Movie Accurate Toys, Mattel, and Mild Discourse Within the Community.
I don't understand why people here are so upset with Mattel over their new Toy Story toys, or why movie accuracy is all a lot of people seem to care about. I've seen several posts absolutely dragging Mattel through the mud for their products, and I don't understand it. The primary target audience for the toys is children, that's who it's always been for. Mattel has ragdolls, action figures, ones that talk, ones that don't. They have any type of toy that a kid could want.
The Ultimate Action Woody and Buzz toys, especially, are the ones that I've seen get the most hate, but why? I get that they have animatronic faces, and that's off-putting to some, but these toys, for all intents and purposes, are the most advanced we've ever gotten. Yes, they're expensive, but they're also meant for adult collectors, just like the Toy Story Collection line by Thinkway was. I remember the TSC line costing nearly $60 where I lived when they were first released, and now, they've skyrocketed. They have some detailing like the movies, yeah, but they are also inaccurate in several ways.
On that subject, movie accurate toys are highly unlikely to happen. All the time, people complain about innacuracies to the film, but I think that's a great thing. The toys are meant for childrean, who do not care about accuracy to the film. Children couldn't care less about Woody's eyebrow being raised slightly, or his mouth being opened, or his hands being cupped instead of having spread fingers. Children don't care about Buzz's helmet being able to fully retract. Children care about having their favorite toys to play with. A truly movie accurate Woody would need to have a mechanical voice box, which has not been made since the 1980's. Woody is based on a 1950's Casper pull string doll, which had a small record inside that had the sayings cut into the grooves being played by a needle and amplified to be heard. Though the string in the film is innacurate to real life with how it operates, it's still the same basic concept, which would be borderline impossible to make today.
At the end of the day, I don't understand the hate for Mattel. They're treating these toys like they're horrible pieces, when that's just not true. They're perfectly fine toys for children, and that's who they're for. Wanting accuracy to the movie isn't a bad thing, but actively slamming a toy company for not producing toys like that is unfair. Thinkway never gave us a movie accurate toy, yet they have a lot more leniency from the fans, which is also unfair. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind fans asking for movie accurate toys, and I don't mind them giving criticism, but I do mind them bashing a company and demanding what they want from the companies. We are not owed anything by the companies. Fans have stepped in and made it rather easy to make a movie accurate toy, so it's not like we don't have them.