Onward Light-Up Guinevere Popcorn Bucket (Disney Parks)

Released last August at Walt Disney World within Hollywood Studios, here we have this super cool Onward inspired light-up Guinevere van popcorn bucket! I'm certainly not an avid collector of the Disney Parks souvenir popcorn buckets like some fans are, but once in a while there will be one that really stands out to me...and this is one of them. After resisting for a while, I finally broke down and ended up snagging one on eBay a couple months back. I paid only $25 for it, which isn't bad considering the original retail price was $18. 

Honestly, the real reason I got this was to use as a toy (even the tag says "not a toy") with the Mattel Onward 7" figures. Though I know it's not even close to being in scale with them, it's good enough for me considering there aren't any other options out there that are closer. In fact, the only other Guinevere toy that was produced is the Mattel Minis one (seen HERE). An official 7" scale Guinevere toy/playset from Mattel (with lights and sounds/music; maybe even an RC feature?) was always my dream, but at this point I'm almost certain that never happening. This is no doubt the next best thing.

It's actually very well done and surprisingly detailed/movie accurate for a popcorn bucket. It really does seem more like an actual toy. Check it out in more detail below!

This van opens up to a relatively spacey compartment (originally intended for popcorn, of course) and an attached Onward lanyard (for walking around the parks and snacking on popcorn at the same time). I tested it out and you can actually store both the Ian and Barley 7" figures in here at the same time. The van measures roughly 10" long x 4" tall x 5" wide and has rolling wheels.

The best feature though is that the headlights light-up as seen in my action shot and brief video below (just press the small button on the van's front grill)! My only big complaint—and it's a bummer for sure—is that there doesn't seem to be any way to replace the batteries. So once it's out, it's out and the best feature will be gone. That'll be a disappointing day, but I'll enjoy the lights while they last. 

If you're interested in grabbing one of these for your Onward collection, be sure to check out THIS direct link to current eBay listings. Let me know your thoughts and/or any questions you might have in the comments below!

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Toy Story Pizza Planet Minis Mania Playset (by Mattel)

Released last year as part of Mattel's Toy Story Minis collection and in celebration of the film's 25th anniversary, here we have the Pizza Planet Minis Mania Playset/Carry Case! If you've been following my content for some time now, you know that I'm a big fan and avid collector of Mattel's Pixar/Toy Story "Minis"—so of course I needed to pick this one up. Not only for the playset, which is super fun, but also for the exclusive and unique alien mini! What can I say, I'm a completest.

This playset is loosely inspired by the iconic Pizza Planet crane game seen in the the original Toy Story. Play is simple! Slide open the top hatch, drop some minis into the rocket (up to 2 minis per slot) and close up the hatch. Pull down the lever and watch them spin! Press the gold button on the front of the case and it will drop down and dispense your prize (or "double prizes" ;). Pull out the little drawer to store a couple mini figures/accessories or whatever other tiny items you'd like.

The playset is entirely plastic and measures about 11.5" tall x 9.5" wide. Retail price is $19.77. This was never released in stores, but it can be found online on Walmart's site HERE and Amazon (direct link below).

Check it out unboxed below!

The exclusive alien mini is very similar to the alien found in last year's blind bags (Andy's Toy Box Series, seen HERE), but it is in fact unique to this set. This one is also mostly translucent and has a neat iridescent paint job with glitter.

If you or your little one collects the Toy Story Minis, this is a fun addition to the line and something I can totally recommend. It's simple, fun, works as it should and adds some needed play value to the mini figures. Great for play and/or display. Check out my brief video below to see it in action! 

 

 

Be sure to let me know your thoughts down in the comments and come back here each week to see more from my ever expanding Pixar collection!

 

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Cars: Lightning McQueen as Easter Buggy

Straight from the 2012 Disney·Pixar Cars expanded universe book, Mater and the Eater Buggy, here we have the brand new 1:55 scale diecast of Lightning McQueen as Easter Buggy from Mattel! This one just hit shelves recently as part of the 2021 singles Case D and is the first ever release of this character.

Back in early 2017, Mattel released four festive diecasts in specialty Easter packaging based on this Cars inspired Easter themed children's book: Easter Mater, Easter Lightning McQueen, Easter Ramone and the Easter Buggy himself! You can read my two-part review HERE and HERE. I always thought an Easter Buggy Lightning McQueen should have been made as well, so I'm glad that wish has finally come true! Apparently this was suppose to be released back in 2017, but was cancelled.

 

You can find this diecast at Target and Walmart right now, just in time for Easter! Not to state the obvious, but this would make the perfect Easter basket gift. And good news for those who missed the Easter Buggy back when he was first released—he's back as a 2021 single in this case as well (seen HERE)! If you'd rather just pick up either of them online, visit this direct link to current eBay listings or any of the Amazon affiliate links down below. 

What are your thoughts?! 

Cars 3: Ducky Fauntleroy

Hey all! Tonight I'm taking a look at yet another one of Mattel's newest Cars 3 1:55 scale diescast releases...Ducky Fauntleroy (racing no. 42)! Ducky just hit shelves just recently as part of the 2021 singles Case D and is the first ever release of this character. Gotta love these 1950's era Piston Cup racers; like I mentioned yesterday, I can't get enough of them!

As shown in the screen shot above, Ducky can be spotted very briefly (essentially only from the side/back) in the old Fireball Beach race video of Doc crashing (the one McQueen watches in his garage after his own crash). He was sponsored mainly by Cheerio Old Toots, Blowie Belsoms Safety Horns with additional side sponsoring by Catmull Oil, Dinoco and Southern Gold Gasoline. I love the design and overall color scheme of this guy! 

Ducky is currently brand new, so you should be able to find him in stores at your nearest Target or Walmart. If not, no worries! You can purchase him online by searching eBay HERE or by searching Amazon in the coming weeks (he's not on there as of this post).

See you again right here real soon for another Cars diecast review! Have fun out there and happy hunting.

Cars 3: Heyday Leroy Heming & Heyday Junior Moon 2-Pack

Hey Disney·Pixar Cars fans—I'm back with another Mattel 1:55 scale Cars 3 diecast review! Tonight I'm taking a quick look at this newly released 2-pack featuring Heyday Junior Moon and Heyday Leroy Heming. Both of these characters have been released previously, but I missed them both when they were available so this 2-pack works out great for me. This set just hit Target shelves a few weeks back and I was able to snag it in-store. 

Heyday Junior Moon has an interesting history. He was originally available in—according to the name on the package— THIS 2017 "Racing Legends 4-Pack"; however, that was not truly Heyday Junior Moon included. It's essentially just a slightly different variant of the regular old standard Junior Moon. Mattel corrected this two years later in 2019 when they released an accurate representation of Heyday Junior Moon in THIS 2-Pack with Eli Turnpike (which I was never able to find). Now the correct version of Heyday Junior Moon has been released once more in this 2-Pack with Leroy Heming. 

Now speaking of Leroy Heming, he was first available in late 2018 as a single (seen HERE), but I unfortunately never found him either. He was really hard to find in my area and ended up being kind of pricey on eBay. So yah, I'm super happy Mattel brought him back this year. I'm not sure why they call him "Heyday" Leroy Hemming here though, since that's the only way we ever see the character in the film. This is the same exact diecast as the single carded release, so don't let the name here through you off.

 

As shown in the screen shot above, both Junior Moon (in his prime, or "heyday") and Leroy Heming were seen during a Thomasville Speedway race flashback sequence towards the end of the film's second act. Smokey and all the Thomasville "legends" gather with Cruz and Lightning at the Cotton Pin Bar & Grill for drinks, while also sharing some stories about Doc and the glory days. Junior is briefly shown racing side by side with the Hudson Hornet, Louise Nash, River Scott and many other neat looking 1950's era Piston Cup racers. Leroy is "the rookie" that Doc goes up against and ultimately defeats in the race after being slammed into the wall. 

 

These are both excellent looking cars. I'll take any retro style character Mattel gives us—love them! Be sure to check out your nearest Target for availability or eBay HERE if you'd rather just order online. I've also included an Amazon affiliate link below. Be sure to let me know your thoughts down in the comments and best of luck on the hunt!

 

Mattel Pixar Collection 7" Scale Posable Action Figures—WAVE 2!

The collection continues! Today I'm thrilled to finally have the time to review Mattel's second wave of Pixar 7" action figures. At the start of last year, Mattel began expanding their phenomenal Disney·Pixar 7" scale figure collection (which began in 2019 with Toy Story 4) to other Pixar films—such as Monsters Inc., The Incredibles and Wall·E in the first wave—and now adds some more Incredibles to the line as well as Coco and Brave in this second wave! Onward and Soul characters were also created in this scale last year as well.

I saw these figures in person for the first time clear back in February last year at the 2020 New York Toy Fair (exactly a year ago today actually) and I was looking forward to them even back then. So happy to finally have them in my collection! Their in-store release got delayed quite a bit (some of these are only starting to hit Target stores now), but they've been available on Amazon in this Amazon exclusive closed-box style packaging since last September. Though I prefer the in-store standard open-blister packaging, I wasn't going to wait much longer to try in find them at the store. In the end, I ended up getting all four of these from Amazon for Christmas.

In this wave there are four brand new figures (well technically eight, since several of these are multi-packs): Elastigirl & Jack-Jack from The Incredibles, Miguel & Dante from Coco, Merida from Brave and Dash with Goo Jack-Jack & Monster Jack-Jack from The Incredibles. Take a closer look down below! These retail for $12.99 on Amazon and $9.99 at Target.

ELASTIGIRL & JACK-JACK

While these aren't the most exciting or most unique characters (since there have been several Elastigirl & Jack-Jack figures over the years, even as recently as 2018 with Incredibles 2), this is the first time they've been released in Mattel's signature  7" scale. Honestly though, they're probably my favorite versions of these characters to date and feel they have the most play value in [what I consider] the perfect figure size (easy to grip, pose and display—not to mention their sculpts are spot on). And with Violet coming later this year, we'll have the whole Parr family in this line! (UPDATE: Violet is now available; full blog post HERE)

MIGUEL & DANTE

Again, not the most thrilling (since Mattel just released these characters in 2017 in a smaller, but similar, 5"/6" scale), but I really like the updated designs here and the new larger 7" scale. I would say both sculpts are improvements on the originals and I'm ultimately happy that these characters are part of this assortment. Miguel's look is especially well done—even down to his "dimple, no dimple" smile. My only slight criticism here is I feel the paint job for Miguel's skin leans a little too heavy on the orange. Dante's floppy, rubbery tongue (as it was with the original) is great!

 

MERIDA

Now THIS is an exciting and unique release since this is the first ever action figure of Merida from Brave ever! Sure there have been some smaller scale figures and plenty of dolls, but never anything like this. Even though Brave isn't a top-fave Pixar film for me and Merida isn't a favorite character of mine, I still love having her in this collection. She looks fantastic! Such a solid sculpt—and that hair. She's easy to stand and looks excellent holding her bow accessory. Very impressed!

 

 

DASH, GOO JACK-JACK & MONSTER JACK-JACK

Again, Incredibles figures just hit a few years ago (so I wasn't clamoring for these), but boy do these ones look fantastic. I will honestly say that I do prefer these new Mattel ones over the 2018 Jakks Pacific 4" figures for Incredibles 2. A couple of things I wanted to note: first, they call this "Goo Jack-Jack" here on the box, but I would say this is most certainly inspired by water Jack-Jack (his power as seen briefly HERE in the Auntie Edna short film). Secondly, I do wish they included Jack-Jack's mask on the monster Jack-Jack figure (as seen on the original prototype), but it's not a big issue. Jack-Jack is seen in his monster form without his mask as well, so this does work.

I really, really hope this line continues for a long time—but unfortunately it already seems to be fading. There are some exciting Toy Story characters still slated to come out this year (as well as a fun Monsters Inc. "Getting to Know Boo" gift set, Retro Suit Mr. Incredible, Violet Parr and characters from Pixar's summer 2021 film Luca), but I'm just crossing my fingers that they don't get cancelled like so many things do these days. I would love to see Mattel tackle some A Bug's Life characters again for the first time since 1998 (Flik and Hopper would be amazing to see as modern figures) and some Up characters. It would be interesting to see what Mattel could do with Finding Nemo as well! What I'd really love to see are some unique/side characters and less focus on just the main characters we've seen enough times over the years. Who would YOU like to see made?

Pick these up on Amazon using the links below and be sure to let me know your thoughts down in the comments! Stay tuned for more from my collection right here every week. 

 

UPDATE 6/02/21- Most of these have now finally hit Target stores in the open-blister packaging! 

 

Soul: Complete Plush Collection from Mattel

From Mattel, here we have their complete core plush collection inspired by Disney·Pixar's Soul! This assortment of four adorably designed and incredibly soft 8" plush— featuring Joe Gardner (soul), 22, Mr. Mittens and Mr. Mittens (soul)— is available now on Amazon (direct affiliate links below) and Target online HERE. A big thanks to Mattel for sending these my way to share with all of you! I don't think these ever hit brick and mortar stores (at least I've never seen them) so I wanted to help spread the word of their existence for people who may be looking for more Soul toys/merch. These are perfect for kids and collectors of any age and retail for $9.99 each.

I've really been enjoying Mattel's Pixar plush over the last year (see my review of their Onward plush collection HERE). I like that they're smaller than the Disney Store's medium plush (which saves space and money), but not quite as small as a mini bean bag plush (which doesn't allow for as much detail). They're a great size and feel quality made overall. The most important thing is their likenesses are spot on and a tad stylized! We've all seen some goofy looking plush before that just aren't quite right, but these look fantastic and true to the characters. 

Let me know your thoughts below! If you're interested, there are also some "feature plush" of 22 and Mr. Mittens that include lights and sounds. I've included links to purchase them as well.

Cars 3: Fabulous Hudson Hornet with Tire

From last year's "Funny Flashbacks" sub-series by Mattel, here we have 2020's 1:55 scale diecast of Fabulous Hudson Hornet with Tire! This version of the Hudson Hornet (Doc Hudson) is a scene-specific diecast taken directly from Cars 3 (see the exact moment in the screen shot above).

Even though this is just yet another variation of the Fabulous Hudson Hornet, so some may think it's boring, I love that this diecast exists and think it was a clever idea—mainly because that scene in the film (when Smokey is telling McQueen how much coaching him really meant to Doc) is one of my top favorites across all three Cars films.

The only thing I would have changed here is I would have made Doc's expression a bit more inspired by the film (like maybe have his eyes looking down at the tire—almost cross-eyed). This seems to be just the standard Fabulous Hudson Hornet diecast with a tire added to it. Mattel could have used this opportunity to make this one a little more unique with a new sculpt (or at the very least a new eye expression), but unfortunately took the easy way out. I still do love the idea of it though and love that we have this cute moment in diecast form, I just think it could have been executed a little better. 

I never ended up finding this one in stores in my area, so I had to resort to Amazon recently. You can purchase him there as well using the direct affiliate link below or on eBay HERE. 

Let me know your thoughts down in the comments and good luck on the hunt out there to all my fellow Pixar Cars diecast collectors! 

Cars 3: Easy Idle Racing Tractor

Tonight I'm taking a look at another really fun and unique Cars 3 1:55 scale diecast from Mattel...the brand "NEW FOR 2021" Easy Idle Racing Tractor! He was released not too long ago in this year's singles Case C. This is the fourth racing tractor release following Shiny Wax Tractor, Rev-N-Go Tractor and Bumper Save Tractor.

As shown in the screen shot above, the Easy Idle racer (Harvey Rodcap) appears in tractor form when Cruz Ramirez imagines all of the Next-Generation Piston Cup racers as tractors during the climatic Florida 500 race. This is right after Lightning tells Cruz to "sneak through the window", which hearkens back to their training with Smokey in the field of tractors earlier in the film. Such a fun and clever "pay off" moment!

There are several more "tractor racers" coming soon (View Zeen & Sputter Stop have been confirmed so far), so stay tuned to my upcoming reviews. I found this one at Target a couple weeks back and you can still find it pretty easily in stores, so be sure to check your nearest Walmart or Target. If you'd rather just pick it up online, you can check eBay HERE or Amazon using the direct link below.

Good luck on the hunt! Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.

Cars 3: Hot Rod River Scott

 

 

Hey everyone and welcome back to the blog! Tonight I'm taking a quick look at another Cars 3 1:55 scale diecast from Mattel—Hot Rod River Scott. This brand new release just hit shelves a few weeks back (as part of Singles Case C for 2021) and I was lucky enough to score it at my nearest Target.

Despite what you might think when initially seeing this release, this diecast is actually canon! At first I thought it was totally made up my Mattel, but then realized that River Scott IS actually seen with this "hot rod" paint job in Cars 3—during the end credits in a photograph as shown in the screenshot above. Pretty cool and very subtle! A "hot rod" Smokey was also released (seen HERE), however that design was never seen in the film and therefore is not canon. Hot Rod Junior Moon was released in 2019 (see my review HERE) and Hot Rod Louise Nash is slated to come out later this year to complete the moment.

 

You can find Hot Rod River Scott currently at your local Walmart, Target or Amazon using the link below. As usual, happy hunting and let me know your thoughts down in the comments!