Kraniator Green Car Bone Up on an Old Car Toy Adventure Force 2023 Die Cast Collection - Walmart Exclusive Item No.: Asst. ??? No. ??? Manufacturer: Maisto Includes: n/a Action Feature: n/a Retail: $0.96 Availability: ca. 2023 Other: Also sold as a red car and a gold car
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If you've been to a Walmart toy aisle, you no doubt are aware of and ignore much of the toy cars. A lot of brands have cycled in and out. You'll always see Matchbox, Hot Wheels. You'll probably see something from Jada or Johnny Lightning-branded stuff, possibly alongside French brand Majorette. And you're probably trained to ignore the Walmart house brand Adventure Force, which rereleased Maisto's existing Kraniator in green for a buck. Ignoring these other brands is easy - there are high-end brands for collectors, and the low-end stuff from Mattel is so good and so cheap that there's very little reason to even consider, let alone buy, other sub-$1 cars. Sure, Matchbox and Hot Wheels are $1.25 now, but if you're going to spend a buck, you've probably got that extra quarter. My friend Seth and I were talking up cars over email and he mentioned seeing this one - so later that night I ran out and sure enough, the local Walmart had one. I bought it.

According to the Maisto wiki this came out in 2002, which I cannot confirm, which is interesting because I thought the Hot Wheels Skull Crusher was the inspiration. Since it came out in 2010, that does not seem likely.

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It looks like the kind of thing that should exist in this scale of toy. The face is elongated, with a weird nose pulled out as well as an even weirder underbite grille. It looks distinctive, and has some nice chrome pipes and a nothing-special exposed not-quite-engine on the front. I don't know a lot about cars but it doesn't have the air of "car guy" that some of the other fantastical vehicles from other brands carry. There are painted darker green eyes in the front with dark red flames on the sides, and other than that it's pretty simple. You can see some sculpted dents, and it pretty much looks like Skeletor's head got smashed and stretched to fit the form of a hot rod of some sort. Kids should love it - and probably do, because I assume it must be selling well if I don't see it or notice it on front of pegs ever.

Obviously, it's not a higher-tier toy. But it's pretty good - the wheels roll nicely, beating some random cars I had in a downhill match-up. (Some. Not all, it isn't a big winner.) The wheels are perfectly nice, with decent axles and can probably beat some of your more lumbering cars without a hitch.

You've got enough toy cars. Your kids have enough toy cars. You don't need to look at another brand - but if you're bored and have a pocket of change to dump, it's a neat enough little car that I had fun going to the store and getting it instead of sitting on my butt for another night. It's a worthwhile thing to look at if you're in the store, but if you've got skull cars, and you're happy with your skull cars, maybe you don't need another skull car.

Additional Images

See more Maisto figures in Figure of the Day:
Day 2,721: Maisto Tonka Die Cast Collection 2 Nuclear Energy Van
Day 2,728: Maisto Adventure Force Kraniator Green Car

See more Adventure Force toys and vehicles in Figure of the Day:
Day 2,728: Maisto Adventure Force Kraniator Green Car

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