Disney·Pixar Turning Red Toys/Merch Revealed!

Hey everyone! Turning Red doesn't premiere on Disney+ until March 11th so, to pass the time and to get even more pumped for the film, I thought it'd be fun to check out all the new/upcoming toys from Just Play Toys in the meantime! This toy line was finally revealed earlier this week and I can finally share the news that Mattel is NOT producing the toys for Turning Red like we all thought originally—unfortunately. Apparently Mattel didn’t even pitch for it and the toy license for Turning Red ended up going to Just Play Toys (who already does a lot of Disney merch, so they’re certainly not new to the game), but yah it’s kinda sad there won’t be that consistency now with the other Mattel Pixar toys from the last few years. Like, yup that means no 7” scale Turning Red figures or Mattel Pixar minis, which is a bummer cause I’ve been picturing what those would look like for months now. Oh well, maybe one day Mattel will pick up Turning Red to at least produce a few 7” figures down the road like what they did with Brave, Inside Out and so many other Pixar films recently.

I know this is a bit disappointing to a lot of you, but I’m still excited to share what Just Play Toys and a few other companies have done here with these characters and maybe there will still be an item or few that will catch your attention. Anyway, here's your look at many, if not all, of Just Play’s Turning Red toys, plus some others (all coming in early March). Some of these products will be only at Walmart, some will be at Target and some on Amazon, so there is quite the mixture there as far as distribution. I'll put the basic info for each item below, but be sure to check out my video (also embedded below) for additional details. 

First up is the Many Moods of Red Panda Mei Animated plush. This is a 12” plush with movie phrases, music and motion when you squeeze her belly. This plush will retail for $24.99 at will sell at Target, Walmart and Amazon.

Next up is the Deluxe Meilin doll. This is a 6” articulated doll of Mei that can “transform” into her Red Panda self by putting her in the included fuzzy Red Panda outfit. This will retail for $19.99 and will be available at Target and Amazon.

 

Moving along, here’s another Meilin Doll, this one is another poseable 6” doll that seems to be in line with the one I just showed with the Panda costume. This one here though is a bit more basic and just includes a removable red panda hoodie. Retail for this one will be $12.97 and will be a Walmart exclusive. 

 

Next up is this furry plush Turning Red secret journal with stickers, a hidden compartment and an invisible ink UV pen. Retail price for this one is $19.99 and will be available to purchase at Walmart and on Amazon. 

 

The next toy here is another plush, there are a lot of plush in the lineup, and this time it’s a Jumbo 16” Red Panda Mei plush. This is more of your basic plush, no sounds or anything, just a nice big soft classic plush with a pretty decent film accurate look. This plush will be only on Amazon and sell for $19.99.

And here is the next plush, this one is the 11” Red Panda Mei Concert Plush with sounds. Press her hand and she plays the 4-Town song Nobody like U”. If you didn’t know, 4-Town is a ficticious 90’s style boy band in the film who Mei and her friends are huge fans of. This plush will retail for $16.97 and will be sold exclusively at Walmart.

Next up, and I believe this is the last plush, is this small 8” inch Red Panda Mei plush which is a good size for those who might not want or have space for the much bigger jumbo 16” plush. This plush will retail for $7.99 and will be available to purchase at both Walmart and Amazon.

Moving along, getting into some figures here, here we have the Turning Red BFF collectible figure five piece set which features Mei, Panda Mei and her 3 besties: Abby, Miriam and Priya. This set will retail for $12.99 and will be available at Target and Amazon, so keep your eyes peeled.

Next we have Just Play’s version of mystery minis: the Turning Red collectible blind box mini figures featuring Mei, Panda Mei and their many emotions. There are 10 figures to collect in this series which is labeled Series 1, but we’ll see if a Series 2 actually happens. I would have liked to see more of a variety of characters here, but maybe that’ll happen in a second series. These are 2.25” tall, will retail for $4.99 each and will be available at Walmart and Target. There will also [probably] be blind box codes as well, so [possibly] stay tuned to those in a future unboxing video.

Almost done here...next up is this Turning Red Shrinky Dinks sets, which makes sense since Shrinky Dinks were very popular in the 80’s and 90s and this movie does take place in the 90s, so there’s that nostalgia factor. Now I don’t think these Shrinky Dinks are made by Just Play Toys, this would be from a different company from what I understand, but either way this will retail for $14.99 and will be sold exclusively on Amazon. 

Lastly there’s this Meilin reversible plush character head which is essentially a little throw pillow to add fun and and pop of color to beds, couches, chairs and more. This is another Amazon exclusive and will retail for $14.99.

Moving onto Funko...now these were revealed a little over a week ago so many of you have seen these already I’m sure, but I still wanted to include them here in this update. The three Turning Red Funko POPs we know are coming so far are Meilin Lee, Red Panda Mei (which is a larger 6” size POP) and then a Funko Shop Exclusive Flocked Red Panda Mei.

Also coming from Funko is this Panda Mei stylized collectible plush as part of their "Plushies" collection.

I also wanted to report that Boxlunch Stores have also been getting some Turning Red merch in, so be sure to keep checking the website and in-store for more as it’s just starting to trickle out. 

Lastly, I also spotted some non-toy Turning Red items at Target recently. There's an Imagine Ink book and a Grab & Go Play Pack (both I found in the Target Dollar Spot a few weeks back and figured I’d let you know about these releases as well). Speaking of books, don’t forget to check Amazon and/or your nearest Barnes and Noble as most of the official Turning Red books are out now or at the very least available for pre-order. Looks like a lot of good stuff! 

Also at Target are some clothing items for girls (a t-shirt and PJ set). 

Anyway, that’s all I got for now! I’m sure there will be more as this is just the initial wave of reveals (I'll add more here once I see it). So what do you guys think? Anything stand out as a must grab or are you waiting to see how much you actually enjoy the film before snagging stuff? Who’s looking forward to Turning Red’s premiere on Disney Plus on March 11th?

Lightyear 2022 Band-Aids— FIRST MERCH!

 

What’s goin on space rangers?! I know this is a tad bit random, but given that it’s the first bit of actual official Lightyear merchandise available out there, I had to share it with you. So yah! Here we have the brand new Pixar Lightyear inspired Band-Aid bandages that just hit Amazon not too long ago. I’ve actually collected every Pixar Band-Aid release since Toy Story 3, so I have a bunch of them and this is a welcome addition. In fact, I had saved them for one day when I had kids of my own and now that I have a two year old son, he’s actually been enjoying using all the Pixar Band-Aids I have any time he gets a little scrape or scratch. So he was actually really excited for the Lightyear ones when they came in the mail since he’s been watching the trailer on repeat recently. 

 

I feel these are actually worth buying (even if you're an older fan) since there’s some really neat stylized art on the bandages (seen below) that shows off the main characters; including Buzz, Sox, Zurg, a Zurg bot, Buzz’s recruits and Buzz’s starfighter in more detail. Honestly, I’d actually buy some of this as art as prints if it were available. Surprisingly it’s some of the better looks we’ve gotten at some of these characters and they’re on Band-aids for crying out loud.  

Anyway the box is pretty cool as well. We have a couple super neat renderings of Buzz himself: one where he’s against an outer space backdrop and then the opposite side with kind of the Lightyear version of light speed in the background. And of course the Lightyear logo as well which I really dig.

 

 

Check out each of the 16 included designs, which includes the standard variety of larger and smaller sizes. 

 

Well that’s it everyone! I hope you enjoyed this quick peek at the very first Lightyear tie-in product out there. Hey, and like I said, even if you’re not like eight years old, you might wanna pick these up— not gonna lie, they’re pretty cool! No shame if you wanna grab a box and put one on next time you need a bandage. No judgements from me.

If you’re interested in snagging a box of these, I’ve put the Amazon link below. I picked them up for just $3.27 and free shipping, so not bad at all. What do you all think??

 

Pixar LIGHTYEAR 2022 Books Revealed!

 

What’s up Pixar fans?! Today I'm back for a quick yet exciting post since I wanted to share all the brand new book covers for the upcoming Pixar Lightyear books that were just added earlier this week to the Penguin Random House website as well as Amazon. These will be releasing late April/early may (depending on the book). Pretty awesome stuff—it all looks so great. Let’s go ahead and take a closer look below!

Lastly, these next four books here don’t have cover art yet, but I wanted to at least still let you know that they’re coming for anyone keeping track of all the Lightyear book releases. 

And there we have it everyone, I’m sure that’s not everything coming but it’s all I could find for now. Either way, I’m really digging the look of all these so far . The cover artwork for really every single one of these books looks really stunning and I’m loving all the different styles and the variety of content that these books are gonna provide. Whether you’re an older fan or a younger fan, there’s a little something for everyone here. If you’re interested in pre-ordering any of these titles, I've posted the links to buy below. Of course you can find all the pricing info and additional details for each book there in the product listings. So my question for you guys is which book are you most looking forward to grabbing?

Be sure to check out my video reveal below as well! 

 

 

Brave: Merida Tsum Tsum (Japan Exclusive—Reversable Characters)

Hey all! Today I'm taking a quick look at the very last Pixar Tsum Tsum I needed for my collection (for now—unless more get made): Merida from Brave, a Disney Store Japan exclusive! I was finally able to track this one on eBay not too long ago for a reasonable price. 

This Merida is part of the series I talked about in THIS POST, where all the characters are reversible and can be changed into a Pixar ball (you can see the velcro and Pixar ball colors in the underneath shot down below). All of the characters included in that series are ones that have been released in other series (so I didn't feel the need to get them) except for Merida here. This is the only Tsum Tsum release of Merida in this size, though a "micro" version was released in this princess castle set.

Again, in my previous post, I talk about how I also got one other in this series just to display it as a Pixar ball. This one here, of course, will be displayed just as Merida. Love the embroidered bow detail on her side, her subtlety rosy cheeks and her look overall! 

Below are the official Disney Store photos so you can see who's all included in the full assortment and how the reversible feature works.

Even though Brave is one of my personal least favorite Pixar films, I'm thrilled to finally have this Tsum Tsum (and the character in general) as part of my collection! My Tsum Tsum shelf is officially completely full now (I had to squeeze her in and she just barely fit), so I kind of hope this is the end of the line as much as I love them and would like to see new character from Pixar's newest films get made. Onward, Soul and Luca Tsums would have looked amazing no doubt!

What are your thoughts? I feel this is certainly a lesser known piece, so I'm happy to be able to spread the word here. If you're interested in grabbing one for your collection, I'd check out current eBay listings HERE.

Follow me on Instagram @danthepixarfan

2021 Mattel Pixar Alien Remix Barbie & Ken with Dream Convertible Playset REVIEW

What’s up Pixar fans!? As a companion piece to my video review I did back in December last year, I’m back with another cool and groovy Mattel Pixar Alien Remix written blog post review. Today I’m taking a look this fantastic 2-pack featuring Barbie and Ken with dream convertible!

For months before this release, I had been seeing prototypes of Alien Remix Ken and Barbie being posted online for a while—mostly from collectors in China it seemed—so I knew these characters would be coming at some point, but I didn’t know when or how. Well late last year, they finally officially hit the U.S. and I was actually really surprised these two ended up being in a multipack like this (I mean it makes sense, I just hadn’t even thought of it), but even more of a surprise was the addition of the included dream convertible display stand piece (of course inspired by the pink corvette toy seen in Toy Story 3). I hadn’t heard anything about that coming so that was a super welcome surprise for sure.

For those keeping track, these are numbers 54 and 55 in Mattel’s ever expanding "Pixar Alien Remix" line.
 Honestly guys, it’s crazy this collection is even still going after almost two years. I have no idea when it’s going to stop, but like I’ve mentioned before, I'm too deep into the line at this point so there’s no turning back now. Who’s with me? Please let me know I’m not in this alone. ;)

Anyway, how hilarious are these guys? These have to be some of my favorites in the whole Remix collection just because of of how unexpected they are. I don’t think I would have thought of "Remixing" Ken and Barbie, but you know I just love when we get toys and merch of characters that rarely get released whether it’s this toy line or any. I don’t know about you, but I’m all about getting the more obscure side and background characters as toys.

 

The oh-so-stylin and very well groomed Ken wears his iconic animal lovin’ outfit and, strangely enough, this character translates surprisingly well to an Alien Remix. And like I already said, it’s just hilarious to me. Just look at his little exposed chest there, his parted wavy hair and even his expression feels true to character. As usual he’s got three points of articulation: his head can rotate 360 and then both his arms can move up and down. His collar somewhat prevents is arms from rotating all the way around but I can tell you can kind of give them a tug outward a little and then rotate—that way you could turn them around 360 if you really wanted to, but that’s not really necessary at all. Overall this is a super fun and solid remix figure that’s sure to be one of the more popular releases.

Next up, just my quick thoughts on Barbie. She’s wearing her iconic great shape workout outfit from the 80’s and she looks really cute as well. I love the bright neon colors—that goes for both of them. She just pairs really well with Ken... it’s almost like they "made for each other". She has the same standard points of articulation (arms and head). All in all, these are both cute, they both totally work and I appreciate the subtle true to movie details. It’s been so fun to see all of the Mattel team’s choices as to what characters get made in this line and I’m really looking forward to who’s coming next.

Last up is the dream convertible vehicle which basically just acts as a display stand for one character at a time and of course this is inspired by Molly’s pink Barbie corvette from Toy Story 3 (but since Mattel obviously couldn’t say "corvette" here on the packaging, they’ve called it a "dream convertible" which is great. That’s perfect). By the way, I’m sure you know this Barbie car is from the opening scene of Toy Story 3 (the one the aliens and Potato Heads used as their getaway car), but a little fun fact here, it’s also seen in Ken’s dating tips #24. P.S. if you haven’t watched those, check them out— they’re pretty funny. They're just little snippets of Ken giving some dating advice that were used as part of the marketing leading up to Toy Story 3 back in 2010.

Ultimately this is a nice little representation of the car seen in the film even if it’s not exactly the same. And if you were wondering, no the tires do not rotate. The whole car is seemingly all just one molded piece without any moving parts. So that goes for the steering wheel as well, that’s also just static. I love that this car was included though, it really does make for a fun display piece and it looks awesome on my Alien Remix shelf next to all the other characters.

I don’t even have to say it but I'm gonna say it anyway, this is a must have set. If you’re already a collector of Mattel’s Pixar Alien Remix line, I can’t see why you wouldn’t want to track these two love birds down. They’re such a fun, funny, unique and overall welcome addition to the collection. Even if you haven’t dove into collecting all the Remix figures out there, this just makes for a great one off set as well if you’re a Toy Story fan and/or collector who loves these characters. Retail price is $20...and yah! I think that’s about it, so head to your local Target or Walmart to check for availability if you’re interested and be sure to leave your thoughts down below. Don't forget to check out my video review for more my additional thoughts and a closer out-of-the-box look!  

UPDATE: Now on Amazon, link below. 

 

 

 

Pixar Luxo Jr. Lamp Mini Backpack (BoxLunch Exclusive)

Happy 36th anniversary to Pixar Animation Studios—founded on this day (February 3rd) 1986! To celebrate, I thought I'd do a quick post today sharing this fantastic BoxLunch Gifts exclusive Pixar lamp/Pixar ball mini backpack inspired by Pixar's iconic short film, Luxo Jr.! My wife was thoughtful enough to surprise me with this on Christmas morning which I was thrilled about—especially since it has since [unfortunately] sold out. You can see the original listing HERE (retail price was $69.90).

Here are the official details from BoxLunch's site:

Luxo Jr. was searching for his spot between the "P" and "X," and somehow ended up on this mini backpack! This fun faux leather design features an allover sketch pattern of the Pixar lamp, a rubber Pixar Ball patch, front zip compartment, interior zip and drop pockets, side pockets, silver-tone hardware, and adjustable straps.

• Approx. 8 1/2" W x 11" H x 4" D
• Polyurethane; polyester lining
• Imported