Friday, November 11, 2011

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 DesignC
ArticulationN/A
PaintB-
Extras and Accessories C
Final ScoreC

Image Gallery

9 comments:

  1. How well are these doing in sales Kev?

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  2. I've no idea to be honest. The TRU I saw them in (which appears to be their exclusive US retailer) had plenty of them in stock but they have only just been released within the last month or so.

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  3. I guess we will have to wait and see then. I hope they do well.

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  4. I may pick-up another pack sometime, just to see if I was unlucky with my figures but to be honest I'm not expecting much.

    And TRU are already selling them at a discount. I don't know if this is an introductory or stock-clearing move.

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  5. I saw this at TRU today and almost bought one of the 5 packs. I may still do that because I like this sort of Madball-esque gross out humor, and if nothing else maybe I can paint them.

    Thanks iok!

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  6. The five packs may be a better idea, given you can see three(?) of the enclosed figures and choose the ones you like the look of. I know that goes against the concept of blind-bagged stuff but given the mixed-quality of the figures it's probably a good move.

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  7. I ended up picking up a 5 pack at TRU. You can see one figure in the package -- mine was the green Putrid Sardine. I ended up with 4 Commons (Sardine, the same Smelly Sock, yellow Scabby Cat, blue Trash-a-pillar), and one Ultra Rare, the translucent blue Bird Flu.

    For less than $5 (TRU had them on sale at 20% off), I was pleased with this purchase. They remind me of Mad Balls and the size is easy for display. It really is, though, a luck of the draw, as the one we share (Smelly Sock) is the weakest of the five. I agree with you -- going for one of the 5- or 12-packs where you can at least see 1 or 2 of the ones you are getting is recommended.

    Still, if TRU has them on sale I might pick up some more.

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  8. Yeah, I was tempted to pick some more up yesterday but then discovered everybody in Georgia had decided to descend on the same Toys R Us store and spend the day standing in a line. Something I didn't fancy trying... :)

    I'll see next time.

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  9. I guess what disappointed me about seeing these was that they basically copied trash bag bunch, from 20 years ago. Only they did it worse. Mel Birkrandt thought up the idea when he saw a landfill being dug from his backyard, I believe. He has a great imagination and created characters you could get into, reminiscent of ninja turtle villains. And the bags dissolved in water, making a cool goop.

    http://toyarchive.com/TrashBagBunch/TrashBagBunch.html

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