Navy SEALs have become national heroes since news broke that they took down Osama bin Laden, so it’s fitting that the newest action figure from a Connecticut company is a fierce-looking President Barack Obama as a SEAL.
The minute Obama said late on the night of May 1 that the U.S. had found and killed bin Laden, Emil Vicale knew which his action figure company’s would make next — Rambama.
On Wednesday morning, Hero Builders released the Obama SEAL Team 6 action figure — a muscular President in fatigues armed with an M1-A4.
Vicale, who owns the custom action figure company in Oxford, said the speech was a pivotal moment in the Obama presidency.
It was also a parallel to the speech that inspired the company in the first place almost 10 years earlier.
On Sept. 14, 2001, Vicale listened to then-President George Bush’s bullhorn speech from Ground Zero and was inspired to create Hero Builders.
As Bush stood there, with an arm around the shoulder of a New York City firefighter, Vicale saw what he thought was the first moment that Bush fit into his shoes as president.
“I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you and the people who knocked these building down will hear all of soon,” Bush said as New Yorkers chanted “U.S.A.”
Almost 10 years later, Obama spoke the words that would make Vitale feel the same way: “Tonight, I can report to the American people, and to the world, that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda.”
With that statement, another Hero Builders action figure is born.
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