Tag: Vinylmation

All this week, we are taking a look at the Robots Vinylmation series. Make sure to check out Robots Explained, Robots Uncovered and Podcast Ep. 30 for more Robots coverage.

It’s funny how much detail is put into something that is meant to be thrown out by the consumer, but Disney has given us some great packaging for Vinylmation lately. When it’s not a Park, Urban or Holiday series, they really reach outside the box. The Star Wars tray was a real standout.

Copyright Disney

Disney also did a great job with sets like Cutesters and Animation as well. Then Pirates came around, and both the tray and individual box design really blew us away.

On July 22, Disney releases the Robot series of Vinylmation. We have talked the past few days about what’s in the box, but today, we will show you the packaging. The design is absolutely brilliant. This series is based on Robots from the 1950’s and ’60’s, so both the tray and blind boxes have a very vintage Sci Fi feel.

The colors on the box and the fonts used are all reminiscent of what you will see if you pick up a vintage toy robot.

I tried to open our blind box without ripping the flaps… that proved difficult. But you can see, as with Muppets and Villains, there is some entertaining writing on the flaps.

“Robot Fun! Prepare Yourself”

“There’s No Turning Back Now… NOW You’re The Coolest Kid On The Block!”

Of course, the 11 Robots and Mystery Chaser outline are shown on the back of the box. And you can see the designers “aged” the box with fake creases and tears.

This packaging is sure to snag the eye of a passer by in the Disney Store that might not be looking for Vinylmation. For collectors, packaging as great as this just adds a little something to the experience of opening up our blind boxes. The artist did a great job at capturing that vintage Sci Fi feel from the outset and then carriing the them into the product itself.

The Disney Store was kind enough to send us over a Vinylmation Robot to share with you today. We were like a couple of nerdy sci-fi geeks when we got this package in the mail. We carefully opened the vintage style blind box. Then ripped apart the foil to uncover…

Steampunk Bot! This C3-P0 look a like was designed by Gerald Mendez (SF Golden Gate Bridge, Old Witch from Snow White, Julius 9″). Not my favorite design in the lot, but a solid concept that fits well into the series. The gloss effect is used very well here. You can see this guy, as with a few of the Robots, uses clear body parts. Steampunk Bot’s ears are clear, with light bulbs painted in.

As a series, I was a little worried. This is now the fourth series produced using the new mold design. Now I’m not going to focus on new mold for all our reviews from now on. New mold is what Disney is doing. There is no turning back. You also know from my comments that I do like the new mold so far. Not better, not worse, but I do like it. But I have also been saying that we need to see a few series before giving a solid judgement. Cutesters Like You, a Disney Store release at a $9.95 price point, was by all accounts poorly produced. The designs seemed to be universally poorly printed and that was supposed to be a main reason for the switch. But then Pirates was released at the parks for $12.95 and really showed off the quality the new mold can help provide. Robots, is another Disney Store $9.95 release. So how does it fair?

On this figure, the printing is perfect. Say what you will about the altered shape, but I will take designs like this any day. This particular figure doesn’t have much detail, but design lays out well on the Vinylmation. However, after seeing the gears on the Steampunk series, this design falls short of those. The mismatched eyes are cool. And the gold on this figure is very true to what you’d expect to see on a metallic figure.

On the back you can see the open body design continues allowing you to see his inner gears. And here is a look at the artist card:

The card reflects the packaging style. Retro colors and designs with a roughed up aged and weathered look. Those “creases” and “tears” are all drawn onto the card. We can’t wait to see more of these up close and in person. The one big shock to me is no accessories. At least one of these robots could be holding a wrench or something. But if the whole series holds true to what we see here on Steampunk Bot, it’s going to be a cool addition for those interested in robots, sci-fi or vintage toys.