"Batgirl's ear broke"

Yesterday, one of my customers, a woman accompanied by her two young sons, reminded me that her daughter purchased a Batgirl action figure from me last year. Well I didn't remember that right away, but then she told me that one of Batgirl's "ears" had broken off and that I was nice and exchanged it for her (I was glad that I had a replacement figure because I don't stock figures too deep generally). Her mother went on to tell me that her daughter was really sad when that happened as she was really looking forward to having a Batgirl action figure.

When this woman that was in yesterday described her daughter being upset about her broken Batgirl, I did remember her daughter first telephoning my store to ask what she could do about her broken Batgirl. When I told her to bring it in and I'd exchange it, she came into the store with the broken Batgirl in a little box with a little white cloth upon which Batgirl was lying and I remembered thinking that this girl really cared about her Batgirl figure and was really upset that her "ear" broke. I took the broken-eared Batgirl from the girl and gave her a new one and explained to her that they (DC) doesn't make their action figures to be played with a lot, that they are mostly for display (for older kids or adults I would go on to explain that DC in exchange for making figures that aren't designed to be played with much, has figures that look nicer than Marvel's figures, which with their multiple ball joints allows them to be more posable for the trade off of sometimes awkward looking figures).

After the woman left yesterday, I thought to myself that I wish I'd have just let the girl keep the broken Batgirl in addition to the new Batgirl instead of collecting it from her to call in to my distributor for a damage credit (I don't remember if I ever did get around to calling in that damage). Anyway I was happy to hear from her mother yesterday that her daughter still prizes her Batgirl action figure (they probably should be called inaction figures) and I was happy to hear a personal account that further illustrated for me that kids of all ages (and not just boys/guys) have strong attachments to these modern day mythological characters.