REVIEW: TeenyFreaks Yummy Mummy/Ghoul Scout

TeenyFreaks

TeenyFreaks are a line of blind-bag figures from Party Animal Toys, a company probably best known for their equally small TeenyMates toys. I have to admit I wasn't familiar with the company or their products (I'm not a fan of pro sports at all, so my eyes generally slide off anything sports-related) but when I saw their new line of figures, the aforementioned TeenyFreaks, among the trading cards, blind-bag toys and mini-figures in my local Target, I found myself intrigued.

Why?

Read on and find out...

The Gimmick

It's difficult at first to see what the appeal of the TeenyFreak toys is but upon closer inspection you'll find there's a rather neat gimmick to each figure.

On the surface, each of the 16 available figures appears to simply be a ''regular'' little SD-style character, with everything from chefs and cops to rock stars and astronauts appearing in the line-up. But - and this is where things get interesting -flip the figure around 180 degrees and you'll find a new, more sinister version of the character on the reverse!

As you can see in the above image, one side is the ''regular'' character, with the other being a new, ''freaky'' version! It's a neat little idea and although it could have had a more interesting execution (more on that below) it's a cool feature that makes the figures a lot of fun. 

So with that said, let's take a closer look at the two figures I found in my blind-bag, starting with Ghoul Scout.

Ghoul Scout

Ghoul Scout - as the name may suggest - is a Girl Scout, albeit one with a dark side...

As you can see, Ghoul Scout appears with a box of cookies under one arm and her left hand raised in the scout salute. She's also clad in her Girl Scout uniform and sports a few other neat ''girlie'' details, such as a pair of nicely-sculpted pigtails and a super-cute, friendly face.

But spin her around and...

... Ghoul Scout's name becomes apparent as she's transformed into a dead-eyed doll! EEK!

Again, there are some great little details here. I love the ''stitched'' mouth and polka dot pajamas! 

Yummy Mummy

The second figure I received was Yummy Mummy, who is - by day a chef.

But by night, he's none other than...

...  a reanimated Pharaoh!

Again, like Ghoul Scout, there's some great detail on the figure, with the chef holding his mixing spoon (which transforms into a serpent-headed staff in Mummy Mode) and some great sculpt work on his face (his mustache is especially cool), with the flip-side Mummy sporting some superbly-detailed wrinkles and a very cool ceremonial headdress. 

Extras & Accessories

Each pack includes a collector sheet (featuring all 16 TeenyFreaks and a preview of the collectible jigsaw) plus two reversible jigsaw pieces, which continue the normal/freaky theme by including a ''regular'' scene on one side and a ''scary'' scene on the other.

From what I gather, each piece is randomized, meaning you're probably going to be opening a LOT of packs to complete the jigsaw...

Final Thoughts

If this Review appears brief, it's simply because the TeenyFreaks toys are very much a What You See Is What You Get deal. That's not to say they're in any way weak or poorly-made toys but rather that, having no articulation or play features, there's little I can say that the images above don't already tell you.

As you can see, the sculpts are great. There's some neat detail on each figure and the double-sided nature of each is cleverly disguised from either side. The ''dark side'' idea is put to good use in the sculpting, especially with Yummy Mummy's spoon-to-staff transformation. And the paint apps are incredibly well executed. I've seen figures that were much larger (the TeenyFreaks stand at about 3/4'' tall) that had weaker applications but these are pretty much flawless - certainly as far as I can see.

There are a couple of negatives though. Firstly, there are only 16 figures in the line-up and each pack contains a random assortment of two per pack. To me that sounds like it's going to take a lot of swapping, trading and figure duplication to get a full set. Factor in the jigsaw pieces and things become even more complex.

Then there's the ''transformation'' of each figure - or rather, the complete lack of any such mechanism to fully enable it. Now I'm not suggesting they should have a complex twist and fold kind of Transformers-style ''mechanical'' gimmick but it's a shame they didn't think to mount them on bases that would allow each to spin, thus revealing their ''evil'' side. The packaging box includes this very feature for demonstration purposes, so it's a little disappointing that they didn't think to include a similar feature in each pack.

But still, minor points aside, these are fun collectibles that fans of monsters and the weird will enjoy.

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