Toy OTD: Disney Store Plastic Cars Toys: Mater, Red, Sarge, 'Chewall' Tractor, Chick Hicks, Lightning McQueen (2006 - 2008)

The movie Cars has proven to be a merchandising bonanza, spawning myriad lines of toys and other products. Like any other franchise, there's a range of quality within them - some items are excellent, some are fine, and others are functional but not much more. The primary line of Cars vehicles sold at the Disney Store are decent toys. They're mostly of a mid-range quality: in general the Mattel diecasts are far better, but this plastic, talking series is better than the smaller PVC cars, pullback items or plushes.

For one thing, they're fairly big - much bigger than any of the diecasts. If your kids need something larger to play with, this line is literally a better fit. The details aren't quite as lavish as those of the diecasts, but they're still good. Because of this, I'm assuming that these toys weren't cast from digital data but interpreted through traditional sculpting or other means (it's hard to know for certain). The construction is reasonably solid, but they do feel a little flimsy in places.

The biggest design detraction is the choice to make the pupils movable - they 'look' back and forth when pushed along a surface. In order to do this, the eyes are mounted on clear plastic stalks in front of an open 'windshield'. They're not all that intrusive on some of the cars, but on others it looks rather awkward and unattractive.

The other play feature included in the line is a motion-activated voice chip. This is a bit of a mixed blessing since they've got hair triggers, and chat away at the slightest movement. Other than that, the lines feel like dialogue from the film and have a decent feel for the characters' personalities (although it sounds to me like many of them were recorded by soundalikes).

The paint work here is minimal - the main body color is provided by the plastic itself. Most of the detailing is the cast plastic color as well, which in general I like as a cost-effective toy strategy. Colors tend to be a little more durable, and manufacturers don't have to be as precise about the few paint passes they do have.

The heaviest paint use is on the 'rusty' characters, and while the "Chewall" tractor looks significantly better than its diecast counterpart, Mater is only moderately successful - still looking more like paint than a rust texture.

Unfortunately, the other paint substitutes used here are decals - and they're another notable minus. They're particularly weak on heavily decorated characters like Wingo or Chick Hicks. I decided not to buy the Wingo from this series at all because I couldn't find one without stickers that weren't already bubbling up or tearing in the package. Chick's decals are better, but it doesn't look like it would take much play to badly damage them.

These toy cars by their very nature have no real posing capability or balance issues, so articulation and display stands are moot points here. Scale could be a display issue in the sense that collecting this line can eat up a sizable chunk of shelf estate. Fortunately, there's not nearly as many characters in this format as have been made in, say, the diecast line.

The packaging, on the other hand, is rather nice. The designers came up with a large clamshell, and turned it into an environment straight from the film! The branding is covered with the 'metal flake' base, and the toy itself rests on a short stretch of 'highway' backed with a rich panorama of Radiator Springs. The signs are built to create a 3D effect, and perform double duty describing play features. It's nice that there's so few stickers on the blister itself! On the other hand, it's a shame that they use so much plastic and take up so much space - but the shelf presence is pretty impressive considering the price point (originally $10-$15).

I imagine these toys are still available at the Disney Store, but since there's very few actual stores left, you'll probably need to get them online. You can get Doc Hudson and Sally on eBay for $23.74 + shipping, Lightning McQueen for $14.50 + shipping, Red for $27.63 + shipping, Luigi & Guido are packed together for $18.63 + shipping, Sarge is $12.93 + shipping, Fillmore is $17.63 + shipping, and Wingo goes for $14.50. There may be more toys in this line, but that's all I've been able to find. Compare prices, watch that shipping, and have fun!

Toy OTD: Nathan Jurevicius, Kid Robot's Scarygirl City Folk Figures: Crossing Guard, School Girl (2007)

Nathan Jurevicius is not only a cool illustrator, but a prolific toy designer as well! TheScarygirl City Folk collection probably isn't his latest line, but it's certainly one of his more recent ones. It's a blind boxed mini-fig series with a wide variety of characters. I only bought a couple of them, so I'll review just those two here.

Kid Robot's toys are of a consistently high quality, and this line is equally good. The sculpts capture the playful, graphically strong designs and interpret them into three dimensions very well! They're planned to be cast in multiple parts, and the assembly seams are strategically chose to blend into the design without disrupting it. The construction itself is fine, making the characters look solid. The use of materials is clever, such as the transparent plastic for the Crossing Guard's staff, and the mounting of the book stack on the School Girl's head.

The paint work is also nice and clean - there's not a ton of detail on these designs, but the color borders are sharp, small paint areas are tidy, and the broader paint areas are smooth. Details like the School Girl's eyelashes are crisp. The color palette is limited by design, not budget.

Mini-figures rarely (if ever) have articulation, so it's a non-issue here.

Balance for both designs is fine: School Girl has a back wheel to steady her; and the Crossing Guard has a broad, flat base. Mr. Jurevicius is very conscious of this aspect of manufacturing and addresses it well, regardless of the figure scale. Either small stands are included, or the designs are well balanced on their own.

Packaging for this line is terrific, both in terms of the individual boxes and the larger case. Both are heavily decorated with Mr. Jurevicius' graphics, but they're not overwhelming. The color use here is tasteful, but punchy enough to attract attention. All of the boxes are unified with a similar palette of black, pink, green and white - it's easy to keep track of this series!

There's fifteen different characters in the set, and at least two paint variants (a black-faced School Girl, and a black Jelly Cat). You can get blind boxes for $9.73 + shipping each at overkillshop.com, and a few of the characters are on eBay right now: The School Girl chase and both Jelly Cats for $19.99 + shipping each, and the Doctor for $29.99 + shipping. These prices seem a bit high, so you may want to be patient and poke around at the next Vinyl Toy Network or something. Good luck!

Toy OTD: DC Direct Kingdom Come Figure Series 2: Shazam (2004)

I remember Mark Waid's Kingdom Come being DC's answer to Marvels, ushering in an era of highly-polished 'event comics': sort of the comic-book equivalent of a summer 'tentpole' film. Since comic book characters have always been heavily merchandised, it wasn't much of a stretch to anticipate Kingdom Come action figures. DC Direct took on the challenge of making small versions of illustrator Alex Ross' re-imagined superheroes.

It's no small feat - Ross' style is quite detailed and realistic looking. While both this line and its companion series (the Justice action figures) produce mixed results, it's very impressive that any of these toys hit their target. This is a property that could only be done with the manufacturing technology and resources available today.

It may not be one of the best KC toys, but Shazam (aka Captain Marvel) is a nice one. As you probably already know, I'm primarily a purist - but I really like Waid/Ross' take on the character. A bit emotionally arrested, and there's an eerie djinn vibe about him now. He really is a being rooted in magic: he feels a lot less comforting, more unpredictable.

The sculpt is quite good - lots of subtle detail, but not too much. It evokes Ross' style nicely, right down to matching a pose from one of his paintings. The button-corner for the tunic may be a bit much, though, and the sculpt of the cape seems rather small and crumpled.

The paint work is pretty simple, as most of the figure is cast in the costume color. The overall effect is fine, but the facial detail struggles to support the sculpt and winds up looking a little like makeup. It might be as good as it can be, considering the sculpt and the scale. The only other problem is that the boots aren't painted (or cast) to match the metallic accents as they should.

The articulation is fairly basic - joints at the neck, lower biceps, wrists, hips and mid-calves. This preserves the look of the sculpt effectively, and isn't awkward to pose. The lack of knee and ankle joints aid balance and stability, but limit play value. I'm fine with this since I feel it's more of a display piece.

Balance is a mixed bag. The figure does come with an elegant display base, but it's huge. In fact, it seems far too big for any of the KC toys, and also suffers from the typical DC Direct display base problem. A few holes cast into the base can be used to hold a tiny peg. The peg fits into a hole on one of the figure's feet - the other foot doesn't have one. This usually results in the peg getting stuck in the foot, and/or the toy falling over. This base-mounting design has rarely worked for me, and unfortunately almost all of the DCD figures use it.

The packaging is well thought out and attractive. Simple black boxes with the graphic novel's logo on them - the additional text uses a similar font to maintain the look. Quite clean on the front, with great Alex Ross box lining art to create a crowd effect. The hang tag on the back allows the toys to be displayed on retail shelves, or hung on pegs.

You can still buy this figure for a decent price, but you'll have to shop carefully. eCrater has one for sale for $18.99 + shipping, but they can go as high as $89.95 + shipping at toyglobe.com. Be patient and have fun!

Toy OTD: Anri Peanuts Music Box: Flying Ace Snoopy (1968)

Before there was Star Wars for me, there was Peanuts. I've been a huge fan of the strip for as long as I can remember, gobbling up the escapades of Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Sally, Schroeder, and of course Snoopy.

Simply a cute puppy in the beginning, Snoopy came into his own in the late fifties/early sixties to become (arguably) the strip's most popular character. He transformed into a canine Walter Mitty; imagining himself as a vulture, a BMOC, a high-powered lawyer, and most famously a WWI flying ace.

I assume Schulz used his World War II experiences (or movies he grew up with) to inform Snoopy's adventures. They were purely imaginative in the comic, but occasionally visualized in the television specials. As they accumulated and grew ever more vivid, the fantasies began to inform the merchandising.

Anri began manufacturing many different Peanuts music boxes in the late sixties/early seventies, and naturally the flying ace was depicted in the series. One featured Snoopy flying on his doghouse, and this one (above) creates a more elaborate scene of him in a war-torn countryside. It's one of the most detailed environments of the line!

The Anri music boxes were crudely designed and constructed, but I still like them - there's an almost folk-art quality to the pieces. The simplicity does seem appropriate, even though they're far less sophisticated than the original artwork.

The elements seem to be made primarily from wood. What's interesting is they appear similar enough from one box to the next that they don't appear to be hand-carved. But how would you mass-produce something like this? Is some sort of wood pulp poured into a mold, like the '30s-era "Syroco" figures? Regardless, the shattered brick wall, the barbed wire, the helmet, the mushroom and Snoopy have a roughly-hewn charm.

The paint work is equally loose, feeling like rushed assembly-line work. Other than Snoopy's eyes, little of the paint on the box has much taste or care in its application. Most of the colors come across as overly layered and muddy. Still, it does contribute to the hand-crafted feel of the piece, which does have a certain warmth to it.

The song choice (It's a Long Way To Tipperary) is not only perfect for the era, but also because it was specifically featured in the strip. I can't remember if the box was wound with a side key or a rotating base, but it works fine and is well constructed. I'm assuming that a wooden base makes for a good resonator (which might make the mechanism sound better), but I'm not sure. Of course, it's worth mentioning that the base is nice and simple, with no unnecessary text or labeling on it.

Unfortunately, I don't have any packaging for this item (or any box photos that I can find online) to review.

These music boxes weren't made in huge numbers, and I imagine that many of them broke down over the years. As a result of that, and the strip's continuing popularity, these pieces can get quite pricey on the secondary market. This particular one ranges anywhere from $124.75 to $279.99 + shipping on eBay. Look the auction pictures/descriptions over carefully and make sure it's complete and in working order before you shell out the cash. Have fun!

Toy OTD: Wendy's Mighty Mouse - The New Adventures Premiums (1988)

Since I worked on Ralph Bakshi's The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse (and being my first job in animation), I was very excited about any merchandising tie-ins related with the show! Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot to be had (especially by today's standards), and most of it wasn't very good. The best of the lot - and the closest thing to action figures the show got - were the Wendy's kid's meal premiums.

I'm not sure I understand the play concept behind this line. Maybe the suction cups were simply intended to be bases - but it's not really used consistently, as you'll see. They're not exactly action figures, nor are they really window clings (like the enormously popular Garfield items were in the '80s), so the functionality of the toys is somewhat awkwardly conceived.

The character choices for the line make a lot of sense - since it was probably cooked up during the first season, all the toys are first season characters. Fortunately, they're all pretty prominent and popular. I wonder what Wendy's got to see from the show while creating the figures... partial episodes? Model sheets?

The sculpts are decent for a fast food premium. The characters are reasonably on-model, and some of the poses are asymmetrical. Unfortunately, the scale is all over the place: The Cow (the biggest character in the cartoon) is the smallest toy, and Scrappy's scale in the hierarchy is reversed, too. It's a shame, because individually the toys aren't too bad.

The paint work is pretty good, too - the colors are accurate and emphasize the sculpts' details well. The facial paint is reasonably clean and sharp. Mighty Mouse's eyelashes are fairly crisp, and bonus points for the highlight on Bat-Bat's sidekick, Tick.

There's no articulation at all, being the size the toys are, but at least the figures balance okay. I should say the standing figures balance well - which brings us to the bigger flaws.

All of the toys have a suction cup molded onto their feet, ostensibly to stick onto a surface like a dashboard or a window pane. The problem is that some of the figures are sculpted standing upright, while others are horizontal, in a flying pose. As a result, they don't display together well at all. Additionally, the suction cups don't stick very firmly, especially after prolonged use.

Like most fast-food premiums, the packaging is minimal and not all that compelling to look at. It's exactly what you'd expect - clear plastic bags decorated with some single-pass graphics. Inexpensive and practical, which makes sense for giveaways. Each toy did include a trading card of the character, which added a little more color.

Since these figures are over twenty years old, it may take a little while to get the whole set. You can get three of them (Bat-Bat, Pearl & Petey Pate still bagged) on eBay for $4.99 + shipping, and Mighty Mouse sells for $1.29 + shipping on eBid. At the moment, Scrappy isn't for sale online at all - odd, as I'd guess that he's the least popular of the characters. Good luck!

Toy OTD: Mezco Cinema Of Fear Action Figure: Leatherface (2008)

And now for something completely different - a Leatherface action figure! I'm assuming this was manufactured as merchandising for the recent Chainsaw remake.

I'm sure you're wondering: why on earth did I buy this? Why do I own it? I'm not a particularly big horror film fan. I hadn't seen The Texas Chainsaw Massacre until a couple of years ago, and I didn't really like it all that much (it was pretty creepy, though). I'm not really a Tobe Hooper booster either - the only film of his that I really like is (no surprise) Poltergeist. So what's the deal?

I do have some other horror toys, most of them from Sideshow's original Universal Monsters action figure line. Ultimately if the craft of a toy is good enough, it'll override how I feel (or don't feel) about the source material. In this particular case, stylization is key.

It's not stylization in the sense of stripping away detail - this toy is tweaked in terms of proportion and structure. I like the squat, exaggerated look of this figure. It emphasizes the bulky creepiness of the character.

The sculpt is quite nice, having a great sense of texture. The hair could have been sculpted with more, but ultimately I think it works with the pushed look. There's nice touches, like the removable mask (even though I'm never going to take it off). The eyes peering through it create a nice eerie effect.

The paint work is strong, with plenty of 'blood', of course. The paint is great for helping bring out the detail of the sculpt, and there's an 'antiquing' sort of effect to help give a grubby, battered feeling to the character.

I'm also impressed with the cloth costume - it's a bit unusual for figures of this scale. Adding pants (which could easily have been sculpted) is a nice touch, separating the costume from the figure body without feeling too bulky. The 'stained' fabric adds still more to the overall look, giving more variety to the gore work on the toy.

The articulation is about average - I think there's about nine joints here. The arm joints aren't always naturally positioned, so they can look a little awkward when posed. Still, they do make it easier for the figure to hold the chainsaw - it facilitates the inevitable tweaking needed to make the prop fit into a pair of hands (and of course keeps the prop removable).

Since the joints are limited, and the figure is in a squat and well-planted pose, balance issues are very low. No display stand needed for this toy!

There's only a few accessories included, but that's plenty: a machete, a bucket of, well, human innards and the signature chainsaw. They allow for a decent amount of posing variety and are still large enough to keep track of. They're covered with 'blood' too in order to match the figure. Ugh!

The packaging is not all that interesting. It's the basic window-box set-up with a hangable back card, to open up display options for retailers. While all of the design choices make sense - the window border is cut into a ragged shape; the logo is quite close to the film's, there's a foliage strip at the bottom of the box, the graphics are appropriately blood-spattered and choppy - the overall effect is kind of bland. It seems that the designers deferred to the figure to generate the desired impact. That's fine, but it does come across as a bit of a missed opportunity.

This figure isn't terribly old or much in demand, so it isn't at all difficult to find. I bought mine about a year ago from Spencer Gifts for $30, but you can buy one at Amazon for $12.99 + shipping. Enjoy!

Toy OTD: Konami Wacky Races Vehicles, Vols. 1 & 2 (2003)

Doubtless I've written this several times before - the Wacky Races cartoon is a big guilty pleasure of mine. The scripts are beyond thin, and the animation is uninspired at best. The highlights of the show - like much of Hanna-Barbera's output for me - are the voices and the design work. I love those cars!

There hasn't been a lot of WR merchandise over the years, and most of it isn't all that good. Even the best of these - a few model kits and cereal premiums - have somewhat limited appeal, aside from nostalgia value. So it's great to see some super-cool versions of the Racers coming out after all this time!

Konami released some fantastic toys about seven years ago (merchandising seems to be cyclical). The best part is that they made all of the vehicles - usually, manufacturers seem to focus on the Mean Machine, the Compact Pussycat, and the Turbo Terrific. There's a few downsides to this line, but for right now, let's focus on the good news...

These toys are pretty small - smaller than your average discast. But for this scale, they do have great sculpts and detailing. All of the contestants and their sidekicks have been included, too. They're hard to see here, but even the Ant Hill Mob is inside the Bulletproof Bomb! Nice.

The paintwork is also strong considering the scale. The colors might be a little brighter than they were on the show, but in general they're accurate and fun-looking. We're not just talking one or two passes, here, either - all (or almost all) of the colors needed were applied. Most of the drivers have some facial detail, and the printed numbers/logos are sharp.

Okay, now for the drawbacks. The biggest one is that the line was released in two 'volumes' of blind-boxed toys. This type of thing is never cheap, either as individual purchases or as pre-gathered sets on the secondary market. Of course each series had a super-rare 'chase' item too, which can be kind of fun if you're excited by 'the hunt'. Unfortunately, the chase for volume one was Dick Dastardly's Double Zero - arguably the most popular car on the show! Ugh. This piece would have been popular in any case, so to make it a chase just seems cruel.

I believe Vol. 2's chase was a small figurine of Muttley, Dastardly's snickering canine companion. Muttley was so popular, he was also in Dick Dastardly and his Flying Machines, featured in many other H-B shows like Laff-A-Lympics, and starred in a cartoon of his own! Understandably, the Muttley figurine wasn't to scale with the cars.

The other big drawback is that the cars aren't free-wheeling - the wheels are cast or glued in place on their axles. It does allow for the wheels to be accurately sculpted as ovals (right off the model sheets), but I think almost anyone would want their toy car to roll around. A real shame, but I do appreciate the extra mile for accuracy.

The packaging is a little busy-looking, but is otherwise as great as the line itself. Volumes One and Two had similar box designs, but were different enough that shoppers could at least tell which group of cars they were trying to collect! Both are decorated with spiffy model-sheet graphics backed with a fun gear pattern. The box backs feature the cars included in each 'volume', as well as the chase toys.

There's no balance issues with any of the vehicles, but each one was packed with a labeled display base. Without a dust cover, the bases seem a little extraneous to me, but again I appreciate the extra effort!

As I mentioned earlier, blind-boxed toys can be expensive to collect, especially on the secondary market. Buying a set of even one volume (much less both) looks unlikely at this point. There's some individual auctions on eBay right now that range from 99¢ - $70.00 + shipping (for the Double Zero). Some of the cars are for sale at ycosplay.com - they range from $9.95 - $29.95 + shipping. Happy hunting!