So you honestly think that they are not doing more to advertise to a younger market? Look at the names of the characters, and the descriptions:

“Candy and Cola: Candy, as sweet as her name implies, and as bubbly as her fox tailed friend Cola, ply the space lanes for the universes mightiest heroes and villains.”

Thats not targeted to kids? And while what you get is a bare metal mini, notice that on their site there is not one image of an unpainted mini.

I agree that GW has engaged in some questionable marketing / content as appropriate for kids, but I think in their case it was not necessarily deliberate. I think GW has always struggled with the problem of how mature the content is in their games. They seem to go back and forth with it. The creative staff have this great world in which to explore themes and ideas – A world (fantasy) or universe (40k) of perpetual war allows for a lot of interesting, and complex areas of exploration, many of which are questionably appropriate for kids. (Chaos in particular has been the Pandora’s box of the GW milieu, with Slaneesh being, I think, the most problematic in terms of balancing appropriate content.) It’s a topic worthy of its own discussion.

Where Relic crosses the line for me, is with the Fotan and Cecelia model: its content in conjunction with the target audience. Maybe its the old American double standard where violence is seen as more acceptable that sex in terms of content for kids at work in my thought process, but something about an old creep grabbing the ass of teen girl while drooling over himself, and having that be not only accessible to but deliberately marketed to young kids, seems wrong.

I’m not totally familiar with dragonball, but I will mention 2 things. The anime style of dragonball is much less overtly sexual than the Relic Knights sculpts, so right of the bat you have material that is less controversial. 2: the archetype of a mentor character – even a grumpy one, is appropriate for kids and fits into the story. What happens when that mentor character suddenly becomes threatening and morphs into a bit of a sexual predator? (Did you look at the Fotan and Celia miniature?) In the series, does master Roshi engage in unwarranted sexually aggressive behavior towards the teen aged characters in the series? (I really don’t know).

I agree that new styles of design keep the hobby fresh and interesting but I see this style as pretty much a reinvention / rehash of the bikini clad barbarians of Boris Vallejo – the grandfather of the bikini clad big breasted female warrior / barbarian. What makes it insidious is that the rejuvenation elements applied are traditionally those used with toys and subject matter usually marketed towards children.

I think its good to occasionally look at the ethics and morality of the hobby, both the thematic and artistic content. War games can’t help but glorify war, and occasionally its good to take a hard look at some of the more controversial aspects.