The Never Ending Controversies of Youtooz

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: YouTube is a collectibles company that's become one of the biggest names in internet merchandise. What started as a brand focused on creating figures for internet memes and online content creators has turned into a massive operation that's worked with some of the biggest names and brands in the entire world and expanded to making a wide variety of different products. With some other figurine companies beginning to fade away from popularity and literally or releasing things at a slow rate, YouTube's have continued to grow into a major force in the collectibles market. But like any company, YouTube's haven't been without their fair share of criticism and backlash. In the past, I've already covered the company's early years and many of the valid critiques and false allegations that shaped its current reputation. But today, we'll be revisiting YouTube's to look at everything that's happened since then, discuss some of the company's more recent issues, and see where things stand today. Though some of the stories also left some important questions unanswered. So, I reached out to the CEO of YouTube's, Austin Long, to get some additional context and answer some questions. From product issues, to divisive collaborations, to backlash that caused people to lose respect for YouTube's, and even a few stories that, frankly, were far less serious than what people made them out to be. This is the never-ending controversies of U2's. [00:01:17] Speaker 2: Wow, another one of these conversations. [00:01:20] Speaker 3: Are you telling me I should probably listen to the previous conversations to get caught up with the story so far? [00:01:26] Speaker 1: I mean, you could, but before we get into the newest U2's controversies, we need to talk about how a company like U2's got so successful in the first place. U2's' rise in popularity happened much faster than most collectibles companies. Don't believe me? Well, within their first five years alone, the company had become so successful that they were even named in Forbes' 30 under 30 list of 2024. And I think it's because they're willing to work with almost anyone. U2's has never limited itself to one audience. They've collaborated with YouTubers big and small, turned some of the oldest memes into collectibles, while embracing the latest TikTok trends, partnered with up-and-coming indie developers, and even secured licenses for some of the biggest franchises in the entire world. As well, their consistency is very impressive. Especially in more recent years, U2's has continued to release high-quality products at an impressive pace. With new products dropping every week, their catalog covers a wide variety of brands that there's a good chance that you'll find something that you'll like. On top of that, each product is packed with so many small details that captures a character's personality without even saying a single word. Those little additions are what make their designs stand out from any other brand. Even after becoming one of the biggest names for collectible products, U2's just keeps pushing into new communities and franchises. They've collaborated with series like Free Ren, Invincible, Fortnite, Hotel Transylvania, Steven Universe, and OneShot. And they've also continued working with online content creators such as Death Battle, Snuffy, Sketch, Jelly, The Rizzler, Wondernat, and many more. But that's not all. As for their products, they've expanded far beyond the usual figurines, plushies, and pins. Such as the monitor bodies. A line of minifigures designed to set at the edge of your monitor's shelf or other devices. Device holders and mugs. And their newest product line, Brick Sets. Buildable sets of iconic locations from well-known franchises. We also launched the Community Designs page, where independent artists can create and submit fan art of characters in the U2's style. Other fans can vote for these designs, and if one gains enough attention, U2's will connect with the appropriate parties to see if they can turn the fan art into an official U2's product. That's what makes U2's growth so impressive. They didn't become successful because of one viral moment or one massive license. They built their reputation through years of consistent quality, constant collaborations, and willing to work with creators and brands from every corner of the internet. And if their recent collaborations are anything to go by, U2's story is far from over. But let's be honest, I know why you're here. Before we start, my PR manager has given me a statement I should read, you know, just to clarify in a couple details. It should be noted that while we will be covering each controversy in full, including the complete context and perspectives of all parties involved, I, the birds, and anyone affiliated with U2's, do not endorse or agree with every opinion or statement discussed. My goal is simply to present the event as accurately and thoroughly as possible, providing the full context so that you can make your own informed opinion. With that said, let's talk about U2's controversies of 2025, 2026, and a couple of extra ones I wanted to sprinkle in. ReZero is a popular anime, that teased to work with U2's for a very long time. And when I mean a very long time, I mean as far back as 2020, being one of the first anime franchises that U2's were working with. And while many of these anime-related products would release in a reasonable amount of time, the ReZero figures would notably take a lot longer than usual. They were delayed and delayed for years. When I asked Austin about this, he explained that anime licenses work a little bit differently to how American shows or video games do. As not only would U2's have to get approval from Crunchyroll, the U.S. licensing partner, they also have to get approval from the legal rights holders of the anime in Japan. Now, Austin did also preface his statement by explaining that U2's have a very strong business relationship with Crunchyroll and the ReZero owners, Karukawa, but as you could imagine, with there being two different companies' approvals needed, and that's not even including all the changes that U2's would have to do, and the waiting process, it's pretty clear why the ReZero collection had taken so long to be officially released. But finally, after years of waiting, on April 11th of 2025, Rem and Ram from ReZero would be released. And that's fantastic! One of the most long-awaited figures finally became available for purchase. And only just a few months later, in July of 2025, we would get an update about the figures. But this update wouldn't be good news. An email would be sent out to the people who ordered any of the ReZero figures. And it states, Karukawa, the company behind ReZero, has decided to cancel all plans for vinyl figures based on the series. As a result, they've asked us not to ship out any existing orders, and we'll be following their request. This means, sadly, we won't be able to fulfill your ReZero U2's order. U2's went out to explain how the customer will receive a full refund for their order, but this was still shocking news, and disappointing to the fans, who simply just wanted figures for a series they enjoyed. And it was also disappointing for the people at U2's, which is completely understandable. They had put five years of work trying to get these figures out, and it was the first time that something like this had ever happened. But by the end of it, U2's respected the wishes of Karukawa, and discontinued the line. Although, that doesn't mean the story ends on a bad note. Like I mentioned, anyone who ordered any of the ReZero U2's, did receive a full refund. And U2's and Karukawa's business relationship, wasn't really affected. As they would continue to release products together. So far, they've made two plushies for the anime, Overlord. And are planning on releasing products for the show's Your Name, and Mashoku Tensei. So everyone involved turned out okay in the end. But, it's still fairly unfortunate to see what happened to the ReZero U2. As some were still fairly disappointed. But a collaboration that's gotten the complete opposite reaction was with Skylanders. A toys to life series that was very popular in the early 2010s, and continues to have a small loyal fanbase. Despite the franchise not receiving any significant content in years. From the initial moment that U2's have teased, that they were making Skylanders products, the community was hyped. And when the first wave of plushies, of the Skylanders version of Spyro, Gilgrunt, and Stealth Wolf were released, they were met with universal love and praise. As the plushies were the first official piece of merchandise that the community had received in years. And they're also very accurate and very cute interpretations, of some of the most beloved characters in gaming history. Now, aside from Gilgrunt's shipping date being delayed, the first wave of the Skylanders U2's had an overwhelming amount of support. That even more products were already in the works. Many were requesting that U2's make figures of Skylanders, and they would listen to the popular demand, as the next wave would be figurines and pins, of Tree Rex, Pop Viz, and Trigger Happy. And while there was a lot of love surrounding the figures, Viz is where people began criticizing them. As some began questioning, why would you want to buy the U2's figure, when the original figures had already existed for years, and are cheaper than the U2's? Which, I think you're missing the point as to why the Skylanders U2's figures were so cool. Like I said, the Skylanders U2's were the first official piece of merchandise that we had received in years. As a fan of the franchise, why wouldn't you want to buy these figures? Even if we're never going to get another game in the franchise, these toys can help people remember the series in some small way, in a more modern and professional style. I do understand where this point comes from, I just think it's very flawed, especially since it's something that you don't need to buy anyways. Although, the criticism doesn't stop there, as it even comes from the Skylanders community. Most of the Skylanders U2's have been received fairly positively, including the previously mentioned first wave, Trigger Happy, Stealth Up, Spyro, Eruptor, Figures and Pins, and the Spyro and Cinder Valentine's Day plushie. But five of the Skylanders products were criticized by observant fans, who pointed out the inaccuracies or issues that they have. As first with the TREX figure, his thorns in the original series were mostly yellow, and only the thorn on the tip of his hand is lime green. But on the TREX U2's, all the thorns are lime green. Then there's Pop Fizz's figure. In Skylanders, his backpack has a yellow circle with the magic element symbol on it. But on the U2's, this seems to be missing entirely. And to this I say, yeah, that's fair to criticize. At the end of the day, people are still paying a fair amount of money for these figures. So they should be accurate to the original designs of the characters. It might sound nitpicky, but you're paying close to $40 for one figure. So I think it's at least justified. Despite of the criticism, and U2's accidentally putting the wrong things on Skylanders promotional posts, like in this image, they put the fire element symbol next to Trigger Happy, when he's actually in the tech element. I mean, they did eventually correct it, but come on. The second wave of the Skylanders U2's were still very much beloved. But for the other three products, the community weren't so kind. As the entire fourth wave were heavily criticized. Starting with Drobot's plushie, as he seemed to not have a snout. If we take a look at his original design, we can clearly see his nose is popping out of his face. But on the U2's, he was given more of a flat face, which was very much disappointing. I really think giving Drobot a U2's plushie was an interesting and an amazing choice, as he isn't really a main character in Skylanders. And everything else about his plushie was actually pretty good. But this one little detail seemed to be missed, that really hurt the plushie, since it wasn't accurate to the Robot Dragon. With that said, this lumps in comparison to Chop Chop's plushie. Many have stated several issues, for example, the colors not being the exact same as the Skylanders versions. The main issue pointed out by many, is that the prototype plushie shown on the U2's website, seemed to have the top of his helmet sewed on backwards. You see, on Chop Chop's original design, he has a slant that goes from the back of his head, over to the top. And then there's pillars shooting down. But like I said, on the U2's plushie, this part of the helmet seemed to be placed backwards, as the slant now goes from the front of his head, and being more pointy from the back of his head. To be Mr. Obvious, this is not good, as it's just not accurate. With the other controversial Skylanders products, to some extent, you can kind of excuse this. Look, I'm not defending them at all, but the previously mentioned issues were fairly small, and only really diehard fans would notice. But with Chop Chop, yeah, this is just flat out wrong, and needed to be fixed. Though, for the last controversial plushie, I'm confused as to why it's controversial. With that being, PopFiz is plushie. Many were quick to mock it. The funniest one that I saw was from Crash the Skylands, as he called it a dog toy. But honestly, other than that, I can't really find any sort of legitimate criticism. And what I mean by that is, okay, you think the plushie's bad, how do you improve it then? The only thing I can think of, was that PopFiz was still missing the yellow magic symbol in his backpack, but that's clearly not the reason why people had a problem with the plushie. Or at least it didn't warrant getting this much backlash. In my opinion, I think PopFiz's plushie is actually pretty good. A clear highlight of a wave that had a lot of problems. Now, what I believe happened, is that since PopFiz was supposed to release alongside too heavily, criticized plushies, he was lumped into the backlash because he was a part of the wave. Now, to be clear, that doesn't mean that you have to like the plushie. And who knows, maybe I'm just missing something here, but at least be fair with your criticisms. Because I'm still sitting here trying to figure out what's wrong. While I have been fairly negative towards the fourth wave, there's actually some good news. While PopFiz's plushie would still end up releasing on June 2nd of 2026, Chop Chop and Drobot's plushies wouldn't. As U2's would pause the release of both plushies, because of the feedback that the Skyladers community had given them. And U2's will be making edits towards both Chop Chop and Drobot. And as we go along with the rest of the controversies, you're going to notice a lot that U2's does listen to feedback. As pointed out by Austin, this is certainly not the first time that they listen to community feedback. Like what happened to the cruel King plushie for the Roblox game Block Tales. Despite the plushie planning to be released on July 25th of 2025, the initial design was endlessly mocked by fans, as they felt the plushie just looked ugly. And based on the feedback, U2's delayed the release of the plushie to September 30th of 2025, to give it a much better design. As this version of the plushie was received much more positively. Another example updating the design was with the Springtrap plushie. As the initial design was something that, in my opinion, wasn't bad per se, but U2's community member, Spooky the Kitty, made a design that universally by everyone, was better than the design that U2's had come up with. So, U2 saw this, and reached out to Spooky the Kitty, to turn their design of Springtrap into the official plushie. And it would be released on February 6th of 2024. As well, Austin did clarify that U2's, do sometimes miss on designs. And even then, the collaborators, do also have a say into what goes into the products. So sometimes the designs may also be different from what a fan wants. Regardless, the news of Drobot and Chop Chop getting updated, was seen as amazing. And since then, both of the fixed plushies have been revealed. With the most significant problems being fixed, such as Drobot finally having a snout, and the top of Chop Chop's helmet being fixed. They ended up releasing on July 17th of 2026, as the community had an overwhelmingly positive response about both of the fixed plushies. And even in general, despite of all the issues with some products, the Skylighter's U2's have been seen as a positive thing, not only just for the community, but also to show Skylighter's owners, Activision and Microsoft, that the series is still very much beloved. Though, another product also had some inaccuracies, being the Omnitrix from Ben 10. A device that Ben 10 would have on his wrist, to turn into a bunch of different aliens. Well, U2's had teased that they were making the device into a figurine. But at first, the ring dial on the Omnitrix was lime green. Some fans began pointing out that this was inaccurate, as the ring dial from the show was actually gray. But as quickly as this was pointed out, it was also fixed. But many still questioned how things like this just happen. So, in my questions to Austin, I had brought this up to him. And he thoroughly explained that there are many steps to creating a U2's product. That they even have an entire page on the U2's website, showcasing the entire process. And there's definitely a lot of steps to it. And U2's works very closely with the collaborators, to make sure that everything about the products are accurate to their original counterparts. But the reality is, with how much work goes into one figure, and as large as a company as U2's, who's likely working on several products at the same time, mistakes can happen. With that being said, if an issue does pop up, it should be fixed. And Austin himself did acknowledge this. As when an issue does pop up, the U2's team does make sure it gets fixed, to quote unquote, avoid it from happening again. Although, there was a color change that I want to talk about. But, it actually has nothing to do with it being inaccurate. To coincide with the release of the Fight at the Freddy's 2 movie, a wave of products based off the characters from the movie and game were released, including Battery Bandit Balloon Boy, based on how Balloon Boy would act in the original game. But throughout the toy's initial release, fans had noticed that the figurine had changed slightly, as the tip of the battery was originally orange, then switched to gray. This small change was questionable, as fans began speculating as to why the change happened. And the most popular of these theories, was that the battery was changed because it was too similar to Duracell batteries. And while Austin did confirm this with me, that there was some sort of concern for this issue. And while he did point out that fans could agree or disagree with this, as in fairness, Duracell batteries are a little bit more browner, than the bright orange that U2's used. But, as Austin would state, quote, generally, our stance is to err on the side of caution, when there's a chance of treading too close to a party that's not involved in the product. So while it's not the biggest issue, it's probably for the best, that the color of Balloon Boy's batteries were changed. But he wasn't the only FNAF product that would get into controversy, as the entire fight into Freddy's nightmare collection has been filled with criticism and backlash. The first wave included figurines and pins, of the nightmare versions of Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, Fredbear, and Nightmare. And these are absolutely awesome. So much attention to detail were put into each of the figures. And lots of what made the original characters scary, is captured very well. With their massive teeth, their poses, and ripped bodies. These figures are genuinely terrifying. Making these some of, if not the best figures that U2's had ever made. And that's not me just saying it. As approaching the figurines releases, pretty much everyone also thought these figures were really cool. So with amazing figures, and an overwhelmingly positive response, what could go wrong? Well, there was a one little caveat. As this wave was initially only available for seven days. People were upset. As not only was it limiting such a great wave, but it was also far too little time for people who actually want the figures to get them. Without factoring in shipping, all six figures together costed around $179.94. Even if someone was just going to buy one of them, people need time to get the money so they can buy the figures. And this seven day timer simply just was not enough time. On top of that, U2's had also gotten criticism for having a short timer for the FNAF Phantom Wave. So this was seen as history repeating itself. The timers in general are a heavily discussed topic when it comes to U2's. As it's clear that a lot of people just don't like them. So I brought this up with Austin to see why they still use the timers. And he had a pretty good rationale as to why they use it so often. As Austin would explain, if the product is available forever, the product simply just wouldn't be special. And if they made the product too limited, then fans may not get a good opportunity to buy the products. So the timers are seen as a quote-unquote best of both worlds. As the products now don't have to be overproduced, have enough time for fans who genuinely want them, and can also avoid stuff like scalping from happening. As theoretically in the past, there could have been around, let's say, 2,000 of one product. Someone could just come in and buy a bunch of them, then resell the product for a very high price. Ripping away the opportunity from diehard fans who just want products from their favorite franchises. Now, I completely understand and for the most part agree with Austin and YouTube's positions on the timers. But that doesn't necessarily stop people from being upset about the timers. And ultimately, the timer for the Nightmare figures would be extended for another week. Let's jump ahead to a month later in June of 2025, as the next wave for the Nightmare Neutronics would be released, being a bunch of plushies. While two of them, the Frettles and the Nightmare Cupcake, were received fairly positively by many, the other half of the wave were ones that garnered a lot more backlash. And these were the plushies for Nightmare and Nightmare Fredbear. Yeah, um, I mean this with all due respect to the people at U2s from U2s.com. These are just shit. They are very ugly looking. I know the original characters aren't exactly adorable, but there are several problems with these plushies. Mainly that the artwork shown on the plushies' pages don't match the actual plushies. It honestly took me a second to realize, but the nose and the mouth on the real plushies are connected. So, since the snout is popping out, so does the mouth. Making the plushies just not look right. There are several other problems that many fans have also pointed out. For example, there's far too much printing on the plushie. Specifically on the teeth. If they wanted to capture the same details as the original characters, U2s really should have taken notes from the Withered Bonnie plushie. And how his teeth are physically there. But make them more sharper to match the Nightmare characters. Their arms are also criticized for being quote-unquote puffy segmented. And lastly, a personal problem that I had, was that Nightmare and Nightmare Fredbear's plushies simply just don't look like a U2 plushie. Obviously, I can't speak for everyone, but I really like the FNAF U2 plushies. Because they take something that's supposed to be scary, and turn them into something that's adorable, and something I would proudly display in my collection. And unfortunately, Nightmare and Nightmare Fredbear's simply just don't do that. Despite of all the criticism, both plushies, alongside the Frettles and Nightmare Cupcake, would still end up releasing on June 10th of 2025, but till this very day, people still make fun of the plushies. At the end of the day, given Nightmare and Nightmare Fredbear's designs, and the universal dislike for the plushies, I personally consider these two to be the worst U2's products. Although, I am going to have to put an asterisk right next to that, because you could argue that the controversial creators after their products are technically worse, but design-wise, yeah, they're pretty bad. Next up is Smiling Friends, an Adult Swim show where we usually follow the characters Charlie and Pym, as they try to cheer up people who are sad. And it's quickly become beloved, for its animation style, humor, and how well-attached it is to internet culture. And when success comes, merchandise is bound to happen, as U2's has been teasing for a while, that they were working on products for the series, and eventually, they would formally announce that Charlie, Pym, and Glepp would be getting figures. Many were already pretty hyped for the figures, though, some were beginning to bring up an old clip, of one of the co-creators of Smiling Friends, Zack, aka Psychic Pebbles, where he spoke very negatively about a different, but very similar company to U2's Funko. [00:23:28] Speaker 4: Guys, if Smiling Friends ever has Funko Pops, break them with a hammer and send us videos, please. Please, smash the Funko Pop Pimps. [00:23:36] Speaker 1: People were using this clip to attack the U2's, given the previously mentioned similarities between Funko and U2's. Now, it's worth pointing out that there was some missing context, as in the original video, OniPlay's member, Corey, was talking about collecting, and would drop occasional digs on Funko. [00:23:53] Speaker 4: Wait, what's your thought on buying toys and little trinkets and collectibles? [00:23:56] Speaker 5: Okay, so I was buying toys, okay? It started with a bunch of, like, Teen Titans, Rick and Morty shit. I was just buying it, and I actually ended up getting a really rare- Like Funko Pops? No! No! No! Fuck Funko! But I was getting- You threw, like, ten emotions right there. No! No! No! No! No! No! Okay, here's the thing. I don't really mind Funko in a way. Like, they do make some good stuff. I don't like their ugly, cabbage-packed, black-eyed figures. I think those are hideous. [00:24:22] Speaker 1: But eventually would attempt to refrain from doing this, as he didn't want to potentially hurt any opportunities for Zack. Sorry. I'm sorry, Corey. Go ahead. [00:24:29] Speaker 5: Listen, I don't want to fuck up, like, Funko branding, just in case you, like, decide to do the Smiling Friend mystery boxes for children. [00:24:34] Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by Funko Pops. Which, following this, was when Zack would say his infamous statement about Smashing Smiling Friend's Funko Pops. So, it seems like Zack himself just doesn't like Funko. As many fans have expanded on this point, explaining their personal issues with Funko. Quote, The thing people, including myself, hate about Funkos aren't that they're cute, marketable, plastic merchandise, it's that they're ugly as all hell. But, Zack earlier in the video, stated that he doesn't really have a problem with collectible toys in general. Even if he doesn't like participating in it himself. [00:25:09] Speaker 4: Like, I really don't think there's anything wrong with collecting stuff if you want to do it reasonably, but, like, I just feel like I'm less compelled to do it. I'm not as interested in it as I- [00:25:17] Speaker 5: Well, do you guys do that thing where you buy something, and then, instantly after owning it, you're like, I'm bored of this now. [00:25:24] Speaker 1: Although, with that being said, it's also pretty obvious that in the clip, he was joking, or at least being overdramatic for the bit. Either way, even if the clip was taken out of context, to make it look like Zack hated all figures for the series, many still really liked the Smiling Friends U2's figures, as they were some of the most detailed, and accurate figures of the characters. So, U2's would continue to release merchandise for Smiling Friends, as a few months later, a wave of plushies for Charlie, Pim, Glepp, Alan, Mr. Frog, and Gwimbley, would be released. But, when U2's were promoting the wave, they used the phrase, quote-unquote, Smiling Friends is back. It's a fairly normal phrase, simply just referring to how Smiling Friends, was back to collaborate with U2's. And, it's a phrase they've used before, and after with other franchises. So, what's the big deal? Well, around that time, it had been announced by series creators Zack and Michael, that the show would be coming to an end after three seasons, due to feeling burnt out, and that they didn't want to ram the show into the ground. Which, although people understood, and respected their decisions, fans were still shocked and saddened by the ending of Smiling Friends. So, U2's use of, is back, was seen as poorly worded. Obviously, though, like I said, this was a phrase that U2's had used several times. And, aside from these small bumps in the road, the Smiling Friends U2's collection, had been some of the most loved products that U2's have ever made. Just as much as the products for Sackboy. A gaming icon for Sony, that for a while was seen as their cute mascot, but arguably has been overshadowed by Astro Bot. Sackboy and his game, LittleBigPlanet, are still loved for their creativity, how interactive the games were, and come on, just look at the little guy, how could you not love him? So much so, that U2's have been making products for Sackboy, including his first figurine, and a Target-exclusive Glow in the Dark variant. And the official second wave would be released in May of 2026, which included a plushie of Sackboy, the character Vex, and Sackboy in a banana costume, named Sack-Nana-Nana. Building up to the release, everyone was hyped, as this wave was just so adorable, and also had some great promotion. But unfortunately, mere days before the wave was supposed to be released, a major controversy would happen in the LittleBigPlanet community, that put them in a strange place. LittleBigPlanet Free, allowed players to submit their own custom levels, allowing others to play brand new experiences made by fellow fans. But in 2024, hackers kept DDoSing the game's online servers, causing the custom levels to be unplayable. The issue was so bad, that it led to the decision to permanently close the servers for the game. So, in 2026, a content creator in the LittleBigPlanet community, named A, attempted to bring back the servers, but from the beginning, issues were already beginning to form. As not only was the method questionable, as you needed to stick a USB flash drive with files into your PlayStation console, but they also used AI art to promote it. Which was weird, because, you know, LittleBigPlanet, a game about being creative and making something of your own, then you use AI to promote it. Something that lacks creativity and creates the art for you. But then, things would begin to come out about A, regarding some of the things that he allegedly has done. And one of those things, was that he was directly associated with the hackers, who DDoS'd the game's original servers, and had even thanked them for doing it. [00:28:44] Speaker 6: Like, you doing that kind of freed me. Like, I started playing COD more. Like, I was on Black Ops 2, and Black Ops 1 put, that kind of like, just killed it off. But thanks, anyways. [00:28:53] Speaker 1: Now, it should be pointed out that A, still hasn't responded to what's been said about him. But the damage had already been done. As A has lost thousands of subscribers, disabled his comments, and his trust in the community is likely forever ruined. Due to the controversy happening so close to the U2's release, A lot of people were quick to criticize U2's for releasing the products at such a strange time for the community. Which is just flat out not a fair thing to criticize U2's for. U2's had already announced the wave before the controversy even happened. The release date was already set in stone. And even way before that, had confirmed that they were working on products for the series. The controversy was something that came out of complete nowhere. Is it a very unfortunate set of circumstances? Yes, no doubt. But this was something that U2's could have never seen coming. And with everything ready to release, what else could they do? Delay the product? You know, something that could upset their partners at Sony? It could also upset or confuse fans that were potentially waiting for the products to be released. And that's all under the assumption that U2's even knew about the controversy. What I'm trying to say, is putting U2's in this position, where they're apparently the bad guys, is insane. And the fact that people are pointing and yelling at a completely innocent party, instead of the guy who allegedly did all these bad things, is even stranger. Next up is Tong Tong Tong Sahor. A character that appears to be a wood log holding a bat. While strange, he's been heavily associated with Italian brain rot. That are objects and combining them with animals, or giving them more humanoid characteristics, like ballerina cappuccina, and da la la la da la la. But Triple T has far transcended into internet brain rot, and became a meme in general, on the same level as Skibbity Toilet, and the hand motion of 6-7. As Tong Tong has been made into endless jokes, and stuff like Steal the Brain Rot, and in Fortnite as a playable skin. Though Tong Tong, alongside all the other Italian brain rot characters, have been highly criticized, specifically for the origins of the memes, as the original images were made with AI. With many arguing that Tong Tong and everybody else, are just slop and have no real human creativity. Even with his Fortnite appearance, many accused Epic Games of using AI to create the model of the skin. But there's still a fair amount of people who find Tong Tong funny, and like the guy. Whether ironically or not. And due to popular demand, U2's decided to make a figurine of the big guy himself. And they did make sure to clarify, that the model created for Tong Tong's U2's, was made by actual people. And that the image shown was not made by AI. Either way, let's take a look at Tong Tong's U2's in detail, and see the brain rot icon in all its glory. Yeah, so, if you look at the date that this was posted on, it was on April 1st of 2026. Meaning that yes, Tong Tong Tong's The Whore's U2's figure, was an April Fool's Day joke. And admittedly, a very well made one. That I was actually fooled the first time that I saw it. Many caught on to the joke almost immediately. With some being sad that it wasn't real. Then there was also a lot of people who didn't catch on to the joke as easily. And thought the joke was real, and proceeded to get upset at U2's. Even days after the post was up. U2's are no stranger to having April Fool's Day jokes. But this one is probably their best one. Given how it was able to trick so many people, simply for how well made the joke was. [00:32:19] Speaker 3: Yeah, whatever. They still used a character generated by AI. I don't like it. AI is ruining our planet and... [00:32:26] Speaker 2: Fucking hell. It was a joke. They even knew it was stupid. Stop taking it seriously. [00:32:31] Speaker 1: And Andres clearly agrees with me. And I never said that. Anyways, those were the controversy involving shows, video games, and memes. But before we continue, there was a certain price change involving the shipping. And the reaction to it was very different compared to every other time that the shipping price was changed. And even then, I want to go into a little bit more detail about the shipping itself, as it's been a heavy point of criticism over the past couple years. As tradition at this point, the shipping has increased in price. At the beginning, it was free, but then changed to $5, then eventually to $7. And that's where I was during my second conversation. But literally just a month after the video was released, in April of 2025, the shipping was changed again. From $7 to $9. So why did this happen? Well, fans pointed to a specific reason of something that was happening in the real world, that may have offered an explanation. Tariffs. A tax imposed on imported items, which increases the cost of bringing products from one country to another. And around early 2025, a big tariff war, I guess, was happening between countries. To make a very long and complicated story short, basically, the United States increased tariffs on imports from several countries, with large increases on items from China. China responded by raising tariffs on US imports, leading to a back and forth escalation between the two countries, increasing the tariffs on each other, with them going pretty dramatically high. This entire fiasco was going on so quickly, that businesses didn't really know how to react, as some, like the company Cool Shirts, just stopped shipping items to America, at least for the time being. So, what was YouTube's response to this entire thing? Well, publicly speaking, Austin spoke about tariffs on the YouTube's Discord, as his responses reassured fans that nothing bad is going to happen to any pre-existing orders. Quote, it's tough to give a statement right now, since it changes daily, even hourly. Lol. But as it stands, if a delivery arrives today, for example, the duty is already paid, by us. Quote, we ship everything DDP, which means we prepay tariffs. Although, given how close the events of the tariff war of 2025, and the change of shipping price, many have pointed to it being the reason. But this wouldn't last for long. As the tariff war began to calm down, and negotiations were going on in the background, YouTube's for a short period had changed their shipping price back to $7, only to switch it back, and is currently at $9. But, why? Well, tariffs, while they're not anywhere near as bad as they were at their peak, it's still not the same as they were before. In fact, in my questions to Austin, he mentioned that the tariffs were one of the many obstacles that the company had to juggle with. With all that said, the audience were upset about prices being raised, but they were at least a lot more understanding of the circumstances, as this was quite literally out of YouTube's control. YouTube's increasing the prices isn't really new, and honestly, given how everything in the world has been increasing in prices, I'm not really all that surprised, but people do have a lot more problems with the shipping than just the price, since most of YouTube's products are under a pre-order. This means they have to wait for months just for their products to come in. And I'm also not necessarily the biggest fan of this either, but let me play devil's advocate here for a moment. I understand that with YouTube's, having products be pre-orders just works. With the timers, and not over or under producing units, then shipping the products a few months later, it's a great and easy functioning system. And even then, YouTube's isn't necessarily the only company with this pre-order model. Like Glitch Productions. If anything, as pointed out by Austin, YouTube's probably have some of the best turnaround times with pre-orders. Quote, If you look at the overall toy industry, especially in the premium market, i.e. Chinese imported toys, art toys, statues, etc. One to two year long pre-order periods are very common. Our average is much lower. He also further elaborated on why the shipping takes so long. Quote, Our pre-order model allows us to support IP owners and content partners with some of the fastest turnaround times in the industry, from initial design to customer delivery. Our products are also designed by humans, and have a lot of handmade components, so there are limits to how fast we can move without impacting quality. Similarly, compared to other direct-to-consumer vinyl and plushie companies, our shipping costs are significantly lower. For example, a 9-inch U2's plushie costs $29.99 plus $9 shipping to my home, while comparable products from competitors typically total $40 to $42, or more for a similar sized item. We do also partner with local retailers like Hot Topic, Spencer's, or FYE, alongside Amazon to offer options that may not require shipping. So, yes, I understand why the shipping is the way it is, but I still have several issues with it. First, I think U2's are releasing way too many products to keep up with. If they want to release, like, 20 products in a week, that's their decision. The problem is that when you have that many products in production at once, things are bound to get backed up. Obviously, I don't know how everything works behind the scenes, so maybe their production model works fine, but the problem is that when you have so many things to work on, the newer products are going to have to ship out way later to produce the backlog of products first. Which means they may have an estimated shipping window of six months away. For the average customer, seeing a product listed with a shipping window like that can be pretty discouraging. Which then leads to my second issue, delays. The problem isn't that delays happen, as I think we can all understand that, hey, shit happens. But it's the lack of communication. Back when U2's first started, customers who ordered the delayed products would at least get an email informing them about it. It also came with a discount code, as some sort of compensation for the inconvenience. At the very least, customers were acknowledged. But nowadays, from what I can tell, you often don't even get an email telling you that your order was delayed. That just doesn't sit right with me. Especially with how communicative and open-minded they are with everything else, this is the one and arguably the most important area where they drop the ball. If you tell customers that a product is expected to ship during a certain time frame, and it doesn't, the bare minimum should be an email explaining the delay. Even a small gesture like a discount code would go a long way. I'm genuinely not trying to be rude here, and maybe I'm missing something here. If anything, throughout all my coverage of U2's, I've tried to be as fair and understanding as possible. But the shipping is becoming increasingly difficult to defend. It feels unnecessarily complicated, and I think it really needs to be updated in some sort of way. Austin himself explained that they're, quote, always looking for ways to increase our speed, manage costs, and improve the overall customer experience. They've done a great job at listening to criticism before. So I really hope that with this section, U2's could listen, and eventually improve the shipping experience. Because as it stands, buying from the website has become increasingly difficult for me at least. And I think many others also feel the same way. Obviously, I'm not Mr. I know everything, so who knows, maybe nothing can change. But, let's just hope for the best. [00:40:02] Speaker 3: Wow, you actually criticized them. Maybe there is some hope for you after all. [00:40:07] Speaker 2: You know he can give them shit, and also still like them. [00:40:10] Speaker 1: I think talking to both of you was a bad idea. Anyways, let's talk about some more product controversies. But this time, more people topics, like YouTubers and musicians. As first is SML. Created by Logan Furryacre, it's a plushie puppet channel that creates skits, primarily around the character Jeffy and his adopted father Marvin, or Junior and his friends, and the weird chaotic situations that they all get into. The channel has gained lots of popularity, thanks to their consistency, and also their edgy humor. Though, this has put them under lots of ridicule, as they've had news outlets like Good Morning America criticize them, [00:40:45] Speaker 7: YouTube demonetizing their content, YouTube keeps attacking me, they keep demonetizing all my videos, no matter what I do, no matter what channel I move to, they just keep attacking me and attacking me. [00:40:55] Speaker 1: And even getting a cease and desist letter from Nintendo, for using their characters to make offensive jokes, and profiting from it. Despite the very low lows, they've had just as many, if not more high highs, as throughout the moving from channel to channel, their audience have been following, as he's gotten hundreds of millions, to even billions of views, and currently has over 10 million subscribers. So, the SML YouTube collaboration was seen as amazing news, as the most iconic of the SML characters, Jeffy, was getting a figurine. And while the SML fanbase, and even some nostalgic fans loved it, there was a small group of people who weren't happy, and were disappointed with YouTube's. And the biggest voice in this crowd, was the YouTuber iDuckFilms. Quote, I will be boycotting YouTube's, until they sever all ties with Logan Furryaker, and stopped normalizing the characterization, and normalization of ableist stereotypes, against profoundly autistic people, that Jeffy normalizes. I am extremely disappointed, that they went ahead of this, with almost no pushback. Quote, unquote, actual autistic people, aren't offended by Jeffy. The autistic people Jeffy is a stereotype, are what often are called low functioning, and are unable to self-advocate, and are often discriminated against, even by high functioning autistic people. Though, these tweets were highly criticized, and made fun of, because people felt, they were being overdramatic. Many called out, how just one singular person, boycotting a figurine, wouldn't really accomplish anything. And also explaining, that the Jeffy character, that iDuckFilms was describing, is very different, to the Jeffy, in the modern SML videos. Quote, Jeffy has started to be, a more mature character, as time went on, while still being, a representation of autism. People have said this about him, many times before, and look where he is now. He's not just an autistic kid, who cusses anymore. He's an actual adult, who likes having fun now. And many of the other replies, were saying that, iDuckFilms, was complaining about nothing. Or tweeting this video, of baby Mario crying. Safe to say, Duck Films didn't really affect, the launch of the U2's. As Jeffy would be released, on August 28th of 2024. And over time, even more SML related products, have been released. Including figurines of, Jeff Peepy Jr., a summer version of Jeffy, and monitor buddies, for the previously mentioned characters, along with Marvin. While some have attempted, to call out U2's, with similar posts, they haven't really gained, any significant traction. And the SML U2's, are very much beloved, by fans of the channel. But can the same be said, about the angry video game nerds plushie? Well, kinda. The angry video game nerd, created by filmmaker, James Rolfe, is a nerd, that reviews bad video games, by tearing down, every annoyance, unfair or stupid thing, that the game throws at you. In making over the top, insults and jokes, the series was created, even before YouTube started. And AVGN, has been seen as a pioneer, in the angry reviewing genre. As he really was, one of the first people to do it. And even after two decades, the series is still going. The nerd, or James, aren't really strangers to U2's. As the nerd, has already gotten a figurine, and another one of James's characters, Bored James, has also gotten one as well. So AVGN getting a plushie, was bound to happen. Though, this time around, it got a lot of negative feedback. You see, in more recent years, James Rolfe has been seen, in a much more negative light. As many have criticized him, for his content getting lazier, the disappearance, or quitting of core members, from the channel, and being replaced by people, who aren't as well liked, by the audience. To the involvement of the company, screenwave media, in the content. As there were other people, who would help write the episodes, for the AVGN series, and side projects like Monster Madness. Which would later lead, to the plagiarism controversy. Where it was found, that one of the writers, had copy and pasted portions, from other film reviews, into their scripts. There is an entire subreddit, named the Cinemassacre Truth. That's been following, everything related, to the Cinemassacre YouTube channel. And once the YouTube plushie, was announced and released, they were quick to mock the plushie. Quoting many of the memes, that the subreddit, have been joking about. Quote, get them before 540, cause they'll be gone forever. Quote, they should have put, MUH Mortal Kombat hat there. Among various other things, that I probably can't include here, to stick on the YouTube's, community guidelines. But you get the idea. This isn't really new, as people did have similar insults, towards the previous YouTube's products. What is new, is that even the fans, were fairly iffy, about the plushie. As with all YouTube's products, it was under a pre-order. Meaning you pay for the product now, and will be shipped at a later date. And while many already have an issue, with the month long wait times, AVGN's fans had a big problem with this. As earlier that month, Limited Run Games, had informed people, that the NES version, of the AVGN video game, which bare in mind, was a product, that was under a pre-order state, was having its shipping date, delayed. Significantly. From an initial, June 23rd, to the 30th, of 2026 shipping date, all the way, until January, to March 31st, of 2027. So understandably, fans were fairly hesitant, when it came to buying, another product, that was in a pre-order. Though, the plushie was still, very much liked, by some fans, especially diehard fans, in his audience, who had been following him, since the beginning. But our next collaborator, has had a much more, mixed response, if he should even be, receiving a U2's, in the first place. Joe Hawley, is a musician, that was a prominent member, of the indie group, Tally Hall. And has also had, a successful music career, of his own. Him and the band, have been able to keep, a strong loyal fan base, who deeply enjoy their music, even though, they haven't released, anything new in years. And when YouTube, began announcing, that they were making products, around the beloved band, fans were beyond excited. Though, a few months, after the announcement, many things, regarding Joe's personal behavior, were brought to the public. What has been confirmed, from fellow band members, is that Joe, has been heavily struggling, with his mental health, and has said, or done things, that were not good. In the modern day, fans, while respecting the work, that he's done, with his personal projects, and the Tally Hall group, don't like the person, behind the songs. And fans, have unanimously agreed, that Joe is not perfect, and has done bad things, but that we shouldn't, directly attack him, as it doesn't really, do anything. And instead, just leave him alone, to try to better, his mental health. Make of that, what you will. Because of Joe's behavior, some question, Joe Hawley's addition, in the products. And they argue, that since Joe, has done a fair amount, of things that can be criticized, giving him products, could be seen, as giving him an endorsement, or just ignoring his actions. Though, many have also defended, Joe's inclusion. As first, the products, were already announced, far before Joe was exposed. So from U2's position, if they were to scrap it entirely, it would be incredibly unfair, to the other band members. As they would essentially, be getting punished, for something, that wasn't even their fault. Many also made the argument, that you have to separate, the art from the artist. And while Joe is not, a perfect person, and needs to better himself, the music, him and his friends made, can still be respected, and loved. And that the Joe Hawley character, associated with Tally Hall, is just that, a character. As well, it was also argued, that if they excluded Joe, from the lineup, it would seem kind of weird, since he is one of the core members, of the group. So it's either they made, all of them, or none of them. I'll ultimately leave it up to you, to decide which side, of the argument you're on. But U2's would still include, Joe in both waves. Which includes plushies, and figures of the iconic band. In regards of Joe Hawley's inclusion, the Tally Hall U2's, are adored by fans. As many are still begging, U2's, to restock, or make more products, for the band. Joe being included in the U2's, hasn't affected its popularity. But the plushies for the band, Pierce the Veil, haven't been seen in the same light. The emo rock band, is one of the most recognizable, alternative bands, in recent memory. U2's haven't really made, a lot of music artist products. And as a personal fan of the band, I'm personally happy, that they're getting U2's products. But the plushies have received backlash, for not being accurate, to the actual members of the group. Unlike the previous controversies, where small details, were not the correct colors. This time, the criticism was, the skin color of the plushies, were pale white. As many argued, that this is not 100% accurate, to the skin colors, of the actual band members. Because of this, along with the fact, that the members, weren't advertising the plushies, people have been questioning, if the band was actually involved. Though, Austin did comment about this publicly, clarifying that they were official plushies, and have been worked on, since last year. As well as adding, that Vic, Tony and Jamie, all loved the plushies. Though, a lot of the band's audience, still made fun of the plushies. Some also had a problem, with the fact, that there seemed to be someone missing. The drummer, Lonnie. As it seems, he wasn't getting a plushie, despite performing, with the band for years. With that said, it's worth pointing out, that Lonnie, while Yes is associated, with Pierce the Veil, is technically, not an official member, of the group. So it's possible, that because of this, he wasn't included. Fans of the band, had several problems, with the plushies. As many gave them, the nickname, of Pierce the Pale. But there were still some, who thought the plushies, were charming, and bought them anyways. So maybe just having, a loyal audience, and a cute enough design, is all you need, to sell some plushies. Which is something, that Speed McQueen, seemingly didn't have. In fact, his plushie got a lot more, of a negative response, than positive. Speed McQueen, is primarily known, for making short, from content, across YouTube, and TikTok. While a lot of his content, is tame, to generic YouTube, shorts videos. He has pushed the boundaries, and has made several jokes, that have been seen, as edgy, or offensive. And some, that I can't really, go into detail about here, or else I'll probably, get into trouble. Speed McQueen, is a fairly polarizing creator. But this hasn't stopped him, from gaining a large audience, of over 13 million subscribers, on YouTube. And he got the opportunity, to work with YouTubes, for the Speed McQueen plushie. Which was released, on September 5th of 2025. However, the response to the plushie, was overwhelmingly negative, because of the previously mentioned, edgy type of content, that Speed McQueen makes. With that said, I also want to point out, that the plushie, didn't really receive, a lot of fanfare either. And personally, I think there's two reasons, for this. First, it's a well known fact, that trying to translate, YouTube short subscribers, to genuine fans of yours, is not easy. Most people, watching short form content, only watch creators, for a few seconds, at a time. Meaning, there's often less attachment, to the creator, compared to long form YouTubers. And if it's already hard, to convert short viewers, into loyal fans, convincing them, to spend money, on merchandise, is probably even harder. But, there's also a second reason. Speed McQueen, just didn't do a good job, at promoting the plushie. As he only promoted it, a small handful of times, in one tweet, and long form videos. Videos, that most of his fan base, aren't there for. In fact, in all the research that I did, I was only able to find, a small handful of people, who actually bought the plushie. Now, to be fair, that doesn't necessarily mean, the product sold poorly. Maybe the plushie, did sell more units, that we simply just don't know about. And my goal here, isn't to make fun of Speed McQueen, at all. It's just the fact, that Speed McQueen's plushie, has been one of the most, negatively received, YouTube's products, with there being, very little fanfare for it. And now, let's go over, YouTube's was randomly brought up, in an unexpected place. Back in September of 2024, previous YouTube's collaborators, MrBeast and KSI, along with Logan Paul, created the product Lunchly, a lunchable styled snack, that includes products, made by the content creators. But almost immediately, it received backlash, and criticism. As Lunchly was seen, as another piece of slop, just to sell to their audience. And one of the biggest people, who said something, was another previous YouTube's collaborator, DanTDM. In his viral tweet, he stated, quote, What happened to YouTubers, man? This is selling stuff, for the sake of making money. Simple. How does this benefit their fans? This is selling crap, to kids who don't know any better, than to trust the people, who are selling it to them. Do better. While MrBeast, and Logan Paul, did attempt to defend their product, KSI would go through, a different route, and would call DanTDM, a hypocrite. As KSI would point out, that DanTDM, had also made merchandise, to sell to his fans. And one specific product, that was pointed out, was the DanTDM YouTube's figure. And honestly, KSI does have a solid point. With all due respect to YouTube's, if we're keeping the same mentality, with what DanTDM said, you don't need a YouTube's figure. As it's literally, just a figurine of a YouTuber. Like, your life would be exactly the same, if you owned it or not. To use Dan's words, this is selling stuff, for the sake of making money. Simple. How does this benefit his fans? But, as pointed out by previous YouTube's collaborator, FGTV, quote, comparing junky food, to a collectible is crazy. As at least with Dan's YouTube's figure, it's not necessarily going to hurt you. While with Lunchly, many were questioning, if the food was actually healthy for you. Especially with rumors of mold, being found in the snack. Even then, KSI seemed to forget, that he himself, had also collaborated with YouTube's, on several occasions. And even then, that KSI has had connections with Austin Long, far before YouTube's was even a thing. For example, Austin Long is directly credited, as an executive producer, for KSI, and his group, The Sidemen's YouTube Red Show. So, it's not exactly a good look, to call YouTube's crap, when you have such a long business history. While KSI himself, would kind of acknowledge this, and proclaim that he's, not the one complaining, and crying on Twitter though, the controversy would continue, though it was very one-sided. As DanTDM, would never properly respond, KSI would continue to tweet about him, criticizing him, [00:54:21] Speaker 8: for taking food related sponsorships, in the past. He was sponsored, then promoted, and made a whole video, on MunchPak, a monthly sub box, full of food and candy, to his Minecraft, audience full of kids. And not calling out, other content creators, for selling products. Where is the same energy, when Ryan Traehan, really sweet. Where is the same energy, when FaZe Rog, really sweet. And would also defend, many of the arguments, that he's made. [00:54:46] Speaker 9: Uh, wait, you did the same, as Dan, you made, toys with, tube heroes. [00:54:52] Speaker 8: And yes, that's fair, but I'm not the one complaining. [00:54:56] Speaker 9: Uh, well, okay then, he was talking about food, not merchandise, and toys. [00:55:03] Speaker 8: And I'm like, okay, sure, let's keep moving the goalposts. Which, funny enough, [00:55:08] Speaker 1: YouTube's would upload a video, of 10,000 KSI's, and 10,000 DanTDM's, fighting. Poking fun, at such a ridiculous situation, as the audience, would endlessly mock KSI. In the modern day, no one had any lasting effects, from the controversy. KSI, DanTDM, and MrBeast, have continued to have successful careers, with fan bases who love them. As for Logan Paul, he was, and is still wrapped up, in lots of controversy. Yes, he is still successful, but his reputation, is likely forever tainted. In lunch, he's still a readily available product. Up until this point, many of the YouTuber related controversies, we've talked about, have, at the very least, someone making a decent point. But for our next controversy, I just think, it's completely ridiculous. As this one received, a lot of unwarranted backlash, and I think it'd be pretty criminal, of me not to include it. And that's, for Battle for Dream Island. Created by the Huang brothers, Michael and Carrie, BFDI is a show, where inanimate objects, compete in elimination style challenges, for a chance to win a huge prize. Hosted by the announcer speaker box, or the Algeblarians. The series has been on YouTube, for well over a decade, on the Jack and Jelfy channel. And it's honestly, one of the most impressive, independent animated, series on the entire platform. The two brothers, who started by making a silly show, about talking objects, has grown into one of the biggest forces, in indie animation. With great storytelling, hilarious characters, and amazing animation, their success, is certainly well deserved. As the channel, has well over 3 million subscribers, as they patiently wait, to see what happens next, in the series. For well all the success, the Huang brothers, have managed to maintain, a remarkably clean reputation, aside from having, occasional issues with YouTube, and fans disagreeing, with certain viewer votes, in the series. Both of which, were either outside factors, that Michael and Carrie, couldn't control, or simply matters, with personal opinion. They've stayed out, of any major controversy, that changed, when they announced, their collaboration, with U2's. For the most part, people were simply upset, because BFTI, was working with U2's. I know it sounds like, I just repeated myself, but hear me out. If it isn't already obvious, from how long, I've been talking about this company, throughout this entire series, U2's have been involved, in quite a few controversies, over the years. Some of these controversies, are completely false, while other raise, valid concerns. Regardless, many people began asking, why is BFTI, collaborating, with such a controversial company? Now to be clear, nearly every content creator, who collaborated with U2's, has received, some kind of backlash, like this from their audience. And normally, I tried to not include, these sort of controversies, because if I did, one, we'd have to include, every single YouTuber, who has ever worked with U2's. And two, people usually repeat, the exact same talking points. However, I'm making an exception here, because many of the arguments, people made, were questionable, at best. And as a personal fan, of the BFTI series, I feel like I can speak better, on this topic. Like I said, the biggest thing I noticed, was people recycling, the same false allegations, misleading talking points, or extremely old controversies, in an attempt to discredit U2's. But they would bring up, these controversies, that happened years ago, without providing the full context, or acknowledging, how the company has changed, since then. There are far too many, allegations to go over here, and I've already addressed, most of them in my, previous U2's videos. So, let's take a look, at one specific example, the Pepe products. U2's produced products, for Pepe, without getting permission, from the original creator. However, what people conveniently, leave out, is that this happened, back in 2019. Around seven years ago. Since then, if you actually look, at U2's catalog, they've consistently, worked with creators, companies, and rights holders, to properly license, their products. Does that make, what happened with Pepe, okay? Of course not. But it's also important, to see when someone, clearly learned, from their mistakes. And holding this mistake, over a company's head forever, even after they corrected, their behavior, simply isn't realistic. This became, a reoccurring pattern, with many of the criticisms, I saw. I'm not saying, everyone was intentionally, spreading misinformation, but many people, clearly didn't do research, before making these arguments. For example, one Twitter user, named Kendi, posted several allegations, against U2's. Then in the replies, would link to a Tumblr post, containing even more accusations. The problem, was that the Tumblr post, wasn't a reliable source. Many of the links, either led to deleted tweets, or failed to provide, the proper context necessary, to understand, what actually happened. In fact, several of the controversies, listed here, aren't even possible, to properly research anymore, because the original posts, no longer exist, and aren't archived. Simply put, using this Tumblr page, as your source, isn't a good idea. But then, Kendi would link, to U2's controversies, related videos. And could you guess, which ones Kendi linked? Both, of my original U2's videos. You know, the ones where I spent hours, researching and debunking, all the allegations. Like, let's get this straight. You make, and link claims, about U2's, only to then link videos, where the claims you made, are debunked. With all due respect to Kendi, in my opinion, it's pretty clear, that they hadn't actually, watched the videos. Instead, it seemed like, they saw the scary buzzwords, like controversial, in the title, and assumed, that was just repeating, the same criticisms, everyone else has already made. Again, I'm not saying, everyone involved, was acting maliciously. It just seemed like, people were jumping, to conclusions, without properly researching, the topics, they were discussing. Now, to be fair, there was one criticism, that I saw, that was at least, understandable. Some people pointed out, that the brothers, already have their own, merch store, where they sell tons, of BFDI related products. So they question, why the brothers, would choose to work, with U2's, if they already have, their own store. While I don't necessarily, disagree with that, but I also think, there are several advantages, to collaborating, with a company like U2's. For starters, U2's is an established brand, that has collaborated, with such huge franchises, like Fight at the Freddy's, Minecraft, Halo, Chainsaw Man, Godzilla, and even more. Having BFDI, associated with these franchises, helps establish it, as a legitimate, recognizable brand, rather than just, another internet show. Realistically, that's a huge opportunity, for Michael and Carrie. Having your series, placed right next to franchises, helps demonstrate, just how far, BFDI has come. Collaborating with a company, like U2's, is valuable, from a networking perspective, and opens doors, for future opportunities. Beyond that, it also allows the brothers, to produce products, that they normally wouldn't. The Jack and Jellifee store, mainly focuses on plushies, with the occasional, pin or figure. U2's, already have years of experience, producing figures, plushies, and so many other things. Instead of learning, how to manufacture, everything yourself, partnering with a company, that already specializes, in this area, just makes common sense. Even financially, it also benefits the series. BFDI, isn't some tiny, animation project anymore. Episodes, on average, are about 30 minutes long, and involve, over 30 people, working on the animation, voice acting, writing, editing music, and so much more. Producing episodes, on this scale, isn't cheap. So selling, limited edition merchandise, for a company like U2's, helps generate, additional revenue, that can be reinvested, into the production, future episodes. With all that being said, I'm not saying, that you have to like, the collaboration. But at the very least, brings some strong arguments. As most of the criticism, was just people, grasping at straws. And it's also worth mentioning, that most of the backlash, stayed entirely on Twitter. As across nearly, every other platform, the collaboration, was received fairly positively. And even then, many members of the BFDI community, actively defended, the collaboration. Which, honestly surprised me. Even after the controversy, died down, people continue to discuss, and defend U2's, and even directly named me, and my research. [01:03:14] Speaker 10: But the fact of the matter, is that U2's has gotten themselves, into hot water over the years, with most of the controversies, being blown out of proportion. Obviously not saying, that the company is free from criticism, because we are talking about, the same company, that partnered with NFT Bros. But a lot of people's reasons, for hating U2's, are situations taken out of context. Not denying people's, bad experiences with them, because let me tell you, there are plenty of them I've seen. But U2's actually, does seem to do a good job, with correcting their mistakes, and learning from them. Again, refer to Andres' videos, for more details. [01:03:42] Speaker 1: Despite of the backlash, the collaboration still continued, as the character 4, received a plushie, and released on June 27th, of 2025, and even continued further, with a figure, the character 2, who was released on January 30th, of 2026. I personally really like this one, especially because, Michael Huang himself, drew the artwork, for 2's box. It's a small touch, but it helps make the figure, feel more authentic. And the BFDI community, also seemed to really enjoy, the figure as well. As well as the previously mentioned, 4 plushie. As of me talking about this, it's still unclear, whether more, BFDI U2's products are planned. Though, before 2 was released, Austin mentioned, that there were more products, in the works, and the character Leafy, has also appeared, in one of U2's promotional posts. So it's possible, we may see more BFDI products, although nothing's been, officially confirmed, so we'll simply, just have to wait and see. While the BFDI U2's, controversy, certainly happened, and some people, are still upset about it, none of the backlash, actually stopped the collaboration, from happening. And I'm genuinely, really happy about that. I really enjoy BFDI, and U2's. So to see both of them, working together, was a weird dream, come true for me. And I'm so happy, to own such unique pieces, of BFDI, and U2's history. In both of my previous, conversations about U2's, I've talked about, how some of the people, that worked with them, in the past, later turned out, to be allegedly bad people. And unfortunately, over the past year, that list has been growing, larger and larger. To only name a couple, Tectone, Mizkif, and GoMotion, have all become, or been exposed, for being allegedly, bad people, after they worked with U2's. Meaning, it's important to point out, that the company, had no possible way, to know that these, were allegedly bad people. I brought this up with Austin, and he explained the entire process, from U2's side. And I'll simply be reading out, what he said. I want to preface this by saying, that Austin didn't mention, anyone by name, and was only speaking, in general terms. So, with that said, Austin stated, quote, This is a challenging part, of being a company, that collaborates, with all kinds of creators, across YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, and other social platforms. We do expect, all partners, to uphold themselves, in a way that represents, U2's, and themselves, professionally, while avoiding, unnecessary controversy. We have created, over 5,000 products, since 2019. And a small handful, of partners, have been involved, in activities, or made statements, that we wouldn't stand behind, or condone. When we become, aware of a partner, potentially breaching, our agreed upon terms, we review internally, review feedback, we might see online, then we make a decision. The partner, is then notified, with a rationale, for why we were making, the decision. So even U2's, want nothing to do with them. And just to solidify this, with many of the, controversial creators, U2's either, haven't worked with them, in years, or they can no longer, be found on the U2's website. It's clear, that they're aware, of what the collaborators, are doing publicly, and are willing, to take swift action, if they're doing anything, out of line. And those were, the YouTuber, musician's, people controversies. Although, there is technically, one more, involved in the, My Little Pony contest. Where fans could submit, their own fan art, of a pony, and whoever won, got their art, turned into a real, U2's plushie. And well, um, the infamous, lolcow, Chris Chan, entered into the contest, with this drawing. Ultimately, Chris Chan's pony, did not win the contest. And while this isn't, a controversy, in the traditional way, as U2's, could have never, foreseen something, like this happening. It's still, interesting nonetheless. [01:07:16] Speaker 3: Yes, yes, we know. Now, I want to hear, about the most, controversial topics. [01:07:21] Speaker 1: Okay, okay. Well, I've saved the biggest, and most controversial topics, that sparked a lot of backlash. That some people view the company, in a very different light. But... Oh, come on. Uh, there has been, some updates, about some of the topics, that I've discussed in the past. So let's go over them. And don't worry, there's only like four of them, so, we'll get through this quickly. First up, remember Big Chungus? Last time I talked about, the controversy surrounding him. How he was supposed to release? Didn't. Then, once U2 started officially, working with Warner Bros, the very first product, they released, was Big Chungus. And over the course of 2025, and 2026, U2's and Warner Bros, have been strengthening, their business relationship. As they've released, several products, for a wide variety, of different series, and franchises, that Warner Bros owns. Like actual characters, from Looney Tunes, several DC Comics superheroes, Animaniacs, Rick and Morty, and Beetlejuice. And arguably, the most popular of this bunch, are products, for Cartoon Network shows. Like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Gumball, Chowder, Dexter's Laboratory, and Edit and Eddie. And to bring things full circle, U2's have since made a plushie, for Big Chungus. Which truly shows to me, that even if there was, a small controversy, with Big Chungus, long before the partnership, the companies don't have, any sort of bad blood. If anything, it proved that they were able, to build a strong, business relationship together. Our next update, is regarding Exmoor Global. As you may remember, from last time, U2's tried to help, Scott Coffin, against Exmoor Global. A company, that's been making, bootleg plushies, of FNAF characters. With the audience reception, being somewhat mixed. As some would side with U2's, but just as many, if not more, criticize them, for getting involved. Since then, there's been one, pretty important update, to the situation. Before, and during the U2's, controversy, Scott Coffin, was suing, Exmoor Global, for the previously mentioned, bootleg products. But in September of 2025, the case would, officially be terminated. The ruling stated, that Exmoor Global, had to pay, $49,500, with interest, to Scott Coffin, and that's it. So while, Scott Coffin, did technically win, Exmoor Global, still an operational business, and continues to sell, the bootleg products, that got him, into so much trouble. With that said, that doesn't mean, that Exmoor, are innocent either. I myself, have made an entirely, separate video, going over every shady thing, that the company has done. So if you're interested in that, please be sure, to check it out. And speaking of other videos, I've made, I've also covered, another YouTuber plushie company, Makeship. And one of the controversies, I discussed, involved the VTuber, Whiskey Project. And how our manager, Axel, seemed to have some resentment, towards Makeship. For having their, Clay the Claymore plushie, not have infinite stock. While I did criticize him, in the video, it seems that Axel, would get what he was looking for. As since then, Whiskey Project, has worked with U2's, to sell monitor buddies, of herself, and Clay the Claymore. As well, as a plushie, for Clay the Claymore. And while it does say, that it has limited stock, Axel's wish, to sell more plushies, did come true. And lastly, I did want to quickly, talk about the Twitter account, U2's News. An account that would provide, content updates about U2's. While I never directly, named the account, in both my original conversations, U2's News, was an incredibly helpful source, for the research, of both my U2's conversations. As well as just in general, keeping up to date, with what's going on, with the company. In fact, they had actually done, even more good. As the account, in collaboration with U2's, had helped raise, thousands of dollars, for several charities. By raffling prototypes, of U2's products. U2's News was, in a way, one of the most important, accounts in the community. However, in June of 2025, the admins had announced, it was planning on, ending the account. Not because something happened, or any kind of drama, but because, everyone involved, with the account, just got busy, with their personal lives. Community members, while understanding the reason, were saddened, by the news. Quote, The account, continued posting updates, over the next month. Even holding, one more charity live stream, then would post, the final tweet, on the account, on July 12th of 2025. Thanking U2's, and the community, for their support. And while I completely, understand why, the account ended, it's still sad, seeing a major part, of the community, just disappear. And those were the updates, for some of the controversies. But now, let's talk about, the biggest U2's controversies, of the past year. One involves, specific products, one involves, a social media post, and one involves, a complete misunderstanding. Let's start with, that social media post, as it was about a show, made by Riot Games. Arcane is a popular, Netflix series, based on the, wildly successful, video game, League of Legends. Just as the game, is built an enormous, fan base, the show was built, a massive following, of its own. Like many popular, fandoms, with a large cast, of characters, fans have created, countless different ships. However, one particular, love triangle, has sparked a huge debate, within the arcane community. Should the character, Jace, end up with Mel, or should he be with Victor? People have taken sides. But U2's, has leaned into both ships, by producing figures, around them. And these figures, were received fairly positively, by the arcane community. But U2's posted a video, that many fans, took issue with. The video is based, on a meme, from the Deltarune community. But recreated, with arcane characters. As it shows, Victor, driving a car, before running, over Mel. Now, before we get into, the main controversy, I want to make one thing clear, the video is not funny. Whether it's arcane, Deltarune, or something else, I just don't find, this joke entertaining. If anything, I'm confused about, why U2's thought, this was a good video, to upload, to its official, social media pages. As it has very little, to do with actually, promoting their products. An ad is supposed, to be something, that's so memorable, that you can easily, associate it with the company. For example, U2's DIY videos. These videos, are genuinely creative, engaging, and get stuck in my head. This video, on the other hand, sure, it's shock humor, I guess, but how exactly, does this make me interested, in buying a U2's figure? I know this has nothing, to do with the actual controversy, I just wanted to mention, that before moving on. The real controversy, began almost immediately, after the video, was uploaded, to U2's social media platforms. As many people, accuse U2's, of being racist. For those, unfamiliar with arcane, Mel is a black woman, while Victor, is a white man. Because of that, many people felt, that having Victor, run over Mel, was, at the very least, a very bad look. Many members, of the arcane community, also pointed out, that some people, in the fandom, have unfortunately, treated Mel differently, because of her race. For example, some people, dislike her character, or refuse to ship her, with Jace, specifically, because of the color, of her skin. While that obviously, doesn't represent, the entire fandom, it is an unfortunate reality, that many fans, have noticed. Because of that history, some felt the video, carried uncomfortable, implications. On the other hand, there were some, who defended U2's, as they argued, that the context, of the video, was being ignored. According to the side, the video, clearly meant to be a joke, about the ongoing ship war. With Victor, hurting Mel, so that he could be paired, with Jace instead. They believed, people were taking, a harmless joke, out of context, and turning into something, that it wasn't. Regardless of which side, you agree with, U2's public response, was, not much. Shortly after, the backlash began, U2's quickly, deleted the video. But by that point, many people, had already saved, and re-uploaded it. Although U2's, never released, a public statement, some people, who contacted the company, by email, received the following response. Quote, thank you for reaching out to us, and expressing your concerns. Firstly, we want to apologize, for the post made on Friday. This post, was not properly vetted, by our internal team. It was not approved, or reviewed by Riot Games. While our intention, was to share a playful meme, we did not think, through the implications, and recognize, that it was harmful, to the fandom. That was never our goal. We take full responsibility, for the mistake, and are sorry, for the hurt it caused. We value, the arcane community. And as fans, of the series ourselves, we'll review future content, more thoroughly, for tone, and impact. Even with that apology, many people still criticize them. As the main complaint, was that the apology, was only sent privately, through email. Instead of being posted publicly. At the same time, some argued that, U2's didn't need to apologize, in the first place. As they believed, that the context, made it obvious, that the video, wasn't intended to be racist, and that the backlash, was an overreaction. To this day, the incident remains, a heavily debated topic. One side believes, U2's crossed the line, and handled the situation poorly, while the other, believes the company, did nothing wrong, once the full context, of the video, is taken into account. But the community, design's program, has received, just as much backlash. The community design page, was a feature, that U2's teased, for a very long time, before it officially, launched in 2025. The concept is fairly simple. Independent artists, can create their own concepts, for U2's products, based on a brand, creator, or character, and upload their artwork, to the community design's page. From there, fans can vote, for whatever designs they like. If a concept, receives enough support, U2's will contact, the appropriate rights holders, to see if they can turn, that fan concept, into an officially licensed product. If it sounds familiar, it's because, it's very similar, to Lego Ideas. On Lego Ideas, fans create, and upload, their own Lego set concepts. Other fans vote for them, and Lego reviews, the most popular submissions, to determine, whether they can become, a real product. However, there is one major difference, between the two systems. With U2's community designs, the independent artists, are actually getting paid, for their work. Instead of simply, showcasing fan art, U2's is financially, supporting artists, for something that they were, already doing, in the first place. That's honestly amazing. It's a creative, and genuinely, meaningful way, to support the community, while also giving, talented artists, an opportunity, to have their work, recognized, and potentially turned, into an official product. So how did people, manage to get upset about it? Well, people found a way. When the page was released, many people, began to call out, that the artists, were drawing characters, without the permission, from the original creators. Even some of the people, involved in projects, involving characters, that appeared, in the community designs page, began speaking out. In some cases, they were even bashing the service, and throwing unnecessary shade, towards U2's. Now, I understand, why someone looking at the page, for the first time, might be confused. From the outside looking in, it could certainly look like, U2's were already producing products, based on those characters. And even then, I can understand, that these creators, were simply just clarifying, that they weren't working, with U2's. But to be clear, neither U2's, nor anyone involved, ever claimed, that these were, officially licensed products. At the end of the day, they were simply, fan made concepts, made by independent artists. Nothing else. Creating fan art, for a series, game, or content creator, isn't a crime. Uploading artwork, to the community designs page, is essentially, no different, from posting fan art, onto Tumblr, Twitter, or DeviantArt. It's simply, just another platform, where independent artists, can share their creations. The only real difference, is that U2's, is directly supporting, these artists financially. There's never any guarantee, that a design, will become a real product. Even if a concept, receives a lot of votes, U2's will still have to, contact the appropriate parties, and work with them, to create an officially, licensed product. If those creators, aren't interested, the product simply, won't be created. And you know, a very strange thing, the double standard. These people criticize, the U2's community designs program, yet, they rarely apply, those same criticisms, to Lego ideas. Even though, they're essentially, the exact same concept. Take Gravity Falls, for example. Gravity Falls, Lego ideas submissions, have been uploaded, countless times, on the site. Despite repeatedly, being rejected, and it being fairly obvious, that an official, Gravity Falls Lego set, probably isn't happening, fans continue, to upload new concepts anyways. Yet, almost nobody questions, whether Alex Hirsch, the creator of Gravity Falls, is okay, with these submissions existing. So, why is it suddenly, a problem, when U2's does something, nearly identical? It feels like, a clear double standard. People criticize, community designs, simply because, it's U2's. While giving, Lego ideas a pass. Even though, both platforms, are built around, the exact same idea. Fans creating concepts, that may eventually, become officially licensed products, if the rights holders agree. Because of the people, and creators, publicly criticizing, the community designs, it ended up hurting, one of the artists, by the name of Trev. Quote, I'm not mentioning this, for any pity points. But, I was legitimately, in a state of panic, for my entire morning hours yesterday. When I saw people hating, for a lack of a better word, on my art. A lot of nasty comments, flew towards them. And, I understand that not many people, understood the community, or even really like, U2's as a company. It wasn't my intention, to deceive people, into thinking they were real. I only drew the concepts, as a fan of both, respective games. Wanting to share my love, in a way I knew how to. And Trev ultimately, removed several concept submissions, from the website. Honestly, it's just such a shitty situation. Whether intentionally or not, it essentially sent the message, to one of your own fans, that their artwork, wasn't wanted. That's not how you should treat, the people who support your work. At the end of the day, Trev was simply creating artwork, based on games that he enjoyed. He wasn't pretending, the concepts were official. He was participating in a system, that was specifically designed, for fan artists, to share their ideas. Now, to be fair, while the community designs, had a rocky start, things eventually began to improve. People were actually using the system, exactly as intended. Independent artists, continued creating concepts, fans voted for their favorites, and some of those concepts, eventually became official products. At the time, one of the most popular concepts, was a Fredbear, and Spring Bonnie figure, which would eventually become, an actual U2's figure. But, this is where U2's introduced, the concepts. If a concept reaches this stage, fans could reserve it, by placing a three dollar deposit. If enough people reserved the product, and it reached its funding goal, those customers, will then be charged, the remaining balance. And it will officially be produced, and become an actual product. The first wave of concepts, involved five products. Four of them, were based on the game Dispatch, which we'll get back to in a moment. And the fifth, was based on the content creator, Astral Spiff. Unfortunately, this launch, also created another misunderstanding. When Astral Spiff, promoted the campaign, he made it sound like, he just randomly found out about it. [01:22:19] Speaker 6: This thing, it isn't my design. I only heard rumors of it, until it became a real thing. It was part of a competition, U2's held. You can see it was designed by, Daile, on the U2's community. [01:22:32] Speaker 1: However, that's not actually what happened. As Austin would clarify, quote, he approved the design months ago, when it initially went up on the community, and has been involved in every step of the way. And assumes that Spiff, just misspoke in the video. As Spiff himself would also clarify, that he did approve the concept. So, it's not like this was something, that came out of complete nowhere. Like I said, this was all one big misunderstanding. Spiff's figure concept, did successfully reach the funding goal, and become an actual U2's figure. And the same was true, for the four dispatch plushies. But once they were turned into, actual official products, not everyone was happy, with the final results. As some people argue, that the finished plushies, didn't look anything like, the original concept art. Personally, I don't really understand this criticism. Obviously, everyone's going to have their own opinion. But I think it's just one of those situations, where you're taking a two-dimensional drawing, and turning it into a real physical plushie. Of course, it's not going to look one-to-one identical. That's just the nature of translating concept art, into a physical product. Still though, I'll leave that one up to you. Although, the concepts page itself, has remained one of the most controversial parts, of the community designs. Looking at it today, some concepts, have actually skipped, the funding phase entirely, and gone straight from, community designs, to becoming official, U2's products. But for the most part, the concept system, is still how community designs works. And the biggest criticism, revolves around, the funding threshold. Before a concept, can become an official product, it has to reach, a certain number of orders. Figure concepts, generally need, around 500 orders. While plushie concepts, need roughly 200. A lot of people, have taken issue with this system. As it's possible, that a genuinely cool concept, may not meet the sales threshold. As this criticism, reached its peak, during a wave of the, Finance of Freddy's 2 movie concepts. As they were figuring concepts, of William Afton, Possessed Abby, and Michael Afton. They all seemed like, pretty cool ideas. But once they entered, the concept stage, they struggled to reach, their funding goals. Naturally, fans worried, that these products, would never become, actual figures. And one of the people, most disappointed, was Trev. The artist, behind the Michael Afton concept. His frustration, was understandable. The original, Michael Afton concept, had already received, thousands of votes. And an overwhelming, amount of community support. So his question, was simple. If people, clearly wanted the figure, why did it still, have to go through, the concept's funding stage, instead of becoming, an official product immediately? This, is where, I'm going to have to, defend you two's. Again, I understand Trev's frustration, but there's a very, important difference, between voting for a product, and actually buying one. It's very easy, for someone to click, a vote button, because it doesn't, cost anything. While spending, your hard earned cash, is a completely, different story. A perfect example, of this, is with subway surfers concept. On community designs, it received around 115 votes, which would suggest, that there's a decent amount, of interest. But when the actual, concepts campaign, went live, it only got 38 sales. That's really, the situation. Just because, someone says, that they'd buy a product, doesn't necessarily, mean that they will. In fact, the Michael Afton concept, shows it even more clearly. The original, community designs post, received well over 5,000 votes. Yet, when the time came, for people to actually, put down money, it initially struggled, to reach the 500 goal. I'm not saying, that to be rude. It's simply, the reality of crowdfunding. Interest, and actual purchases, are two very different things. And companies, have to take that into account, before committing, to manufacturing a product. And even then, just because, it's associated, with a popular franchise, doesn't automatically mean, that their merchandise, will sell. If you want, a perfect example of this, look at makeshift, and their first plushie, for the content creator, Bowblacks. At the time, Bowblacks was one of the most, recognizable names, in the commentary community. With hundreds of thousands, of subscribers. On paper, you would expect this campaign, to be an easy success. But when the campaign launched, that wasn't the case at all. As it was getting close, to the end of the funding period, the plushie had only sold, around 50 to 60 units. Now to be clear, the campaign did eventually, get funded because of, other factors. But it proved, an important point. Having a large audience, or a big shiny number, doesn't automatically, translate into, merchandise sales. That's exactly, why I understand, why U2's, uses the concept system, in the first place. They need some way, to determine, whether people are actually, willing to purchase a product. That said, the system, does deserve some criticism. Personally, I think the funding thresholds, are simply too high. For figures, requiring around 500 sales, within seven days, feels like a pretty, ambitious target. Especially for smaller content creators, or niche franchises. I understand that, U2's wants to make sure, a product has enough demand, to justify production. But 500 sales, in such a short amount of time, is a lot to ask. If you look for the concepts page, you'll find plenty of figure campaigns, that failed. Not necessarily, because the concepts were bad, but because the funding goal, were simply too high to reach. I think a flat requirement, of around 200 sales, would be more than reasonable. Or maybe U2's, could keep the higher goals, but extend the campaign timer, to give creators and brands, more time to promote, and sell their concepts. Either solution, would make the system, feel more obtainable, without removing the purpose, of the concepts program entirely. But to be fair, despite of all the concerns, surrounding the system, the Michael Afton figure, eventually did reach, its funding goal. In general though, the community design, is still viewed fairly positively, by a large majority, of the community. And I think, that's completely justified. At its core, it's genuinely a great idea. From U2's perspective, it's a fantastic way, to see what the community, actually wants. While platforming talented artists, who might go unnoticed otherwise. From the artist's perspective, it's an opportunity, to have their work showcased, be compensated for it, and potentially see, one of their fan concepts, become an officially licensed product. It's a win-win, all around. More importantly, it shows that U2's, genuinely values their community. Instead of treating, fan artists as an afterthought, the company, actively encourages them, to participate. And even rewards them, for doing so. That's something, you don't see very often. And I think, it's genuinely worth, at least some credit, where credits do. There are also, plenty of concepts, currently on the Community Designs page, that I'd absolutely love, to see become official products. The platform, has produced, some incredibly creative ideas. And it's exciting to imagine, which ones, might eventually become real. Of course, I still think, there are improvements, that can be made. But those are more, small issues. The Community Designs, has gotten, an unfair reputation, because of the controversy, surrounding it. While some of the criticism, was understandable, a lot of it, stemmed from, misunderstandings, about how the system, actually works. And it does suck, seeing how many concepts, weren't funded. Though, it may also be, because of a collaboration, that's quickly become, one of U2's biggest controversies. And that, with Harry Potter. The fantasy novel, where we follow Harry, and his group of fellow, young wizards, who learn how to do magic, and battle Lord Voldemort. Over the years, the series has become, a worldwide phenomenon. Creating more books, feature length films, and garnered, billions of dollars. With how successful, the series has been, you can bet, that there's been, a lot of merchandise, made for it. Whether physically, or digitally. As there's been, Funko Pops, Lego sets, a Fortnite appearance, and lots of video games. With the most well known, being Hogwarts Legacy. Which in and of itself, had sold over, 40 million copies. Harry Potter, is a beyond successful franchise. As it's even considered, one of the biggest, entertainment series, ever made. And that has to do, in part, thanks to Warner Bros. The books, were already successful. But Warner Bros. were able to expand the series, having produced the movies, and helped create the merchandise. So given, U2's and Warner Bros. business relationship, becoming stronger and stronger, a Harry Potter collaboration, was bound to happen eventually. The collab was something, that was teased for a while. As for example, the character Hermione, was named an award search, that U2's had posted. Eventually, on May 12th of 2026, that Harry Potter U2's, would be announced. And pretty much instantly, the collaboration, had gotten a lot of attention. But not for the reasons, you may think. As nearly everyone, hated it. Reply, after quote tweet, after comment, would share, how incredibly disappointed, and upset they were, towards U2's. And it's because, of the offer of Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling. As she has opinions, and made statements, towards transgender people, but in a very negative light. As she's written, and discussed her views, on a number of occasions, especially on Twitter. These comments, have garnered, significant controversy, and criticism. Because since, Rowling is considered, one of the most influential offers, many argue, that her statement, could contribute, to negative attitudes, towards transgender people, by encouraging dismissive views, or hostility, towards the community. As a result, Rowling receives, a significant amount of backlash, till this very day. And even people, who previously, and currently work, on the Harry Potter series, have publicly distanced, themselves from Rowling, and criticized, or have the complete, opposite opinion to Rowling. Given this association, many were quick to criticize, the U2's collaboration. Many pointed out, that if you buy, any of the figures, then you're supporting, J.K. Rowling, and her negative sentiment, around trans people. Especially since, Rowling herself, uses the money made, from the Harry Potter series, to fund, or to donate to things, that either exclude, trans people, or is very much, anti-trans. Though, once the products, were officially revealed, it was announced, that 10% of the sales, from the figures, would be donated, to the human rights campaign. An organization, that helps achieve equality, for people, in the LGBTQ plus community. And while no one, was necessarily against this, many also criticized, for just being 10%. As many questioned, where the rest, of the 90% would be going. As well as that, many began pointing out, how U2's had made, several pride related, merchandise in the past. So many found, the collaboration, to be hypocritical. As they go from, making pride supporting products, to then working with a brand, where the offer, has very anti-trans ideas. And it should also be pointed out, that this sort of controversy, isn't really new. As with the previous, we mentioned other, Harry Potter collaborations, have also gotten, a very similar backlash, to the collaborations, with the series. In general, many, and I do mean, many, expressed their dislike, or hatred, for the Harry Potter, U2's. Across all of, U2's social media platforms. With that said, there were some, who attempted to defend, U2's. As the crowd pointed out, many of the issues, in each of the arguments. First, they pointed out, that JK Rowling, was likely not getting, anywhere near, the full amount of money, that the consumer, would be paying. As there's many things, that go into play. Like the cost, of making the figures, U2's personal cut, and the 10% that would be, donated to the human rights campaign. As well, some pointed out, that just because, JK Rowling, was the creator of the series, it doesn't automatically mean, that U2 supports, everything she says. For example, with the Lego group, while they do continue, to make products, around Harry Potter, they publicly expressed, how they don't support, her opinions, and are simply making toys, for the Harry Potter series. Basically, it's the, you have to separate, the art from the artist argument. And even then, there were people, who did support trans people, but thought the backlash, was a bit much, and didn't justify, calling U2's homophobic, or transphobic. But it's no doubt, that a lot of people, didn't like the Harry Potter U2's, and called for the figurines, to be cancelled. But this didn't happen, as Harry Potter, alongside Hermione, and Ron figures, would be released, on May 22nd of 2026. Although, at this time, it's unknown, if the line will continue. And since U2's, does listen to the feedback, it's possible, the controversy, may affect it. Which brings us, to our last topic. And while it's not necessarily, the biggest controversy, of everything we've talked about, it does bring us back, to the beginning, of our story. Dead Meme, was the first product, released by U2's, all the way back, in April of 2019. The toy, was inspired, by the Uganda Knuckles meme, that had originated in 2018. And by the time, that the U2's figure, was released, it was pretty much outdated, and not really relevant. But U2's, would make that, the entire joke, of the character. And would continue, to use him, on all their social media platforms, releasing several, other products for him, such as a one foot version, a framed photo, and several holiday, parody figures. And he had become, a sort of unofficial, mascot for the company. Although, over time, Dead Meme, would be used, less and less. As fewer products, for him would be released, and U2's, would eventually, get their own, actual mascot, being the social media, manager Todd. Dead Meme, was ironically, becoming dead. And the audience, that U2's had cultivated, loved the little guy. Though, in more recent years, many have seen, the character, in a more negative way. As people have said, that the original meme, plays on stereotypes, of people from Uganda. Like the accent, for example. Of which, many have attempted, to defend U2's. By explaining, that the original meme, wasn't meant to be offensive, and just a joke. While also pointing out, that the Dead Meme figure, rarely, if ever, tried to play, into these stereotypes. It was just used, as a cute, and fun character. The entire conflict, is a conversation, in and of itself. But there's another reason, why I wanted to bring up, Dead Meme. If you go onto, the U2's website, and try to find him, or any of his products, he's nowhere to be found. So, I brought this up with Austin, to ask what happened. And the answer, while surprising, also wasn't. When U2's first started, the company didn't have, many strong business connections, like they do today. So, the Dead Meme figure, was made without the permission, of Knuckles' owners, Sega. And years later, Sega themselves, had asked U2's, to take down, the Dead Meme products. Which, out of respect for Sega, and their business partnership, U2's obliged. With that said, this didn't seem to affect, their partnership at all. As Sega, has worked with U2's, to make products, for the Persona series, and as recent as, March of 2026, made products, for metaphor, ReFantasio. And Austin did mention, that there are plans, to make more products, for, quote unquote, additional Sega related projects. Now, before we wrap things up, I do want to point out, that there have been, some people, attempting to use, what U2's did, with Dead Meme, to show that U2's, steals from people, all the time, or something. Which, I just don't think, this example works. The original Dead Meme figure, was released in 2019, which was seven years ago, when the company, had first began. And since then, they've done the proper work, to get partnerships, with several companies, to work on products, the correct way. Did U2's mess up here, yeah I'd say so. But over the past few years, they've shown that, they've learned from their mistakes, and haven't done something like this again, in a very long time. So to use this as a serious point, is flimsy at best, to just plain dumb. While Dead Meme, is far from the most controversial, of all the topics, we've discussed, throughout this entire series, the story surrounding him, is just so interesting. As it truly shows, how Dead Meme, is truly dead. And there, that was every single, U2's controversy, of the past year, and a couple of extra ones, I wanted to sprinkle in, at least as of me talking about this. I did try to cover, every controversy, but if I did miss one, please be sure to let me know, because realistically speaking, this is my third U2's video, this is probably going to be another one. But, with all that said, what is my overall conclusion, about U2's? [01:38:19] Speaker 3: Well, since they are always getting into trouble, that means, they are clearly horrible people. [01:38:24] Speaker 2: What? Did you even hear anything he said? Who fucking cares? They are good people. [01:38:29] Speaker 1: I know everyone's going to have their own opinion about U2's, even birds. But after looking at their entire back catalog of controversies, including the ones over the past year, and all the research I've done about them in the past, I can honestly say, that U2's is not, the big bad evil company, that everyone tries to make them out to be, but they're also not perfect either. For many of these controversies, the reality is far less dramatic, than people made them out to be. In many cases, there were either misunderstandings, situations taken out of context, people spreading misinformation, or just flat out lying, or instances where U2's were dragged into something, that they had very little involvement with. Simply put, a large number of these controversies, amounted to nothing burgers. Now, that isn't to say that U2's is exempt from criticism, or that the company has been perfect. There have been several occasions, where they genuinely made mistakes, or made decisions that the community didn't like. However, one thing that stood out for all of this, is that U2's has consistently shown, that they're willing to listen. Rather than ignoring criticism, they've shown a genuine effort, to improve their products, communication, and overall change based on the community's feedback. That's honestly one of the most impressive, things about the company. In fact, for full transparency, I wasn't expecting Austin to be as kind, communicative, and understanding as he was. Austin and U2's know they have room to improve, and they're willing to continue growing, rather than pretending they have all the answers. Even then, you may have noticed, that more and more people, have begun defending U2's. And I think there's two main reasons for this. First, I think many people are beginning to realize, that a large number of these controversies, simply don't hold up under closer inspection. The second reason is even simpler. The products speak for themselves. U2's have always made good products, but over the past year especially, they've done an excellent job, of giving fans exactly, what they've been asking for. They've expanded into more licenses, created merchandise for franchises, that rarely receive collectibles, and continued improving the quality, of their releases. At the end of the day, U2's isn't going anywhere, and it's very much likely, they'll continue to be, one of the biggest collectibles companies, for years to come. Personally, I think U2's has received, an unfair amount of criticism, simply because it's become popular, to criticize the company. If any other company, were in this exact same position, I don't think they would receive, nearly the same amount of scrutiny, that U2's faces on a daily basis. Of course though, that doesn't mean the controversies, will ever disappear. No matter how successful, or great their products are, there will always be people, who dislike them. Whether people view U2's, positively or negatively, the company will likely continue, finding itself, at the center of discussion. And I'll be here, every step of the way, to cover every single one of them. As this has been, the never ending controversies, of U2's. In fact, there's actually another controversy, I want to talk about, involving the show, Peacemaker. As in this wave, my good friend, Birdup, actually received a plushie, and was a part of, Peacemaker's figure, and didn't invite me. Look, I know this isn't a controversy, in the traditional way, but it still pisses me off. Like really, this guy, you know, the guy who sits in a cage all day, and was barely here, you know, he gets the U2's. But what do I get? A lot of debt, and years of me, stalking a company, about plastic and stuffing. [01:41:58] Speaker 3: But I thought you liked, this dumb plastic and stuffing. [01:42:01] Speaker 2: And no one forced you, to do any of this, idiot. [01:42:04] Speaker 1: Oh shut up, Chris and Sarah. [01:42:07] Speaker 3: Well, he actually gives, Thank you so much to Austin Long, [01:42:16] Speaker 1: for his help with this video, and thank you for watching this video, that I spent months editing, on my iPad. It took a while, but I hope it was worth it, in the end. Use my Fortnite code, die. Bye.