BOO in monster outfit

Type: Plush, vinyl head
Manufacturer: Hasbro Toys
Price: US$10-15
Out now

Boo! Kitty! Boo!!
Boo's a little girl who gets lost in monsterland in Disney/Pixar's Monsters Inc. flick. I've only seen the trailer so far, since the movie hasn't opened in Singapore as of writing, but that's enough for me to want this plush!

I wanted this item the second I saw the Monsters Inc merchandise on shelves. What more adorable than a little kid in a silly monster outfit? But the S$25 pricetag (US$15?) put me off, and after seeing that stores were charging $30 for each Monsters Inc figure (US$18?) when US retail was only US$10, I suspected the price may have been some kind of scam by Hasbro's local distributors. After what they've pulled with Star Wars here, charging US$12 per figure, that's not unlikely! But after I learnt from a friend in the US that the price was pretty similar, I didn't feel so bad about getting one.

So one day I'm out on a toyrun to de-stress from studying for exams, when I wander into a departmental store that's having 20% off everything for that weekend only. What luck! I rush to the Monsters Inc section, hoping to catch Boo. 2 more left! Excellent! Cute little Boo was mine.

Boo is 90% plush, and her head is cast in vinyl plastic with rooted hair for her mini-tails. Head: A pretty excellent sculpt overall, it's really cute and resembles the CG model very well. I managed to get a few pics of the artist's maquettes when Disney had a Monsters Inc auction some time back, and compared to that the sculpt is a nice, cheaper version to have with little loss in quality. The only thing is that her mouth looks a little odd. Perhaps it is too long lengthwise; there's just something a bit strange about the effect when you look at her from the front. Other than that it's near darn perfect, in my opinion.

The Disney studio maquette

Body: Pretty good. It's a good impression of the outfit Boo wears in the film. The monster head is excellent, with the twine-like strands of hair, bendable buggy eyes, and the whole thing fits snugly over Boo's head like a hood. A large part of the body's made from printed material, and it works quite well. The only thing I don't really like is that her arms are sewn into position, and you don't really have much freeplay so you can't really move them around much. If only they were bendable, sigh. A nice surprise is that Boo can stand with some stability on any flat surface. But only with her hood down, for the monster eyes help support her. Overall, great item, and worth the price I paid. If Monsters Inc does really well for the holidays this might prove to be a pretty hard to find item, eventually! The only things I can think of that would improve her is a button that, when pressed, goes "Boo!" or something. Well, there's the Babbling Boo doll for that, I guess.

~17/11/01~