Scooby-Doo is one of the most popular cartoons of all time and is still going strong to this day! With numerous series spanning over five decades, spin-0ffs and Live action movies Hanna-Barbara's wonder dog is a true pop culture icon. His animated misadventures are cherished classics however the two live action big screen attempts are much derided by fans and critics who weren't that impressed with the movie adaptations on their general release, of course small children aren't as fussy and are perfectly happy to spend an hour and a half a go in the company of the CGI rendered Great Dane and his hapless hipster friends in a couple of harmless, fun action comedies! The movies do manage to capture some of the quirkiness and charm of the original series and boast an almost perfect cast, particularly Matthew Lilly as Shaggy, but somehow the films manage to feel more 2 dimensional than their animated counterpart! A couple of straight to DVD live action movies were released and are in much the same vein but somehow due to the low budget T.V movie quality it is much easier to forgive.
As with any beloved property there are Scooby-Doo inspired tie-in toys and collectables galore available oddly however very little tie-in merchandise was produced for the live action movies making the Scooby-Doo 2 toy set released exclusively in the UK and Europe and supplied by KFC an absolute must have for Scooby-Doo aficionados! Here we will be exploring the full set in detail:
The only reason Scoob and Shag even join their teammates on their adventures is for the vague promise of a good bite to eat, usually in the form of a Scooby Snack!
This toy is pretty simple in its function, you simply role the toy along and the figurines attached wobble about, there is not much more to it than that but it does feature a great looking PVC figurine depicting a petrified Shaggy and Scooby in their classic embracing pose!
Another simple but nice looking toy, featuring a great looking PVC figurine of Scooby-Doo atop a mine cart which has a bump-and-go function that can be activated by pulling the vehicle back and aiming it towards a wall, once it hits it will reverse backwards! The details on this are pretty solid throughout despite being simplistic in design and function.
If there is one thing Scooby loves more than his best buddy Shaggy it is his food especially when it come sin the form of those bone shaped little treats called Scooby snacks! They are not just for loyal hounds however, no sir, as Shaggy loves 'em too! There is however only one thing better than a Scooby Snack and that is a box load of them which is why Scooby looks like he is having the time of his life in this toy!
Its difficult to know what to make of this toy which features Scooby laying on his belly on top of some structure that is frankly anybody's guess as what it is suppose to be! but anyway the unidentified structure has a button at the back on the inside which when the Scooby Snack branded box is launched at releases Scooby's out-stretched arms! The overall design of this toy is an odd one but at least Scooby himself looks pretty decent!
The Mystery Machine: One of the most recognisable vehicles in cartoon history is the iconic van with its distinctive psychedelic paint job used by the Mystery Inc. gang in their spooky crime solving adventures!
If the other toys in this set doesn't tickle your fancy you might be relieved to discover that included in this set is the iconic Mystery Machine, A vehicle that has seen many Happy meal toy incarnations but only one of those was based on the movie design; this one! It is a good job then that it turned out to be a thoroughly decent representation and even comes with an extra element, that of the ghostly Miner 49er looming above the Mystery Machine as the gang look on in horror! You simply pull the little figurine backwards and watch as the Mystery Machine rolls along with the ghost edging forward as it goes! The detailing on the Van is very nicely accomplished with the odd decal applied for added detail such as the Mystery Machine logo on either side as well as an image of Scooby and co. appearing through the windscreen window!
There isn't anything that remarkable about the movies but they are good fun, this is also true of KFC's 2004 set of toys released to tie-in with the second Scooby-Doo instalment! With that said they are at least very well made if not all that imaginative and the fact that they resemble the characters as they appear in the movie makes them somewhat unusual, as almost every other bit of Scooby-Doo merchandise is based on the classic cartoon! All in all this is a nice little set of pretty decent toys based on an OK movie but one which carries a brand that has been immensely popular over the years and will probably continue to be so for some time. Scooby-Doo fans will certainly want to have these in their collection and fans of fast food toys in general will also find much to love about these!
I really like Snoopy, this post is so interesting.
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing this movie when it came out, and i suppose it was different in it's UK/European releases, but here in America, we got Burger King product placement. The UK version appears to be on Netflix and there are some odd edits like BK product placements being either replaced with KFC or just entirely cut out. Only proof i have of this is on my own personal DVD of the movie.
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