Toy Talk
Volume XXXI
By Mark Patraw
Posted on 3/10/14
Last week was a complete bust for toy hunting. I couldn't find anything that I was really interested in buying (believe it or not, even the cheap bags of random toys were unappealing). I almost picked up a crystal-themed Mighty Max McDonald's play set, and I also briefly considered purchasing a doll, with a lamb, that was permanently attached to a bench (more of a display piece than a toy, but still kind of neat), but, I ultimately decided to leave both of those items on the shelves (I should really bring my digital camera with me, to take photos of stuff like that, but, I always have this paranoid fear that, if I use my camera in a store that also sells secondhand cameras, I'll be mistakenly accused of shoplifting it). Anyway, you can't expect to find good stuff every time you go shopping; hopefully I'll come across some worthwhile treasures this week.
For this installment of Toy Talk, starting on the far left, and working right, we have a Yu-Gi-Oh! Exodia the Forbidden One figurine (twenty-five cents "boys" grab bag on 12/12/13), a Famosa Pinypon redhead doll (twenty-five cents "girls small doll" grab bag on 2/12/14), a 2001 Disney/Pixar Monsters, Inc. Celia Mae McDonald's figure (twenty-five cents "girls awesome" grab bag on 2/6/14), three BVS/SCG Power Rangers Red Ranger action figures [left-to-right, Operation Overdrive ('07), Samurai ('11), and RPM ('09); all three were in a twenty-five cents "boys dudes" grab bag on 2/6/14], and, finally, a 2011 Hasbro/McDonald's My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Pinkie Pie (twenty-five cents "girls" grab bag on 12/19/13). 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!
If this bad boy is here, that can only mean one thing: somebody just suffered a humiliating instant defeat at Duel Monsters. This is a 1.9" (4.8 cm) tall unarticulated Yu-Gi-Oh! (Japanese for King of Games) Exodia the Forbidden One figurine. In addition to "China", he's got "Takahashi" molded on his body, but that's just the last name of the guy who created the original Yu-Gi-Oh! manga, not a toy company. Exodia's sculpt and paintwork are pretty spot on, but I don't like the way that his legs are molded, because he leans to the right instead of standing straight. In the Duel Monsters card game, Exodia the Forbidden One is a very special creature. First, he's divided up into five separate cards (body, left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg), and, secondly, if you can manage to get all five of those cards into your hand, you automatically and instantly win the match. While that sounds great, in practice, it's difficult to successfully pull off, because, unlike most cards, you can't have multiple copies of Exodia's pieces in your deck (just one of each), so, the odds of you drawing all five of them in time aren't that great and it's also relatively easy for your opponent to mess up the Exodia gambit by eliminating one, or more, of his components. I always build my Duel Monsters decks around the Egyptian God cards, or other top-tier monsters, instead. All that said, he's a pretty neat and intimidating looking entity, although I prefer my larger, electronic version of the character to this midget (see photo below). I almost bought this Exodia figure individually one time, but it turned out to be a fortuitous thing that I put him back on the shelf, since I eventually ended up getting him anyway, along with a bunch of other stuff, in a mystery toy grab bag, for a mere quarter.
It's bring your kid to work day at the office!
This 3" (7.5 cm) tall cutie is a Famosa Pinypon doll. The characters don't have individual names, because the company intended for children to come up with their own identities and stories for them, so, for the sake of convenience, I'm just going to refer to this one as the "redhead". Pinypon dolls were designed to facilitate easy customization for young children. Rather than futzing around with clothing, all you have to do is pop off the upper/lower body or hair and swap them with pieces from another Pinypon figure to change the doll's look.
It's clear to me that Famosa was inspired by the Japanese kawaii (cute) super-deformed art style (i.e., huge heads with short, chubby bodies). That's a look that I really love, so you won't hear any complaints from me on that score. Her shoes, bracelet, and top are all permanent parts of her body. At first glance, I assumed that her glittery green fabric skirt was also glued on, but, upon closer inspection, it turns out that it is removable (she's got white panties painted on underneath). Articulation is very basic; this redhead only moves at the neck and waist (both rotating cut joints).
Pinypon heads are hollow so that you can store their small accessories inside (purses and hair clips for the most part), which is a great idea that I applaud. I don't have any of those items, but, if you look at my photos, you can see the holes in the hairband and left hand where said accessories would plug into the doll. They also have two different faces, one on each side of the head (the one that you aren't currently using is completely covered by the hair), which is a smart way to get extra mileage out of limited parts. I've been interested in these dolls every since I first saw photos of them online, and actual samples hanging on the pegs in the stores, and, now that I have one in-hand, I have to say that I'm impressed. I just need to acquire some more so that I can do some mixing-and-matching!
Here we have a 2001 Disney/Pixar Monsters, Inc. McDonald's Happy Meal toy. Celia Mae (voiced by Jennifer Tilly) is kind of a combination of a gorgon (snake-hair), a cyclops (one eye), and a tentacle monster (lots of tendrils). In short, my kind of woman! Unfortunately, she's already taken, as Celia is Mike's girlfriend in the film. Celia works as the receptionist at Monsters, Inc. Speaking of which, this figure is supposed to come with her desk as an accessory, which I obviously don't have. The entire wave consisted of eight figures; in addition to Celia Mae, you could also get James P. Sullivan (Sulley), Michael (Mike) Wazowski, Mary "Boo", Randall Boggs, Henry J. Waternoose III, Roz, The Abominable Snowman, CDA (Children Detection Agency) Agent, and George Sanderson.
Celia's sculpt is pretty good; I particularly like the scale pattern on her sleeveless dress (which reminds me of DC Aquaman's similarly textured orange shirt). She's pretty "flat" (and, no, I'm not talking about her chest) when viewed from the sides though--sculpted elements like masses of tendrils are difficult to get out of a two-piece mold if you don't do them right, so, I'm guessing that's the reason why the toy was designed like that. Celia only has a single point of articulation, a rotating cut waist. Granted, tentacles aren't that easy to articulate, unless you go the bendy route, but I think that McDonald's could have given her additional cut joints at the neck and shoulders. Oh yeah, her eye also glows in the dark, which is neat. She stands 4.3" (11 cm) tall.
I have three of these Monsters, Inc. McDonald's toys now, but Celia Mae is the first new one that I've acquired in years. I picked up both Henry J. Waternoose III (the spider-like monster on the far left) and The Abominable Snowman (center), for twenty-three cents each, waaaay back on May 22, 2008. That dapper, eight-legged fellow happens to be one of the best fast food toys ever made in my opinion--aside from just looking cool, the sculpt is so good, it blew my mind when I found out that Waternoose was actually from McDonald's. The Abominable Snowman is pretty sharp too (I love his expression). While she's not horrible by any means, Celia Mae is definitely my least favorite of the three.
I have no idea why, but it seems like, eleven-times-out-of-ten, whenever I get a Power Rangers toy, it's always the Red Ranger. Hell, all three of these Red Ranger figures came from the same bag of toys! I don't know, maybe he's always produced in greater numbers than the other Rangers, but you'd think that the differently-hued heroes and heroines would be distributed in roughly equal proportions. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I hate the various incarnations of the Red Ranger or anything, it's just that I like variety more. Also, while I did a bit of research on these, so that I could correctly identify which incarnation of the Power Rangers each respective Red Ranger comes from, I am by no means an expert on the franchise (I'm amazed that there's more than a dozen versions of the show to date). I catch an episode of the television program every now and then, and I enjoy seeing what the goofy monster-of-the-week is, but it'd definitely be a stretch to say that I'm a devoted fan.
Let's do these in the chronological order of their release, as that makes the most sense. This particular Red Ranger design debuted in 2007's Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive. The tallest of this trio, he clocks in at 5.6" (14.1 cm) in height. Operation Overdrive Red Ranger has a rotating cut joint at the neck, pin-and-disc ball-joints at the shoulders and hips, and pin-joint knees. He has a decent range of motion, but there's certainly room for improvement. I assume that the nine holes located in the shoulders, back, abdomen, forearms, and shins are for plugging in accessories, most likely armor components. My sample is exhibiting quite a bit of paint wear, particularly the silver, but he's in okay "played-with" condition. I really like the sharp contrast created by the red and the white striping on his uniform. I'd rank him as the second best Ranger out of this batch of toys.
The motorcycle is a Target-exclusive Transformers Elita-One. Scale-wise, it's a little small for him, but not too bad.
This one is a representation of the Red Ranger from the 2009 Power Rangers: RPM incarnation of the franchise. It's obvious, from his pre-posed limbs, that this toy was designed to be riding a vehicle of some sort, most likely a motorcycle. Due to that posture, you can't really get him to stand independently, but he'd be about 3.5" (9.0 cm) in height if you could. RPM Red Ranger possesses rotating cut joints at the neck, shoulders, and hips. The paint apps are pretty spartan, with the legs getting none whatsoever and only the front of the torso. His sculpt is decent, but it's also not particularly noteworthy. Out of the three, this one is my least favorite, simply because he's the most basic and limited in design.
And, finally, this Red Ranger hails from the 2011 Power Rangers: Samurai version of the long-running series. He has the distinction of having the most intricate sculpt and the best articulation out of the trio. In stature, he's firmly in the middle of the pack, measuring 4.5" (11.5 cm) tall. Samurai Red Ranger has a ball-jointed neck, pin-and-disc ball-jointed shoulders and hips, pin-joint elbows and knees, and rotating-cut-joint wrists and shins. That's not too shabby, but the addition of biceps, waist and ankle joints would have been nice. His outfit has the strongest Japanese design elements, but, given that the Power Rangers shows usually use footage from television programs from that country (Samurai Sentai Shinkenger in this case), that's hardly surprising. If I could only keep one of these Red Rangers, this is probably the one that I'd pick, as he's arguably the best in terms of appearance and mobility.
The three Red Ranger Brothers have joined forces to take on the villainous Stag Beetle.
On a related note, I'd also like to mention that I now have no less than three of these 2012 McDonald's Power Rangers: Super Samurai Red Rangers (previously covered in Volume III of Toy Talk). For whatever reason, this item just keeps popping up in the mystery grab bags of toys that I buy (including the sack that the Operation Overdrive, RPM, and Samurai Red Rangers were in). It's like some otherworldly power is trying to force me to build an army of these guys or something . . .
I've only bought one intentionally so far, but, thanks to all of those mystery toy grab bags that I purchase, I'm starting to accumulate a small pile of Pinkie Pies. Which is fine, as the character has been growing on me, although Rainbow Dash is still my favorite. This particular one is the 2.8" (7.0 cm) tall 2011 My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic McDonald's version. In addition to PP, you could also get Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Princess Celestia, and Cheerilee. The combination of a sculpted mane and a curly rooted tail works really well in her case, as that does a great job of replicating her wild locks from the cartoon. Usually, both eyes are visible on MLP toys, so, I like that the sculptor covered up one of Pinkie Pie's peepers with her mop of curls, as that gives the figure a unique look. The light pink plastic she's molded from has a slight pearlescent finish which I also find attractive.
My sample is missing it, but this Pinkie Pie figure is supposed to come with a blue base, shaped like her balloon cutie-mark (I may be wrong, but looking at a photo online, it appears that the base breaks apart, in the middle, to become a pair of combs, which is a neat touch). It's not really necessary though, as the pony stands fine on her own without it, and I have no shortage of properly-scaled hairstyling tools. She may just be a cheap fast food toy, but I feel that this Pinkie Pie looks better, and more accurate, than the "real" Crystal Empire version I looked at in Toy Talk Volume XXI. In fact, I like this piece enough that I think I'm going to try to collect and complete a set of these 2011 McDonald's figurines, or at least the Mane Six.
So much pink!
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