Welcome to Car Toons Week here at ToyRiffic!
This week we'll explore some of the greatest vehicles to never exist! Vehicles that have jumped from the drawing board (or computer screen) and into the real world through the magic and wonder of toys!
Yay toys!
Today's car comes from the masterpiece Pixar film, The Incredibles.
This is the "Hero Changin' Incredobile" manufactured by Hasbro in 2003. The car is already pretty incredible. While it isn't an exact representation of the movie car, it's pretty close. It's also nice and large, and scaled to go along with the (few) 5" action figures made in conjunction with the movie.
But that's not all - when you push down on the hood it becomes even MORE incredible:
Okay, it doesn't do a whole lot on the outside. The turbine pops back and the hood pops up a bit...but it's what's inside that counts:
As you can see through the windshield, the car starts off with a tuxedo clad Mr. Incredible in the driver seat. Presto change-o and voila:
Mr. Incredible is now clad in his sixties superhero duds! Just like in the movie!
Here's a closer look:
Before.
After.
And it all happens in an instant!
Unfortunately the tux clad Incredible is not removable from the vehicle. As you can see the reason for the long jutting turbine is so tux-Incredible can slide into the "trunk," which makes up for the funky design as it is an engineering work-around. I can accept that.
But on top of needing a toy of the Incredobile (and being given very few options,) the biggest reason I picked the set up in the first place was for the First Appearance Mr. Incredible figure, which IS removable!
The Incredibles is one of the best animated films ever. Heck, I'd go so far as to say it is one of the best films ever, period. It is certainly the best animated superhero film and if not for The Dark Knight I would say it is the best superhero film of all time.
It was also a poorly handled toy property. We got so little, and so little of quality, when this toyline could have been the next Batman Animated series of toys, and could have carried on into perpetuity. There were so many superheroes shown or alluded to, and their history in the film spanned decades! We should have dozens of superheroes lining our shelves right now. We should have a sequel! We should have a weekly series! *breath in breath out breath in breath out*
Okay I'm back.
Mr. Incredible circa mid-60s:
This guy is so very cool, sporting his baby blue sixties duds. I don't even have a red Incredible, but I had to have this one as it is his "First appearance" look. I just love having those "first" versions of my favorite superheroes, like
Batman,
Captain America, and The
Hulk.
It also dawned on me only as I took these pictures that Mr. Incredible's "I" looks like a necktie, which is apropos for a Father/Superhero. I wonder if that was an intentional aspect of his design. It seems too brilliant to be accidental.
His toy design is brilliant as well. His hips are very loose to allow for him to go from laying under the hood of the Incredobile to sitting upright in less than a second. If you hold him up by his torso they'll flap in the breeze, they're so loose. Yet somehow he was deigned in a way to allow the hips to hold when standing.
They can't even make toys designed in a static standing pose stand up half the time! How they pulled this one off is a mystery to me.
"Ladies."
The headlights also open up and fire missiles. Keen.
Here's a back view. The car does look much better with the turbine in.
But I'm sure this feature comes in handy for tailgaters.
It also looks better with the grill/hood up. Sadly you can't have both at the same time.
All together a great toy, and a sad reminder of what might have been had this toyline been properly exploited.
