Toys R Us puts elf toys in the science section

Madeline Ashby sends us this photo of "Elf" toys filed away in the Toys "R" Us "Science" section, noting, "My husband and I braved Toys R' Us on the final Sunday before Christmas to bring the happy mutants this FAIL. Our theory is that Toys R' Us committed a classic logic fallacy: science = nerdy; elves = nerdy; elves = science. It's the only explanation we can think of for what is an epic failure of toy taxonomy."

Educational Toy FAIL (Thanks, Madeline!)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

and this note = made for nerdys, nerdy = elves so elves = science.
Daemon

Maybe these elves are scientists?
AnthonyC

Ah, I see the problem. The symbol they should have used isn’t “=” it’s either “is a member of,” usually an epsilon, or “is a subset of,” usually a kind of sideways u.
DarwinSurvivor

Science-Fiction is the closest thing I can think of…
Anonymous

the company that makes them also makes some seriously kick ass animal models including dinosaurs and giant squid. Perhaps that’s the link.
Stefan Jones

What’s even sadder: That there was enough empty space in the “science” section for these things.

Many years back I went to an otherwise-splendid toy store (Talbot’s, in San Mateo) which had little figures of UFO aliens mixed in with the space shuttles and LEMs. Kind a ticked me off.

More recently, I went to an aviation museum. Great gift shop, with a big selection of airplane models. They had some space craft models too, but these were outnumbered ten to one by models of imaginary Star Wars spacecraft.
- Anonymous
  
  That comes from the evangelist spirit of using pop culture items to “bring young people to science” (started, like, in the 80s, right?), I wonder if it hasnt gone too far.
  I dont mean this particular case, it seems more the work of a lazy manager.
Anonymous

Hmm, as I used to work at Toys R Us, I think i can shed some light on this. Often times we were required to put shelf toppers on everything, even if we didn’t have a shelf topper that matches. The schleich toys (which these elves are) are kept in the imaginarium, where the science toys are also kept. So most likely, the employees were making the best of a bad situation. It doesn’t matter anyway, as my experience at TRU has shown, no one looks at those anyway.
Avram / Moderator

They’re science elves!
Anonymous

My guess is that they figured science = science fiction and science fiction = fantasy, elves = fantasy, therefore elves = science. Of course science fiction does not = fantasy, science fiction > fantasy

On the other hand, the fact that the science section was empty enough to stuff elves in seems actually good, it would appear then that plenty of kids will be getting some science toys under the tree this year (Ironic, no? Getting science toys on a Xtian holiday, full of win)
alisong76

I’m guessing they’ve confused it with science fiction, as well. (Twits who confuse science fiction with fantasy are a rant for another time).

I also once found Naomi Novik’s “Temeraire” series filed under “History”. Yep, because they totally had dragons in the Napoleonic Wars.
Anonymous

This is science. No, no, wait, hear me out.

See, children are asked to practice their critical thinking skills. For example, a smart child would wonder why a flying creature needs to ride a horse. Then the child would wonder if such a thing actually exists and would begin a search to discover the truth…

(kidding)
- Anonymous
  
  No, you have a point! The first thing I thought upon seeing the picture was, “Why if that fairy with wings riding that palomino pony?”
  
  (The answer, of course, is: “Because who DOESN’T want to ride pretty ponies?!!”)
Jonathan Badger

Bookstores put fantasy by creationists in the “science” section all the time, to the annoyance of people interested in evolution. To be fair, the creationists are getting quite good at coming up with titles with “evolution” or “Darwin” in them that sound like they *might* be about science in order to confuse shelf-stockers.
Anonymous

Schleich makes museum quality replica animals and things, and recently expanded into this fairy line. Quality wise the figures are amazing, but what I find frustrating is that they have slowly pushed out the natural history toys. I went to buy decent dinosaurs for my godchild to replace his incredibly inaccurate figures, only I couldn’t find them at ToysRUs due to the dominance of this line.

Annoying.
querent

dude…”an army of elven ecologists” is a line in a short story of mine.
Anonymous

Speaking from retail, how about someone thought it might be funny to stock the shelves like that.
Anonymous

When will people realize that science fiction and fantasy are two completely different genres?!
teapot37

Yeah, these are Schleich toys, and I know at Target they used to (and may still) put Schelich toys in the educational/creativity aisle. I would guess TRU uses “science” to denote that section.
Anonymous

Madeline Ashby, you are gold.
Anonymous

Hasn’t anyone considered Occam’s Razor and whatnot? Isn’t the simplest solution that someone either didn’t care/notice that the sign says “Science” and filled an empty space? It sounds more like apathy than convoluted chains of reasoning.
muteboy

Hurried shelf stacking, seasonal retail staff, it could be anything. But it might have been deliberate. I remember being told by Woolworths Head Office to put 18-cert anime titles in the Kids VHS section. “They’re cartoons”.
hijukal

How else are kids going to learn how these futuristic people evolved their pointy ears?

Praise science!
Anonymous

I used to work at a Toys R Us. TRU also has pretty strict rules about where certain items are located, there are even maps printed and attached to the aisles. These rules go out the window around the holidays because of the rush.

What happens around this time of year is that the stores can’t keep their shelves full, and very often they will just start dumpling whatever they can out wherever they can. The “science” sign is a fixture however and can’t be changed out easily.

This just looks to me like they sold out of Science toys and filled the empty shelf space with whatever they had in stock. It’s not that anyone confused Elf toys with being any kind of science toy.
t3knomanser

Most likely:
PHB: “Go shelve these someplace.”
Drone: “Where?”
PHB: “I don’t care. It’s the Christmas rush. Put them on a goddamn shelf and get the hell out of my face!”
regeya

Is it OK if I pee in the Cheerios? Thanks.

Most likely realistic expectation:

manager: Stock these right here.
stocker: These aren’t science toys…
manager: Do you need a paycheck or not?
stocker: Right away!
siliconsunset

Empty shelves need to be filled. If these items arein the same section of the store (as someone else said they were) it makes sense that as the shelf empties someone is going to grab overstock from a back shelf or under shelf area and fill the empty space. “The sign means nothing, fill the shelf.” That’s what an employee would be told if they questioned it.
chgoliz

Several different anonymous posters above have it right, I think. One of my children is also a huge fan of Schleich (real) animals. They are shelved in the educational sections of toy stores. The fantasy line is new for the company. It makes sense to shelve them with the other Schleich items, despite the fantasy vs. reality aspect.

As a side note: while the fantasy line has fewer items, the items take up more room on shelves. So the stores have to contend with a well-known brand having gone into a completely different arena (conceptual-wise) which needs even more space that the original offerings.
VagabondAstronomer

Elves have pointy ears. Vulcans have pointy ears. Spock was a Vulcan. He was also the science officer. Therefore elves=science.
PalookaJoe

I’m looking at the textbook of the first physics class I took in college. If there’s room in science for massless objects and frictionless surfaces, surely there’s room for elves too.