Ten Plagues Finger Puppets

Here at Boys Books, we love toys. While we are working on the Boys Book of Armageddon, we got nostalgic for the good old appocolypses of the Old Testament.

With a little searching, we found all sorts of cool things. You can buy a plague of frogs! But our favorite has to be the Passover Ten Plagues Finger Puppets.

This wondrously educational toy is fun for the whole family and you don't even need to be Jewish! It does help to be Jewish, Christian or Muslim (they believe in selected stuff of the old book too). But even an agnostic can get a thrill by pointing a plagued finger at a hated Egyptian overseer.

 The only issue with the finger puppets is that they are made with polyester. We'd prefer man made products and especially Rabbi approved blue dyes that would bring about the coming of the Jewish savior.

Each puppet is lovingly stitched (by a machine in China) with the name of the plague in question. This is very helpful as darkness is easy to understand (8 o'clock) but hail (6 o'clock) looks more like a plague of clowns and the death of the first born chid (9:30) is easily mistaken for the second born child.

Another cool little trick is the cardboard holder. This lets us hang our collection on the bagel tree for the holidays or on the front door in place of a wreath. I can recommend the door. Upon seeing this display the two nice young men with ties and bicycles didn't even dare knock on the door.

The ten plagues are rather instructive on the nature of God branded apocalypse. It seems that he/she never quite ends the world. Ten plagues would have been enough to wipe out the Egyptians, but instead they seemed to just tick them off. "Sure we will let you go, but then we will chase you into theRed Sea." Of course the sea is parted and the chase continues until the army gets a bit wet when the sea is eventually departed (love that part).

Plagues let us see two things. First, lots of threats, but the follow through is less than spectacular. Noah's flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the ten plagues (plus Red Sea drownings) never quite rid the world of heathens. You can bet that whenever the end comes, it is going to be a snoozer and far from perfect.

The important thing is that we have toys that celebrate a religion's hatred and intolerance for those not in their faith! Think of how cool it would be for all these plagues to befall your enemies? Isn't that cool! Our only wish is that the set came with a little Egyptian to torture. I guess we will have to pretend that our little sister is going to get all ten plagues.

Have fun! Happy Passover! Happy Easter! Happy and merry non-sectarian holidays!