Monday, November 29, 2010

Terrible And Annoying, The Burger King Toy Of Scotty Is An Unsatisfying Toy!



The Good: Looks like Simon Pegg, Talks
The Bad: Annoying bobble-head look, Low playability, Low collectibility, Annoying talking function
The Basics: Annoying, but recognizable, the talking Scotty Burger King toy is oddly collectible, but not worth hunting down.


Sometimes, I find myself at a loss for what passes as interesting or fun within the subculture I am most commonly associated. I am, quite proudly, a geek and a Trekker within the general geek subculture, which is a surprisingly large segment of the geek population. Even so, there are some things that come along that just appall me as a geek and make me wonder what diabolic mind created exploitative capitalism. This thought comes up as I consider the Burger King toy of Scotty because at my recent trek out to Las Vegas for my annual Star Trek convention, I discovered many of my peers within the Trekker geek subculture were head over heels for these ridiculous toys and I felt an uncommon shame for my subculture.

The Scotty Burger King toy is a little talking plastic blob that looks like an animated version of Simon Pegg's version of Scotty and it is gaudy, tacky and in about ten or twenty years, it will be kitsch. But for now, it just seems exploitative of Trekkers and Trekkies and I cringe each time the one my partner got me speaks to me.

Basics

Used to promote the 2009 film Star Trek (click here for my review of the film!), Burger King released a series of small inaction figures that are stable, designed for minimal play and were included in the kid's meals. I suspect that if these toys had not been gobbled up by geeks everywhere in the early weeks of the promotion, there would have been an excessive amount of infanticide in the United States as these annoying toys speak! Each figure, like Scotty, is outfitted with a voice chip which repeats a phrase from the film over and over again.

The Scotty figure is three inches tall, about an inch and a half wide and an inch thick. It is made entirely of hard plastic. The Scotty figure from Burger King is more a caricature of Scotty, much the way Bobblehead toys are; the body is small and the head is huge, so Scotty's head is about two inches of the three inch height! The figure is molded to include a glaring Scotty with two tiny hands and two feet firmly planted and the shirt on Scotty is molded with the textured pattern like the costume in the film. The feet are oversized like the head (Scotty has almost nothing in the way of legs) and as a result, Scotty has a rather low center of balance, making him virtually untippable.

Scotty's head, despite looking ridiculous, looks like Simon Pegg as Scotty as seen in the final scenes of Star Trek. The big eyes, parted hair and general shape resembles Pegg's Scotty enough to make him recognizable. This is all that saves this otherwise abysmal toy from an absolute "avoid it" rating!

Accessories

Scotty comes encased in a small plastic bag with a little flier for the other Burger King Star Trek toys. There are no accessories to speak of because the figure does nothing, save stand and speak. There is, however, a thin plastic tab that needs to be pulled out of Scotty's back in order to allow the toy to speak (this is designed to keep the battery from wearing out in the package), though that is hardly an accessory, either. Given how Scotty's hands are not molded to hold anything, it makes sense that the Scotty Burger King toy does not come with any accessory.

Playability

The Burger King toys, like Scotty, have exceptionally low playability, especially considering that they have no moving parts. These toys are designed to be stuck on tabletops, stand and annoy coworkers with the sound chip. Or enter toddler's mouths, I'm not exactly sure as to the point of this little premium. Scotty is able to stand and look somewhat annoyed or concerned, but otherwise, he does nothing until one presses the button on his back.

On the back of Scotty's red shirt is a small button. When depressed, Simon Pegg's voice comes out a small speaker in the back of Scotty's head! The Scotty Burger King toy repeats the line "I'm giving her all I've got, Captain!" each time the button is depressed. The toy is loud enough that is may be heard in a bedroom-sized room clearly and the voice chip clearly uses dialogue from the actual film. Because it only says the one phrase, Scotty's novelty wears thin quite quickly. Between my wife and I, we've hit the button on Scotty at least a hundred times (yeah, it never gets old . . . grumble!) and the battery has shown no sign of fading or degrading, which means Scotty will be around to annoy us for quite some time (the toy looks like it may be unscrewed and split in half to replace the battery should it die and my partner want to have Scotty annoying us longer).

Collectibility

Sadly, it seems I am in the minority of my subculture in loathing the Scotty Burger King toy as my peers seem to be enthusiastic to have new swag to collect. Originally given free in Burger King Kids meals, the Scotty toy now is available on the secondary market in the five dollar range. That seems to be the price these sort of toys top out at for the first decade (mint in package, of course) and I suspect within a year they will be unloaded in the dollar range loose. This is the sort of thing that, if kept entirely mint, is likely to appreciate in value over the long term as it will become landfill fodder in the nearterm. So, for those who have these and are wondering what to do with them, you might want to keep is safe and clean somewhere for the grandkids. It won't amass a fortune, but it'll probably make geeks of the future happy (or annoyed).

Overview

The Scotty Burger King toy is a passable likeness of Simon Pegg and the voice chip that utters a line from the film makes it mildly amusing and mostly annoying. While this isn't for me, I can see that some might not loathe them . . . wait until about the hundredth time you hear "I'm giving her all I've got, Captain!" and you'll understand.

For other Star Trek swag, please check out my reviews of:
Corgi Unlimited Klingon Bird-Of-Prey
Swashbuckling Sulu and Chekov Minimates
Funko Spock Wacky Wobbler

2/10

For other toy reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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