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: Tomy Fraggle Rock Wind-Up Toy: Doozer

This is an item ripe for re-issue, now that Fraggle Rock is starting to come out on DVD! Tomy made a few different Doozer wind-ups back in the day, and they're still the best merchandise of those characters. They're really appealing - I love how they molded the parts out of six or seven different colors of plastic, rather than painting an all-green figure. I think it looks so much better that way!

Don't expect to find a working specimen - they seem to break pretty easily. If you can find them on eBay, they make great display pieces! Generally, they're pretty affordable - expect to pay between $5 - $35.00, depending on condition and location.

Toy OTD: Modern Pets Wind-Up Baton Poodle

This is a tricky item to research - I'm not sure if Modern Pets is the name of both the manufacturer and the line, or just the line. At any rate, this is the current Japanese equivalent of the Dakin Dream Pets toy line, consisting of a completely different series of animal designs.

This character is called "Baton Poodle", and it's somewhat unique - while there are many plushes and some vinyl figures of the various designs, this is the only wind-up toy in the line (that I'm aware of). As you'd expect, it shakes its batons about when wound up.

I bought mine for around $18 or so at Super 7 in San Francisco, but they don't have them in stock any longer. If you can read Japanese, you can buy a wind-up Baton Poodle here for 1,344 Yen (or $11.59 USD) + shipping.