REVIEW: The Trash Pack Trashies Series 1 Two Figure Pack

Produced by Moose Enterprise Pty Ltd | Released September 2011

When it comes to toys, I love super-detailed, highly-articulated and massively detailed figures. I also have a real soft-spot for simpler, cartoon-like collectible pieces like Gogo's Crazy Bones, MUSCLE and capsule toys. The Trash Pack - a new line of blind-bagged/boxed squashy figures available at Toys R Us - should be the ideal toy for me then, right? Well...

The Trash Pack

The Trash Pack is a line of blind-bagged/boxed mini-figures known as ''Trashies.'' Each soft rubber figure stands at around 3/4 of an inch tall and is based on one of six garbage-related themes - Bin-sects, Bin Critters, Bin Monsters, Bin-Fections, The Grubz and Hard Rubbish. Within those themed groups are a number of designs and variant colourways to collect. As a quick guesstimate I'd say there are close to one hundred different Trashies in total, so there's certainly a pretty good chance you'll not be getting too many duplicates.

Packaging

The Trash Pack packaging ties into the whole garbage theme being, as you can see from the image below, a pop-open trash can.

Unlike blind-bagged toys like Gogo's Crazy Bones or Wacky Packages Erasers, The Trash Pack packaging  is solid, making it impossible to get a sneak peek feel of what's inside. They're also sealed with a plastic wrap that must be cut/torn to open, meaning there's no way of peeping in to see what you're getting.

The packaging is actually very nicely produced and - without spoiling the Review - is probably my favourite part of the whole deal. There's some nice - if predictable - sculpt detail (such as the obligatory fish bone and apple core features) and the lid closes rather snuggly. Granted the ''joint'' will probably snap off eventually - especially if you're rough with it or twist it too hard - but it's a pretty cool-looking bit of work.

Removing the seal and popping open the trash can reveals the contents. The figures within are bagged individually in clear plastic bags.

Sculpt and Design

Whilst the packaging is pretty cool (and to be honest, I wasn't expecting it to be) the figures themselves are  pretty uninspired. Perhaps I was simply unlucky with my choice (as some of the other Trashies do look more interesting) but the Stale Bread and Smelly Sock (numbers 012 and 065 for those keeping track) I received aren't really much fun.

Stale Bread is - as his name suggests - based around a loaf of old bread. His mouth is formed from a gap between two slices of bread and there's a stringy/melted cheese effect around the opening. Beyond that though, there's little to indicate that this figure is supposed to be made from bread. The sculpt itself does little to build upon this already weak design, featuring very lazily sculpted arms and a few splodge/run details to imply that he's wet or moldy. And... that's pretty much it.

Things really aren't much better when it comes to Smelly Sock. Again, the design does nothing to surprise or amuse and the execution is fairly weak. There's an attempt to add some sock-like qualities such as a Beano-style patch and some ribbing around his head (is it supposed to be a hat? or his hair?) but again, it's just so obvious in its design as to make it incredibly uninteresting.

Weak design can sometimes be comensated for with good execution and vice-versa. Sadly though these Trashies have neither. It's as if the designer simply pulled-up a list of every cliche and lazy trash-related idea he or she could and then began sculpting in the most lazy, obvious way possible. The design of both characters is insipid and bland, something that is further compounded by the poor execution of the design. I hate to be so negative about it all but these designs are just horrible and the execution is borderline incompetent. Or just plain lazy. Either way, it's not good.

Paint

The one positive about these Trashies is that the paint - although not particularly inspired - is reasonably well-applied. There's a little bit of bleed on the yellow mustard/cheese/bread slice that forms Stale Bread's mouth but the remainder of the paintwork is fairly clean. Ditto with Smelly Sock.

It's just - yet again - a shame it's not particularly exciting.

Extras and Accessories

Each two-pack  contains a double-sided collectors' sheet/guide, which details all of the available Trashies (including rare/chase variants and alternative colourways.)

It's nice at least to have this visual guide but given how similar many of the designs are it seems an oversight that the base of each figure doesn't include its number for ease of reference. As it is, it took me a few minutes to identify which Trashies I'd received, which says a lot about how bland the designs are.

Final Thoughts

A combination of Garbage Pail Kids humour, squishy figures, blind-bag/boxed collecting and gross-out designs check so many boxes for both younger collectors and fans of such figures as the MUSCLE or Monster In My Pocket-style of toys that these toys should be a guaranteed winner. It comes as a crushing disappointment then to discover just how utterly boring these figures are. From their weak, uninspired designs to their equally lackluster execution, The Trash Pack completely fail to deliver on the promise the concept holds.

Perhaps I was simply unlucky with my figures and there may be some interesting and cool designs out there. But I've really no urge to find-out, as the insipid design and utterly amateur sculpting of these two figures just doesn't fill me with hope. And when the nicest thing I can say about a toy is that I like its packaging, then you know something has gone seriously wrong somewhere.

Horribly disappointing.

UPDATE: We've recently taken a look at Series 2 and - thankfully - things are much  better. Check the full Review here.

Scores

Sculpt and Design	C
Articulation	N/A
Paint	B-
Extras and Accessories	C
Final Score	C

Image Gallery