Markets Withdraw ‘Homie’ Toy Figures After Complaints

A Latino supermarket chain has removed gum ball machines selling controversial “Homie” figurines after police and prosecutors complained that the toys glamorize gang life.

“The Vallarta Supermarkets Family wishes everyone to know that it DOES NOT support violence or toys depicting violence and regrets this incident,” according to a written statement the company issued Tuesday. Vallarta, which operates 12 supermarkets in Los Angeles County, was not aware of the figurine until this week, the statement said.

Law enforcement authorities praised the action, which came a day after a story in The Times on the controversy over the toys, which have sold more than 1 million copies since they hit the market four months ago.

“I’m very pleased. I think the store did the responsible thing,” said Det. P.J. Morris. who works out of the northeast San Fernando Valley and began a crusade against the figurines last week.

Morris and others said the six collectible figurines, in white T-shirts, baggy pants, bandannas and knit caps, clearly look like gang members and are not proper toys for young children.

The company that manufactures and distributes the toys could not be reached for comment.

But David Gonzales, 39, the Northern California graphic artist who created them, reiterated that he did not intend to glamorize gang life, but to make cartoonish caricatures of “low-rider Chicano kids” based on people he knew in Mexican American barrios.

“I accept their right to discontinue this product if it doesn’t fit their company image,” Gonzales said Tuesday. “But it’s also my right as a businessman to make a product I think is OK.”

Impulse Amusements, one of many companies that own local vending machines, said it will phase out the Homies line. Jim Plescia, the company’s owner, said he pulled them from the Vallarta markets Monday and Tuesday.

“Every news media was camped out in their parking lot, and they had to do business,” Plescia said.