Slashdot Mirror
Finally Geeks Available in Action Figure Form
Treebiter1 writes "Happy Worker, a specialty toy developer, has introduced a new action figure the "GeekMan Action Figure." Billed as the "a hunk o' hunk of nerdly love." His "super powers" include ungodly coding abilities; opposite sex repulsion; analytical reasoning; ability to create technical acronyms; less than ideal personal hygiene routine. This is kind of an oddity, perhpas I should say it is an oddity, but it might make a funny gag gift."
The link to "Buy One Now" just takes you to a list of store locations. That's not very geeky.
I love slashdot, but I'm starting to hate the growing number of product placements within stories. I'm beginning to suspect that "the slashdot effect" is being used as a marketing tool - but whom by is the key question. Is it rogue marketeers, or are the Slashdot/VA Linux bigwigs complicit?
Instead of some generic geek cheaply made action-figure, I'd rather see a high quality series of action figures that depict real geeks that we all respect, admire, like or... at least know of.
:(
The following, for starters:
RMS
ESR
Alan Cox
John "Maddog" Hall
Linus Torvalds
Capn'Crunch
Kevin Mitnick
And of course, more traditional scientific geeks like:
Linus Paulings
Albert Einstein
Charles Babbage
And famous literary or movie geeks from our favorite 80's and 90's films.
In fact, I kind of thought that's what the Action Figure in this article was going to be like until I went to the site...
When they come out with one that has god-like coding skills, that's when I'll get interested. Maybe.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
He's a nerd, not a geek.
Bleeeeh. Stupid ninties tv show geek.
What geek nowadays uses pens? A modern geek would have an USB stick and/or other memory thingies sticking out of his breast pocket. And he/she would at least wear one Bluetooth headset and contact lenses instead of these Clark Kent glasses.
The glass is half-full. With poison. And there are cracks in the glass. The dirty, dirty glass.
but I'm to lazy to do anything about it. The "opposite sex repulsion" I can deal with but the "less than ideal personal hygiene routine" is just insulting. In 22 years I haven't met a techie/geek who's personal hygiene was questionable. Dubious interpersonal communications skills, yes (it can be hard to interface with the humans). An over abundance of pompousness, sure. But we don't stink.
--
If I actually could spell I'd have spelled it right in the first place.
Sorry if this sounds a little off, but don't you think it's better to have less negative stereotypes circulating around about geeks?
I'm sick of technical types being portrayed as losers. It's just not funny any more.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
(... or so I'm told ...)
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
I am a geek, a girl geek and my list of superpowers does NOT include the ability to repel the opposite sex.
At least as girl you are automatically distanced from all the people here who make jokes about being [male] lonely little weaklings.
I'm 6'1", weigh over 200lbs (not fat) and I ENJOY running and sports but I still have to put up with comments like the above. Every time I read another post here about "I'm a programmer so what do I know about hygiene/sex/popularity" it makes me want to reach through my monitor screen and down the internet, grab the guy by the throat and shake him.
These people should get some pride! If someone isn't the most preposessing individual in the world it DOESN'T MATTER! It's not against the law, yet and you don't have to make excuses. But if you want to boast about it then fine, just don't pretend that it goes hand in hand with IT skills because there is no reason why it should.
It is perfectly acceptable to be both mentally and physically fit. In fact, they complement each other.
Okay, rant over. That just builds up every now and again and I need to bash some (very stupid) stereotypes.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
As one of the people who makes those jokes, I am, in reality, a thin, fit (admittedly scrawny, despite lifting weights), married, hockey-playing, employed adult with passable social skills. I strongly suspect that a lot of others making similar remarks are also speaking with tongue in cheek.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
You might mod me as troll for this, but I swear to god this is true. Sometimes fact is weirder than fiction; and if you can't accept this, then your loss, I guarantee you.
Back when I was in high school, there was this devilishly attractive girl, real cute, that never seemed to end up dating anyone. I always wondered about that... now she's gone to Hollywood, by the way.
A few years later, a close mutual friend revealed to me Jessica's big secret: she had an intense nerd fetish. In fact, all those high school years apparently she had been swooning over Tyler, the nerdiest dweeb in school. Tyler once tripped and fell down a freakin' hill while chasing after the school bus. And his voice was really, really funny.
OK, so here's my point: some (really hot) girls love nerds. Even the seriously nerdiest guys could pick up hot chicks. Weird huh? An action figure like this could actually turn on some ladies.