Toy OTD: Young Epoch Ltd. Disney Wind-Up Toy: Minnie Mouse

There's a lot of retro Disney toys coming out of Japan, and this plastic wind-up is another great example! This piece take the 20's stylization even further, removing flowers, bloomer frills, even fingers, yet it still retains the original's charm.

It's impressive how someone can make a simple wind-up toy look so good! Most of the black paint has a matte finish for that extra-classy touch, and there's an awesome mix of paint and dyed plastic to support it. The color palette is limited, and cheery but not too bright. There's the rare glitch, but in general the paint apps are excellent.

The sculpt is incredibly tight, especially considering how graphic the design is. It's tempting to believe that it was modeled on a computer, but I think a good sculptor could do it. The proportions have strayed from the cartoon, but it still looks nice.

The winding mechanics work great, and there's no real balance issues, since it's a walking toy.

It's been quite a while since I've seen the packaging, but I remember it being tasteful and suitably retro - a white and sepia design, like old-fashioned wallpaper. I think there was a clamshell interior, with a plastic window on one of the sides. Nice, but nothing you'd be tempted to keep.

I can't find one of these for sale online anywhere, so you'll have to set up an eBay favorite search, or contact your trusty toy hunting service. Good luck!

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: Tomy Electronic Pokemon Toy: Bellossem (aka Kireihana)

Like almost everyone else on earth in the mid-nineties, I fell victim to the Pokemon craze. Fortunately, I limited my obsession to the more elaborate toys and a few of the PVC figures. This was NOT a good line for completists, for as far as I know, new characters are still being added to this day!

Tomy released a cute line of sound-activated, electronic toys that were eventually distributed domestically through Hasbro. Bellossem is one of my favorites, because it seems like such a iconic Japanese toy. When you make a sound, the flowers on its head spin, the body spins about, and it chirps happily (I don't know if it's a word, a phrase, or just a sound). Although I'm sure most parents wanted to smash it after about fifteen minutes on Christmas morning, everything other than the sound - the design, sculpt and paint job - are really appealing. The execution may not be as good as many Japanese toys, but it's solid and professional looking.

My version here got a little too much sun - the red flowers faded a bit, so I tweaked them in Photoshop.

This toy wasn't all that expensive originally - I think I paid twenty or thirty dollars for it (that was before they were distributed in the U.S.). Finding one of these would seem easy - one would think trillions of them were made - but I haven't found one online in well over a year. If there's still any Poko-nerds out there, feel free to drop me a line and let me know where one could get this toy! Otherwise, it's back to the eBay Favorite Search. Good luck!

Toy OTD: Revell Dr. Seuss' Birthday Bird Model Kit

Revell had an incredible line of Dr. Seuss products in the late '50s/early '60s. There were two types of model kits - the soft-plastic, rearrangeable Dr. Seuss Zoo creatures, and the more traditional, hard-plastic-model-cement-needed models of his storybook characters.

All of the latter line is wonderful, but this may be my favorite, since Happy Birthday To You! is one of my favorite Seuss books. The sculpt is nicely done, capturing Seuss' drawing style really well. There's a great use of colored plastic here - you don't need to paint the finished kit at all for it to look amazing! It has enough parts to have satisfying play value, but not so many as to be intimidating or frustrating for young children. There's even a tree of tiny plastic letters, so you can customize the cake with your own name, which is a nice touch.

All of these kits are highly desired by collectors, so be prepared to shell out at least three or four hundred dollars for this one. I can't find one for sale online right now, so you'll need to set up an eBay Favorite Search. Good luck!

Toy OTD: Foster's Freeze Premium: Little Foster Wind-Up

I don't have much to say about this little fellow, except that it's another example of a good, cheap toy. The design's been maintained in an appealing way, and there's only three paint passes on one color of plastic. The sculpt's a little stiff, but still cute, especially considering the mechanical nature of the toy. The biggest downside is the same of every wind-up - the winding mechanism is flimsy. Mine was broken when I bought it!

I have no idea how old this is, or how it was sold. I'm assuming it was given away at Foster's Freeze as a premium along with a specific food purchase. I picked this one up at a toy show for just a dollar or two, so if you can find one, I doubt it'll be all that expensive. There's nothing on eBay right now, so keep your eyes peeled!

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: Ertl Preschool Dr. Seuss Motionmobiles: Five-Hump Wump (2002)

While not the amazingness that are the Revell Dr. Seuss Zoo models, the Ertl Preschool line has some of the best contemporary Seuss toys! This is my favorite of the new bunch - the sculpt and paint work are decent, but the overall toy design evokes a Seuss drawing quite well! The characters pop up and down, and the offset wheels give a cute movement in the old Fisher-Price tradition.

If you can't afford the '60s Revell toys or the '70s Mattel line, try and find one of these to give your kid's childhood (or your second one) some extra Seuss flavor! There's more info on the Ertl line here, and here. You can bid on a Wump starting at $2.99 + shipping at eBay.ca.