A mother has been left furious after finding out that a Playmobil pirate ship given to her as a gift comes with a black character with a slave collar.
The plastic ship, given to Ida Lockett’s son for his birthday, features a black-skinned plastic man as one of the characters.
It also includes a steel-grey shackle, and instructions with the toy which say to put it around the black figurines neck.
The boat also comes with a prison-style area below-decks which has replica metal bars that can be drawn across it.
When Lockett gave the ship to her son Darren, she said she did not realize exactly what the $90 toy contained – and was horrified to see him apparently recreating the act of enslavement.
Lockett, from Sacramento, California, spoke to local news station CBS13 about the toy, insisting that it is ‘definitely racist’.
However, after the controversy emerged, Playmobil hit back by claiming that the toy is only a former slave, and that the ship is an accurate historical representation of the high seas in the Seventeenth Century.
A spokesman for the local NAACP branch agreed, saying the toy should be taken off the shelves.
