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REVIEW: Wicked Cool Toys Crashlings
Meteor Mutants From Outer Space Crash Into Catapult City...
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There are no shortage of cheap, gimmicky toys on shelves that make it hard for parents to find the really fun stuff, but every so often a company hits on a cool idea that brings the highly sought after “fun for the whole family.”
The newest kid on the block comes from Wicked Cool Toys and features unique mini figures with a space theme and lots of play action in Crashlings. Marketed as “Meteor Mutants from Outer Space,” Crashlings are about one inch silly creatures (in themes like Sea Life, Insects, Monsters, etc.) that come in plastic meteors and are perfect for kids aged five and up. Some of these are all hard plastic while others feature a softer, rubbery hemisphere that can be “popped” into the air. With over 150 styles to collect and, Crashlings can be found in single and multiple packs or larger playsets like the Catapult City that adds a ton of play options for kids. Today we’ll be checking out that set along with a 4-pack of Sea Life Crashlings!
While there are single Crashlings packs ($1.99), the sweet spot for a lot of people will be the 4-Pack ($5.99). Each one has four figures from a single theme with their own meteors, and only two visible in the package means that you’re guaranteed a surprise, and maybe even a rare Crashling, with the hidden pair. The packaging is very cute and kid friendly, with an appealing lumpy surface to the bubble and the card. Graphics prominently point out the size of the first series (over 150 to collect) as well as the theme, in this case Sea Life. The back of the card is dominated by a sample chart of Crashlings across the five themes. Inside the package is a handy sheet with Crashlings games you can play on one side and a 150-member “Crash-Tronomy” checklist on the other.
The basic idea of tiny, themed characters may not be new, but Crashlings has some pretty fun designs and a lot of collectability with sculpts reused in different color schemes and metallic paints. In my Sea Life 4-Pack I pulled commons Star Pirate, Crab Stronaut, and Blowfish Battler along with a gold Special Edition Sea Slime! Your results will vary. Each figure is about an inch tall, wide, or deep, with exaggerated features and weird appearances fitting in with the Crashlings world. There’s also a hole in the bottom of each figure for mounting on playset surfaces or anything else.
I really like both of the eyeball-related characters, eye patch-wearing Pirate and multiple eyed Battler. Each Crashling comes with/in a plastic “meteor,” a two piece sphere that’s sculpted with an uneven surface of gouges and craters. Some of these meteor halves are rubber and can be “popped” up to four feet in the air. In fact, that popping accounts for a couple of the “game play” examples on the included instruction sheet featuring Meteor Stack, Meteor Catch, Space Jump, Tic-Tac Crash, and Crash and Smash Bowling.
For even more Crashlings fun Wicked Cool Toys has larger sets and full playsets like the Meteor Missile Ship and elite Catapult City. The latter will run you $19.99 and comes in a huge box that’s plastered with images of the toy in action along with tons of bright graphics. It advertises features like “Catapult! Slide! Zip Line! Crash!” and much more, also showing off the different components and the fact that you get three Crashlings in the set.
Open the box and like all playsets from the good old days of toys you’ll find a bunch of parts you need to assemble and stickers to apply. The latter is my least favorite part of toys, but even I didn’t have any trouble putting on these. And that’s the only hard part as the playset is extremely easy and straightforward to put together even for the most inexperienced parent. It consists of the tall Meteor Control Tower in which you feed the little spheres to shoot down the High-Speed Launch Ramp and into the Stack & Crash Buildings on the target disc. Separate from the main structure is the actual catapult. The parts are heavy duty plastic that fit together very well and pop apart safely if too much stress is applied.
Catapult City is all about smashing the buildings, and kids can do that in a variety of fun ways. The first is to load meteors into the Control Tower (which holds up to 12!); pull the small handle on the side to release them down the ramp and into the buildings, while Crashlings watch from the “stadium seats.” Alternatively, you can mount a figure in the Zipline Blaster and drop it onto the unsuspecting victims. Finally, the catapult works just it sounds, and you can launch either meteors or Crashlings with varying degrees of accuracy.
Catapult City also includes three Crashlings, one each from the Sea Life, Insects, and Monsters themes; I got Space Shark, Blaster Bee, and Mummy Roid.
If you’re looking for a new line of toys for your kids, and something you can enjoy collecting too, check out Crashlings with their fun designs and “catch ‘em all” collectability/rarity scheme. A single pack yields a figure and a popping meteor so kids can have fun without breaking the bank, and even the larger sets never break the $20 mark. You can find Crashlings pretty much wherever kids’ toys are sold, so get started on your collection!
Review and Photos by Scott Rubin
Review Samples Courtesy of Wicked Cool Toys
Re: REVIEW: Wicked Cool Toys Crashlings
Cool
Been missing this kind of stuff ever since Trashies cut the monsters and aliens out of their line (and totally lost my interest by doing so) :(
