Toy OTD: American Idol Happy Meal Toys

I'm sure that most of you are either annoyed or horrified (or both) that I'm giving either of these overexposed entities any more attention. Regardless, I think this toy line is another step in the mainstreaming of the designer toy trend.

These days, an embarrassment of detail and color apps (regardless of their necessity) are the new production value in toys, so it's really unusual to see such stylized designs coming from such a broad-based source. While the designs and colors schemes of these toys aren't as strong as their overseas inspirations, it's still encouraging to see the influence spreading. I'm also impressed that I bought into this line, because I have no real interest in the show!

The line is very simple - each figure is a contestant, each represents a musical genre. If you switch the toy on and lift its microphone arm, it will play a short riff in that style. The sound is decent, and the figures do balance well despite their proportions. For the money, the line is a nice value - the only real negative is the show logo, which can be peeled off most of the figures with little difficulty.

I have Soulful Selma, Li'l Hip Hop, New Wave Nigel, Country Clay, Rockin' Riley and Hippie Harmony. Li'l Hip Hop has the best music clip so far - there's a nice variety of tiny cues to cycle through.

The only thing that might have made this line more interesting is if the designer had been able to caricature some past winners (or memorable contestants) in this style. There's six or seven seasons of personalities - more than enough to keep these toys going for quite a while!

I think this promotion just started, so you should be able to buy any of the characters that are available for just a dollar or two. Most branches also allow you to buy the toys without a food purchase, so that's a plus. Happy Spurlocking!

ANOTHER Toy Show TOMORROW!

SACRAMENTO COMIC, TOY & ANIME SHOW
Sunday, March 9th - The Sottish Rite Center
6151 H Street (Across From Sac State University)
10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Admission: $6.00

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Sweet - see you there!
PS - I've posted the last of the current pinstriped beaver toy auctions. Bid high, bid often!

More Of My Stuff On eBay

I'm finally getting around to posting some of the stuff that I've been intending to sell for months! There's three auctions active right now, and I think all of them are pretty darn cool.

I'm selling the Bowen Captain America statue because there's a new one out that I like more. The pinstriped "Happy Beavers" were always intended as auction premiums, and the MTV Fauna figure (pictured) was part of a three-piece set - it's my least favorite of the three, and I'd always intended to sell it to help defer the high cost.

You've got ten days, so bid and bid high! Help support my collecting and toymaking habits!

UPDATE (12:16 AM): Wow! The Captain America statue got snapped up immediately. I guess I should've charged more...

UPDATE: (1/10): I've posted a new item since the Cap statue went so fast. A Roger Rabbit vinyl figure (we had two of them)! I know a lot of people hate this movie, but it's an amazing sculpt!

The Greed Of Christmases Past: Wishbookweb.com

If you don't already take enough trips down memory lane, here's a site that's archived a bunch of the old Wish Books. If you're under thirty years old, your parents may not have ordered all (or any of) your presents from JC Penny or Sears!

I loved the ritual of the Christmas Wish Book arriving each year - poring through the toy section for weeks, carefully circling and meticulously listing the stuff I wanted.

At one point, I had everything on this page but the plush (before Star Wars, Peanuts was the thing for me)! It's wild to look through these catalogs now - just like today, some of the toys are great, and others are really awful. Check 'em out!

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium Spin-Offs Hit Stores

Since Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is about a living toy store, there probably won't be a lot of custom toy merchandise, but a fair number of retro-style toys are popping up as tie-ins. Target has some replicas of old-school Fisher-price toys, including this Snoop 'n' Sniff which you can get for only $24.99!

I haven't been able to look any of these over in person yet - I'm assuming they'll be all plastic, and not wooden like the older versions. Still, it's a great way to get your kids (or yourself) classic toy replicas for a fraction of what the originals would go for on eBay!

Another Write-Up!

Another mention of my toy photography, this time at a blog called Computerlove. The poster (Alberto Cerriteno) illustrated it nicely with a sampling of my photos. Take a look!

Yay! More Blog 'Ink' For Me!

The Drawn! blog has a nice post today about my toy photos on Flickr, which has led to a surge of viewers and contacts. Thanks, Drawn!-ers!

Sideshow Collectibles Featured On G4!

G4 has an internet news segment called Geek Out, and their latest segment features Sideshow Collectibles and my buddy Brant Bridges (yay, Brant)! The host Blair Butler flaps her hands a lot, and whoever scored the segment got a little carried away, but it's still a neat peek into Sideshow's process. More, please!

Bioplastic Toys On The Horizon

NEWS.COM: Green Toys makes kiddie stuff from bioplastic
Posted by Martin LaMonica
July 30, 2007 7:10 AM PDT

First came the biodegradable fork, then the compostable coffee cup, and now "earth friendly" toys.

Green Toys said Friday that it will introduce a line of bioplastic toys in the fall. The first toys are classics aimed at babies and toddlers: a tea set, cookware, an indoor gardening kit, and the old shovel and pail.

What sets these colorful plastics apart are what they're made of. Instead of using petroleum-basic plastics, Green Toys is using plastics made from corn starch and other vegetables.

Bioplastics company Cereplast is supplying the plastics to Green Toys. It will also provide NatureWorks plastic, which is made from poly lactic acid (PLA), another corn-based product.

Green Toys, which is exhibiting its gear at San Francisco International Gift Fair this week, is pitching its classic line of toys on their "greeness." Even the colorants used in the toys are biodegradable, supplied by PolyOne.

Bioplastics are becoming trendy. In addition to Cereplast, other companies are investing in similar technologies, including Metabolix. Brazilian chemical company Braskem has committed to making a version of polyethylene from sugar cane by late 2009.

Advocates say that bioplastics are better for the environment because they're made from renewable resources, like corn, rather than oil. And products can decompose within months, compared to decades like traditional plastics.

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We use corn-plastic cups and utensils at work, so I've been thinking about making a limited-edition "Green Beaver" made from corn. Sounds like my timing might be good!

Another Write-Up In The Blog-o-Sphere

Here's a quick blurb about my toy on one of my favorite blogs, Plastic and Plush! A big "Thank you" to Brian Slivka for helping to get the word out there!

New Display Cabinet

This sale couldn't have come at a better time - I was in dire need of more toy display space, and this cabinet comes along. It's got twice the visibility for half the price of my other cabinets (and almost as much volume)! I'll get a shot of it filled up in a day or two.

I've Started My Own Flickr Group!

I noticed that there didn't seem to be a group expressly devoted to Hasbro toys, so I started one of my own! If you have neat pictures of any Hasbro dolls, toys or games that you'd like to add, drop me an email, and I'll formally invite you to the group!

PS - I'm trying to find a better picture of the old-school Hasbro mascot (the little kid). If you remember what his name is, please drop me a line so I can search for him better!

Boxes Are Here! More Beaver Toys Soon!

My order of shipping boxes arrived yesterday, and the remaining four hundred "Happy Beaver" toys are scheduled to arrive sometime today! I should be able to start shipping domestic orders the weekend, and I'll set up PayPal buttons here on the blog for UK and Canadian orders very soon! So if you live in the US - order away!

Also, if you live in northern California, I'll be throwing a "toy premiere party" in conjunction with my generous friends at Super 7 very soon - keep checking back for updated event news!

Toys, by Grant Munro

Here's a National Film Board of Canada short from 1966. Other than contrasting the innocence of playthings and adult battle imagery, I'm not sure what the message is here. Is it, "Children don't like the adult tendency toward war", or "We shouldn't pass our warlike impulses down to our children though toys", or is it, "This is what war toys really represent"? I'm not sure. Maybe it was primarily an exploration of montage.

Thanks for A/V Geeks for the film!

Comic-Con Swag

I didn't pick up any of the freebies available this year, mainly because I'm not even sure I have shelf/wall space for what I'm buying. I was on a budget this time around, but I still think my 'got' list is pretty cool. Or at least, sporadically cool:

* Cranky Studios' Whaleboy vinyl figure
* Monkey Fun Toys Milk & Cheese vinyl figures
* Mindstyle Dark Crystal vinyl figure
* Mindstyle Jim Henson City Critters pvc figures (8)
* Young Epoch Susie the Little Blue Coupe wooden toy
* All-Star Vinyl Brett Favre figure
* Funko Scooby-Dum bobblehead (cool factor/reader respect plummets here)
* Plan B Toys Dark Crystal Garthim resin bust
* McFarlane Toys Jonny Quest action figure
* Mezco Professor Chaos action figure (SDCC exclusive)
* Mezco Abe Sapien figure (SDCC exclusive)
* Gargamel/Tim Biskup Kaiju For Grownups figure: Dragamel
* Character Options Ltd. 12" Cyber Leader action figure
* Exclusive old-school Peanuts T-shirts (2)
* Huckleberry Toys' limited edition 1971 Grimace figure
* Chris Sanders' Maile vinyl toy
* Banpresto Super Mario Brothers Luigi vinyl figure
* Medicom Frankenberry, Count Chocula Kubrick figures
* Super 7 Ghost Land figures (2)
* Kaiju Big Battel figure: Sky Deviler
* Mindstyle/Cameron Tiede's 13 Tomadachi vinyl figures - Edgar, Oswald, Agatha
* Wesco Doctor Who Tardis 4-port USB hub
* Tim Sale old-school Daredevil sketch (a gift from Michelle, my sister-in-law... how cool is that?)

Well, that's most of it - I'll add the things I've forgotten (as well as updated picture links) later!

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 Sag Factor

There's one important facet of a toy's design that, unfortunately, you can't judge very well before you buy it. And that is: is this toy going to be able to stand up on its own in six months or so?

The sad fact is - a lot of vinyl toys aren't really designed with their materials in mind. As a result, something that looks awesome in the package winds up being a big disappointment down the line. Some examples:

* Dark Horse Deluxe's Underdog vinyl - affordable and good-looking, it nevertheless soon toppled over, folding into a sad 'C'-shape. The top-knot of hair also came off with the first dusting. Spend extra on the Electric Tiki statue, or wait for the Mezco figures instead.



* Medicom's Mr. Incredible - Not long after leaving the box, the figure looked like the Leaning Tower of Piza. The included stand is good for stability, but it forces all of the figure's weight onto its tiny ankles. Either prepare to fashion a back-supporting stand from scratch, or put more money into NECA's (or the Walt Disney Classic Collection's) Mr. Incredible statue instead.


* Palisades' Shaven Yak Figure - Awesome looking, but this puppy is solid PVC and weighs a ton. Again, the thin ankles and foot-mounted base resulted in a full-on face plant. What a shame! There's really not a lot of options for this character out there, so prepare to do some tinkering if you want it to be a good long-term display toy.

If you're interested, I'll keep writing about high sag-factor toys - which ones to bear the design in mind when you buy, and which ones to flat-out avoid.

Shortpacked!

Here's a pretty cool strip about a group of twenty-somethings that work in a toy store. Loads of funny Batman and Transformers jokes, even if you never cared about the Transformers. Check it out!