These are some pretty high quality toys right here. Toy Story's still got it.

I don’t want to jinx this, but I’d really like to see Toy Story 3 receive a perfect 100% at Rotten Tomatoes, thus making the Toy Story series have a perfect score. While it’s most likely not going to happen since at least one reviewer will be jaded for no reason other than to cost it a perfect score, it’ll still be a hugely successful movie. And you know what that means? Merchandise! Toy Story has always had toys tying in, I know you’re shocked, and now that the new movie is a few days away I think we should talk about those, don’t you? So let’s go to infinity and…let’s, let’s just go.

The Shotgun Approach to Toys

Toy Story has a huge strength in merchandising that may also be it’s greatest weakness: The basic premise involves toys without any inherent theme. What this means is that the majority of the toys from the movie are independent to their genre, such as a space ranger, a cowboy, a Mr. Potato Head, or Barbie. This creates a shotgun effect in terms of a target market. While you’re sure to find at least one product that interests a kid, you generally won’t find one that’s interested in ALL the toy line and feels compelled to buy each and every item that has the Toy Story logo stamped somewhere.

Buzz Lightyear has wings. I'm happy. What more can I say?

Yes, there will be some kids that fall into that unlikely category of Toy Story brand loyalty, but generally you will find kids interested in one sort of toy and coming across a Toy Story-related toy in that area of interest. For instance, if you tend to love dinosaurs and collect dinosaur toys of all sorts, you’ll probably think the new Rex toy is awesome, but may not have any real interest in a Woody action figure.

However, it becomes apparent that the Toy Story brand realizes this weakness and decided to make sure that the various toys were excellent in their category. The Barbie and Ken pack is exactly what you’d think it is, and we all know that Barbie is pretty darn popular already. Jessie the cowgirl has a doll aimed specifically at girls, just as you’d expect the doll from the movie to be crafted.

Yup, that looks like Barbie and Ken alright. Very 90's. I like it.

Probably the big standout is the 12’’ Buzz Lightyear as it’s, well, Beyond Awesome. It comes in the spaceship box from the movies, has all the features the movie Buzz Lightyear has, and isn’t over $50. They’ve had these sort of Buzz Lightyear super toys out since the first movie, but they’re really stepping up their game to make them even closer to exact movie replicas this round, meaning your kid probably wants one for Christmas/birthday/Wednesday.

I want a few of these, just so I can see Buzz Lightyear fight with Buzz Lightyear because there can be only ONE!

The great equalizer may just be the LEGO sets. Since it’s LEGO, there’s no need to care about the specific genre. LEGO seems to just have one genre anyway and that genre is LEGO. The downside to the LEGO sets? The LEGO prices. No surprises, but still, good Lord LEGO, a little sympathy already. Haven’t we loved you enough over the years for a little price break?

For some reason this is more expensive than that ultimate Buzz Lightyear I just mentioned. How'd that happen?

I most suggest the action figure line if you’re looking for a solid gift for someone into Toy Story. Buzz, Woody, Jessie, and the rest are crafted rather well, as has been the case in the past. Woody will always look a bit out of place as a stiff plastic toy since he’s intended to be made of cloth, but the Buzz Lightyear action figures consistently deliver. Don’t forget my number one action figure rule: Toys that can “fly” are always cool. And look at that, Buzz Lightyear has wings. Sold. Despite this advice, I’m pretty sure the most popular Toy Story 3 product will be the Toy Story 3 Silly Bandz since those are also stupidly popular right now.

It really doesn’t matter if you mean to buy a Toy Story 3 product or not. If you have a child or have to buy a gift for anyone under the age of 10 this year, you’ll undoubtedly encounter something that says Toy Story on it somewhere. Thankfully you really can’t go wrong in terms of quality, so thank your lucky stars.

The man of the hour, or rather, the Iron Man of the hour. See what I did there?

Tony Stark’s technological marvel is back with plenty of articulation, tons of oversized weapon attachments, and each with a personality of its own.

The figure series consists of a wide variety of Iron Man and War Machine suits, all lying out like a roll of schematics. It conjures a funny image of Tony Stark’s garage littered with Iron Man armor: white for snow, blue for underwater, black for stealth, etc.

Each different suit has a detailed, imaginative name, such as Iron Man Mark I, War Machine Tech Armor. Collectors will be gratified by the different color tones and the continuity of the suit evolution.

Kids (or just guys like me who like to take things apart for fun) will find the detachable missile launchers, guns and armor plating quite amusing.

A really great idea that Hasbro committed to for the movie tie-in is the variety of source material that the action figures come from. Figures based on the original comic books yield a trim, wiry Iron Man. Figures based on the first movie have a gritty, bulky detail. The figures for the new movie are sleek, and have most of the big attachable guns.

Something the figures lack is variety in characters. You can have Iron Man and War Machine seven times over, but there are no villains for them to fight with.

There’s a slightly odd addition to this toy line, in the form of Iron Racers. These are stationary figures attached to a pull-and-release vehicle. There’s the Armor Cycle, the Quantum Quad, the Turbo Racer, etc. Since this seems to be a trend for every superhero figure (the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, and Batman have all gotten pull-and-release quads and motorbikes), I would suggest avoiding these, and buying a Batman version from the bargain bin instead. It’s the same toy.

Essentially, these figures are exactly what an Iron Man fan would expect: it’s all about design concepts, color schemes, and attachable equipment. Great fun for the Howard Hughes in all of us, just like Tony Stark. Thankfully, you don’t have to have wallets as deep, though.

The different concepts are exciting, but don’t expect to find a good villain. Avoid the Iron Racers, stick with the individual figures. Kids and adults can find the cool fun in the different versions of a great superhero. I might just bring my Mark IV Iron Man to the IMAX showing of “Iron Man 2.”

Hey look, movie toys of Alice actually exist. They look boring, but they exist.

It’s been a long week of finals for me, and after all that I realized I had one last assignment to complete: Do a write-up for toys based off of Tim Burton’s new movie, Alice in Wonderland. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? It’s not exactly a sequel to the classic Disney movie of the same name, nor is it quite a sequel to the Lewis Carroll books (which your kids really should read). It’s just another one of Tim Burton’s “I’m weird and here’s my movie” movies. I haven’t seen it either, so I have nothing to say about it one way or another, though the Rotten Tomatoes score could be a helpful guide…

Down the Rabbit Hole I Go…

Anyway, that’s not why I’m here today. As I stated, I needed to find toys based on the movie, so using my best judgment on the subject matter I promptly grabbed Other Chris and went to Hot Topic. To my vast surprise, I found very, very little in the way of Alice in Wonderland merchandise save for some shirts with the Mad Hatter on them, some blankets with the Mad Hatter on them, and a costume for a very “not-child-friendly” Alice that isn’t from any licensed version of the material. My journey wasn’t a complete loss though as I did manage to find a jewelry box with the Red Queen on it and yet more pictures of Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter. But a jewelry box a toy does not make.

Disheartened, I went searching elsewhere, this time at Toys R’ Us, believing it to be the same wonderland (oh pun) I remembered from my childhood. I won’t get into the entirety of my exploits, but I had to ask where the Alice in Wonderland toys were, assuming any existed. I got a “no” answer which quickly turned in to a “Actually yes, come this way” answer with enough patience. Still, no real toys were found. I discovered yet another few items with Johnny Depp on them, but finally there was something with the titular character’s visage on the front: A hairbrush. Oh joy! It was meant to go along with the Mad Hatter mirror and the Red Queen compact, but hey! Still something with Alice on the front! And yet, no real toys, save for a couple plush characters from a “not-the-movie-version” of Alice. They did, however, look adorable.

See? Adorable!

My final stop was a long shot but still. There was a Barnes & Noble next door to the Toys R’ Us, so I gave it a try. Among the vast amount of books for Alice in Wonderland, including the original book, the novelized version of the new movie, and some other authors’ twisted versions of the story that make Burton look sane and American McGee’s Alice look fairly tame, I found an actual “toy” based on the movie: Yahtzee!

Hey, yeah, because I see the connection there...kind of?

Wait, what? After all that searching the best I could find at a major retailer was an Alice in Wonderland themed Yahtzee game? Okay, I’ll take what I can get I suppose. What made it special was the dice had pictures on each side relating to things from the world, such as a teacup, a hat, and a scroll. So really, there was nothing remotely special about it other than it said it was related to the movie.

This wouldn’t do. Oh no, not for me. I looked online for anything else I may have missed and sure enough, there are official movie toys. Be@rbricks has a line of figures based on the movie with Alice, Mad Hatter, and Cheshire Cat figures, but that’s about it. If you collect those, then these are certainly part of your collection now. Otherwise there are the ultra detailed figures like the one I posted at the top of the article, which surprisingly only cost a little over $20. It doesn’t look like you can do much with it except look with awe at your purchase, but hey, at least you aren’t breaking the bank. And at least there are options for characters other than the Mad Hatter.

They look just like all the other Be@rbricks figures, but this time they're painted like characters from the new Tim Burton movie. Wacky!

Thus ends my quest. I’m rather disappointed with this, since I expected a journey down the rabbit hole of sorts. Lucky for me, the mall did have the Easter Bunny sitting alone waiting for pictures, so my day wasn’t a complete white-rabbit-less loss.

He kind of looks like Nightcrawler if Nightcrawler decided to go in a new direction.

Big movies mean tons of merchandise. It’s inevitable. Action figures must be made regardless of how much sense it makes. So clearly, if Space Jam required action figures, then Avatar, the movie by James Cameron that is exploding everyone’s heads with visuals and everyone’s hearts with joy, darn well has a series of action figures for it. But are they any good?

The Nitty-Gritty Truth

Sure, why not. They aren’t terrible, but there are two versions to look at here. There are the “good” versions of the action figures, the bigger versions that include a total of three characters, making them somewhat pointless as a “series” of action figures and rather just good additions to the vast imaginative toyland adventures your kids should be having anyway. But there are also the “bad” versions, the ones you’ll see most and like least. I didn’t even have to look at them for very long before coming to these conclusions either. It just sort of becomes apparent when you look at them for yourself.

Confession time: I haven’t seen Avatar. I’ll see it soon enough, most likely by the time this article is posted, but as of writing this here review I haven’t seen the actual source material. I still know enough about the movie to know what is cool and what isn’t cool. The coolest thing? Definitely the RDA Scorpion Gunship. Why? Because the thing is a freaking heli-jet called a “Scorpion Gunship.” I don’t need to have seen the movie to know that whatever that is it makes for a good toy.

This is an RDA Scorpion Gunship. Okay, anything that flies is instantly in my "I Like It" category.

But the actual figures are the problem. The good series, as I’m calling them, the ones that are taller, are pretty solid and fun for playing with. Like I said though, there isn’t a ton to choose from, so you’ll inevitably need to have a bright imagination to fit these Avatar characters into some sort of story involving the Transformers or the Ninja Turtles. But at least you are getting something cool.

The smaller toys just look cheap, even though they aren’t in the truest use of the word. You’ll plunk some dough for a toy that looks weird, and part of that may just be the way the actual characters appear. They have that strange freakish skinniness to the joints that instantly makes me think “This is a toy” and not, “Oh cool, a new toy!” There’s a definite difference at work there. Even worse for me especially since I haven’t seen the movie, I can’t tell the difference between the characters since they look either like “Weird Blue Cat-Like Creatures” and “G.I. Joe Rejects.” As far as I can see, one character has a bow and arrow while another has a double bow and arrow thing, or something like that. Yeah, you see the importance of the RDA Scorpion Gunship now?

So I’m keeping this one short but sweet. The new Avatar toys aren’t entirely bad considering everything about them. They do look cool and have some cool things that go with them, but I can’t see the appeal of the toys since the movie seems to be for adults anyway and the toys themselves aren’t very different from one another. You’ll see a ton of these in the discount bins in a few months since all the stores have been buying these in excessive amounts. If your kid wants one, wait just a bit and then snatch them up when they’ve been clearanced to 50% off or more.

This costume is coming to a Halloween near you.

Where the Wild Things Are is a classic book by Maurice Sendak. Every child should have read this book by now. Have you? If not, go read it right now.  I’ll wait.  I’m having a tea party right now, so I don’t mind.

As with all literature, we must eventually turn it into a movie so that, you know, everyone will get a chance to understand the story even if they can’t read. The same is true for Where the Wild Things Are.  Expect the movie in October and expect it to be good (seriously, I’m sold after viewing the trailer). Also expect toys and dolls to tie in as soon as humanly possible.

There have been opportunities in the past to get Wild Things merchandise, but more is naturally being made to coincide for the movie.  Probably the best new toys coming out come from a Japanese company named Medicom.

The new toys?  Collectible figurines that…well, they don’t move. And they’ll cost you a pretty penny. A set of 8 will set you back at least $250. The same is true of the Kubricks versions of the figures, though they’re slightly cheaper and do move when provoked.

I’d prefer to go the old school route and snag a Moishe Plush doll for between $10 and $30. Then I get to snuggle my own cute Wild Thing and dream of a land where anything is possible. However, the high quality Max doll is going for $150. Ouch. Snuggly Moishe for $10? That’s as wild as I’d like to get.

This movie release is an indicator that classic and vintage toys are coming back, in a big way.  Geared towards parents who grew up in the 1980s, the trend recreates the best parts of growing up, when toys were still built with integrity.

Now go read the book again!

It’s official, the new Star Trek action figures will be released on April 19, 2009.  These classic figures are made by Playmates, and will be available in 3¾-inch ($7), 6-inch ($9-$10) and 12-inch ($30) models, according to USA Today.

Star Trek figures represent a holy grail for toy manufactures: namely, earlier (and now collectable) Star Trek toys were some of the first action figures that were marketed to kids and adults.  This new series will also include key sets that are to scale with the action figures such as a Transporter playset, and a Bridge playset.

The Star Trek movie is opening in theaters on May 8.  By then, expect Star Trek toys to be everywhere!  The marketing plan is exuberant even by the standards of the final frontier.

Other tie-ins include card games (Uno), board games (Monopoly and Scrabble), a line of collector Babie dolls, plus die-cast vehicles and radio-controlled vehicles.  And that’s just the toys….. also be ready for new apparel, fragrances (Tribble perfume?), and even jewelry.

Oh, and don’t forget the Star Trek bobble heads!  These will probably go over better than these collectible Star Trek nutcrackers.

What makes this launch so important from my perspective is that the Star Trek universe has been moldering for so long that it has largely left the cultural landscape.  As Liz Kalodner, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Consumer Products, puts it:

“The momentum is building for the Star Trek brand as we approach the new feature film this May.  We are excited to continue our focus on expanding the Star Trek universe and bringing the whole franchise to a new generation.”

So, whether you are interested in collecting action figures, or are a Star Trek enthusiast, the action figure launch this spring should get you fired up for a whole new universe of characters.