When I Get to the Bottom I Go Back to the Top of the Slide

These four Disney characters in little plastic cars were once part of a battery operated toy roller coaster set. If you grew up in the seventies or eighties you may have had one or a variation of one, they were pretty popular and many different versions were made.

It was an extremely basic 'toy'. The cars were pulled up the ramp by a conveyor belt and would roll down the winding track, back around to the conveyor belt, and do it all over again. Ridiculously simple, but somehow enthralling. This is what passed for entertainment before the internet, kids!

Anyways, I'm pretty sure I had this set when I was a wee lad. These four were found at the flea market a couple weeks ago, and even though they were sans coaster, they were way too cute to pass them up.

Donald is driving a little blue jalopy.

Goofy drives the same style vehicle as Donald, only in lemon yellow.

Minnie drives a cute little red coupe.

And Mickey drives a matching green number.

Each car has a couple steel wheels underneath and function just fine as little toy cars on their own. No roller coaster required!

I'm not sure exactly when these specific cars were made, I did a little Google research and found a few different looking versions but not these specific cars. If anyone has any more specific info on when these came out and what specific set they were released with, let me know!

LEGO Disney Minifigures Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse

Folks are now finding the Disney themed LEGO blind bagged minifigure series at places like Toys R Us, Target and Wal-Mart among other places. In other words, anywhere LEGO minifigures are sold!

I like the concept of the series, but honestly I only wanted the icons Mickey and Donald (I of course need a Goofy now too, but I predict Goofy will be part of series 2 along with Woody from Toy Story, and both will utilize the longer legs.) I would also love to see a Roger Rabbit and Pinocchio! But for now, Mickey and Donald will do for me.

I tried to use my 'squeeze method' but with 18 figures in the series, and with Mickey/Minnie and Donald/Daisy sharing noggins, well, it's a hell of a slog. I finally googled the codes and found a nice guide on pop-critica.com and the codes worked perfectly for me.

Mickey and Donald are wonderful. Donald even comes with a duck tail piece! Sadly neither come with an accessory of any kind (unless you count Donald's hat, which is removable.) But they are not to be missed if you are a fan of these two cartoon superstars.

Also, a HUGE part of the fun of such minifigures is the head-swap with other LEGO minifigures:

"Haha, gee, I'm Bat-Mouse, haha!"

"And I'm Bat-Duck HAHAHAHAHAAAAHHAHA!"

"Aren't you a little feathered for a Stormtrooper?"

"Huey, Dewey and Louie, I am you Uncle!"

"Hey guys!"

All Wound Up

I've always loved wind-up toys. Back when I was a kid I had tons of the little wind-up animals and robots (most made by the manufacturer Tomy.) Penguins and Geese and Chicks and R2-D2 knockoffs - they were all fun and probably inexpensive which would explain why my Mom bought me so many over the years.

Nowadays if I find them at the flea market or a garage sale and they 1) work 2) aren't broken and 3) are cheap, I will usually bring them home for my little intern to play with. Unfortunately when I do find them they rarely work, and if they do they are rarely cheap or unbroken. The following three are recent exceptions (well, for the most part:)

I just brought Snoopy home this past weekend. He has your straight-forward walking motion wind-up feature. He was made by Aviva Entertainment and does not have a manufacture date on him. One of his foot-prongs is broken off, which is pretty par for the course for these type of wind-ups, but he still walks ok and displays well so I can forgive the slight blemish on an otherwise beautiful example of wind-up-dom.

Donald Duck waddles like a wind-up goose I had as a kid (you  probably had one too!) He works perfectly and looks great. Donald Duck was manufactured by Tomy and also lacks a manufacture date.

Mickey Mouse is another Tomy release and is the only one with a manufacture date: 1977. He's also missing a foot-prong, and doesn't walk well without it (although his wind-up motor runs fine). But having Donald already, I couldn't pass up on this guy when I found him at the flea market a few weeks back. I'm guessing Donald is probably also a 1977 release, as both Disney examples have sticker eyes and similar aesthetics.

I'm pretty sure I had a hopping Woodstock when I was a kid, I'll have to be on the lookout for him to complete the quartet!