Tiny, Squishy Squinkies

I resisted Squinkies for a long time. No, really, I did.  They are small and there are lots of characters and licenses in the line, which is normally like a siren song for me, but I held out for a while.  Until I stumbled on the Pixar animal pack.  Oddly, the piece that made me HAVE TO BUY this is the one piece OF COURSE I couldn't find for photos: the balloon basket from Up!

Kevin and Dug!  Plus Nemo, Squirt, Flick, and Atta

And once I had these in my hands, I spotted another pack of Disney creatures, so they came with me, too.  I am not the most hardcore Disney fanatic, but a lot of the animal-centric movies were my childhood favorites, as well as all the toys made to go with them.  You should see my 101 Dalmatians collection...

Squinkies come in tiny spheres that are easy to open and close. They are vaguely reminiscent of the clear plastic bubbles that vending machine toys tend to come in; a similarity which Blip Toys hasn't ignored, producing a number of bubblegum machine type storage toys for these figures.  The major difference is that vending machine bubbles are never easy to open and close. (So many childhood finger injuries...)

The bubbles are sometimes solid colors, allowing for surprises. It's easy to see why kids like these.  They are small and bright, with a squishy-soft feel and vaguely tacky surface. They are just the kind of toy that's easy to lose and difficult to keep free of pet hair, and I love them.

My Marvel Squinkies

MY favorite thing about them is the many licenses and characters, which are all produced at vaguely the same scale.  Now, LEGO is the reigning champion of that prized quality, in my book, but I enjoy it in other toys as well.  It lets me do things like this...

The details tend to be a little imperfect, but that's okay. I like them as they are, and part of the main draw for me is that I don't think I owned a lot of these character in other forms, so I'm quite happy with these!

Pro-Doh

It's time for the first post in a series!  All of these will be about toys I played with as a child that I want to highlight. In particular, I want to talk about some toys that I never see mentioned online.  I'm starting with Pro-Doh!

Front of the box for the Playful Animals set, which was purchased on
clearance at Toys R Us for $4.99 circa 1997.

From the makers of Play-Doh (so, Hasbro), Pro-Doh existed briefly in the mid-90s (as far as I know).  The premise was that the kit contained white, air-drying clay that you used with a plastic mold to make your own figures. It was white so that you could decorate the figures with markers.

Playful Animals Pro-Doh set mold, creates 6 different figures
 (2 dogs, 2 cats, mouse, and parrot)

You also got a plastic playset scene and a play mat that went with your creations.  There were 3 versions of this kit described on the box.  The other 2 were a house/dollhouse and a castle.

Essentially, Pro-Doh was part toy, part craft. I know I haven't really gotten to talking about some of my other major favorites, like original Littlest Pet Shop, but just take my word for it that figural animal toys are my favorites. So, this set was really perfect. You could create new toys whenever you felt like it...at least, until the Pro-Doh ran out.  Though later I used the mold to make animals out of polymer clay, which you can't color on with markers, but it's certainly more durable and less prone to cracking. This is a really great set and it was definitely worth its clearance price! I'd love to see something like this make a comeback.  

Bonus photo: some of my creations:

I would like to think I've gotten better at coloring since then.

Furby Boom: First Impressions

Today, my brand new Furby Boom arrived at my door. I would like to point out that I held out for months on buying one, and also that I found a giftcard, which I put towards picking up one of the cheaper colors (and I am all for choosing your favorite out of any toy line, but for $10, I just couldn't spend it). So, 2nd favorite color choice it was:

I haven't devoted much time to it yet, so here are my first thoughts.

• The new app has a lot of features, and I like that it wants to explain how to play, but I really wanted a skip button for a lot of it. I just tried to chant "target market" in my head. Obviously more explanation is good for actual children.  Still though, I think I would have preferred to stumble through it trial-and-error style as kid.

• The plush fur quality is not equal to that of Furby 2012. Boom sheds a bit and it is less pleasant to touch.

• I don't love the plastic feet. Not an upgrade.

• The interactions with the physical Furbling toy are well-done. I don't think my 2012 gets along with his Party Rocker friend quite so well, though this might be my lack of patience for letting the Party Rocker be awake...

• Boom and 2012 definitely respond to each other, seemingly about as well as two 2012 furbies.  Though perhaps this is just my lack of knowledge of Furbish.

• Time will tell, I'm sure.  They are definitely similar toys and I will try to stop comparing them.  My 2012 furby is perfect and how do you improve on perfection??

Best Things: will play with 2012 Furby, app has lots to do, Furblings are great, good packaging

Worst Things: plush fur downgrade (shedding), App wants you to name it in Furbish (#nope)

LEGO Disney Princesses

Unfinished posts abound, covering everything from Hot Wheels to Squinkies, but as always, the thing that I can't keep quiet about is LEGO.  

On the first day of 2014, LEGO Disney Princesses are unleashed on the world.  While I'm not surprised that they are Friends-style figures, I'm disappointed.  I get it, to a point-- introduce a line in 2012, build on it in 2013, try to use a massively popular license to make it explode in 2014?  I've explained my stance on Friends before, and I've played with their compatibility in my own collection. Essentially, I think the doll-type figures are more invited to the party than most people would expect, but I see this immense wasted potential in not using the Disney characters for the standard size minifigs.  

If the point of Friends is to bridge the marketing gap that LEGO has created for themselves, to get uninterested girls and their parents into LEGO, literally this license is a perfect bridge into the rest of the lines. Assuming there are any kids who didn't really like LEGO before Friends and now they've been brought into the fold, wouldn't this be a great way to continue to lead them into more LEGO play with more kinds of sets and themes? 

I like these sets, I do.  Good elements, nice colors, range of prices.  I'm especially pleased to see Merida up there at the launch. But it would just be amazing to really be able to cross over with other lines.  I just think kids should be able to have Snow White drive a firetruck and that strikes me as a big missed opportunity.

Things I Hate

The point of typing any of this was supposed to be to put all my toy-related thoughts in one place. So far, I have a list of topics and very little actually written.  However, so far it's all positive stuff: why I love my Furby, the perfection of the 2012 TMNT figures, etc. etc.  As the new Ninjago set photos surface today, I am just so tempted to talk about some of the things I hate.

My increasingly frequent gripe is how many LEGO sets involve vehicles. I concede that the target market supposedly loves all things wheels and wings, but oh my god, I do not. Not at all.  Give me buildings. I don't need helicopters and planes and trucks. Holy crap, there are SO MANY TRUCKS. The best thing about LEGO, of course, is that you can always re-purpose the bricks into something besides yet another truck. I think this is why Star Wars as a license hasn't been a huge priority of mine. The places they've created are huge (and hugely expensive), and most of everything else is a spaceship. I feel vaguely that this opinion is sort of sacrilegious, but oh well.  Give me the minifigs, the animals, and the sweet buildings, you can keep your various modes of transport!

Speaking of licenses, I feel like I'm the only one not very excited about the upcoming Simpsons set/s.  It almost seems like something aimed at not necessarily children, but that doesn't make me especially appreciate it.  I've enjoyed the show when I've seen it, but I didn't grow up watching it, and it's just not stuff that I'd want to add to my collection.  Now, I'm sure there are tons of people who are extremely excited by the prospect of this, but I think it will be interesting to see how it sells.  Ultimately, any lines that don't interest me are GOOD because I'm not tempted to buy any of it.  I think most of my negative feelings are over the potential of doing a series of Simpsons minifigures, though it will be nice to save that money as well.  And they might make it up to me if the following series would end up being the rumored superheroes (but honestly I think that's asking too much, I don't expect that to happen).

Friends

I don't know why I woke up with LEGO Friends on the brain the other day, but I spent most of morning reading and watching stuff about them and the reaction of many people to their existence.  When I ended up with my free set a few weeks ago, I was surprised at how much I liked it and I'd been considering picking up a couple more since.  I have now added 3 small sets (#30108, #41001, and #41011) to my collection. It's not that the line isn't problematic, and while I hope that this era gives way to better integration of the themes and representation that Friends claims to bring into the LEGO universe, it's also an era I want to include in my collection.  Also, everyone needs more brick colors and overlarge animals with big eyes, okay? They just do.  Full acknowledgement here that toys and toy marketing are a HUGE part of the social construction of gender norms. As someone that loves toys from both "the pink aisle" and "the blue aisle," that is something that I would definitely like to see change.  Also, full acknowledgement that I love LEGO in a will-go-down-with-this-ship sort of way.

Okay, thing #1 is that I want to link to the information related to the debate over LEGO Friends that I found the most useful.  Firstly, there are 2 blog posts that I may not agree with in every point, but go a long way to providing history and context here and here.  I also thought these videos did a great job of explaining this issue and why it's important, here and here.

Here are pictures of the sets I got.  There is some diversity in the line in terms of stereotypical activities as well as colors.  The boxes are undeniably purple, but individually, they don't all scream purple.  

The thing that's interesting about this line is that while I understand the objections of many people to its content, if it weren't attached to the LEGO brand, I don't think it would have caught much attention as objectionable.  Take it out of the the LEGO aisle and it might even stand out from other "pink aisle" toys for the karate set, the magic show, and the invention lab (that debuted with the line's launch).  I've actually noticed a trend in some stores to shelve Friends separately from the rest of the LEGO toys. (I'm not sure if that is better or worse, honestly.)

Because LEGO is a block company and not a doll company, it is generally thought that they are precluded from producing dolls and that producing dolls, as toys meant for girls only, is a betrayal of the inclusive values of LEGO's origins.  I would argue that minifigures are dolls-- tiny, plastic, highly customizable, adorable dolls, and also that LEGO has produced dolls before.  The stigma attached to the word "doll" is as ridiculous as the idea that pretend play centered on humans should only be the domain of girls.  At this point, Friends are not even the only "pink aisle" building dolls around, now that Megablocks has a Barbie line out. This is a difficult issue given that LEGO already produces minifig dolls, but as the links I shared establish, there are not very many women/girls represented.  So, to some extent, I can respect how Friends is a version of an attempt to change that representation, but it seems like unnecessary segregation.  Making more women minifigures and using themes/locations like those included in the Friends line for sets across the themes would be a better way of doing this.   

There IS the argument that it should be socially okay for feminine things to exist independently of anything else.  The latest My Little Pony incarnation seems to be a good example of this, as something often praised for its values and the way the focus of the show remains on the core group of girl characters and their friendships and adventures.  Masculine characters take a backseat in the show and surprise: it's still good.  You don't have to add boys for something to be good. Feminine does not equal bad or lesser.  This perspective makes me see some inherent value in the Friends line as a separate entity. When you hold it up next to Belville, Friends is just so much better.  Next to Megablocks Barbie… Friends absolutely demolishes it on the construction front alone!  But, given the whole historical context of a company that had such inclusive roots that then progressed to marketing aggressively to only boys, it's hard not to want to see that original spirit return. Preferably in the form of a mass of creative, adorable new minifigures and sets. I guess my position is that while I like things about Friends, when Series 11 drops, everyone should be sure to go find the scientist and maybe let LEGO know how pleased they are that she exists.

Image: minifigures.lego.com

Happy August

It's clearance season! Clearance season is generally either fantastic or terrible depending on what you like. In my experience, this is the time when stores try VERY HARD to clear out all the failed product lines. Since I pay attention to toy stock all year, I'm rarely surprised by what goes on clearance. It's usually whatever they've been trying to get rid of for months reduced even more. This year I was pretty sure that the O.O.T.W. dolls were failing, which I think I'm right about based on clearance stock. In 2010-11, it was like like watching in slow motion as Cepia's Kung Zhu hamsters failed spectacularly. Though, that is probably a story for another post because I could talk for ages about how much I love Zhu Zhu/Kung Zhu. My point is that while liking a line that sells well is GOOD because there will be more new things, sometimes it's fun to like the toys that don't sell as well because you end up with tons of them for very little money. Often clearance is filled with the toys that you don't understand why they were manufactured in the first place. Case in point, this plush Gargamel doll from the Smurfs, which is marked down to $5.98 from $19.99, because of COURSE it is.

Anyone could have predicted this would end up in clearance.

 I ended up buying just a few things. All animal toys, of course. The first is a set of Pound Puppies toys, apparently a Toys R Us exclusive. These aren't marked down so much that I was going to buy ALL of them, though I kind of wanted to. I haven't seen the newest cartoon incarnation of Pound Puppies, so I don't know if it's any good, but none of these dogs seem to be main characters on the show anyway, and I am eternally a sucker for plastic dogs. It was quite tough to pick which set to buy as they had most of them, although, of course not the set with the secret handshake/brofist dogs, since that would be the obvious choice.

 You only get 2 pieces of plastic in these sets; either 2 puppies or a puppy and an object.  The soccer ball is a lie. The adoption certificate is cardboard and about business card size.  You can print additional ones on their website.  I finally settled on this set for the probably-pomeranian-possibly-samoyed. The paint is imperfect, but I quite like them and if they went on sale for any less, I probably would pick up the rest of them. My favorite detail is the outline of the paw prints that appear on their feet.

 As much as I like my new plastic puppies, my new prized possession is my Xia Xia hermit crab. Another effort from Cepia to recapture the Zhu Zhu pets craze was this line of battery-powered crabs. They have detachable shells and they sell the shells alone so that you can swap them around. They also had a few buildings/structures to play with them in. I've been watching this line fail basically from the start, I think. I guess kids aren't into crabs? The website for them is already completely gone. In any case, stores have been trying to unload them for months and months and while I kind of wanted one, it seemed like they had SO MANY that if I just waited, eventually I could have one for almost nothing. I was right, and now I own "Tobago" the battery-powered crab and 2 extra shell sets for a whopping $4 total ($2 for crab, $1 per extra shell). He has an on/off switch and he skitters both forward and backward at a tap to his claws. He looks like a cartoon superhero because of his giant chin. If the Power Pete were a blue, plastic crab, this is what he would look like. I've re-named the crab Power Pete.  I also love his black, beady eyes, as they remind me of original Littlest Pet Shop baby pets and their soulless eyes.

 I don't understand why kids weren't into these because this is the best $2 I have spent in ages. The short burst of motion is very entertaining; I'm thinking of putting him in to play with the Zhu Zhu pets. They knew when they've hit something and move in the opposite direction for a bit. The shells come with tiny "collectable surprises" or "little friends," which are TINY objects with an intense plastic smell about them that you can store inside the crab's shell and also have a hole in the bottom that can attach to a peg on the outside of the shell for additional decoration. Admittedly, these tiny objects are very weird. I have 5 altogether-- a rubber duck, a penguin, a fish driving a car, a globe with a face, and a …computer or TV monitor with a face. But I like the crab so much that I don't really care that these elements are weird. Now my crab's default shell has a lightning bolt on it, which I quite like, and I bought a yellow one and another blue one that is MY FAVORITE THING:

The design of this shell is a chicken face. CHICKEN FACE! I have no idea why this shell exists, but I'm really pleased I get to own one for a dollar. I love my crab, he was definitely worth $2.