Sears Halts Sale of a Toy Figure in Trench Coat

Sears has stopped selling “The Villain,” a gun-toting, 12-inch action figure in a black trench coat, because of complaints that the character resembles the teenage gunmen at Columbine High School in Colorado.

The $29.99 doll, recommended for children ages 5 and up, comes with a ski mask, black coat, body armor, shotgun and rifle. It appears in Sears’ holiday catalog as part of a series called “Heroes and Villains.” Other dolls in the set represent soldiers from World War II and the Vietnam War.

Fifteen dolls were sold before Sears decided to stop selling them last week after three people complained, Sears spokeswoman Jan Drummond said Tuesday.

“Their concerns were very sincere and heartfelt,” she said.

The maker of the doll, California-based 21st Century Toys Inc., is redesigning it and plans to remove the trench coat.

Drummond said Sears never intended to conjure up images of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who shot and killed 12 schoolmates and a teacher in Littleton, Colo., before taking their own lives in April. The gunmen were members of a group called the Trench Coat Mafia.

Kim Carpenter of Longmont, Colo., said she complained to Sears after her 8- and 10-year-old sons saw the action figure in the holiday catalog and told her it looked like a “Trench Coat Mafia doll.”

Scott Allen, vice president of 21st Century, called the comparisons to the Columbine gunmen unfair because the toy was designed more than a year before the shootings.

He said he anticipated the Columbine comparisons but thought it was too late to stop production of the Sears catalog or the toy.