Playmobil pirate ship. (Playmobil instruction booklet) 
 
 A Playmobil pirate ship set has sparked a firestorm over a figurine that resembles an African American slave wearing a neck shackle. 
 
 Ida Lockett of Sacramento, Calif., said her 5-year-old son received the toy as a birthday present, and when she was helping him assemble it, she noticed the instructions — telling her to put a play shackle around the figure’s neck. 
 
 “This right here was found on his neck,” she told CBS Sacramento about the piece. 
 
 “You cannot have this specific accessory and call it anything else. The fact that you can Google it, look it up, say what it is — it’s a slave collar.” 
 
 Playmobil figurine. (Playmobil instruction booklet) 
 
 The toy’s instruction manual shows a dark-skinned doll wearing no shoes, ripped pants and a tattered yellow shirt and directs the assembler to pop the silver piece around its neck. The ship appears to include a dungeon. 
 
 “It’s definitely racist,” Lockett told the CBS affiliate. “It told my son to put a slave cuff around the black character’s neck, and then to play with the toy.” 
 
 Lockett said the set was a gift from the boy’s aunt, who purchased it from Toys R Us. The set retails for $89.99 but the store is selling it for $62.99. 
 
 Playmobil said in a statement to The Washington Post that the toy was intended to portray life on a 17th-century pirate ship. 
 
 “If you look at the box, you can see that the pirate figure is clearly a crew member on the pirate ship and not a captive,” according to the statement. “The figure was meant to represent a pirate who was a former slave in a historical context. It was not our intention to offend anyone in anyway.” 
 
 Toys R Us could not immediately be reached for comment. 
 
 Aimee Norman, the aunt who gave the set to the Sacramento 5-year-old, wrote on the Playmobil USA Facebook page that she was “MORTIFIED to have recently bought” the pirate ship set for her nephew, “only to hear that when assembling it, they found that its assembly instructions indicate to add the neck cuff/shackle to the black character’s neck.” 
 
 “WOW,” she wrote. “Would it be too much to ask for you to just create a regular old black pirate? 
 
 “Newsflash, Playmobil: this is the 21st century. People of African descent have contributed to mankind in a myriad of ways that existed outside of the disgusting institution of the slave trade. Selling children’s toys that are suggestive of slavery in play is obscene, even moreso given the marked absence of diversity in your entire toy line.” 
 
 Norman added: “#Slavery.is.not.a.game.” 
 
 What toy will they come up with next! Posted by Ida Ida on Sunday, October 4, 2015 
 
 Sacramento NAACP President Stephen Webb said he wants the toy banned. 
 
 “This is deplorable,” he told CBS Sacramento. “This cannot be accepted, and it needs to be pulled off the shelf.” 
 
 But not everybody agrees. 
 
 “You do realize that pirates took slaves & prisoners of all races right?” one woman wrote on the Playmobil USA Facebook page. “If you don’t like the idea of pirates and slaves/prisoners then a pirate ship toy is not for you. Also a child has imaginative play and can easily make said character anything he/she wants them to be. Throw away the offending pieces.” 
 
 Slaves (black & white) were used to row boats. Slavery is wrong but this woman's outrage is ridiculous. http://t.co/kngF1MwJSS — Debra DeBoer (@debradeboer) October 7, 2015 
 
 This story has been updated. ||||| SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A mother is upset after she says her son’s toy came with racist instructions, telling him to shackle a dark-skinned character that appeared to be a slave. 
 
 Ida Lockett was happy for her son after he received a Playmobil pirate ship for his fifth birthday. 
 
 “He was excited when he got it,” she said. “I spent the weekend putting it together.” 
 
 And only after putting together the gift from his aunt did she see what her son was playing with. 
 
 “This right here was found on his neck,” she said. 
 
 The dark-skinned character with no shoes and tattered pants came with instructions to put some sort of neck piece on him. 
 
 “You cannot have this specific accessory and call it anything else,” she said. “The fact that you can Google it, look it up, say what it is—it’s a slave collar.” 
 
 SEE ALSO: Sacramento NAACP Calls News & Review’s Kevin Johnson Cover Racist 
 
 Ida is sure her son was playing with a toy slave. The ship itself comes with what she calls a dungeon. 
 
 “It’s definitely racist,” she said. “It told my son to put a slave cuff around the black character’s neck, and then to play with the toy.” 
 
 CBS13 reached out to the toy’s maker, Playmobil, and the retailer who sold it, Toys ‘R’ Us, but neither responded. 
 
 Sacramento NAACP President Stephen Webb says it is demanding action. 
 
 “This is deplorable; this cannot be accepted, and it needs to be pulled off the shelf,” he said. ||||| Your 2015 National Toy Hall of Fame finalists. (Photo: Provided by The Strong) 
 
 Specific games such as Battleship and activities a kid can create with a visit to the laundry basket, like puppets, are among 12 finalists for the National Toy Hall of Fame. 
 
 The new list, announced Monday afternoon, also includes American Girl dolls, the coloring book, Jenga, PLAYMOBIL, a scooter, Super Soaker, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a top, Twister and Wiffle Ball. 
 
 Poll: Which finalist is your favorite? 
 
 The 2015 inductees will be announced in November at Rochester's Strong National Museum of Play, also home to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games and the World Video Game Hall of Fame. 
 
 “We try to come up with a list of finalists that do represent different kinds of play,” said Strong curator Patricia Hogan. “We like to have board games as well as puppets and balls, a broad spectrum of classic toys.” 
 
 Since 1998, 56 toys have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Last year's inductees were miniature little green army men, the Rubik's Cube and bubbles. An in-house committee of curators, researchers, historians and marketing specialists sifted through a nomination process open to anyone through toyhalloffame.org. The list of 12 finalists will be reviewed by a national selection committee, with each member voting for his or her top picks for induction. Three toys are generally honored. 
 
 Hogan estimates the museum received about 8,000 nominations, although many were for the same toy. The Toy Hall of Fame also takes nominations by phone or letter. “We often get letters from schoolkids who are practicing their writing,” Hogan said. 
 
 According to the National Toy Hall of Fame website, the criteria for selection include: 
 
 Icon status, "the toy is widely recognized, respected, and remembered." 
 
 Longevity, "the toy is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over multiple generations." 
 
 Discovery, "the toy fosters learning, creativity, or discovery through play." 
 
 Innovation, "The toy profoundly changed play or toy design." A toy may be inducted on the basis of this criterion without necessarily having met all of the first three." 
 
 The criteria help even the playing field between more primitive games such as watching bubbles float across the yard and the more intellectually challenging Rubik's Cube. 
 
 If a toy doesn't make the cut on year, it may be renominated: American Girl Dolls, Jenga, the wiffle ball, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the scooter and Twister have all previously been up for consideration. 
 
 Some of the more involved stories among the nominees include the 18-inch-tall American Girl Dolls, each coming with a historical back story, which were introduced in 1985, followed by the My American Girl in 1996, with each doll designed to look like its owner. 
 
 While Battleship was initially played with paper and a pencil, a strategic board game (or game of luck if your ship was sunk) with plastic ships was introduced in 1967. 
 
 PLAYMOBIL, first appearing in 1974, is a play set of 3-inch-tall figures that include buildings, vehicles, animals, Vikings, Egyptians and pirates. 
 
 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were first seen in the 1980s as a satiric, self-published comic book. But the turtles quickly evolved into a merchandising Godzilla of toys, television shows, movies, video games and clothing. 
 
 The inductees will be announced at the museum at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 5, with a weekend of public celebration Nov. 7 and Nov. 8. 
 
 jspevak@democratandchronicle.com 
 
 Photos: Toy Hall of Fame inductees 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://on.rocne.ws/1FvKkwB
– A California mother is outraged over what she claims is a racist toy her 5-year-old son received for his birthday, the Washington Post reports. Ida Lockett says she was helping her son put together a Playmobil pirate ship set when she came to instructions to put a shackle around the neck of one of the dark-skinned pirates. “It’s definitely racist,” she tells CBS Sacramento. “It told my son to put a slave cuff around the black character’s neck and then to play with the toy.” The boy's aunt, who purchased the pirate ship set, posted on the Playmobil Facebook page that she was mortified. "Would it be too much to ask for you to just create a regular old black pirate?" she asks. Playmobil issued a statement defending the toy as a portrayal of life on a 17th-century pirate ship. “If you look at the box, you can see that the pirate figure is clearly a crew member on the pirate ship and not a captive,” the statement reads. “The figure was meant to represent a pirate who was a former slave in a historical context." But not everyone was mollified by the statement: The Post reports the president of the Sacramento NAACP is calling for the toy to be removed from shelves. In her Facebook post, the boy's aunt claims the pirate ship was the only Playmobil set she could find with a black figure. (Playmobil once demanded a pastor stop crucifying toys.)