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!"

Playmobil Fi?ures Series 6 Evil Sorceress (Maleficent)

A few months back Ed of AEIOU and Sometimes Why and I made a trade, and one of the things I got from him is the Playmobil Maleficent (unofficial) Fi?ure from Series 6!

She's a fun evil witch/sorceress regardless of what the Disney lawyers say!

As is sometimes the case, Playmobil has given Maleficent (not her real name) an official Playmobil basic face and a...well...a face only someone who payed $20 to a streetwalker could love. GAH! It's terrible. But fortunately for all of us Maleficent(not Maleficent)'s standard Playmobil face is sufficient to get the point across as to who this figure is supposed to be/inspired by (totally NOT Maleficent!)

Rabbit Season! Duck Season! Hockey Season!

I've never seen the Emilio Esteves Oscar-contender 'The Mighty Ducks,' a movie about a 'Little League' or 'Pop Warner' or 'Small Icey' or whatever you call it kid's hokey team. I have also never seen the cartoon 'The Mighty Ducks,' which, just like the movie that inspired it, is about anthropomorphic ducks that play hockey and kick ass. Wait, what?

I have however seen some of the action figures in my second-hand travels. I was never tempted enough to buy any of them. Until I saw one with boobs.

This is 'Mallory McMallard' (because people name their kids 'Person McHumanbeing, right?) I know next to nothing about her, but Google tells me she's the weapons specialist of the group. If you have to ask why a hockey team needs a weapons specialist, you clearly don't follow hockey or know anything about ducks. NOT A DAMN THING!

She cost me a quarter, so I guess I did ok, right? I don't know. She could easily be customized into a Duck Stormtrooper, which might be kind of cool looking.

Duck Week, WooOOOooo! Stormtrooper Donald Duck :: Disney Vinylmation

Or: 'My wife and kid went to Disney World and all I got was this awesome Stormtrooper Donald Duck!'

A few weeks back Grandma took everyone but me to Disney World. I had to stay home and work! But that's ok, I also did not have to chase a toddler around Disney World, which does not sound like a vacation to me.

All I asked for was a cool Star Wars themed souvenir, and I got it in the form of a Disney Vinylmation Donald Duck in Stormtrooper armor!

Vinylmation is Disney's answer to the collectible vinyl craze, and each one is based on a standard Mickey Mouse body, head and ears. Of course that means everyone has Mickey Mouse ears, so in situations like Donald Duck in Stormtrooper armor, the designers have to get clever. In this case, they made the ears a field of stars against the blackness of space.

I originally intended to keep Donald in his box for display purposes, but when I was looking around online to see other Vinylmation figures, I discovered that Donald comes with a blaster! You couldn't see it in the box, as it was packaged behind Donald.

That cinched it...he's just GOT to be holding that blaster!

The blaster really adds that extra level of awesome to an already incredibly awesome concept: Donald Duck Stormtrooper.

China Girl of Oz

My oldest daughter and I went to see Oz: The Great and Powerful last weekend, and we both really enjoyed it. It was a fun romp through a familiar world over the rainbow, with great effects (we saw the 2-D version because I prefer 2-D, but I can imagine some of the 3-D effects must have looked great!) and touching performances throughout. Not as clever as the original books, not as cheesy as the classic Wizard of Oz movie, and not as perfect as Return to Oz (a personal favorite) but a brilliant Oz outing nonetheless and one I hope re-ignites the franchise and allows us to return to Oz again and again in years to come.

And wouldn't you know it - as it turns out, my favorite character in the movie just happens to be a doll!

China Girl or China Doll - I don't remember how exactly they ever referenced her in the movie - is a precocious little doll made of China from the Land of Oz's, yup, you guessed it: China Town. Voiced by Joey King (who also played young Talia Al-Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises) China Girl joins up with our band of merry travelers in much the same vein as Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion do in the original story. And although she's made of porcelain and a little bit chipped and cracked, our little China Girl isn't nearly as helpless as she seems.

I won't give any of the story away, but I was holding back tears a few times; I think every father of girls feels like his daughters are fragile precious little China Dolls, so the character really hit me close to home.

Anyways, after the movie (and when my daughter wasn't around) I ran out and bought her the China Girl doll (by TollyTots, a division of Jakks Pacific) from Toys R Us to give her this Easter. The doll is plastic, not China, although there is a hundreds-of-dollars real China version out there in the world. This one retails for about $20 and is 'life size' and super cute, very well detailed with faux cracks and chips and looking like she stepped right off the movie screen.

My daughter and I had seen the doll in the store before the movie, so I know she'll like it. What I didn't know at the time was how sweet the character was and how much she'd touch my heart.

Go see the movie, you'll love it. Even if you just spend the time looking for little 'Sam Raimi' moments. I still don't know where he hid his Oldsmobile!

By the way, today is also said daughter's birthday, which is maybe why I'm being so mushy. Don't get used to it.

Finally, Happy birthday to my sweet little girl, who made me a daddy forever starting 11 years ago today.

Gargoyles just wanna have fun

I didn't follow Gargoyles when it first aired. I saw it as a Disneyfication of Batman: The Animated Series, which it was clearly inspired by. But over the years I have caught enough of it to enjoy it on it's own merits and to realize that it was in fact a pretty cool cartoon.

Of course by the time I came upon that realization, the toys had long since passed from the toy store shelves. And rarely do I find them complete at the swap meet, since so many kids have an uncanny compulsion to remove the wings from winged toys. And belts from ninja turtles. And capes from Batmen. And pants from dollies. You get the picture.

Sufficed to say, it is difficult to find these things in any condition worth buying.

Of course that issue is solved when dealing with the one Gargoyle who has no wings; Bronx!

I found Bronx at my favorite downtown Santa Cruz thrift store. He cost me about fifty cents. And I did see his 'accessory' at the same time - but did not recognize it for what it was, so I left it behind! When I later looked this guy up online and realized what I had done, I went back to see if the piece was there, for completionist sake, but no dice. Oh well, it was a lame accessory and certainly not cartoon canon, so I will be happy with Bronx alone.

Bronx is a tough badass looking dude, and looks awesome on any toy shelf, or any shelf for that matter!

He has an action figure that takes nothing away from his sculpt. When you pull back one of his back legs, his mouth opens for bad-guy chomping fun!

"Feed Me!"

I keep working my way back to you, Tron

I loved the movie Tron as a kid. The Christmas after the movie came out, I received all four of the action figures and two light cycles, and those were some of the funnest toys I ever had.

The light cycles took a ton of punishment. I would yank the rip-cord and lauch them off anything I could, from curbs to homemade bicycle ramps. They literally flew! And always with Tron, Flynn or Sark behind the "wheel."

Last year a sequel to the 1982 film was announced starring none other than Flynn himself, Jeff Bridges. Last Christmas I did a post on my favorite Christmas toys of all time and Tron was high on the list. I even downloaded Tron for my iPod a few months back. But I hadn't started tracking down the toys again, until now.

I recently bought this original Flynn off a fellow toy collector on a forum I frequent, and he is every bit as cool as I remember.

The greatest thing about the Tron action figure line was that all the figures were made of transluscent plastic. These guys catch the light in all sorts of cool ways, and their sculpts are quite detailed even though they have no paint applications on them besides the "light piping" to emulate the movie look.

He looks nothing like Jeff Bridges, but Flynn was unique in that he wore a toga or sash of some sort, which covered some of his glowing light details.

The sash is molded with cloth-like detail and the painted lines end where it begins, giving his action figure a unique look. He originally came with a glow in the dark discus, which I do not have.

Next up is the Warrior action figure. I got this guy off eBay for a couple bucks.

These guys acted more as guards in the film, but they have a menacing, storm-trooper type look to them which makes them look imposing and threatening and makes them great foils for Flynn and Tron.

The Warrior came with a glowing staff, which I also do not have. Ironically, when I got the figures as a kid, I somehow lost the Warrior's staff immediately after opening him (I think it got tossed out with the wrapping paper) so mine never had a staff, so if I never have one as I reacquire these guys I'm okay with that.

So as of now I have Flynn and the Warrior. I only need Tron and Sark to complete the small series. They were re-released by NECA a few years back, so I will someday get them in their originals or in the re-releases, I'm not picky. Until then, I can re-create the early moments in the film before Tron or Sark appear.

And here's hoping for some AWESOME figures from the upcoming sequel!