Fly Jumpers Junior

October 4, 2007 4:26 AM

Fly Jumpers Junior are a new product that give the wearer near-superhuman abilities, according to the promotional video on this amazon UK page. The vid also includes a surprising, albeit hilarious gory ending. The problem? These are Fly Jumpers Junior, aimed at kids. As one reviewer has already noted, isn't this a bit too much for advertising a product aimed at children?
posted by hnnrs (24 comments total)

Fantastic.
posted by Poolio at 4:36 AM on October 4, 2007

the amazon page also links to the adult version of the product, which has the same add, so i suspect the add is actually for the adult product.
posted by CaptMcalister at 4:40 AM on October 4, 2007

Would it be more acceptable for an Amazon page aimed at adults to show a video displaying a thief escaping police with a bag full of stolen swag before meeting an uncompromisingly bloody demise?
posted by unclemonty at 4:42 AM on October 4, 2007

Children shop on Amazon?
posted by furtive at 4:49 AM on October 4, 2007

The Mythbusters have already covered this:

Ceiling Fan of Death

Can a ceiling fan chop your head off? The tested two different approaches: jumping up into a fan, and coming in from the side.

The build team built rather disgusting dummy heads/necks for this, filling a Adam's ballistic head mold with a pig's spine and skull. They picked up one household ceiling fan (~20+mph) and one industrial strength fan (~50+mph) from House of Fans and rigged the dummy heads to hit the fans from the two approach angles.

Unsurprisingly (if you've ever put your hand up into a ceiling fan), the household fan did nothing to the dummy head. The industrial fan managed a bit more damage, perhaps doing enough to break the skull or cutting the neck.

In order to "replicate the myth," Tory and Scottie rigged up a lawn mower motor to a custom blade of death. The contraption absolutely annhiliated the dummy head, ripping the head/neck to shreds, though not actually doing enough damage to decapitate.

The dummy heads were perhaps a bit too realistic because it seemed that they were hesitant to show some of the footage of the dummy head being hit.

busted
posted by chuckdarwin at 5:05 AM on October 4, 2007

Who needs MythBusters? It's a long story, but I have actually had my head raised directly into a ceiling fan.

A bit of a scary *thwapp* upside the head, and a small knot... and that's really all it did. Since then, i reach my hand into them to stop them all the time.
posted by kaseijin at 5:15 AM on October 4, 2007 [1 favorite]

Forget the fan business ... is it actually possible that a company can make and sell a product like this without being sued to death as a result of the 'accidents' that are inevitable? If you were an insurance company, would you sell them any insurance?
posted by woodblock100 at 5:20 AM on October 4, 2007

Mythbusters already covered using extreme gore to sell toys to children? I think I missed that one.
posted by DU at 5:27 AM on October 4, 2007

Mythbusters already covered using extreme gore to sell toys to children?

Now you're being silly. Using violence to sell toys isn't a myth!
posted by chuckdarwin at 5:45 AM on October 4, 2007

Are you not also tired of FPP's always asking you questions? For Channel 7 News, I'm Brocktoon.
posted by Brocktoon at 5:49 AM on October 4, 2007

This was not the post to read during breakfast.

*holds weak stomach*
posted by desjardins at 6:26 AM on October 4, 2007

MY GOD WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE HEADLESS CHILDREN?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:28 AM on October 4, 2007

On the other hand, "Decapitan Marvel" would be an awesome superhero.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:29 AM on October 4, 2007

Yeah, that's a bizarre ad. Disturbing. Guess old fashioned fun with regular joy is out and now fun means stealing, running from the cops though urban blight and dying an untimely, gory death. huh.
posted by nickyskye at 6:31 AM on October 4, 2007

The Mythbusters have already covered this...

No product that uses a large spinning open blade is going to be fast and sharp enough to chop you up, because no manufacturer would want to kill maim and clients and none would be able to afford the lawsuits and bad publicity. But that's way beside the point.

The decap and kids? Kids are used to seeing cartoonish spattery death. If only it were shocking to them.

What I really want to know is whether these goofy springy shoe things are actually any good. Or is the decapitation ad equally misleading about the effectiveness of the springy thingies? Has someone out there used them?
posted by pracowity at 6:40 AM on October 4, 2007

... is it actually possible that a company can make and sell a product like this without being sued to death as a result of the 'accidents' that are inevitable?

See: trampoline
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:47 AM on October 4, 2007

pracowity, IIRC there is a pro runner out there who uses something like them because of a amputation... I think these toys are roughly based on that design.

*googles*

Oscar Pistorius runs on carbon fibre transtibial artificial limbs.

His legs were amputated when he was a year old. Now Oscar Pistorius is on track to make the South African Olympic team. Is he an engineering marvel — or just one hell of a sprinter?

In other news, Google is still made of win.
posted by chuckdarwin at 6:53 AM on October 4, 2007

Products like this have been around for some years (I've heard of them under the brand name Power Riser), and they're great fun. People who know what they're doing with them can do some crazy tricks.
posted by adamrice at 7:21 AM on October 4, 2007

No product that uses a large spinning open blade is going to be fast and sharp enough to chop you up, because no manufacturer would want to kill maim and clients and none would be able to afford the lawsuits and bad publicity.

Is that like: No product that puts chemicals into a human body is going to be harmful, because no manufacturer would want to sicken or kill clients and none would be able to afford the lawsuits and bad publicity.

?
posted by DU at 7:37 AM on October 4, 2007

Yes, but can you really rob a bank and get away from two fat rent-a-cops with these things? If there's no written guarantees then I ain't buying.
posted by worker_bee at 7:40 AM on October 4, 2007

> a new product that give the wearer near-superhuman abilities

This is new? When I was very small I wore a one-piece fuzzy jumper pajama with footies, a pair of contrasting little-guy track shorts over that, and a towel pinned to my shoulders, and it gave me near-superhuman abilities.
posted by jfuller at 9:22 AM on October 4, 2007

Run as fast as a car?
...they do know cars have variable speeds, right?
Well, I suppose kids have to fight crime too.
posted by Smedleyman at 11:59 AM on October 4, 2007

My uncontrollable comic geekery forces me to cite Jack-in-the-Box and Stilt-Man as precursors.
posted by SPrintF at 8:01 PM on October 4, 2007

There was a guy with a pair of these at Playa del Fuego this past weekend. He wasn't quite as gymnastical as the guy in the ad, but, yeah, the running sequences were pretty accurate. And I saw a guy on Letterman jump over a car with them. One odd thing--it's impossible to stand still while wearing them.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:34 AM on October 10, 2007