BLAZE is BACK! (Part 2)

A few weeks ago I made the remarkable discovery of several random toys from the Blaze and the Monster Machines line. Granted that these new entrants were little more than some superficial decorations after more than a year of these things being gone from shelves, but there they were nonetheless. That would’ve been the end of it (so far) except that between finding them and actually getting around to writing about them I found more new Blaze stuff!

Let’s give a wet and wild welcome to the Water Riders!

Yeah I dunno, their wheels have turned into water…or something. What’s funny is that I kind of already knew about these. Back when the last Blazes went on clearance and left shelves for good, I regularly did a few internet searches just to see if the line had somehow continued. For the most part, the line looked dormant enough, however, this line of Water Riders seemed to appear with some frequency, and that was a fairly long time ago.

So I dunno (again), it’s like the record skipped or something. My initial thought was that these Water Riders had been manufactured in some quantity and then for reasons unbeknownst the line of toys was abruptly halted before these Water Boys could “trickle” down to the retail level. Is this the beginning of a Blaze resurgence, or just a belated blip on its way to broadcast oblivion?

(For the record, I found these new waves at at least 4 different Walmarts, and as best as I can remember, I saw both waves at 3 of them. Only one of them seems to have restocked more of the Water Riders since selling out their first batch. Amid these, 2 older toys have been re-released: regular ol’ Pickle and Blazing Speed Blaze.)

In general these Water Riders are serviceable enough, I suppose. The clear, cyan-esque wheels are appealing in their own regard, and I think it’s kinda cool they took the extra step to paint splashes of water on each of the characters. A total of 6 characters got the treatment:

• Water Rider Blaze
• Water Rider Zeg
• Water Rider Darington
• Water Rider Watts
• Water Rider Stripes
• Water Rider Crusher

Water Rider Blaze

Water Rider Darington

Water Rider Stripes

Water Rider Zeg

Water Rider Watts

Water Rider Crusher

…A somewhat interest mix of characters here, particularly Darington without Starla and Watts seeing as how she’s a bit “new” to the toyline. The mix of colors is good though; just look at the group shot I’ve got somewhere around here. Overall I’m glad Watts got the treatment though. Of all the times all these characters have been done and redone, Watts hasn’t been seen enough. Her design is techy but a bit rough and though her color indicates some level of femininity (which is all fine and good) she’s still a truck which is cool too. It’s a decent message saying that girls can be into something like monster trucks without having to overtly feminize them. I’m a sucker for that rosey/purplish color anyway and it looks great with that crisp, watery blue.

And so over a year later we have 11 new toys from Blaze and the Monster Machines roll through and I’m just standing here trying to find the right words to convey my utter confusion.

Anyways what do you think? What have you seen in your areas? I am at a loss. Help me out.

BLAZE is BACK! (Part 1)

You know, I kinda really didn’t think I’d ever see the likes of these vehicles again, but there they were, hanging on a rack (over by the Hot Wheels, no less) at that Walmart by TTC. This “comeback selection” feels a little lackluster in terms of theme, but hey, with virtually no Blaze toys since early 2019, I think it’s cool that we’re seeing anything at all.

Is there more to this than what I saw? Possibly, but for the time being we seem to have a new small sub-series and a “special” Blaze on top of it:

• Drag Race Blaze
• Racing Flag Blaze
• Racing Flag Crusher
• Racing Flag Stripes
• Racing Flag Zeg

Curiously enough, a plain ol’ regular Pickle was hanging around as well.

It is pretty weird for the series to have taken such a long hiatus only to return with such…minimal…deviations to their appearance. Otherwise I don’t have a whole lot to say and I’ll just let the pictures do the talking!

Wait just a minute! There are even more Blaze toys to talk about! Stay tuned in for a Part 2 coming very soon@

Two New Trucks – Blaze and the Monster Machines

Well well well, these little fellows just love to trickle out, don’t they? We’ve seen a steady stream of these over the last few months and the trend seems to continue.

Robot Rider Zeg

The Robot Rider series continues! I’ve commented that, as far as repaints go, the Robot Riders are more inspired than most. This new Zeg continues the tradition. The clear tires make for a cool visual effect as with others in the series. Cartoonish circuit graphics adorn the green and teal paint job and the grille has been manipulated in a subtle yet effective manner as to suggest a robot “face.” I wonder who else they’ll turn into a Robot Rider? I suspect Crusher is a shoe-in, and I could also see Stripes and perhaps Pickle getting the robo-treatment as well.

Important: I still need Gabby, where the hell is she??!! I don’t seem to have a problem finding new Blaze toys as they’re released except for what I think is the second wave of the “little trucks,” i.e. Gabby, Gabby’s Robot, Lazard (yes, Lazard), Monkey Truck, and Frog. There might be a couple more but I think that’s it.

Any-damn-ways…let’s see the next one…

Kissing Bear Truck

Now I spotted this over on eBay a while back so I sortta knew it was coming, but even then I couldn’t get over the name. It’s just so…direct? Is that the right word? Descriptive, maybe? Literal…? I do think it’s odd that some of them get names and others are just Bighorn Sheep Truck. I mean, they didn’t name Zeg “Triceratops Truck,” did they? I do want to draw attention to the little insert included in the package that has a few factoids about each truck listed on it. Most of the time it’s petty basic stuff, but the one for Kissing Bear Truck is absolutely hilarious:

• A wild monster truck who lives high on a mountain and loves to give kisses.
• Chases after Crusher and covers him in kisses.
• Always shows up during big events, like the Race to the Top of the World or the Team Truck Challenges!

Is this just not the most random and bizarre backstory on a kid’s toy? I can’t think about it without chuckling. Seriously, picture it, this wild monster truck all tucked away high atop a mountain just waiting to assault another truck with kisses, particularly Crusher! They don’t even have to be monster trucks. They could be anything. Just the idea of a wild, kissing beast high on a mountain waiting to pester the local baddie with kisses….it’s fucking funny.

So, will we see another pair or two of Blaze trucks to accompany these? I guess it all depends on if the Robot Riders have run their course or not. Keep me posted if you see anything new floating around! And in the interest of being thorough, no, the backs of the cards did not reveal anything new.

Oh and a quick FYI for anyone looking to fill any holes in their Blaze collection, specifically some of the older characters who are currently out of production. Just like Gus was re-released alongside Robot Rider Blaze and Watts, and Reece and Worker Truck were re-released with Robot Riders Darington & Starla, it looks like the Knight Truck has been re-issued with Kissing Bear and Robot Rider Zeg.

New Blaze Vehicles Possibly on the Way…?

I find it so fucking bizarre that when I peruse shop.mattel.com or one of its sister sites a good 50% (at least) of the items listed for sale aren’t actually available and yet there’s 1 or 2 or maybe 3 pricier items on the site that you won’t be able to find elsewhere. I guess it’s just another manifestation of “exclusivity” but, well, I think exclusivity is bullshit anyway.

Regardless of my feelings, this is an inescapable fact, and as such, I try to keep a close eye on official websites that sell the stuff I collect. I keep my most watchful eye over on shop.mattel.com, particularly for searches involving “character cars.” Even then, it’s really the “star wars character cars” or “hot wheels star wars” that need to be given the most attention. Why? Because Star Wars is the most financially viable of the Character Car subsets. They disappear the quickest, they command the highest price, and they retain that value much longer than their counterparts.

Believe it or not, this phenomenon also carries over to the preschcooler realm. Mattel owns like, everything that Hasbro doesn’t, one such subsidiary being Fisher-Price. So every couple of weeks I mosey on over to shop.fisher-price.com to check out their stash of Mickey and the Roadster Racers and Blaze and the Monster Machines. And to be fair, I’ve found online exclusives in both camps.

PROTIP: When you’re looking for stuff on these sites, go ahead and search for your stuff in the search bar instead of clicking around on the categories. You may wonder what the difference is between clicking on “hot wheels” and then narrowing it down with “star wars” is versus just typing “hot wheels star wars” in the search bar, but believe me, it does make a difference and you will hit more of the stuff you’re looking for with the search function.

What I stumbled across recently isn’t an exclusive – at least I don’t think so – but rather an indication of some Blaze toys we can expect to see soon.

MUD FEST BLAZE

Not to be confused with Mud Racin’ Blaze…there is a difference!

Blaze’s come in lots of different sizes, and sometimes when it’s just a pic in a void it can be hard to tell what size we’re looking at. However, combined with the price point listed on the site, I’m 99% this is your typical shape, roughly 1:43 scale or something similar. These next few though, well, they’re a little trickier.

GABBY

MONKEY TRUCK

LAZARD

COWBOY TRUCK

ELEPHANT TRUCK

FROG TRUCK

Yes, that does say LAZARD not LIZARD as you’d probably expect. Typo? Translation SNAFU? Dunno. Maybe someone familiar with the show can clue us in. Anyway….

Fun looking little group, eh? The problem is I can’t really figure out how big they are! See, the “normal” sized ones are typically priced at $5 on-site (and more like $3.xx retail) yet these are only $3 (not like they’re actually available…). They’re also noticeably smaller than the “regulars” but of course this could be a discrepancy with the photo resolution. But then again, if you compare it to the actual minis (like Ant Blaze, Grasshopper Zeg, etc.) you can easily tell it’s not one of them just by looking at the details. So I don’t know. An in between size? Minis with different structural details? Regular sized trucks with a different resolution…?

Hopefully these will be out soon because the little “change tires / tune-up” playsets are popping up and they specifically advertise Gabby on the box.

Now we have one more curiosity that I just now noticed today…

WTF ZEG

What is this thing!? I know that the Blaze toys have assumed all manner of weird shapes and adopted all sorts of gimmicks, but I’ve never seen something humanoid like this. The funny thing is that the site doesn’t offer any insight either – it’s just erroneously labeled as “Monkey Truck.” I know I know, it’s probably just a third-rate Transformer, but the picture does manage to make him look really cool.

And that will do it – I expect we’ll be seeing these before too long. It seems like almost everyone is eager to get rid of basically everything that existed prior to Christmas 2017 and bring in new shit to alleviate these winter doldrums. If you haven’t seen them already, I’ve put out several other news pieces over the past day or so. Check ’em out and don’t get left behind!

• New INJUSTICE 2 Character Cars!

• New BLACK PANTHER Character Cars!

• New 1:24 Scale BATMOBILES from JADA

• New Character Car Off-Shoots – Marvel’s FLIP FIGHTERS and Star Wars’ BATTLE ROLLERS