Sunday, June 08, 2008

Toy OTD: Thinkway Incredibles Interactive Action Figure: Syndrome

Thinkway Toys has made talking, interactive figures since A Bug's Life (at least). Put a pair of them together, and they'll have a chat all by themselves! It's a super-cool feature - when you throw strong articulation, great sculpts, clever use of materials and sharp paint work into the mix, you've got a high standard to match.

You can either set the toy to sound off several phrases at the press of a button (or possibly triggered by your own voice), or adjust it to interactive mode so he can talk with Mr. Incredible, Dash, or both at once! The pre-recorded phrases allow for some enjoyable back-and-forth between them.

The articulation is of particular notice here because it allows for a good amount of posing without making the character look artificial or awkward. The cloth cape and vinyl parts are nice touches, as well. The ankles make balancing the figure a bit tricky, so a doll-type stand or a pegged base might have been a good accessory. "Zero Point Energy" sound effects or lights on the figure's wrist bands would've been awesome, but since (I think) this toy was partially assembled after opening, adding those features would probably have been prohibitively expensive.

I can't remember how much this toy originally cost - I think it was between fifteen and twenty dollars. Unfortunately, it's not available online at all right now, so warm up another eBay Favorite Search if you want to add this toy to your collection!

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2 Comments:

Blogger mnmears said...

Just a couple of quick points ...

IMHO, Thinkway Toys does an impressive job with most of its offerings ... Its new "Wall-e" line is pretty exceptional, especially when you look at value and pricing.

One drawback, Thinkway Toys are a bit harder to find. Mass retailers like Wal-Mart and Target carry few, if any, of the company's offerings.

The best bet to find "Wall-e" and other current Thinkway Toys is at Toys "R" Us -- and they're a lot fewer of those nowadays than Wal-Marts and Targets.

7:25 PM  
Blogger Jeff Pidgeon said...

I agree! The Wall-E toy line is really amazing, both in terms of quality and their wide range of price points.

You're also right that they're significantly harder to find right now than any other summer movie toy line - you either have to have a Toys 'R' Us near you (not easy, as the chain has been having financial difficulties), or you'll need to order them from http://www.toysrus.com, which has been pretty good about having products for sale online at about the same time that they hit the brick-and-mortars.

Hopefully, the toys will be more widespread as the release date draws nearer!

8:18 PM  

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