The Good: Voice chip is nice.
The Bad: Bears only a passing resemblance to Spock, Ridiculous, Overpriced.
The Basics: Another annoying toy with a distorted view of the character it claims to portray, the Spock Wacky Wobbler may easily be passed by.
As those who read my reviews of the Funko Gorn Wacky Wobbler (click here for that!) or the Scotty Wacky Wobbler (click here for that!) might have guessed, I am not a fan of bobbleheads in general and now that Star Trek” one of my favorite franchises, is being so exploited, I actually have reason to vocalize these long-held feelings of loathing. Today’s subject of my rant is the Mr. Spock Wacky Wobbler toy. If I did not like the Spock Mini-mate I had even less interest in the Wacky Wobbler. After all, at least the Minimates can be posed. The Wacky Wobbler bears only a faint resemblance to Leonard Nimoy’s iconic character from Star Trek and it cannot even be posed!
The only advantage this toy has over other Wacky Wobblers is that there is a sound chip in it, but even that is not enough to make me even consider recommending this substandard toy.
Basics
For those unfamiliar with the concept and the execution, Funko Wacky Wobblers are a bobblehead style toy which is basically a statue figure that has an abnormally large head set atop a spring. The plastic toy has somewhat distorted features and does not do anything as much as it sits where it is put and reacts mildly to vibrations. The Spock Wacky Wobbler is part of Funko's Star Trek line which has gone a long way to helping to prove that Trekkers will not just buy anything that says Star Trek on it!
Spock is the Vulcan science officer of the U.S.S. Enterprise and his Wacky Wobbler debut has him in his classic blue Sciences uniform. Spock’s right hand is raised in the traditional Vulcan salute and the other in an uncharacteristic fist. As one would expect of a Spock toy, he has his pointed ears prominently displayed under his close-cropped black hair. The Spock Wacky Wobbler comes embedded on a pedestal stand which keeps it stable and from tipping over when one whacks the head.
This is a poor toy interpretation of Spock, mostly because his head is unrealistically large and his skin is monotonal in Caucasian white tones. Spock had a green tint to his skin and this figure lacks that level of detail. Instead, this is a very animated-looking Spock and it looks ridiculous.
Accessories
The Spock Wacky Wobbler comes with no accessories.
Playability
Wacky Wobblers are, by their nature, pretty terrible on the playability front. They are not posable as the feet are molded to the stand they come on and Spock is no exception to that. Spock has articulation at the shoulders where the arms are on simple swivel joints, but the overall playability is still incredibly low. In this case, the posability does not help the toy because Spock looks ridiculous making the hand motion of the Vulcan salute without having his hand raised when one swivels the arm down.
The main function of a Wacky Wobbler is the spring under the head which allows it to move. Spock's spring - at least with mine - is surprisingly tight, so it reacts more when hit as opposed to bobbing around like a bobblehead. As such, this becomes a weird stress-reliever as opposed to an exciting, playable toy. Rather annoyingly, Spock features a voice chip with Leonard Nimoy’s lines as Spock. When tapped, the Wacky Wobbler delivers the lines “Live long and prosper,” “Fascinating” and “You are, after all, essentially irrational.” These lines soon wear thin and become more annoying than cute. And the batteries in this never seem to die fast enough!
Collectibility
The Wacky Wobblers have sold generally poorly, which tends to point to the idea that they were overproduced in an already saturated collectibles market. It's always nice to know geeks won't buy just anything. The Spock Wacky Wobbler seems to be selling even worse than some of the others, arguably because of the oversaturation of Spock merchandise in the world. Even so, the collectible value is likely to go down as these age because the batteries in them are likely to corrode and most fans will not be happy to have toys that may come out of the package damaged.
Overview
Not fun to play with, having a more annoying bonus function than most toys, the Spock Wacky Wobbler is a novelty toy that quickly loses its novelty. Star Trek fans can do better and they should!
For other toys which only vaguely resemble what they claim to or Star Trek toys, please check out my reviews of:
Playmates U.S.S. Enterprise
Gorn and Kirk Minimates
Twilight Edward Cullen Barbie Doll
2/10
For other toy reviews, please visit my index page!
© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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