Originally posted at slangards.multiply.com on Mar 10, '09
He's a 7" version of Wall-E that says "Waaaaall-Eeeee". How can you go wrong?
If you haven't seen this movie and need a good pick-me-up, go to your local video shop and rent it. Really, this film is one of my favorites from Pixar, competing with Disney's Lilo & Stitch as my all time favorite cartoon. It blends everything Pixar excels at (comedic timing, storytelling, raw animation know-how) with science fiction. Win.
Thinkaway was the toy company that got the license to manufacture the official toys from the movie, and boy did they do a great job. Not only did they create a nice little line of action figures (about 2"-3") that had the other characters from the film and a great replica of Wall-E's truck, they created a nice line of larger toys with various features. There's the Ultimate Wall-E with remote controls and sensors to avoid obstacles, a transforming Wall-E that tuns into a box (a BOX ?!), an iDance Wall-E to sync to your iPod and this one... the InterActive Wall-E. It's the one that talks.
He looks adorable. As much as a rolling trash compactor can of course. His design is exactly like the film, which of course isn't hard to duplicate seeing as he's a box with eyes, arms and treads. Still, Thinkaway did a bang up job getting the proportions right.
His head and arms move, but only when the lights and sounds go off. They're both attached to internal gears that may break if you move them. The treads do however move freely, and you (or the kid that suckered you into buying him) can push him along the floor.
He doesn't have much in the way of paint however. He's mostly cast in color, with yellow, gray, and black. You won't see all that glorious rust he's got all over him in the movie. He does have a nice sticker under his hood of some compacted trash. A nice little touch that makes him a lot more fun. If you're a stickler for accuracy, you can of course give him a custom job. Give him some rims, a sound system, maybe an XBox in the back...
The sounds however are movie accurate. If you found Wall-E's voice cute in the film, you'll get a kick out of this toy. If not... well, this isn't for you. You should get help since you are a hollow shell, devoid of any feeling. Seriously though, the sound is cute the first 4 or 5 hundred times you hear it, but then Denis Leary starts to echo in my head, "Don't buy the toys that make the noise!".
It gets even worse when you buy and InterActive EVE to go with your Wall-E
The gimick here is that one one of the toys talks, the other responds. So if you put them next to each other, they have a psuedo-conversation. Again, it's fun the first few times, but it gets annoying really fast. Each has about 4 things to say, but those 4 things are basically just either "Wall-E" or "Eve" with different intonations. Eve does have her laser blasting sound, which is nice, but her little pop-out blaster is nothing compared to her bad-ass cannon in the film.
So... They don't quite make it on the playability scale, but if you're a fan of the movie, I suggest picking up one of the bigger models for your collection. The little Wall-E figures are nice and all, but having one of these on your desk to hold your pencil is great.
No comments:
Post a Comment