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!

Photoshop Afterglow Beaver Mock-Up, Some Great Toy News!

Here's a (really) rough mock-up of the Afterglow Beaver variant using a defective production sample, a paper 'sticker' applied with packing tape, a little Sharpie and a lot of Photoshop. It's pretty close to the way I want it to look - but I'm trying to figure out a way to make the white areas look good in normal light and in the dark. If I paint the eyes and teeth, they'll look too dark when the toy's glowing. But - I'm also worried that those areas will be too weak if I simply leave them the GID vinyl color. So I'm still pondering...

In other news, Hot Toys has the license to make Up merchandise, which is very exciting! Hot Toys is one of the best collectible manufacturers around, so I'm sure they'll do an amazing job. I'm hoping for vinyl figures of Carl, Ellie, Russell, Dug, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Kevin, Muntz, young Ellie, young Carl, and young Muntz. Give 'em all the deluxe Hot Toys treatment, I say!

The first stills have emerged for the Michael Lau/Godfather mash-up vinyl being produced by MINDstyle. I think it looks amazing! I knew I was in for it when Mr. Lau announced that he was doing movie toys, and I was right - the three-figure Kubrick set was super-cool, and this one is just as good! I'm saving my pennies as we speak...

Maquette photo, posts courtesy of I LIKE TOYS.

Toy OTD: Mattel DJ Rockin' Ride (2008)

There's another great line of Cars toys to collect, though I don't think many people do. I understand swearing off from them - these large, talking versions are real space gobblers and much more expensive than the standard diecasts. Plus, well, they're not diecast, which I'm sure is a deal-breaker for the majority of Cars collectors. Still, these are super-cool toys, especially when you get into the secondary characters!

DJ is a particularly good character for this format. He's a smaller vehicle, so he scales up well without becoming unmanageable. The big line's also good for tucking in plenty of nifty features!

Since DJ is a musical character in Cars, Mattel made the toy musical, too. As with all of the Mattel items, DJ is spot-on model - but they've integrated his play functions very nicely as well! You can choose between a variety of short beat-box loops that are triggered when you roll him across the floor. The beat selector is right were it should be - the huge knob in the middle of DJ's sound system. Nice!

There's some great lighting effects, too - undercarriage 'neon' and a glowing rear spoiler. The designers built part of the foil out of translucent plastic to make it look even cooler. The eyes move back and forth (I can't remember if the eyelids do) as DJ is pushed along. It's really neat in low light!

There's some speech clips as well, but I think it's just a couple of phrases. I don't think they're film-specific, but it's not a big minus for me.

The packaging is the half-box style that's currently common with these larger toys. Big points, though, go to Mattel for designing a special key-type pair of mounts to hold the toy in place. Rather than struggle with dozens of tough-to-cut, spun-a-million-times wire twist-ties, the key-mounts simply turn and unlock. Very cool!

This hasn't been out for all that long, and in general the larger toys are much easier to find than their diecast counterparts. You can get one for $14.99 + shipping at shop.com. Have fun!

Toy OTD: Thinkway Wall-E Boxed Set: The Reject-Bots

As we continue into Wall-E's opening weekend, here's another cool tie-in from Thinkway Toys. I'm really impressed that Thinkway not only made their smaller figures so nicely, but that they made toys of the secondary characters! Unless George Lucas is involved somehow, peripheral characters are a rarity.

While the packaging isn't all that exciting, the proof is in the pudding - the figures themselves. The sculpts and paint work are extremely tight, with very few concessions made. It's great to see this level of faithfulness without creating safety or price point issues. The use of materials is also striking - check out Gopher's translucent head!

There's a surprising amount of articulation here, too. Paint-Bot and Massage-Bot are far more posable than you'd expect, and are jointed much like they are in the film. The character accuracy is so good, one might've forgiven less intricate figures, but Thinkway goes the extra mile, and meets the buyer more than halfway. Cool!

To top it all off, there's not just one, but two clear display stands for the hovering characters who can't stay upright on their own. Technically, Beautician-Bot floats too, but the figure sits upright just fine - Thinkway picked their battles well!

You can get this set for $20.00 + tax at Toys 'R' Us, or online for $20.00 + shipping at toysrus.com. Check in with disneystore.com if they're out of stock at TRU - The Disney Store doesn't seem to have any of the toys for sale right now, but they may become available again later (they have been on the site in the last week or so). Have fun collecting!

Toy OTD: Thinkway Toys' Wall-E Figures: Lift'N' Load Wall-E, Search And Protect Eve

To celebrate Wall-E's opening day, here's two examples of Thinkway's terrific toy line!

Lift 'N' Load Wall-E has tons of great detail, an intricate paint job, and plenty of articulation (right down to the hands!). The treads don't move, but there are larger versions where they do - hold out for the $30 Interaction Wall-E if that's critical to you.

The figure comes with two 'trash' cubes that you can make Wall-E 'compact'. Since the trash compartment is the same shape, you can put Play-Doh® in there and make Wall-E produce a cube of that, too!

You can get this figure at your local Toys 'R' Us® for $9.99 + tax, or online for $10.99 + shipping.

Search and Protect Eve is just as well designed and executed as Wall-E. Since her eyes are LED-type displays in the film, Thinkway added a clever feature - if you press her head, her eyes will click to one of six different expressions!

Her chest compartment pops open at the push of a button, and you can store some of her accessories - an old shoe, a light bulb - inside (these seemingly random items will make more sense when you see the film). Since Eve is a floating robot, a display stand has been provided when your kids (or you!) aren't zooming her through the air.

I think there's only three points of articulation, but it makes sense when you consider the design. The joints are closer to the ball-and-socket kind, so the most is made from the few options available.

You can get Eve at your local Toys 'R' Us® for $9.99 + tax, or online for $10.99 + shipping.

If they're out of stock, you can also get them at the Disney Store website, but they're more expensive there.

See you at the movies!

Toy Story Mania! Opens

Well, it actually opened yesterday. Now that it's officially open, I feel like I can share these photos I took at the cast member preview. It's a great ride, and lots of fun!

I got pretty good scores in the game, but I have a feeling Anita will kick me up and down the street on our next visit! Her accuracy was steadily improving each time through...

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!

Gentle Giant Unveils Ratatouille And WALL-E Maquettes At New York Comic-Con

Check out the pictures at actionfigs.com! I've been waiting for this for a long time. Gentle Giant is a terrific company for these licenses, and I know they'll do a wonderful job!

They look great - I can't wait to snag 'em when they get released this fall! I'm hoping that Skinner and Anton Ego maquettes are on the way, too! Keep your fingers crossed...

Toy OTD: Hasbro Monsters, Inc. C.D.A. Agent Figure W/Sound

The original Monsters, Inc. figure line is pretty nice - the toys aren't necessarily loaded with features or meticulous detail; but they are streamlined, appealing versions of the movie's characters.

The C.D.A. agents weren't an obvious choice for toys, so it's cool that one was included in the line-up. There's not a lot of articulation here, but the sculpt and colors work well, and the figure's solidly balanced. There's an extra feature, too - at the press of a button, an antenna pops up (with a sound clip from the film) from the top of the backpack.

These toys have been sold out for seven years, but they're still easily found on eBay. You can get one right now for $8.09 + $8.25 shipping.

New Toy Arrivals!

If you've got Target gift cards, I found a bunch of new toy releases that you might want to hunt down! I stopped by early this morning (I had to bring my car in for a scheduled maintenance, and the store was right next door), and stumbled across some cool stuff:

* Mattel's World of Cars large-scale plastic DJ - With movable eyes, sound clips, and flashing undercarriage lights! There's four different music cues to choose from, too! You can get it right now at entertainmentearth.com for $34.99 + shipping, but I bet it's cheaper at Target.

* Lego's Indiana Jones line is in full force, with at least four different sets to choose from - Indiana Jones and the Lost Tomb (or the Well of Souls for you moldy figs), Race for the Stolen Treasure (the desert truck chase from Raiders), Indiana Jones Motorcycle Chase (Indy and his dad from Last Crusade on a motorcycle/sidecar, with Indy's Crystal Skull son on another bike), and Temple Escape (the opening sequence in Raiders, complete with boulder and idol)! If it's rainy (like it is here today), you can buy all of them at Lego.com from the comfort of your computer desk.

* The first series of Hasbro's Star Wars Mighty Muggs are out! I picked up Darth Vader, and passed on the Stormtrooper. You can get some of series 1 - Vader, Boba Fett, Darth Maul and a Stormtrooper - at toysrus.com for $9.99 + shipping (each).

Happy hunting!

Toy OTD: Burger King "Toy Story" Premium: The Robot

Don't worry if you don't remember this character from Toy Story - he's a pretty obscure background toy, and only has one spoken line: "Mr. Lightyear needs more tape!" He helps Buzz fix his spaceship, pals around with the toy snake in Andy's room, and that's about it. The only reason I remember him is because I did his voice.

Needless to say, I was really happy when Burger King made a toy of him as part of the Toy Story kid's meal line (or was it for Toy Story 2? I'm not positive). He's never been merchandised in any other way, and while I guess that makes sense, I've always liked Bob Pauley's design a lot, and hey, you can never have too many good robot toys. It's really nicely made for a item this inexpensive, and pretty on-model, too!

I can't imagine this toy being all that valuable, even though though this line sold out twelve years ago. You can get two of them, plus a lot of the other fast food toys, on eBay starting at $2.00 + $7.65 shipping.

Toy OTD: Medicom Vinyl Collectible Doll: Buzz Lightyear

I've been enamored with this toy line for quite a while, and this Buzz toy is still one of their best figures! It's simply gorgeous. The sculpt and paint work are so on-model, it's as if they had access to the digital files - but I don't think they did, which makes the likeness and pose all the more impressive. This sculpt is so good, the artist mimicked the model intersection points in the pose - in other words, the places where the pose caused parts of the character model to intersect each other (out of view of the camera, of course). Awesome!!

Many Buzz Lightyear toys have to drop the helmet for safety reasons, so it's great to see a full bubble for Buzz when he's in delusional mode. He doesn't know if our atmosphere is breathable yet! Better articulation, a sound chip, and an LED for Buzz's "laser" would've been cool, but the raw quality of this figure helps reduce those points to quibbles.

This figure's been out for a while, so it might be tougher to buy (I think I paid $50-$60 for mine originally). There's one for sale on eBay Malaysia for $150 + shipping - ouch! You may want to wait and try to find a better price. Good luck!

Toy OTD: Tomy Magical Collection Figures: 'Runaway Brain' Mickey, Pablo The Cold-Blooded Penguin, Bullseye

I'm generally not a big fan of small PVC figures, but this line is so well sculpted, a lot of them are too good to resist! Here's a few stellar examples.

The sculpts are typically very strong, with good posing and a nice sense of the character's personality. The paint work is also pretty tight, especially considering the size of the figures. If the character needs it, it'll be packaged with a small stand.

Some mini-figures get a little carried away in an attempt to create a background, the result becoming cluttered and busy. For the most part, though, the Magical Collection line ignores backdrops completely, keeping things nice and simple.

The best thing about this series is that it has no focus - any character from any Disney film (feature or short) could be made into a figure. While there's not a lot of really obscure characters, there are plenty of unintuitive ones.

These have all been out for a little while, so you'll have to do some digging to find them. Runaway Brain Mickey is for sale on eBay for $26.99 + $7.99 shipping - yikes! There's a monochrome version of Bullseye available at Toyzz.com for $11.99 + shipping, but I can't find the regular version. I can't find Pablo anywhere, so warm up those eBay Favorite Searches!

Toy OTD: Thinkway "Toy Story" Alien Lamp

This is one of my favorite Toy Story alien items - the sculpt is terrific, appealing and on-model. There's very little paint - the plastic is molded into the appropriate colors, which looks great! There's no branding anywhere to clutter up the design, and the base is simple and on-theme (making the buttons into craters is a nice touch, too). The head lights up and it talks when you turn it on. It's got my voice saying all of the phrases, so naturally I'm happy about that!

I guess this item didn't sell very well, because they were only made once (I don't remember how much these cost originally, but I think they were under $20.00). I can't find them anywhere right now, so I think an eBay Favorite Search is your best bet!

Toy OTD: McDonald's, Monsters Inc. Abominable Snowman Happy Meal Figure

I always like to show that it doesn't take elaborate manufacturing techniques or sky-high price points to make a cool, fun-looking toy. At least, that what I hope to prove - I love super-elaborate, boutique-y toys, but I don't want to come off like some kind of snob. Well, most of the time I don't...

Here's another poster child for simplicity in toymaking - there's three points of articulation, and three paint passes at the most. Of course, the figuremakers were lucky enough to start off with a great design that my buddy Ricky Nierva did. The sculptor here did a fine job of preserving the design's appeal, even though the source character's fuzzy and the toy's an all-plastic figure. The colors may not be spot-on-model, but I think the spirit of the law is maintained. It stands well by itself (the sculptor didn't show off and over-pose the toy), and you can pose it a little bit yourself for extra play value.

A lot of fast-food toys try to jam some sort of gimmick into a toy - I'm assuming they don't feel confident that the 'source memory' (or whatever you want to call it) won't inspire a purchase, so a rip-cord motor or slide viewer or something is added that has nothing to do with the film story or the character, and mainly winds up hurting the sculpt because this extra feature has to be accommodated. I understand that some of these items were designed when the script was still in flux - ofttimes, big plot points are dropped, leaving some of the merchandising in the lurch. Still, it's a shame.

The Happy Meal promotion for Monsters, Inc. is of course long gone, but you can still get a snowman (plus seven others from the line) for $15.95 + shipping.

Toy OTD: Kato Kogei Toy Story Banks

I picked these up quite a while ago, and I'm still really impressed with them. The sculpts are really appealing, and for ceramic pieces, the color work is nicely done, too. Big bonus points for making the alien's mouth the coin slot, as well as using a real cork in Hamm's belly. I'm not sure why the designers didn't simply make the characters larger, instead of sculpting them on a labeled base, but it doesn't detract too much from the overall effect (at least the base shape is appropriate for the logo). A Woody bank was also made for this line, but I liked these two the best.

I think I bought these from eBay originally, but I don't see any for sale there now. Granted, that was probably around ten years ago or more, so it's not going to be easy to track these down - Google isn't turning up much on them, either. An eBay favorite search is your best bet at this point!

Toy OTD: Tyco RC Cars Toy: Sally

Here's another great line of Cars toys - Tyco's 1:32 scale, radio-controlled (27 MHZ) vehicles! On the plus side, you can zip one around with the controller (it's simple enough for little kids to use), and the characters are nicely on model - they don't have the clear plastic "eye stalks" like the Disney Store toys. The minuses are that they're made entirely of plastic, Tyco hasn't made as many of the characters, they cost more, and they'll take up a lot more shelf space. Still, they're very well done!

You can get Sally for $19.99 + shipping at idcow.com.

Cars Toy Info

If you're interested in keeping up with what new Cars diecasts are being released, look here and here on exboard.com! I never know when anything's coming out, so hopefully this'll help!

Thanks to Roger Colton for the tip.

The Cars Toy Parade Continues

Here's another great larger-scale Cars toy - a 14" Red the fire engine! It's loaded up with lights and sounds - so cute!

Like the Dinoco helicopter, you'll have to camp outside a Toys 'R' Us if you want to buy it for retail ($20.00) - Red's all over eBay like a rash, so that means the e-scalpers are out in force, bumping the price up by at least ten dollars (not to mention shipping, which is usually too high as well). Sigh. Snag one for me if you see an extra!

UPDATE: Stand down on the extra fire truck - I discovered that you can get Red at Amazon.com (that's Amazon proper, not an eBay store or toy scalper website) for $24.99 + shipping, so I did just that. It's a little more than it would be at TRU, but I'll save that much in gas not driving around searching for it!

Another Neat Cars Toy!

A super-cute Dinoco helicopter that you can use as a carrying case for some of your diecasts - wow! Apparently, they're pretty much impossible to find in stores right now, but you can buy it online starting at $26.95 + shipping!

New Cars Toys Out Now!

Good luck finding them, though - most of the Disneyland stores were stripped clean by the time I found out about the new releases:

* Tex Dinoco
* Michael Schumacher Ferrari F430
* Red (Hydraulic) Ramone
* The Abominable Snowplow
* RPM #64 (Piston Cup entry)
* Bling Bling McQueen (from his fantasy sequence)

You can get most of these through stores connected with Amazon. A few of them are roughly retail, while others are pretty pricey. Tex is over $10, so I'm assuming he's being shortpacked (i.e, one per case). Since most of the rarer models are easy to get now, it looks like patience will reward the stingy!

New Cars Toys Are Out!

I had such trouble getting these toys before, that I'm just going to order the new ones that I want from eBay. All of the perviously released models are available again with new "Turbocharged" backcards. New cars include the Woody, Buzz and Hamm cars from the epilogue, a decorated Doc Hudson, the "Radiator Springs makeover" version of Lightning McQueen, and a gold Ramone. I'm not sure if the flamed Ramone was available before or not.