Thursday, November 12, 2015

Sadness Figures from Pixar's "Inside Out"--A Comparison Review!

The Pixar movie Inside Out was released on DVD last week, and to celebrate I decided to review two different versions of Sadness--my favorite character from this show.  I absolutely love Inside Out, but when I watched it in the theater, I had to constantly battle with myself to suppress tears.  At one point I made a strange strangled noise to try and control an anguished sob, and the lady next to me shifted in her seat to increase the distance between us.  I don't blame her.  But there were other times during this movie--mostly when Sadness was talking--that I laughed until I was wiping away tears for the opposite reason.

As some of you might remember, my oldest son is getting ready to leave home and go to college, which is hectic, exciting, scary, wonderful...and sad.  Frankly, I walk around most days feeling emotionally stunned.  So this is a good year for me to latch onto a movie that deals with emotions and kids growing up.  And a good year to appreciate the delicate balance between joy and sadness.

I wanted a memento of Sadness from the movie, preferably one that would repeat some of the lines that made me laugh so hard.  As far as I know, there are only two large (non-plush) talking Sadness figures, one by Tomy and the other from the Disney Store.  I bought both to see which one captures this melancholy blue heroine the best:

Tomy's Sadness ($24.99) and Deluxe Talking Sadness from the Disney Store ($19.95).
The prices seem off to me.  I was sure that I'd paid around $10 for the smaller Tomy Sadness, but every source online (including my invoice) confirm that her MSRP is, indeed, $24.99...slightly more than the Disney Store version.  Still, I guess having the prices so close to one another makes a direct comparison easy.

I'll look at the Tomy figure first:

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The front and sides of the box are decorated almost entirely in shades of blue, with the exception of the other characters from the movie, who introduce a bit of color.

As an aside, why is Joy's hair blue?  Does that bother anyone else?  I spent big chunks of the movie wondering why her hair wasn't a deep yellow or maybe even orange.

Anyway, the box is much larger than the doll--Sadness is floating about four inches above the bottom of the box:


Most of the front of the box is open, with cardboard only at the very top and bottom.  This design makes it possible to test the sound feature before buying the doll.  The box even invites this kind of test:


All of the words on the box are written in both English and French, however, the doll only speaks movie lines in English.  

I was pretty excited about the inclusion of a mind manual with this doll, really hoping that there would be some text excerpts for me to read:

I love reading about the brain.
The bottom of the box has a great picture of Sadness from the movie:


The box also advertises that Sadness can "slump in sadness."  Which should be interesting.


The back of the box repeats a lot of the information from the front, but also includes photographs of the Sadness doll and thumbnails of the other characters in this series.


Sadness can't actually hold her book like that.
It's fun to see what accessories the other characters come with.  It looks like Anger has a newspaper, Joy has a memory ball, Disgust has flip phone (or a compact?), and Fear has a coffee cup and a suitcase.  He might get more accessories because he's the least prominent character:


The way this doll peers up out of her box makes her very difficult to resist:

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She almost doesn't need a sound feature, because every time I look at her face I hear that voice in my head!

Sadness is mounted on a small plastic ledge and is held in place with just a few long plastic ties and a piece of white twine.  She's very easy to de-box.

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I looked at the mind manual (Long Term Memory Retrieval Volume 47) first, eager to see what was inside...


In the movie, Sadness reads only a little excerpt from this book.  She says: Long term memory data selection via channel subgrouping.  I thought this might be my big chance to read more--or even find out what "channel subgrouping" means...but no.

Both the back cover and the inside of this prop are completely bare yellowish plastic:

Guess I'll have to remain ignorant about channel subgrouping.
Sadness herself is about 7 inches tall and is wearing a knitted blue sweater:


Her body is shaped so that she's always looking up and to her left.  


I think the Tomy designers must have been working from the promotional image of Sadness shown below:


Overall, Sadness' proportions and features are very accurate to the movie character.  The doll's head is smaller than the cartoon head, and the doll's face sticks out a little more in front.  These things are most noticeable in profile:


Here's a little screen shot from the movie for reference:


The shape of Sadness' hair is accurate, but it's made out of molded blue vinyl, so it doesn't move or shimmer the way it does in the movie:


The hair is painted with silvery streaks, though, which helps approximate the correct texture:


I like how the hair mold has a few sections of hair that are out-of-place, instead of everything hanging straight down:


The eyes on this doll are not as detailed as the animated eyes, but they capture a lot of the same emotion:



Here's a clip of the original eye for comparison:

I love how all of the shading is done with dots!
In the movie, Sadness' glasses do not have ear pieces, but magically rest on her tiny little nose.  The doll recreates this look by having the glasses mounted right under the eyes:


Aside from the two attachment points, the bendy vinyl glasses are free and can be moved around:


Sadness is wearing a powder blue knitted sweater that is very similar to the sweater in the movie:


The sweater does not open in the back:


It has little darts along the top of each sleeve, which look nice:


I found that it was easiest to slide this sweater down over Sadness' feet rather than trying to pull it over her large head.  It came off pretty easily.

The sweater is nicely made--with a ribbed collar and everything--but when the collar flips upwards, it exposes a seam between the body of the sweater and the neck.  It's not all one piece:



Here's what Sadness looks like under her sweater:


Her body is made mostly out of light blue plastic, with the exception of the royal blue area that is molded to look like her pants.  Sadness also has little painted blue slipper shoes on her feet:


She has an angular cut to her neck and waist joint to accommodate the "slouching in sadness" movement that happens when her sound button is pressed:



I'm not sure this movement should be called "slouching in sadness," though.  Maybe, "watching a bird fly by" or "tipping over to see the top of Goof Ball Island?"

The video, above, should have talking sounds, but occasionally Sadness moves her body without making any sounds.  This is usually a rare occurrence, but I've had a few sessions now where it will take ten attempts or more before she'll speak each phrase.  I have no idea what causes this variability, but when she's in her "stubborn mode," my finger gets really tired of pushing that button!  I'm nervous that the sound feature will stop working completely at some point, and this would be a huge disappointment.  It hasn't happened yet, though.

Sadness has hinged, rotating arms, which was a nice surprise.  She can lift her arms up away from her body...


And she can also swivel her arms around so that the palm of her hand is facing in different directions, like this:


And, of course, she can spin her arms around--although this movement is slightly impeded by her large head and hair.


On her left side, Sadness has a switch with ON, OFF and SFX settings:


I think SFX is short for "sound effects." At first it seemed like Sadness wouldn't make any noise with the switch is in this position--she just tipped to the side and said nothing.  But I persisted a little (actually my son did...) and we finally got her to make two little discouraged noises:


Here's what the button looks like up-close:


It feels very solid and is easy to find--even under the sweater.

Here's a sample of what Sadness can say in her regular ON mode :



She has six different phrases in her repertoire. They are:
I'm Sadness.
I don't think that'll work.
That's sad.
Goodbye friendship, hello loneliness.
We shouldn't go in there, that's a bad idea.
Find the fun.  I don't know how to do that.

I had the bad luck of checking all of these phrases during one of Sadness' stubborn times.  It literally took ten button presses (or more) to get each of the six phrases out.  That was not fun.

I put Sadness' sweater back on over her feet, and this was surprisingly easy.  However, the collar of the sweater requires some extra attention so that the large seam and cut edges aren't showing:



Sadness can not strike a lot of poses.  Her body can be made to tip to the side even when the tummy button isn't being pressed, but she won't stay in this position.  So, her arms have to do most of the posing.

I actually like her a lot with her arms straight down by her sides because this posture reminds me of the desperately sad movie character:

We could cry until we can't breathe...
I usually choose the arms-spread-wide pose when I want a doll to look joyful, but for Sadness...this doesn't quite work:

What?  Oh.  I got sad again, didn't I.
Here's one last clip of Sadness (back in her clothes):


The Disney Store version of Sadness comes in a much fancier box with a full plastic window and a lot of decorations:

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Her accessory is a memory ball that can hold a small picture:


The plastic window has a circular hole through which Sadness' sound feature can be tested:


Like Disney's earlier 16" singing dolls, Sadness' voice is activated by touching a small metal circuit in her hand.

This box also has a picture of Sadness from the movie, but it's a slightly different picture than the one on the Tomy box:


The back of the box is not all blue, it has a large yellow memory ball circle to highlight another picture of Sadness from the movie:


The box has a picture of the other movie characters...


...and a repeated description of how the memory ball accessory works:


The back of the box also advertises how this version of Sadness can speak 10 phrases in English--four more than the Tomy doll.

Sadness was attached to a bright yellow backdrop that slid easily out of the main box:


This doll is harder to de-box than the Tomy doll, though, with four wire ties and several plastic ties holding her in place:


The plastic ties that were attached to her hair via little strips of plastic struck me as especially unnecessary:


It took some manhandling to get Sadness' hair and memory ball free from the box, but I eventually won the battle:


The memory ball is a mostly-hollow plastic sphere with a small slot for displaying a picture:


The slot is filled with a plastic strip attached to a cardboard square that says "your image here."  Because of the plastic strip, I was able to pull this message out of the memory ball easily, but it's not so clear to me how--if I put my own image inside--I would ever be able to get it out again.  So picture-swapping might be tricky.

I don't take a lot of pictures when I'm sad, though.
Sadness needed a little maintenance when she first came out of the box.  She had a wire tie tucked inside her sweater, and plastic ties attaching her sweater to her pants:



Here she is with all of the packaging removed...and with her hair brushed a little:


I don't think this doll looks as much like the movie character as the Tomy doll does.  Here's a comparison with the black background picture again:


The doll has a really large head and her arms can't rest at her sides--they're always sticking out a little.

Her mouth is molded into a closed frown. I think this makes her look unhappier than the Tomy doll.  Almost a little grouchy or pouty from some angles:

Goodbye loneliness, hello crabbiness.
The Disney Store doll has a more accurate profile than the Tomy doll, though:


A lot of the difference here is because of the hair.  The Disney Store doll has hair that's more like the movie character's hair:


Here's that little screen shot again for comparison:


Disney's Sadness has bright blue hair with a lot of tinsel strands.  This combination does a nice job of replicating the glowing hair from the movie:


Sadness' hair is styled with a side part and a shoulder-length bob.  The hair fiber feels pretty nice, although the tinsel makes it coarser than tinsel-free hair would be.



The hair is rooted into Sadness' hard plastic head.  This looks a little strange right at the hairline because the seam between the front and the back of Sadness' head sits in front of the first row of hair:


Like the Tomy doll, this Sadness has side-glancing eyes that look upwards.  Her gaze is more extreme, though, and it's harder to get her to look at the camera:


This doll's glasses are attached right below her eyes--just like the Tomy doll's glasses--however, these glasses are made out of hard vinyl and can not be moved around:


Sadness has some nice detail in her eyes, with two-toned blue irises and some lines radiating out from the pupil:


The Disney Store eyes are more accurate to the movie than the Tomy eyes, but they still don't capture the same level of detail as the animated eyes:


Sadness is wearing a light blue sweater with glittery darker blue threads knitted into it:


The sweater opens all of the way down the back with velcro:


This sweater is nicely made, with a seam on the inside of the collar, not the outside:



This sweater is knitted entirely in a ribbed pattern.  I slightly prefer the look of the Tomy sweater, where only the collar is ribbed (and there's no glittery thread).



The sweater is solidly constructed and very easy to use.

The Disney Store Sadness is also wearing cloth pants with an elasticized waist:


Underneath the pants, she has painted blue underwear.  Here's what her body looks like:


This doll's speaker is on her back--along with a battery compartment and a simple on/off switch. 


Looking at this doll's battery compartment made me realize that I hadn't seen a battery compartment on the Tomy doll.  But it also struck me as unreasonable that a $25 doll would have un-replaceable batteries.  So, I went back to the Tomy doll and a did a little more investigating.

The Tomy doll does not have an obvious battery compartment (or any directions describing where such a thing might be hidden...), but I did notice a suspicious screw that appears to be holding her hair in place:


Once the screw is removed, the hair pulls off, although it took some tugging because it was also glued down at the top.

Sure enough, there's a large battery compartment on the back of the head: 

Tomy's Sadness without her hair!

Here's a peek at Sadness's face without her hair:

It's sad that you would do this to me, Emily.
For those who happen to prefer the fiber hair of the Disney Store doll but like the face of the Tomy doll, the removable vinyl hair opens up the option of using a wig on the Tomy doll--if the right kind of wig exists, that is.

Now, let's get back to the Disney Store doll.  She has a surprising six points of articulation.  Her head can turn around, but not all of the way.  This is as far as it will spin to the left:


Like the Tomy doll, this Sadness has hinged rotation in her shoulders:


So, she can lift her arms away from her body, and also rotate them forwards and backwards:





 Her right hand looks articulated at the wrist, but it is not.  This joint is fused to accommodate the sound activation circuit:


The left arm does have working wrist articulation:



There's also a hole in the left hand...for no reason whatsoever.  *Update:...or, for a very good reason!  Thank you to everyone who set me straight on this.  The hole is so that Sadness can hold her memory ball!  The ball is even positioned just above the hole in the packaging.  Silly me.

For holding the memory ball!
It took me a while to figure out that Sadness' legs are articulated.  She started tipping over a lot and then I realized that her legs were moving closer and closer together until she couldn't balance anymore.

Her legs are incredibly short, but they actually have both side-to-side and forwards/backwards movement.  The joints behave like ball joints in that they can move all around in any direction within the hip socket.


With one leg out to the side, you can get a peek in at the mechanism of the joint:


The legs can be moved together past the point where the feet stand flat on the ground.  This is why I was having trouble with Sadness' balance: 


Here's a look at the legs moving in the opposite direction:


I am all in favor of leg articulation in general, but this doll can't actually stand up with her legs in most of their possible positions.  I had to hold her head to show how she can do the splits:





This is the only leg position (other than straight up and down) that I could find that would allow Sadness to balance:

That's a pretty fun pose, though.
When I tried to redress Sadness, I discovered that her pants are very hard to get back on.  Or, rather, they slide right on, but then they spring right back off again.


I can see why the pants came plastic-tied to the sweater, but it's not practical to keep those plastic ties in place.

The design of these pants is very frustrating and will be hard for kids to manage.  I don't say this very often, but I think the Tomy doll's permanent pants are a much better choice.


It's easy to activate this doll's sound feature--you just have to touch the little metal switch on her hand.


She speaks ten phrases but does not have any separate sound effects.  She says:
Goodbye friendship, hello loneliness.
This might be a good time for me to practice being positive.
Yeah, it's sad.
I'm sorry!
I'm Sadness.
I bet you and Riley had great adventures.
It sounds amazing, I bet Riley liked it.
Crying helps me slow down and obsess over the weight of life's problems.
Just one thing...I'm still in an emotional slump and my legs aren't working yet. Just give me a few....hours.
Find the fun.  I don't know how to do that.

And here's what she sounds like:



You might notice that this doll's voice doesn't always activate on the first attempt, either.  However, the motion required for triggering her voice is very simple.  No sore fingers here.

The sound quality of this voice is different from the other doll.  It must be the speaker position (or maybe the echoes inside the larger body and head?) that make the voice seem muffled.  I find it especially hard to tell what she's saying in this clip:



I prefer the voice of the Tomy doll.

This doll's head also lights up when she talks, which is a little weird.  Here she is in the dark so that you can see it more clearly:



Despite her higher number of joints, the Disney Store Sadness does not have too many more poses than her Tomy counterpart.  She can mostly just move her arms and head around.



If she tries to sit down or lounge on the ground...she just tips over backwards.

Just give me a few...hours.
The Disney Store doll is just over 8 inches tall--an inch or so taller than the Tomy doll.  Here are the two together:


For a size reference, here they are with my Little Charmers doll, Lavender:

You don't look very sad, Lavender.
Even though both dolls are looking up and to their left, I think the Tomy doll's eye position makes her much more relatable.  The Disney Doll is almost always staring up and off into space, while the Tomy doll can be made to look at and react to her surroundings.

Sadness, they're all looking at us.
Bottom line?  It would be very hard for me to dislike anything that looks (or sounds) like the Sadness character from Inside Out.  For that reason, it's no surprise that I enjoy both of the dolls in this review. I think they both have adorably melancholy faces and wonderful recorded phrases from the movie.  I like the Tomy doll better overall, though.  I'll try to explain this by breaking down the differences into a few main categories.

Appearance: the Tomy Sadness figure looks more like the movie character to me.  Even though the Disney Store doll has more detail in her eyes and a special light-up face, I think the Tomy doll's simpler features capture Sadness' appearance the best.  Her open mouth and exposed teeth probably make the biggest difference.

Hair: The Disney Store doll's rooted hair is more accurate to the movie.  The tinsel replicates the shimmery look of the hair very well, and the style is spot-on.  The doll's hair fluffs out more than the movie hair, though, which is animated to look very silky and light.  The Tomy doll's molded hair has a great shape to it, and the shimmery paint does a pretty good job of replicating the texture.  The vinyl hair might also be more resilient to play over time since tinsel can exacerbate tangles.  The removable hair of the Tomy figure adds the intriguing possibility of wigging this doll for a more movie-accurate look.

Clothing: The Tomy doll's simple powder blue sweater looks more like the sweater in the movie than the Disney Store's rib-knit, glittery version.  However, the Tomy sweater has a collar seam that is difficult to conceal.  The Disney Store sweater is solidly made, has a nice collar, is easier to get on and off, and is paired with removable fabric pants.  This probably would have been my favorite outfit overall...except for the fact that the elastic-waisted pants go flying off the doll's smooth belly and are very difficult to keep on.  I prefer the simplicity and authenticity of the Tomy sweater--as long as the collar is positioned nicely.

Voice recordings:  The recording quality and speaker position make the Tomy doll's voice easier to understand.  As a result, the Tomy doll also sounds more like the movie character to me.  I also like that she has a separate sound effect setting.  Both dolls have a fun mix of memorable phrases.  I think the Disney Store doll's light up face is a little distracting, but her sound feature requires only a light touch.  The Tomy doll's voice-activating button feels robust, but is slightly harder to use than the Disney Store doll's touch-sensitive switch.  Neither doll's sound feature activates 100% of the time, but the Tomy doll has a worrying habit of not speaking at all for long periods of time...and then working perfectly again.  If the voice feature quits working completely at some point, that would change my bottom line.  For now it's acceptable.

Body design: The Tomy doll has her "slouching in sadness" feature while the Disney Store doll has more conventional points of articulation.  The articulation required for the slouching action can only be used for that button-activated feature.  The arm joints on the Tomy doll are the only ones that can be posed regularly.  In contrast, all of the Disney Store doll's six joints can be moved separately and will hold their positions.  The thing is, the leg movement isn't very useful because Sadness can only stand with one or two different leg configurations (and she can't sit at all).  In fact, I found the leg articulation on this doll to be something of a liability.  The Disney Store doll is quite top-heavy and her moving legs make her difficult to balance.  The Tomy doll stands up pretty reliably. 

Accessories: both accessories are cute, but neither is special enough to really tip the balance in one way or another.  The memory manual looks nice on display and actually opens, but it has no text inside.  The memory ball is a clever idea, but I think it would be hard to change pictures.  Also, I have no desire to preserve an especially sad moment from my life.

Price:  The Tomy figure costs about $4 more than the Disney Store doll.  The Disney Store doll is larger and has a fancier presentation, so this price difference struck me as odd right off the bat. And even though I like the little Tomy Sadness better, the Disney Store version's more elaborate clothing and hair do a better job of justifying the $20 price than the Tomy doll's simpler features.  I think it would have been be a lot more reasonable to price the Tomy doll at around $15.

When I'm looking for a movie souvenir figure, accuracy of appearance is the most important quality.  Even though I had a great time reviewing both of these dolls, the Tomy Sadness reminds me perfectly of the movie character while the Disney doll has a few overdone features that diminish her resemblance.  Sometimes the simplest approach is best.  Kids might have more fun playing with the Disney Store doll's sparkly rooted hair and full outfit (if they can keep the pants on...), but the faithfully rendered, insecure gape of the Tomy doll is what I'll have sitting on my shelf.

31 comments:

  1. Nice review! I loved the movie, my personal favorite was disgust. Joys hair color is confusing, but maybe it's to differentiate herself from the other emotions, as she is/was the main emotion.

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    1. Hi Dot! I like Disgust, too. She made me laugh a lot. That's a good hypothesis about Joy's hair--something to make her stand out!

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    2. Pete Doctor wanted Joy to be more like a firecracker, which is the primary reason why she has more color pop to her. The other is to make her a bit more different than Tinkerbell. Original Tink was a glowing golden yellow with yellow hair. I can see the concern with them both having similar coloring. Adults can tell them apart easily, but small children might get confused and wonder why Tink looks different.

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  2. Hi, Emily! Once again you have done a wonderful job... I own DS Sadness but didn't know about Tomy Sadness! She's cute and I adore her expression. There is one small thing I noticed, though... the hole in DS Sadness's hand is there so that she can hold her memory ball. There's a little peg on it that fits, although it falls out very easily. :)

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    1. Oh--fantastic!! I totally missed this! Thank you for pointing it out. That's actually really cool. I will go right back and add it into the review. I thought it was strange to have an empty hole like that, but figured it was a remnant of the sound activation feature (?). This makes SO much more sense. :)

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    2. No problem! It's really kind of strange if you aren't expecting it. :) The only reason I know is that I reviewed her on my blog back in July, I think. I'm so glad I can help!! :D

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  3. Having not seen the movie but reading a summary of it I wonder if Joy having her hair a very close color to sadness is intentional since the two of them are so closely tied?

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    1. That's a great hypothesis, too, Andrew! I'd think Sadness could also have a little bit of yellow on her, but Joy is definitely the main character so she might have gotten a little more depth to her appearance. Given how thoughtful the movie is in general, I'm sure Pixar had a very good reason for their choice!

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  4. Because joy carries with it a little bit of sadness? Can you truly feel joy without having felt sadness?

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    1. That was my theory about Joy's hair when I saw the movie. Both as a message about the nature of Joy and also as an indication of the where the film was going- showing the viewer the more complex nature of Joy before even Joy herself figured it out.

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    2. Yes, I agree that this must be it. RLC, when you said "before even Joy herself figured it out" that clinched it for me. Because I was starting to wonder why Joy's hair didn't change as the movie progressed--everything is joyful at the beginning but then gets more complex--but it's only Joy's understanding of reality that changes. You guys are so clever! :D

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  5. This was a great comparison, Emily! I really want Tomy Sadness now. As far as Joy's hair color, I think there is actually a reason for it. [Spoilers ahead] I think that her hair being blue (Sadness's main color) and her dress having blue in it is a representation of how you can't have joy without sadness. Like how the happy memory after the hockey game wouldn't have happened if Riley hadn't been sad about losing. I think the whole idea that Sadness is key to Riley's happiness is the reason Joy's hair is blue.

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    1. That's a perfect example! Many of you seem to have seen this much more clearly than me! I was letting my obsession with matching overshadow my analysis of the color choice. :D Thank you for explaining this so well!! :)

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  6. Great review! There's something I think you'd like. It's a comic with some of the Disney Princesses dressed as the emotions from Inside Out, and Cinderella is Sadness. Just thought you'd enjoy it.
    http://amymebberson.tumblr.com/post/131774248184/pocket-princesses-168-halloween-casting-please

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    1. That's great! I love it--two of my favorite characters combined. :D Thank you for sharing!

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  7. Thats a very nicce look at these two pieces, I love sadness too and got a funko fabrikations one for myself and a pop vinil for my niece.

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    1. The Funko figures are great--my husband and I were just looking at them the other day at Toys R Us. I like Sadness, but got distracted by the Star Trek characters. ;)

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  8. I prefer Tomy Sadness overall, but DS Sadness' colors is better. What disturbs me about the movie is how everything only have 5 emotions(at first I thought Riley only has 5 because she hasn't fully grown up).

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    1. There are only 5 base emotions but they work together to create more complex emotions. That was the point of the balls that were multiple colors.

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    2. Yes! I spent a good deal of the movie pondering this, too--like "how did they pick just those five emotions...and why is disgust one of them?" But it works out really well in the end, like Anonymous said, they combine to become more complex. Like when Disgust tries to be joyful...you get a lot of sarcasm! :)

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    3. Oh, didn't know that, can those 5 emotions' combinations be enough for every emotions we feel? I hope someone made an infographic for that, heh.

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  9. I prefer the Tomy Sadness-she reminds more of the movie character. I also had a problem with Joy's blue hair!!!I think they should have made her hair orange. That would have been cool, and less sad!

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    1. I know, right? My matchy-matchy personality wanted orange or yellow, too. But other people have offered some great explanations for this...so I guess it's ok. ;)

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  10. Have you seen the smaller dolls by Tomy? I feel they do an even better job of looking like the character.

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    1. Yes! I was holding the small Sadness at Target the other day and marveling at how great she is. $8.99, though! Wow. But they look worth it, and I guess that isn't such a far cry from what other mini figures cost these days.

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  11. I like this review! You don't have to use a Sadness picture for the memory ball- A Joy one works better. And the Mind Manual could also be used as a prop. There's a fanfiction that replicates 3 mind manuals in a trilogy.

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    1. That's true--since Sadness was always trying to touch the happy memories at the beginning! Excellent point.

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  12. Not sure if anyone else said it, but the hole in the Disney Store version's hand is to hold the memory ball. There's a little peg at the bottom of the ball, if you look closer.
    Lovely review, as always.

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    1. Hi Elizabeth! It's pretty great that Sadness can hold the memory ball! I feel so silly for missing it. I need to go back and change my review. Thank you!!

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  13. Wonderful review. Thank you for all the great details.
    I too like the Tomy doll better, but agree that the price seems a bit off. $15 might be better.
    ~Xyra

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  14. Thank you for the comparisons! I saw the DS dolls for Inside Out and I kind of wanted to get one, but I thought the light-up feature looked strange. (Joy in particular has a weird skin color when she's not lighting up, and she's my favorite.) I wished for a non-light-up version. I didn't hear about the Tomy dolls until your review, and now I'm so happy to know that there's an alternative! Thanks again. :)

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