Customer Reviews

Turmoil in the Toybox

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

My parents read this book when I was a kid and made me and my siblings clean out our toyboxes. This dude is a whack, as are his ideas.

I was forced to throw out toys that I liked and had bought with my own money and the fact that my parents took his advice helped me to grow up despising God and church and all that.

The supermarket tabloids have better advice than this guy. Unless you need a book to show how whacked some "Christians" can get, don't waste money on this book.

Not since the Nazis have I seen such propaganda used in such an evil way. The fact that the author really believes the things he writes is very frightening, but not quite as frightening as the fact that people have bought, read & believed this crap. Here's an idea: How about all of you stop with blaming satan & the media for everything you do, and for once try to think for yourselves. Don't let someone else do your thinking for you.

I was seven years old when someone gave this book to my mother. I was a crazy fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and had a very nice collection of the original 80's action figures and this awesome giant Donie stuffed animal. Because of the influence of this book on my mother, most of my TMNT collection was sold in a garage sale. I was heartbroken and distraught. I know I'm not the only one that had to suffer the war against so-called 'unBiblical' toys, movies, and games. This book has nothing but far-fetched theories that only hurt our childhood.

I have to admit, I was entertained by this book from beginning to end, in a sort of car-wreck-by-the-side-of-the-road way. It's really amusing just how far some people can take their own personal beliefs. Phil Phillips is definitely one tree short of a hammock and while it frightens me to see blatant proof that these sorts of people are out there, his book provides hours of laughter for those of us who grew up with these toys and turned out just fine, thank you very much.

One thing I am sure of by reading this book is that I would have dreaded to be this man's child.

Phil Phillips has taken basically every toy that I grew up with, and stated how "evil" they are and that Christian parents should not allow their children to own such toys. I find his most of his accusations to be nothing short of ridiculous. It seems almost as if he had nothing better to do with his time and decided to write this horrid piece of literature.

I find he has contradicting statements throughout his book (read pg. 29 carefully, for example) and many of his statements are childish and have nothing to back them up. He uses "rainbows" as an example of "new age influence"!!! Why did he automatically *assume* that the usage of a rainbow in a cartoon (rainbow bright) had a "new age" meaning? It astounds me how he comes to these outrageous conclusions.

Here is a quote from pg.94: "How cute will they think these very actions are when the child is a teen and is involved in actual occult practices?" As I mentioned before, I grew up with these toys and never once has it crossed my mind to become involved with the occult.

In his book, Phil states how it is good for children to have imagination......yet with no toys to play with, how can he expect them to be able to exercise their imaginations? Because, according to Phil, EVERYTHING has *some* influence of the occult and children should have no part of it!

His reasoning behind warning parents about Cabbage Patch dolls is because children think of them to "realisitically." GIVE ME A BREAK! This book is filled with such spineless accusations that it's a complete joke. Stop blaming the toys and start encouraging the parents to get more involved with their children.

Phil fails to realise that not everyone in this world shares in his faith. Therefore, just because a show/toy does not have God as it's central figure and does not exemplify all the Christian principles....it does NOT mean that people should refrain their children from having fun with toys that appeal to them. Parents shouldn't be afraid to talk to their children about the cartoons they watch of the toys they play with. TALK to them.....don't bar them from having fun with them.

I acquired this literary goldmine the other day and I must say it has become very precious to me. No matter how trying life becomes, I can always open to any page of 'Turmoil in the Toybox', and everything is allright for a while. Bravo, Mr. Phillips for bringing laughter into so many of our lives. I must admit that I was originally disgusted by the statements in this book, until I shortly realized that only ultra-religious crackpots could possibly take it seriously.

Phil Phillips does an excellent job of showing how logical consistancy and knowledge of child developement and psychology aren't important in raising a child. While many of the segments of the book keep me laughing for days, it makes me sad that ANYONE would take this book seriously. As a Christian, it makes me sad that such ignorance would be allowed to get printed. Most of his points are completely unsupported and often blown out of proportion. If you want a good laugh buy the book, but if you are seeking real Biblical counsel on how to help your kids, stay away!

I found out a bunch of things in this book. First, Phil Phillips is a lunatic. Secondly, Phil Phillips is a lunatic. Finally, Phil Phillips is a lunatic. The author obviously has no idea how the brain of a child works. I won't say that this is just a right wing fanatic witch hunt, because I really do think that Mr. Phillips is trying to help people, but he needs to have a broader base research and at least consider the opinions of those who don't agree with him. When you write on what is mainly a subjective idea, you need to listen to more than just one side of the story. The only part of this "shocking expose" that flat out scares me is the fact that Mr. Phillips seems to think that the toy manufacturers are conspiring to turn the children of the world to Satan. Oh well, at least he's trying to help.

I was a kid at the time of the writing of this book (1986) and played with many of the toys and watched the cartoons mentioned in the book. At some points I think the examples given were a stretch (I don't really think that seeing a mushroom is meant to be a subliminal drug reference), but I do agree with the overall message of "be careful what your kids are entertained by." I know of parents that sit their kids in front of the TV, turn on the cartoons, and leave them there for hours.
I do think he has a point about the violence in cartoons. As a child I saw countless creative ways the bad guys had for trying to kill the heros, some of which I later found out literally had parallels to methods of medieval torture. Of course, the hero always escaped in the nick of time, but my imagination always showed me what would have happened if he or she hadn't been so lucky.
I'd seen a victim nailed into a coffin and dropped into a vat of acid, a woman's head locked in a slowly closing vice, a villain torturing a rabbit (so well drawn that I felt sick watching it), and alot more.
Maybe some of the shows really SHOULDN'T be considered appropriate entertainment for a five year old. Sure, there are plenty of good programs out there for kids, but he's right that a TV shouldn't just be an electronic babysitter. And yes, I think that it's a good idea for parents to monitor what their children watch, and not just assume that if a show is a cartoon it automatically means that it's age-appropriate.

Until of course people started to see through it and realize that the author was able to look at every popular TV show in the 80's and see a Satanic theme in them. It is almost frightening to think that a person out there is paraniod enough to believe these things A Good book for it's humor value though.