviator: George W. Bush - U.S. President and Naval Aviator," marks the first time Blue Box Toys and its subsidiary, BBI, have turned a political figure into a toy.
A few years ago, BBI created an action figure modeled on Rudy Bosch, the former Navy SEAL who became famous on CBS's "Survivor."
Aibel said BBI had no interest in making a political point with their figure. She noted that executives at the privately held company are Chinese and are largely unaware of the political repercussions of Bush's carrier landing.
Since the president is a public figure, there's a wide latitude under the law for using his image, the toy company said.
Democrats, many of whom ripped into the president last spring for what they claimed was a political stunt, are unimpressed with the president's latest incarnation as a plastic doll.
"It's no surprise that some company would turn George Bush into a toy. He's been a puppet of big business since Inauguration Day," said Jamal Simmons, a spokesman for Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who is running for president.
Tony Welch, a spokesman for Terry McAuliffe, head of the Democratic National Committee, said: "It's impossible for there to be a Bush action figure showing him working on the economy because it's something that the president has never done."
So far, the action figure is only available online, but it will eventually be sold in retail stores.
The White House declined to comment.