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Name: "Inside Out" Blocks Series
Distributor: SL Toys/JR
Model: 8920
Pcs: N/A
Of all the Disney/Pixar movies we've gotten since their partnership began more than 20 years ago, Inside Out is, without a doubt, my favorite in the lineup. Sure, there's the Toy Story series with its nostalgic atmosphere, or Up with its imagination and lesson of never being too old to realize your dreams, or Finding Nemo/Finding Dory with their charm and senses of fun and perseverance, or Cars with its... forgetability, but for me, Inside Out is the movie that truly stretches the imagination and delivers fun and meaningful life lessons throughout.
Not only does the movie contain a message of growing up that all characters in the movie learn from and the audience can relate to without feeling preached to, but it takes place inside an anthropomorphized mind, reimagining thoughts and feelings in a way that has rarely, if ever, been attempted before. The only other things I can think of that attempted to reinterpret the inner workings of the human brain/body are Dreamscape(which many of you probably haven't heard of), Inception(which focuses more on realistic dreams and mental constructions, so I'm not sure if I should count it), Herman's Head(which wasn't very well thought out and the "Greek chorus" segments probably could have been taken out and nobody would notice the difference), and Osmosis Jones(a beautifully animated movie with a fantastic idea that was botched with sub-par live action segments, toilet humor, and cop cliches.) So in the world of visual media, Inside Out stands alone.
The animation is beautiful, painting a world of the mind full of dreamlike wonder and exciting interpretations of mental workings; the characters are well developed and relatable, with the emotions showing they have human characteristics and development and Riley being that person we all were at that age(don't deny it!); the story is complex yet flows fluidly, with Riley and the emotions having to learn to deal with changes in their respective worlds and the actions of one existence affecting the environment of the other; the humor works on all levels, each gag having something both kids and adults can enjoy while straying away from bad puns and toilet jokes; and it's an overall bright, colorful, enjoyable film, which, in an age where the media has declared war on fun in exchange for "realistic situations(aka 'people being angry jerks that destroy stuff and monotonously mumble their lines whom we're supposed to relate to')", is a welcome addition to anyone's movie library and my list of favorite movies ever.
And it turns out that I'm not the only one who wants to see more from one of the greatest animated movies ever made. Right now on Lego Ideas, where Lego fans can present their own creations and gather support to encourage Lego to make and release them as actual sets, user "Okay" has created a petition to create a Lego version of the Inside Out Headquarters, recreating the base of operations for the emotions in the movie. With this set, anyone can own their own control panel, core memory container, couch, tower, memory shelves, and a set of minifigures based on Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and, the friend who likes to play, Bing-Bong!
And you'd better believe I'm behind this project 100%! Two of my favorite things combined in a small kit I can construct and use with my other brick sets? And with well-detailed minifigure representations of some of the most enjoyable characters ever put to film that I can use with other minifigures?!
The project needs 10,000 supporters, and they're halfway there with about 10 months to go! So after you've read this post(or even right now, as long as you remember to come back and read the rest), go to the petition's page, click "Support", and feel good that you're one of the people responsible for bringing one of the greatest ideas Lego has ever produced to store shelves(and giving me something else to review when it becomes a reality.)
But, if you don't want to wait and want to see an unofficial demo of what the project may potentially become before you buy the set, our impatient friends over in China have jumped the gun and created their own versions of the set's minifigures.
I briefly touched on China(and Eastern Asia in general) and its wide range of building brick bootlegs and knock off companies in my "Racing II" post. While there are companies located there that produce their own lines of building bricks, as we saw with Jie Star, there seem to be more companies that would rather steal ideas from Lego and other franchises for a quick buck, even if it means beating Lego to the punch and creating sets from Lego Ideas before they even think about it.
Yes, besides knocking off existing Lego sets, as Lego's currently suing Lepin for doing(yeah, good luck with that), some companies actually have the resources and "creativity" to produce molds and custom instructions for sets that don't yet exist! This is far from the only time an overseas company has blatantly copied something from Lego Ideas, and you can rest assured we'll be looking at more examples down the line, but it just amazes me how an underground, presumably low-profit company can create models accurate to the smallest detail based solely on visual reverse engineering.
Anyway, the company behind this set is SL Toys(SLtoys?), which is one of those companies so proud of its thievery, it plasters its name for all to see.
The only site I could find for SL Toys was ShenLong International, a toy distribution company based out of Thailand, but since their logo differs from the logo on the boxes and the products they advertise on their site are primarily model cars, Barbie knock offs, and R/C vehicles, they're probably not the same company.
However, a quick Google search for SL Toys does bring up plenty of results, most of them being, what else, bootlegs of existing Lego minifigure lines for franchises such as Frozen, Despicable Me, and Minecraft(which seemingly every bootleg building brick company I've come across has taken a shot at.)
I'm actually excited to finally be showing off knock off minifigures on this site, as it gives me a chance to showcase a more accurate example of a Chinese bootleg line than the earlier "Racing II" set. These minifigures are given individual cardboard boxes with a picture representing their contents on the front. Though in this case, instead of displaying the minifigure, SL Toys instead just opted for stolen character portraits taken from promotional art.
In fact, as you'd expect from a company clearly not worried about getting slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit, stolen art covers the boxes, from promotional stills being used in their entirety to photoshopped character poses just being included for pointless group shots.
They even repeat one certain pose from Joy twice on the box. ...Then again, Disney reused poses across some of their promotional art as well, so I guess I can give them a pass.
What I CAN'T give them a pass on is that even though Bing Bong is part of this set, he's not featured in any of the artwork. Not even in the picture depicting the rocket wagon! Come on, guys! You clearly have no qualms about stealing art to promote your quick cash grab, so how hard would it have been to tuck Bing Bong in a corner?
He is in the group minifig picture on the back, though.
And a caption on the bottom of the back of the box informs us that "Specifications, Colors, and Contents May Vary From 'Illustratonas'." And seeing as how "Illustrationas" is a word they just made up(or ripped off, since I've seen this term on a number of other bootleg and knock off building bricks), I guess I'll have to take their word for it.
And finally, yes, while this box has the 0-3 sad, cow-licked floating head
The age recommendation on the front states 6-12.
Anyone caught playing with these between those ages just makes Anger... angry. And you do NOT want to see Anger (more)angry...
Now presenting, ladies and gentlemen, our cast of characters! Please welcome Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust, and Bing Bong!
These are SL Toys interpretation of the Lego Ideas models... which they have done an amazing job of recreating! Practically every detail from the Lego Ideas page is present on these minifigures, from the facial expressions and skin colors down to the text on their accessories! I don't know whether to applaud their tenacity or scorn their thievery and refusal to give credit where credit is due...
However, it's just the minifigures that have been made and not the entire Headquarters set, so I made my own. ...Doesn't quite work while they're holding their accessories though...
For some reason, and I've noticed this with most bootleg and knock off minifigs I've gotten, manufacturers will usually package something irrelevant to the character. Maybe it fools the customer into thinking they're getting more for their money or the figure just doesn't look complete without it, but whatever the reason, it's sometimes hilarious to see what they'll bundle with each minifigure.
Especially when they'll package characters like Spider-Man with a long range sniper rifle! ...I guess we know who REALLY shot Aunt May in the events leading up to One More Day...
They also come with another bootleg staple: fake trading cards! Much more plain and high res than other cards I've come across, as each card is printed on quality card stock and simply depicts the characters' faces. Most cards that come with minifigures masquerade as a trading card game and are quite clearly printed from an inkjet, but we'll get to those in a future post.
Unfortunately, the quality of the cards doesn't also apply to the minifigures, since, once again in knock off tradition, these minifigures have major problems across the board. It's a little hard to show as it's something you really need to be there to understand, but put simply, they're not exactly "built to code."
For starters, the arm pegs are often very loose and won't stay in most positions. so they can't hold things upright.
And since the studs aren't all molded the same size, the items themselves can easily come apart since there's nothing holding them together...
This is especially true of hats and hairpieces, since the hole on the bottom is either too large or the peg on the top of the head is too small, so the accessory can only sit loosely and will inevitably fall off when you move the figure too roughly.
The same applies to hands, which can just fall out of some minifigure arms just by lightly twisting them!
The opposite is true of most character heads, since the head can fit too snugly around the neck rod and then refuse to twist unless the strength of Superman amplified by a white dwarf star is employed! ...It dawns on me that I'm a bit of a nerd...
Then there's the rushed paint job, with the clear splotching, the misalignment of facial features, the amateurishly designed expressions, and the paint thick enough to scrape off with a fingernail. Add the obvious seam around the top of the head and Disgust looks like The Asylum's attempt at a Frankenstein's Bride remake.
Though strangely, the torso designs are well painted and flawless, so at least they're proud of minifigure abdomen.
But the strangest flaw with these figures lie in the hands, where the seam makes it look like they made each in two pieces, then very sloppily layered them together. ...How do you even do that?! As far as I can tell, regular brick figure hands are molded as one piece, so they had to have consciously built their molding machine to create the hands in a more complex, error-ridden way!
Needless to say, this makes it even more difficult for these minifigs to hold their accessories.
Also, obvious sprue fragment is obvious...
So now that I've covered the generic problems with these figures, let's talk about each one individually and what works/flops with each one.
First, we have everyone's favorite bundle of energy and spastic thought: Joy. ...Well, the first problem is that instead of the yellow color she has in the movie, the manufacturer decided to make her a sickly green... It looks like she's ready to be sick all over that crystal torch they gave her for some reason.
The facial expression looks alright, with a big smile plastered under two big, blue eyes.
But then take off the hair. ...Two words: Herp and Derp...
The hair, by the way, is a hard rubber. A little squishy, but keeps its shape. Besides the obvious seam around it, it's not badly molded and stays on the character's head. ...However, for some reason, they gave her a bun on top of her hair, which the real thing doesn't have.
But the Lego Ideas version also has bunned hair, so I guess they were trying to be faithful to Okay's vision.
The knock off is also missing a skirt brick the original wears to make herself taller than the other figures, which makes sense, as the knock off is practically at eye-level with Anger now... Would she still have been able to drag Sadness around if they were the same size?
In fact, they give all the minifigures little Hobbit feet, which does fit with the idea of them being tiny and was also present in the original idea, but if you're making a minifigure based on a character who towers over everyone else, wouldn't you want to pick the standard 4-socket legs?
Moving on to Sadness, I think this is the best molded out of the lot. She's a great shade of blue, her wig is the most similar to her movie counterpart, her facial expression is spot-on, and I even like her sweater... even though the sloppy line work makes it look like something that belongs on a solo-animated MTV show from the early 90s...
Sadness also carries a torch-like accessory, with what I can only assume to be one of the core memories on top. And seeing how it's orange, I guess it's a memory both Joy and Anger shared. So Riley at one point had a triple-decker ice cream cone that fell before she could take a lick, but she was standing 5 stories above the school bully and it landed right in her hair right after she got it dyed again, I guess. ...And if that's not in the sequel, I will lose all hope I had with Pixar!
Unfortunately, without her hair, Sadness has a very noticeable seam around her head that dirt and ink splotches can get caught in. ...So, leave the hair on. A lesson for all of us.
The next minifig, Fear, has a very unique head... I understand they were trying to replicate Fear's elongated head and I do like the mouth on a cylinder piece and the two bulbous eyes being separate pieces,, but since Fear had a 2-dimensional design, it just comes across as... huh?
And it's different from the Lego Ideas page, since Fear there had the eyes on the front of his head, not this chameleon bubble-eyed look...
But the original design there has since changed as well, so I don't know what it's supposed to look like anymore...
What I really love about this figure is that they actually gave him a "Fears" list, as was depicted on the Lego Ideas page. ...However, since the list has such "fears" as "Steak", "Noodles", "Gruel", and the ever specific "Dish", I'm guessing they took a menu accessory from another set and quickly painted "Fears" on it. ...The very least they could have done is add "Broccoli" on there...
Anger is another minifig with a unique design. It looks like they used the mold from the Spongebob Squarepants minifig from either Lego or Mega Bloks(who currently owns the rights), which I can't think of another minifig also having. The flame on top of his head is a nice touch, though it would have been nice if the socket wasn't so loose and it actually stayed in place...
Also, the arms can only move 90 degrees forward, as moving them in any other direction pries the head off the body. I'm also pretty sure his face wasn't located in the center of his body, but Lego Ideas did that as well, so I can't complain.
And they again packaged a figurine with a matching accessory, so points to them. Although again, I think they just took the newspaper from another set. And the headline is pretty funny if you know what the terms mentioned are.
Disgust, as with Sadness, I think got the most accurate hair and facial expression. And the torso design does make it look like she's wearing a dress, so, unlike Joy, she doesn't need an additional block to look fully dressed...
I have no idea why she's holding a torch with a ruby, though... Maybe it's actually a raspberry lollipop she's trying to trick a sultan with? He may have hundreds of gems, but still nobody has ever given him the raspberry.*
*It's a Three Stooges joke. Seriously, stop watching whatever Adam Sandler's releasing direct-to-Netflix and go watch some REAL comedy...
And finally, we have everyone's favorite cotton candy, part-cat, part-elephant, part-dolphin imaginary friend who likes to play, BING BONG, BING BONG!I think this is the character they put the most thought into, since they had to build the head out of several pieces, and I love how they remembered the eyes and the little button for a hat. And I love the trunk portion that they could have just put a cylinder on for, but instead gave him something resembling a trunk.
And since Bing Bong is the tallest of all, it makes sense that they would give him actual Lego legs. ...Though why they didn't make them yellow and/or orange doesn't make sense...
And for some reason, the back of his legs is hollow, which made getting this guy to pose difficult...
What also doesn't make sense is the fact he's holding a torch. At least it's a recognizable accessory unlike whatever Joy, Sadness, and Disgust were holding, but why give this character a torch?
Maybe Japan loved Inside Out so much, they decided to make him the torch runner for the 2020 Olympics? ...Wouldn't be the weirdest thing they've ever done.
But be sure not to let him bring any green peppers on his trip. Japanese Riley has a bit of a problem with them...
And that's the Inside Out minifigure lot from SL Toys! I am impressed that they managed to make these things, but I'm even more impressed how these were designed by the original creator, Lego Ideas contributor "Okay." These were a little poor on the quality side, but they did give us a good look at what we'd get if we back the project, and they certainly convinced me this is a project worth backing.
...So that was fun, getting to see a possible minifigure set from Lego before it's officially released. How should we celebrate?
By looking at another line of Inside Out minifigures, of course! ...Yes, there's a couple of knock off Inside Out building block sets.
Including a few Nanoblock sets, but we'll talk about those another time.
The company responsible for these goes by "JR" on the displays
Which, as far as I can find, possibly stands for "JinRun", another company known for knocking off minifigures, including, again, Minecraft characters. However, since the logo differs between what I've found and what's on these minifigures, it's either a different version of the logo, a different company going by the same initials, or possibly even a smaller company that's knocking off the knock off...
From the looks of these, I'd guess they're an earlier design, before the Lego Ideas project came to fruition. I don't have boxes for these, and I've found no evidence there were ever boxes made for this line, which is a shame, since I would have loved to have seen boxes littered with early concept art for the movie. Or at least some boxes that actually display the figures on the front.
Right off the bat, one good thing I can give these is that the loose fittings of the other line isn't a problem here. All the pieces fit snugly and the arms rotate and stay in place with no problems. Even the hair fits on the head stud perfectly, not threatening to fall off if I so much as pick up a figure.
...However, some pieces might fit a little TOO snugly. This is as a far as I could get when I tried to take off Disgust's head and, needless to say, turning her head in the animations took a great deal of time and effort... But at least these minifigs stick together and hold their accessories properly.
From the beginning, Joy 2.0(or Joy pre-Alpha build, whatever the case is.) And yes, she did come with a skateboard and a martini glass, I didn't add that as a joke(though I'll have to remember that one...) Obviously, they didn't have the designs to steal from yet, so her shirt is more multicolored and flowery than her current counterpart. It's also missing sleeves, which matches the skateboarding persona they gave her. They've given her a more flesh-like tone instead of a sickly green, and her hair even matches the movie version's much better than the official project's. It's a lighter blue, but I'd highly encourage "Okay" to take a look at this hairstyle and decide which style fits better.
But, yes, as you've probably noticed by now, there was a slight hiccup in painting her facial features and her eye is a bit... yeah. Remember kids: Don't drink and skateboard! ...And wear a helmet already! Haven't those PSAs they show before your YouTube videos scared you into submission yet? But I digress...
Moving on to Sadness, who seems to be drinking a martini with a twist, her design is almost better than SL Toy's version. Her head is a more accurate shade of blue, her face is better painted, and even her sweater is much more evenly drawn! The only thing that keeps me from embracing this design is the hair. It looks nice, but with how well "Okay" and SL Toys recreated the hair, it just doesn't match the character as much.
What they did do better than SL Toys was layer the hands much more accurately. They still look like they were molded out of two different pieces, but they at least feel like one piece here and hold their accessories without as much difficulty. It still doesn't make sense why these tiny pieces would require two separate layers, but at least they worked a little more on it.
You know what else they put more effort into? Fear's head. ...A little TOO much effort, if you ask me...
Just LOOK at that noggin! It looks more like the character than the SL Toys version, but I don't know if I'm more surprised that they bothered to mold a rubber head for this character or more frightened by just how big and dead-eyed this character's cranium is!
This IS the last thing you'll see before you die!
Oh, but it gets better, because take the head off and you can see the neckline is surrounded by these little tentacles! Every second I look at this, it morphs more and more into a Lovecraftian horror!
And for some reason, the accessory they paired this minifigure up with is a deep plate and a loaf of bread, presumably to begin the sacrament of the Elder Gods as they approach our insignificant universe and bring about the end of existence... ...Geez, now I just want to watch In the Mouth of Madness. Anyone else?
Moving away from the beasts of Cthulu, let's instead open the gates of hell, as JinRun seems to have gotten Anger mixed up with the Lord of Darkness, judging by that pitchfork... I find myself liking this design, despite the inaccuracy with his height and build. I just want a Halloween costume based on this guy. ...Which may be the case with this one, since his head is obviously a mask.
Bonus points for molding the fires of hatred onto the top of Anger's head, accentuated by a generous helping of gold paint.
Which unfortunately doesn't extend to the back of the head... Still, not a bad interpretation.
And then there's Disgust, enjoying a peach daiquiri, who looks like the most normal minifig yet in this line. Her face and hair are green, but her torso area looks like she did her shopping at rue21, wearing a very bright, flashy blue shirt and hot green pants and sleeves. I understand Disgust is very fashion conscious, but it looks almost nothing like what her movie counterpart wore.
They didn't even give her green hands, so if it wasn't for the green face, I would have known this was Disgust and thought it was some original character they threw into the line just to complete some sense of getting your money's worth.
And, speaking of which, we come to our final minifigure! And instead of Bing Bong, we get... this person... ...I really don't know who they were going for with this design. It's clearly the same model as Disgust, but the face and arms are flesh-colored, the shirt is green, and she's riding a skateboard. Is this supposed to be Riley? Or maybe it's a new emotion we didn't see in the movie. ...Boredom? Is that covered by any of the key emotions presented in the movie? I guess boredom could be linked to despair, which would be Sadness' department, so... I have no idea where they were going with this figure...
But she is given a snazzy skateboard, so she can ride around to avoid thinking of how pointless her existence is. And it even says "Sport Skateboard" on it, just in case she suffers a concussion from riding without a helmet and forgets what things are called.
Seriously kids, WEAR A HELMET! ...And stop drinking while you participate in extreme sports!
And that's JR's take on Inside Out minifigures(and my take on their headquarters.) They're nicely designed and have a more sturdy build than SL Toys... but I'm going to have to go with the design from "Okay." They're much more accurate to the source material, look more like actual Lego minifigs, and they're the line closer to getting released with set pieces.
So just take a bit of time, head over to the site, and say that this is something you want to buy! Even if you don't end up buying it, you'll be helping others realize their dreams and making your voice and the voices of other creators heard!
At the very least, you'll be voting for a set that doesn't have a high chance of causing insanity in young children... Or anyone for that matter... Can't imagine anything in this line being scarier than that...
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Quality: The overall quality is pretty low across these lines. No only does the plastic feel a bit cheap and oily, but pegs swing freely, hands come apart, pegs won't stay in sockets and vice versa, head accessories won't stay, etc. I'd say the JR line has the best quality, but even then, pieces can get stuck and can even end up oversized or crooked to the point it will crack or bend the figures! Still, the paint job, for the most part, is fine across the board, and they do function as regular building brick figures.
Design: I LOVE how they pulled off these designs. In this case, I think SL Toys had the better design since they were able to create nearly exact copies of minifigures based on a solely visual source. The characters look like their onscreen counterparts, save for a few design hiccups with the hair and accessories, and they do look like what I would picture characters from Inside Out to look like in Lego form. However, the JR line does deserve a lot of credit as well, if just for the insanity of some of their characters. What they were thinking with the Fear and Anger custom heads, I have no idea, but I love it. However, when it comes to accuracy, both lines' Sadness characters are the best painted and molded, so feel happy for Sadness!
Creativity: I'm debating whether giving characters random accessories was creative or lazy, as the choices they made for half these minifigures make no sense whatsoever. Why does Joy have a crystal? What was the point of Fear's bread plate? Is Bing Bong really a good choice for an Olympic torch bearer? On the other hand, it's impressive they gave accessories that DO match their characters (Fear's list, Anger's newspaper, etc.) and that they made subtle changes to help them fit the lines. And JR's line... Pure, insane brilliance, especially since they didn't have anything to work off of, unlike SL Toys. On the whole, a lot of thought went into just how they were going to create these characters, how to make them look like their movie versions, and how certain minifigures would bring about the apocalypse with their odd proportions.
Readability: There were no instructions that came with any of these.
Packaging: The boxes are generically designed, just small packages to hang on a shelf in some store in Hong Kong or at a swap meet small enough to skirt sue-happy copyright holders. How they got the surprisingly hi-res promotional art to fit on the boxes is a little impressive, but there's nothing that really stands out. No Engrish, no ridiculous minifigure poses, no mistranslation, no fake logos, just stuff you've already seen leading up to the movie's release. We're not given much idea of what we'll be getting in these boxes, so unless you're specifically looking for knock off Inside Out minifigures, you'll probably glance over these...
Compatibility: They're straight-up Lego knock-offs, so they'll fit in with most, if not all, Lego sets. The fact some of them have a hard time latching onto bricks or holding things can deter full compatibility, but, save for the the custom Fear and Anger heads, they'll have no trouble fitting in with other Lego minifigures.
Overall:
I'm impressed that these came to be and that the companies recognized that there's such a huge movement to get these released officially. There's a lot of quality issues, but these serve as a perfectly fine demo to what we'll get when the project is accepted by Lego. And of course it will, because you've already gone over to the site to pledge your support! Haven't I reminded you enough? And yes, I will review the actual product when it comes out, but until then, these are good placeholders for any curious fan who'd like to introduce the wonder of Inside Out to their Lego sets.
Though one question still remains: ...What is underneath JR's Anger mask? ...Well...
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