Official Solicit:

Deluxe U-Repair Wall•E

The year is now 2700 and after hundreds of lonely years of doing what he was built for cleaning up the planet the ever faithful employee WALL•E (short of Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) discovers a new purpose in life when he encounters a sleek search robot named EVE. WALL•E and EVE travel across the galaxy and set into motion one of the most exciting adventures ever brought to the big screen!

Recreate WALL•E’s futuristic and humourous adventure with these highly detailed action figures!

May 2008
MSRP 9.99USD

So is there going to be any way that at the end of this year of awful messes of movies that we won’t all be standing firmly behind Wall•E and The Dark Knight and naming them the best? There’s no wrong answer here, and it’s all personal choice, but clearly if you’re saying anything other than these two flicks, you’re clinically insane.

And wrong.

Not only was it one of the two best movies this year, but it also featured some of the best character designs I’ve seen in some time. On surface, Wall•E is simply a scaled down knock-off of the Short Circuit robot. But in action and emotion, he’s so much more. And EVE is about as simple a design as you can imagine, a floating egg with a laser gun. However, by the end of the movie, I was in love with her as much as Wall•E was.

Eww.

The packaging for Wall•E is simple but effective. Bright, logo is prominent, and the yellow is also attractive to the eye - especially in a sea of packaging that strives to be so “hardcore” (lightning bolts, gradients, brushed metal logos etc), this is a nice change of pace on the shelves.

Back of the packaging shows all the various parts that come with Wall•E disassembled, which is literally every piece. Thus the name…

Once off card, Wall•E comes in a state of disrepair waiting for you to put him together, treads and hands etc.

How do you not already love this toy?!

Fully out of bubble and off card, Wall•E assembled stands at his highest around 4 inches or so, but he’s actually a really good sized figure despite that small number. Or rather, he seems fuller, and fully actualized. No details were skimped here, the only difference really between this 10 dollar toy and the larger, more expensive versions are they just have MORE details (namely electronics). So to say this figure is a good and less spendy alternative to those 30 or 90 dollar Wall•E’s is by no stretch a true statement.

Any kid who wouldn’t be happy with this toy DOESN’T DESERVE IT, and you’ve probably done a horrible job raising it thus far to boot. Shame on you.

Articulation is impressive, with more points that I’m willing to count. Arms move in a 360º motion, his head does as well. His eye-cameras rotate up and down as well, which gives him added emotive ability, and his neck even bobs up and down so he can look over and around anything he wants!

A great feature of this Wall•E, unlike some of other Deluxe sized figures, is the working treads. That’s right, working treads - they’re not just for show! The rubber tracks fit over the wheels and actually move when Wall•E moves. And with 2 pair (one you can store in his belly), Wall•E’ll be sure to have working parts for any refuse emergency he may encounter down the road.

Also as you can see in the above two pictures is just how great the paints apps are. Not only with the little stuff like his nameplate and front of the little power meter etc, but also in the really little stuff like the weathering around the corners and edges. As a toy customizer, I barely even feel the need break out the paints and brushes to this toy like I do with most others. Hasbro can definitely take a note from the great job that Thinkway Toys did on these robots.

Another fun detail about Wall•E is the opening trash compacting departments on both ends. Since this figure doesn’t come with any trash (compacted or otherwise) I use it mostly as storage for all his little accessories and extra treads, but you can potentially put ANYTHING you want inside of him. ANYTHING.

Now get your mind out of the toilet, sheesh.

Yet another in the long line of great things about this figure is all the accessories it comes with, and they all tie directly into the movie’s storyline. The lightbulb that EVE finds so captivating, as well as the shoe and plant which plays a big part in the movie too (SPOILER ALERT!). Lack of accessories is a big pet peeve I have with toys nowadays, and to see this figure which is made of as much plastic as any other feature as much as it does at such a low price, it really makes me wonder how some of these other companies can justify charging what they do for their figures ahem*DC DIRECT*ahem.

In the end, I’m left with perhaps the best movie tie-in figure I’ve ever had. The overall accuracy and quality in details is off the charts. And sure, there’s people out there who think the message of bloated consumerism somehow conflicts with the notion of having toys from the very movie that decries it, but I say phooey to that. It was a movie, a fantastical one too. And even if the creators of the movie might be somewhat against the idea, did anyone at Pixar really think Disney wasn’t going to fill the shelves with Wall•E toys? So now that we have them lets just love them, because they’re great.

Stop your belly achin’ bloggers, and get out of your hover-chairs and live, damnit. Live.