The CIA once toyed around with the idea of turning Osama bin Laden into an action figure.
Back in 2005, when bin Laden was the world's most wanted man, the CIA developed several prototypes for a devil-eyed doll to scare American parents and their children into hating the infamous al-Qaeda leader, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
Given the code-name "Devil eyes," the doll's face was painted with a material that melted upon contact with heat, revealing a green-eyed monster with a red face and black markings, a source speaking on the condition of anonymity told the newspaper. Three prototypes for the bin Laden demon-doll were developed, but the project was discontinued after a few hundred dolls were made in 2006.
The CIA did not deny the project existed, but said it was abandoned after a few prototypes were made.
"To our knowledge, there were only three individual action figures ever created, and these were merely to show what a final product might look like," CIA spokesman Ryan Trapani told The Post. "After being presented with these examples, the CIA declined to pursue this idea and did not produce or distribute any of these action figures."
The CIA solicited the services of the late Hasbro toy maker Donald Levine, who helped create the G.I. Joe action figure. Levine had manufacturing contacts in China, which the CIA used to its advantage to have the toys developed there. Levine passed away from cancer in May.
After a few hundred bin Laden dolls were made in China, they were sent to Pakistan in 2006. But the CIA refutes that claim, which was made by a source with knowledge of the production in China.
"CIA has no knowledge of these action figures being produced or distributed by others," Trapani told The Post.
Osama bin Laden, one of the masterminds behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was killed during a U.S. Special Forces raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011.
