0
Posted July 9, 2013 by Robbie Hilado in Collectibles
 
 

Toy Review: Thinkway Toys Despicable Me 2 talking minions

Despicable Me minions are still quite the rage in the toy world and if you’re reading this, odds are that you’re teetering on deciding if you should get those big talking minions brought to us by Thinkway Toys or opt for their smaller toy line or another manufacturer all together.

I’ve shown you Dancing Dave (see here) and it actually lives up to it’s price tag being a highly recommended toy for friends and family or even yourself! Now I’m back to review the Thinkway Toys Despicable Me talking minions set namely Minion Laughing Stuart, Minion Singing Tim and Minion Farting Dave! So far, I only have 2 of the 3 minions but I’ll be updating this review once I get first hand information regarding Minion Dave. For now, I’ll be relying on sources from the web for Minion Dave.

 

PACKAGING

Despicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minionDespicable Me 2 Singing Tim talking minion

These talking minions come with the same packaging as with our previously reviewed toy, Dancing Dave. They come in packaging that is simple yet very appealing. You get your standard box with a white outer box colour with easy-to-read text and very nice box cover art and photos. The “Try Me” view window for these talking minions have been slightly modified to accommodate the additional functionality that they come with (more on this later) and still has that opening up front so you can press their front pockets for certain actions. As with Dancing Dave, I love that they went in and chose a dark orange as the inner wall for their packaging as it really makes the toy pop out more.

Despicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minionDespicable Me 2 Singing Tim talking minion

Like Dancing Dave, these figures are held in place by plastic locks which I find totally ingenious. Less fuss and you get none of those unruly and time consuming twist ties that just eat up all the fun by the time you get your toy out.

With that said, I still believe they could’ve done something more interesting with their packaging design. Although for the average consumer, this box really does its job and does it really well.

RATING: 3/5

 

SCULPT

Despicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minion

These talking minions have been beautifully crafted. Like Dancing Dave, all the nifty details are all beautifully done.

These talking minions are made with rubberised skin so that you can move their upper bodies left and right without having unsightly joints and sockets that you’d get with articulated toys made of hard plastic . Be wary though, since their bodies are made out of rubber, prolonged exposure to the sun or heat may cause this rubber body to flake or crack so it’s best to keep them in a cool room or a display case that’s away from any direct sunlight.

Despicable Me 2 Singing Tim talking minion

Please also keep in mind that body oils from your hands will sooner or later contribute to the wear and tear of rubberised toys. Those who plan on getting keeping these for the long run should handle them with caution or with gloves.

RATING: 4/5

 

PAINT

Despicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minion

Pardon me for using similar descriptions on these talking minions as with my Dancing Dave review. There’s not too much difference between them and I think I’ve phrased my descriptions well enough the first time. Thinking up of something new might just get me off point. Anyway, like I’ve mentioned with Dancing Dave, the paintwork on these talking minions are pretty clean by any standards, any stray marks don’t pose much of a problem to the whole look of these toys.

The colours they chose sticks true to what you’d imagine a minion would look like in real life. They chose a pretty bright yellow that’s striking yet at the same time still easy on the eyes.  Their current colour palette will surely get not only the attention of the kids, but as well as those kids at heart.

RATING: 4/5

 

ARTICULATION

Despicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minionDespicable Me 2 Singing Tim talking minion

As with the Dancing Dave review, this section will touch on more of the special features of these talking minions rather than just simply the articulation to give it a fair score.

Again, in terms of articulation, you’re not given much room to play around here. Our talking minions have been awarded joints and pivot points on their arms, and our story about articulation pretty much ends there.

Just a note for everyone. If you’re looking for the battery compartment of these talking minions, they’re located at the bottom of the figure. The feet stand as the locks for the battery compartment. You just have to unscrew them and you’re there!

Despicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minionDespicable Me 2 Singing Tim talking minion

Now let’s get on to the talking!

The talking minions all share the same means of activating their talking functions. You either press their front pocket button or you move their heads left and right. From my testing,it seems that they all have unique sounds, which is great! I haven’t tested out all of their sayings so I might be wrong about this, but rest assured that they have a good amount of sayings per character. I’d say about 40-50 sounds each which is enough to keep you entertained every time you feel like interacting with them. The recorded sounds are crystal clear on my toys, which is great! I love that they got good speakers for these toys as this is usually the pitfall of toys with sounds.

Despicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minion

What I find great about them is that each one has talking mode unique to each character. For those who are keen on details, I’ve actually listed these key qualities as their names in the second paragraph. For talking minion Stuart, you activate his special mode by pressing his pocket button 6 times quickly. You’ll know that you’ve done it correctly when Stuart starts to laugh. You’ll notice that when he’s in giggling mode, all of his sayings gets replaced by different laughing sounds be it through pocket button or head movement activation. This might sound boring in words, but trust me, minion Stuart’s laugh is quite infectious and will leave the family laughing with him for quite a while!

Despicable Me 2 Singing Tim talking minion

To activate talking minion Tim’s special mode, just bob his head left and right consecutively 6 times. You’ll know if you’ve done it correctly when Tim starts to sing a song. If you continually bob his head rhythmically, he’ll continue on his song! From what I remember, he has 3 different songs to choose from so you’ll be quite entertained with this one.

Don’t fret if you don’t get to activate this mode right off the bat. It’s quite tricky to get the timing right which for me is a negative thing. There are times that you just give up on trying to make him sing.

I have yet to get my hands on Minion Dave yet but he’s in transit from my contact and he should be arriving by next week. I’ll be updating this portion once I get first hand experience with the toy. Based from web reviews though, Farting Minion Dave is the most popular among the three talking minions as he gets the “best” unique trait of all, farting sounds! Unlike the previous two, the way you activate talking minion Dave’s unique sound effects is by pressing the button located at his tongue. You only need to press it once and his audio set shifts into what people call “Banana mode”. You’ll know you’ve activated banana mode when you hear him say “hmmm.. banana”. After that, any button you press or any motion you do with his head will generate fart sounds!

Great! Isn’t it? How could you not want this figure! What I love about this tongue button option is that you don’t need to repeatedly tap a single button or move the figure’s head continuously to activate it’s unique feature.

For those who are wondering by the way, complete instructions are found at the bottom of their boxes.

Despicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minionDespicable Me 2 Singing Tim talking minion

All in all these talking minions bring a lot to the table. They’re packed with a host of features that really make them really desirable toys for collectors, families, children and adults alike.

RATING: 5/5

 

ACCESSORIES

Zip. Nada. Nothing to mention over here. Not necessarily a bad thing though as these talking minions don’t really require extra accessories.

RATING: n/a

 

ENJOYABILITY

Despicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minionDespicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minionDespicable Me 2 Singing Tim talking minion

These talking minions  individually are hoot! If you’re like me and you like testing out the features of your toys, you’ll surely end up having fun with all of them. I usually play with my talking minions to alleviate stress from the day and they work their magic!

If you plan on getting only one, I suggest you thoroughly try out their unique features so that you can gauge which one suits your needs best. If you’re like me on the other hand, getting all of them is a must! You get 3 times the fun and laughs with the variations you get by playing with all of them at once. Besides, they look utterly spectacular together!

If there was one thing that could easily improve their overall enjoyability, it is the lack of the sound activated response that was present with the Dancing Dave figure. With that said, they reserved that cool functionality with the collector’s edition Minion Dave. Which is a smart play from Thinkway Toys so that you’re sort of urged to venture and search for the elusive collector’s edition set.

RATING: 4/5

 

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

So we’ve reviewed the 3 talking minions and if they’ve captured your heart like they’ve captured mine, you’re probably considering getting at least 1 of them by now. So, is it worth getting? or better yet, are all the talking minions worth it for that matter?

At Php 2,500.00, the talking minions are of great value in my opinion! They don’t have the balance issue that the Dancing Dave release has and they’ve all got their unique selling point that makes them worthy of being collected as a set. Individually, the story is no different. I find that each of them is worth getting at that price point.

Consider this, your next option is about half their price but at least 1/4 their size with far less features . I’d honestly say that you’re getting these as a steal compared to their smaller counterparts.

RATING: 5/5

 

OVERALL RATING

Despicable Me 2 Laughing Stuart talking minion

I shall say it again, There’s reason why I had to buy the set as soon as I laid eyes on them. Toy collectors, fans of the movie, as well as almost any family who loves cute toys to liven up family time will surely love these talking minion toys. They’re very entertaining, have good audio playback and provide a lot of fun interactions that really sell these talking minions.

It might be a bit too steep go all out and collect the whole gang, but for what you get, I’d recommend you do that if you can afford it!

RATING: 4.5/5


Interested in trailers, news and details of Despicable Me? Check it out: Despicable Me 2 in IMDB
Or would you like to visit their official site? See: Despicable Me 2 official website
Would you like to see more from Thinkway Toys? Check out their link here: Thinkway Toys


Robbie Hilado