Kidrobot Dunny Strawberry, Lime, and Red Button Action Figure Sonic, 2020
Day #2,203: June 11, 2020
Strawberry, Lime, and Red Button Yesterday's Designer Toy Darling, Today's Wacky Pack Prize
Kidrobot Dunny Action Figures
Item No.: No. n/a Manufacturer:Sonic Includes:n/a Action Feature:n/a Retail:$1.99-ish Availability: Spring 2020 Other: Part of an ongoing Sonic x Kidrobot program
Times change! The Dunny has been used for lots of different characters and purposes, with big vinyl figures and mini blind box figures sold mostly to that whole urban vinyl toy crowd that works mostly for gifts but is generally distinct from classic "toy" crowds. This may be changing a lot with the Strawberry, Lime, and Red Button Dunny Figures being distributed at Sonic Drive-Ins as a "Wacky Pack" (Happy Meal) prize.
Each is bagged separately and comes with the startlingly cheap $2 kid's meals - so you get a 4-inch plastic figure, fries, a soda, and some form of entree for less than they charge you for a comic book. They were out of burgers when I went during the pandemic in early May, so I got the chicken strips.
This is a fascinating toy trend. In the mid-2000s, we saw a huge trend in the press of "designer toys" and "urban vinyl toys" as the next hot trend which never seemed to quite materialize. What ended up happening is that adults gravitated more toward adult versions of action figures and Pop! Vinyl figures rather than $100 art pieces, but we would go on to see elements of those low-run and specialty pieces trickle down into the regular toy world, first as high-end items like in the Kaiju and sofubi toys, with those kinds of paint jobs getting applied to typical action toys, to the arty blind-box toys getting adapted as cheap toys for kids. All kid toys become adult collectibles, all adult collectible become kid toys. The circle of life, people!
With three key rings and eight vinyl figures, it's a small collection. Most of the figures seem to use the same tooling with unique paint, representing some aspect of the fast food chain's ambience or menu. One looks like a carhop, one looks like the free mints they and out, and one is based off of a red button, and unfortunately not the Oscar-winning comic Red Buttons.
The figures are a soft, rubbery plastic material. Hollow like a lot of toys I had as a kid, they're simple sculpts with big bunny ears and limited paint. The lime has a sour squinting face, the strawberry has a green top and a wacky face, while the red button, for some reason, has eyes on his ears. I can't explain it. The figures are small, sturdy, and stable - and they seem like a baby toy or dog toy version of the higher-end figures. They're cheap and would probably be a marvelous "blank" to sell practicing customizers, too.
I don't imagine collectors will covet these unless the drive-in chain goes out of business, because they're mostly a nifty bit of advertising to serve as a reminder of the place from which they came. The designs are striking and charming, with vibrant colors and food-themed designs. I'd love to see more toys like this, made of a similar material or at a similar price point in this roto-vinyl milieu. If there was a glow-in-the-dark one, I'd be fighting you for it. As random food bonuses, I like these a lot.
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