Amazon forced to withdraw Osca

The distasteful costume was on sale for R467 before removal

Amazon forced to withdraw Oscar Pistorius ‘Blade Gunner’ costume

The Oscar Pistorius mock-up is as poor as poor taste gets

Amazon forced to withdraw Osca

The distasteful costume was on sale for R467 before removal

The online retail giants Amazon have caused uproar by marketing a Halloween costume of Oscar Pistorius. The ‘Blade Gunner’ outfit has since been removed from their website.

The ex-Olympian and Paralympic gold medallist was cast with worldwide notoriety after shooting his partner Reeva Steenkamp in 2013. The costume is a sick tribute to the events that lead him to a culpable homicide charge and six-year jail sentence.

What was in the ‘Blade Gunner’ outfit?

A green and yellow running vest is emblazoned with the year ‘2012’ – when Pistorius ran at the London Olympic Games. It even comes with a sock that’s designed to look like a prosthetic limb.

Seeing as this outfit is fit for a moron and the company they keep, the words ‘Blade Gunner’ appear above the running number on the chest. Just to make it painfully obvious for those who have suffered an intellectual bypass. It also comes with a toy gun. Because, you know, Amazon just ooze pure class.

The item was being sold alongside a caption. It read:

“This paralympic runner costume is sure to cause some controversy at your next event.”

Quite clearly, it’s a costume for the forced fun merchants who haven’t a single interesting thing about themselves. They must adorn the Blade Gunner threads to feel like a relevant talking point.

Amazon withdraw the costume

Following a severe public backlash, Amazon did remove the costume last week. A spokesman for the company blamed the individual vendor for the controversy:

“All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don’t will be subject to action including potential removal of their account. The product in question is no longer available.”

For those who have more money than sense, the item was on sale for £26. That’s around R467. At least looking like a nob-head comes at a price these days.

We’d love to hear your opinions on this. Are we being sticks in the mud, or is there genuinely no place for tasteless costumes like these? Let us know via our Facebook comments section.