Toy Talk
Volume XXIX
By Mark Patraw
Posted on 2/24/14
Well, it's the last week of February, and another bout of nasty winter weather has been forecast. Spring can't get here fast enough for my tastes--I sincerely hope that March turns out better than this month did. I'm really sick of the cold, snow, and broken/frozen water pipes (and regular visitors to my web site are probably equally tired of reading about it). On the upside, I scored some great Spin Master Liv stuff last week, but you'll have to wait a while to read about those purchases (maybe in the next installment of Toy Talk).
Today, starting on the far left, and strolling along to the right, we have a 2008 FMNA & 19 TV Ltd./McDonald's American Idol Hippie Harmony (twenty-five cents "girls" grab bag on 11/26/13), a Thinkway Disney/Pixar Toy Story Buzz Lightyear (fifty cents on 1/10/14), a 2005 Hasbro Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Anakin Skywalker (fifty cents on 1/18/14), a 2011 Dreamworks/McDonald's Puss in Boots Baby Puss in Boots (twenty-five cents "girls" grab bag on 12/19/13), and, finally, a couple of 2005 Disney/McDonald's W.I.T.C.H. clip-on dolls, Taranee and Will (both came from the same twenty-five cents "girls" grab bag on 2/6/14). I purchased everything from the Ishpeming St. Vincent de Paul Society thrift store on the dates noted above. If anyone reading this knows more information about any of these items, that I haven't already discussed below, and would like to share, or just chat about toys, feel free to e-mail me and let me know!
If not for the American Idol logo decal on the flower in her hair, I would have had absolutely no idea where to even begin looking in order to identify this toy. The first things that popped into my mind when I saw her were Japanese anime and Cartoon Network. Surprisingly, my Aunt recognized her, because she used to watch the show and remembered that two of my nieces had gotten similar musical fast food toys years ago. Anyhoo, this is a 3.2" (8.0 cm) tall 2008 FMNA & 19 TV Ltd. American Idol Hippie Harmony McDonald's figurine. In addition to her, you could also get seven other characters, each based on a musical genre: Country Clay, Disco Dave, Lil' Hip Hop, New Wave Nigel (who's wearing a cute Devo-esque outfit), Punky Pete, Rockin' Riley, and Soulful Selma. Hippie Harmony is a fairly bizarre looking little woman, but I guess that the pastel color scheme, peace sign necklace, and flower adequately convey the hippie motif. What I find the most interesting about her design is that her body is very reminiscent of a LEGO mini figure. While she's sculpted to look like she has multiple points of articulation, in actuality, only Harmony's shoulders have rotating cut joints; everything else is immobile. Speaking of which, her right arm activates her sound feature. Push the switch on the back of her blue hair to the "on" position, and then raise the pink microphone to Harmony's mouth and a short tune will play. While she's labeled as a hippie, the song sounds very much like classical Japanese music to me (I could almost see her as some kind of whacked-out geisha or courtesan)--I dunno, maybe her batteries are running low or I'm just tone deaf. I suppose the royalties would have been prohibitively expensive, but, given the American Idol theme, it would have been nice to get an actual vocal clip from a well-known song from the 60s that was associated with the Hippie Movement. Harmony probably isn't something that I would have bought by choice, but she's certainly different, I'll give her that. All I can say is that she'd better make sure that she doesn't bump into any South Park Eric Cartman action figures, because he really hates hippies . . .
To infinity and beyond! This is a Thinkway Disney/Pixar Toy Story Buzz Lightyear action figure. There doesn't seem to be a copyright date molded or stamped anywhere on Buzz's body, so, I don't know which of the three films this particular figure is based upon, but, as he looks the same in all of them anyway, I suppose it doesn't really matter. With his helmet open, the space ranger stands 5.4" (13.6 cm) tall. Buzz's sculpt, paintwork, and decals all look pretty spot-on to me; unless you're completely unfamiliar with the character, there's no mistaking who this toy is supposed to be. I'm not crazy about the way that his hands are permanently posed in a flat "karate chop" position, but, I imagine that was done for flying and saluting poses, so, I can understand the reasoning behind it. The number of exposed screws on his body also seems a bit excessive; however, on the upside, that does allow you to manually tighten some of his joints. As he's secondhand, some of the paint has rubbed off here-and-there on my sample, and the shoulder decals are starting to peel a little bit, but he's in decent "played with" condition.
Mr. Lightyear is fairly well articulated: he moves at the helmet (pivoting canopy), neck (rotating cut joint, which is kind of hard to get at, because it's nestled inside that transparent dome), shoulders (pin-and-disc ball joints), elbows (pivots), waist (rotating cut joint), hips (ball joints), and knees (pivots). I was a bit surprised that the elbows and knees weren't pin-and-disc ball joints (they're just sculpted to look that way). His hips are mighty loose, and Buzz is top heavy, so, getting him to stand requires a bit of futzing, but it's do-able.
Buzz also has an action feature: push the red button on the left of his chest and the spring-loaded wings on his jetpack extend outwards for flight, increasing his wingspan to 4.7" (11.9 cm). This feature works great and is well integrated into the figure's design (of course, it helps that the Toy Story characters are toys to begin with), so, it gets a thumbs-up from me. It's too bad that his wrist laser doesn't light-up or make noise though.
Apparently Buzz fancies himself to be quite the ladies' man.
As I've mentioned in the past, I'm not a huge fan of Disney/Pixar's Toy Story franchise, but this is a pretty good rendition of ol' Buzz. However, I do wish that he was a bit more poseable in general, and that his hips joints were tighter.
I'm not absolutely certain (because Hasbro has released several versions of the character over the years), but my best guess is that this is the Anakin from the 2005 Star Wars Evolutions: Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader boxed set. Said item included three action figures: Episode II: The Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Anakin Skywalker (which is what we have here), and, finally, Episode IV: A New Hope Darth Vader. That trio of toys nicely exhibits how the character changed over the course of those three films (it would have been great if they could have stuck a young Anakin, from Episode I: The Phantom Menace, in there too).
Mmmhmmm, young Master Skywalker, think yourself a better toy than me because articulation you have?
Assuming my identification is correct, this Anakin Skywalker toy should come with an unlit lightsaber hilt (which could attach, via its peg, to the hole on the left side of Anakin's belt), a blue lightsaber blade that plugs into said hilt, a fabric Jedi cloak, and an alternate (ungloved) mechanical right forearm (the replacement for the limb that he lost to Count Dooku during their lightsaber duel at the end of Episode II). Whether or not some of those accessories belong to him, or his younger self, is debatable, but you get the idea (the boxed set also included another unlit lightsaber hilt, the chain and manacles that Episode II Anakin was restrained with in the Geonosian arena, a lit lightsaber with a red blade, and Vader's removable helmet, so that you can re-enact his Episode VI: Return of the Jedi death scene). Of course, as my secondhand sample doesn't have any accessories anyway, who cares, right?
Like most modern Star Wars toys, Anakin is very well articulated. He moves at the neck (ball joint), shoulders (pin-and-disc ball joints), elbows (rotating cut joints), forearms (rotating cut joints), waist (ball joint), hips (pin-and-disc ball joints), knees (pin-and-disc ball joints), and ankles (rotating and pivot joints). The elbows would have benefitted from being ball joints as well (although that'd be difficult to do effectively with the sculpt of his baggy sleeves), but, other than that, it's hard to find fault with how he moves. Hasbro wisely chose to make his "skirt" a combination of flexible rubber and actual fabric, so it doesn't impede the range of motion of his legs, which I commend them for. Anakin's sculpt and paint are both great and accurately reflect how he looked in the film. At this scale [he stands 4.1" (10.3 cm) tall], it's hard to imagine Hasbro topping their efforts here.
I felt that Hayden Christensen's portrayal of Anakin Skywalker left much to be desired (which I mostly blame on the films' plots and dialogue, not the actor), but, that aside, this is an excellent plastic rendition of how he looked in Episode III and a welcome addition to my collection of Star Wars toys.
How could anyone ever resist those eyes? Here we have a 3.1" (7.9 cm) tall 2011 Dreamworks/McDonald's Puss in Boots Baby Puss in Boots figurine. Said film was a spinoff of the Shrek movie franchise, and, as is often the case, I haven't seen it. In addition to this cute kitten, the Happy Meal toy assortment also included Goose, Golden Goose, Dancing Kitty Softpaws, Kitty Softpaws with Sword, Humpty Dumpty, Young Humpty Dumpty, and Puss in Boots with Sword. Some of the tan paint has rubbed off of my sample here and there, which detracts from Baby Puss' appearance a bit, but, other than that, he's looking good. His body has a nice hair texture pattern all over it and the "I'm too precious" pose is adorable. Speaking of which, pressing the circular button on his back makes his spring-powered pupils dilate, increasing his cuteness factor a hundredfold. This action feature is really neat, and not something that I've ever seen on a toy before. The only weird thing about it is that, because the eye mechanism is set relatively far back inside the head, from some angles, the transparent outer eye appears to be an empty socket, which gives Puss a creepy zombie look (see photo below). Even if you care nothing for the character, this is a unique cat figurine that's worth having just for the awesome dilating peepers, especially if you like orange kitties as much as I do.
Here are a couple of 2005 Disney/McDonald's W.I.T.C.H. clip-on dolls, Will (redhead) and Taranee (purple dreadlocks). W.I.T.C.H. is an acronym for the five main characters' names (Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin); however, contrary to expectations, the quintet aren't actually witches (they're classified as "Guardians of the Veil" instead), which kind of defeats the whole purpose of the title if you ask me . The animated television series, which falls into the "magical girl" genre, is based on the Italian comic book of the same name created by Gary Tomlin and Elisabetta Gnone. In addition to the five protagonists, the McDonald's Happy Meal toy assortment also included a figure of Elyon Brown, a supporting character. When I first saw these dolls, having never heard of the franchise before, I immediately assumed that they were some kind of Winx Club figures, because of their similar designs and the fact that they had wings on their backs. The dolls themselves are pretty nice, but, as usual, I'm not a fan of clip-ons, because they get in the way and have a tendency to unbalance the toy. However, on the plus side, at least the individual clip-ons feature each girl's unique symbol and color. I also like that, while all five of the W.I.T.C.H. girls have distinct outfits, each incorporates the same purple and green color motif, as well as striped tights, so that they all look like they belong together as a cohesive unit (Elyon Brown is the odd girl out, but, as she's not a core member of the team, that's to be expected). Both Will and Taranee have four points of articulation (which I presume would also be true of the other characters that I don't own); rotating cut joints at the neck, waist and shoulders. The addition of some hip joints, so that they could sit, would have been nice, but, when it comes to flexibility, you can't expect too much from inexpensive fast food toys. Conveniently enough, if you told me that I could only have two dolls from this toy assortment, Will and Taranee are the pair that I would have picked (Irma would be my third choice).
Either Will really wants a hug, or she's becoming a zombie!
Because she's a redhead, Will (which is short for Wilhelmina in the original version, Wilma in the U.S.--I prefer Wilhelmina) reminds me an awful lot of Winx Club's Bloom. She's also the leader of W.I.T.C.H., just as Bloom is in charge of her troupe. I love her crimson bob haircut and purple long-sleeved croptop. Will has a number of powers including: animating electronic devices, empathy/telepathy with animals, teleportation, energy projection, and she can change her appearance at will. Her symbol is a pink equal sign. Wilhelmina is a bit of a tomboy and she also has trust issues. Unfortunately, the pose of this toy has a pronounced backwards lean, so Will won't stand on her own unless you position her arms so that they're facing forward, away from her body, to compensate (the weight of the clip-on doesn't help matters either). She clocks in at 4.8" (12.3 cm) in height.
The shape of Taranee's hair is rather bizarre (it makes me think of an octopus or a bug), but I like it. I also dig that she wears glasses (even though the frames are just molded/painted directly onto her face sculpt, rather than a separate "floating" element), as that's not something you see all that often on toys, especially girls. She's 4.9" (12.5 cm) tall, although some of that stature comes from her dreadlocks. Personality-wise, she's a shy and sensitive character, but determined when things need to get done. Taranee's powers include: fire manipulation, reading minds, and telepathy. Unsurprisingly, given her control of flames, Taranee's symbol is a red triangle, with one corner open.
They sort of look like they're floating/flying if you hang them from their clip-ons, which is kind of neat.
I could definitely see these dangling from the front mirror of someone's car or a child's backpack.
Overall, these W.I.T.C.H. girls are decent playthings. However, as I've never watched the cartoon, or read the comic books that it's based upon, I don't have any emotional connection with the franchise, which limits the appeal of the characters to me. Case in point: I saw the Hay Lin figure from this assortment, for fifty cents, the other day, but I couldn't bring myself to buy her, because I simply don't care enough, one way or the other, about W.I.T.C.H. Apparently I'm not the only one that doesn't give a hoot about them either, because these two girls hung on the pegs, for weeks, at the thrift store before the staff gave up on trying to sell them individually and put them into the mystery "girls" toy grab bag that I eventually ended up buying. If I get some more of these in a random sack of toys like that again, fine, but, otherwise, I'm unlikely to make an attempt to complete the full set of six. The funny thing is, if these dolls had larger and more ornate wings, instead of the teensy translucent green ones they do have, I believe I probably would want to collect them all, as I am rather fond of female fairies, but I like their wings big and bold.
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