Conversation

Fun fact: in the US, the X-Men are legally not human beings.

Why? Because legally, action figures of humans are dolls, and action figures of non-humans are toys. The import tariff on dolls is higher than that on dolls.

So the division of Marvel tasked with handling its action figures sued in 2003 for the X-Men to be considered non-human, so they could pay the lower tariff when importing action figures manufactured overseas. A judge agreed: X-Men figures are toys - and thus non-human.