Scoob!
Basic Fun!
2019
Hanna-Barbara has been cranking out Scooby-Doo since the 60's, and though the original cast may no longer be supplying the voices, kids and adults for generations have been enjoying the many iterations. One of the more recent...well...true to the source material recent, was 2019's Scoob!
Sadly, the film was critically panned, and on a forty million dollar budget was a box office bomb with only twenty-eight million in revenue. Though touted as fun for kids of all ages, and some true adult fans, the overall consensus was that it just didn't do anything other than make people want to watch the original series from back in the swinging sixties.
Basic Fun, which is a toy company I've never heard of until today, secured the rights to create a line of toys based on the film. There were a series of plush, mystery boxed minis, and today's focal point, the six inch line of figures.
Most of the figures were released as two packs which featured one human character with an animal, and here's where I have my biggest issue with the series. The packaging of characters doesn't make sense. Why isn't Scooby packed with Shaggy? Why isn't Dynomutt with Blue Falcon? Why isn't Muttley with Dick Dastardly? This packaging scheme makes no sense.
The figures have extremely limited articulation, which serves to be problematic when combined with the fixed poses that were sculpted in. Bent arms are clearly meant to be in a specific pose, negating the purpose of having a joint in the shoulder to move the arms up and down. These are basic at best, and defeat the purpose of larger scale figures, which are typically developed to showcase massive amounts of detail and incorporate articulation. It's a wasted opportunity, and coupled with the movie failing to draw crowds, it's understandable why the line wasn't popular either.
For those looking to get a bigger bang for their buck, as well as figures which weren't available in the two packs, there was the deluxe collection. This was the only way to get the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang, which makes no sense. Especially since you would still have to buy all the two packs anyway to get all the other characters and animals, and I do mean all of them.
Remember how I said it didn't make sense that Shaggy and Scooby weren't packed together in the two pack, and nor were Dick Dastardy and Muttley? Well, they all come in this pack. However, since Shaggy and Dick come with different animals in the two packs, you're stuck buying them all to get a complete series.
Even as a kid this used to tick me off. Most kids don't have disposable income, and not all parents have an open wallet policy. As such, when kids are forced to get the same figure twice, this really sucks! Me personally, when I was a youngin', there was no way I was picking out a toy if it meant getting a duplicate. That would have been a wasted opportunity. Options were plentiful, and it was easy to find something on the shelf.
The line appropriately included a Mystery Machine vehicle with lights and sound. While the figures are compatible with it, it's very odd that Basic Fun sculpted it without doors that open. Well, let me rephrase. The Driver and passenger doors don't open. The rear one's do. This means that you have to jam the figures through the open windows if you want to get them inside.
Speaking of windows, the windshield wipers on the front glass are painted on, and not in any amount of effort or detail. Overall, the vehicle looks good from a distance, but not so much when you start to get into the details.
The toys feels like a cash grab hoping to coast on the success of a film which ultimately bombed. It's toys like this that make me understand why kids these days have little to no interest in playing with figures and vehicles.
It annoys me, probably more than it should, that you have to buy deluxe sets on top of all the two packs just to complete this line. This only adds to my thought of it being nothing more than a cash grab. Cash that most kids don't have. Shame on Basic Fun for doing this.
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