Review of GoGo Crazy Bones

Introduction

When I was a kid, we had marbles. They were damn fun, both to play with and collect. Zip forward 40 years, and my son now has his own version - Gogo's Crazy Bones.

Before the fans of Gogo's flip out and start hurling their little plastic friends at me, let me clarify - they are far more than just a marbles replacement. But for us old dudes, calling them marbles on steroids is probably an apt comparison.

Each small figure is only an inch or so tall, and has his own personality with a specific body design and face. They are shaped to make tossing, flipping and rolling all potential to some degree, which fits in with the various 'official' games, and allows for kids to use their imagination to come up with plenty more.

For example, there's a game called 'on line', which is just a simple version of feather bowling or bocce ball. You toss your figures toward a line on the ground or table, and whomever is closest gets a point.

My favorite is 'battle', where you line up yours opposite your opponents, and then flick them at each other, trying to knock over all his (or her) figures. When I was a kid we used army men and rubber bands, but the concept was the same.

'Dice' is another popular game, much like the pig dice game from a few years ago. You roll several Gogo's, and how they land determines your points.

As you can see, there's a ton of variety, and the beauty is that kids can make up all kinds of their own games as well.

With series 3 there are 80 different characters in 5 different colors, and there are also 15 'wanted' and 5 'most wanted' figures. Obviously, those are the rare ones, fueling kids desires to buy more packs in their search for their Holy Grail.

In the photos I have a mix of series 1 and series 3 - I might even have a couple series 2, as I swapped in some of my sons collection along with the ones sent along by Magic Box. You can buy these guys for as little as a buck, or get larger sets for up to $20. I have one of the back pack carry cases in the photos as well, and he comes with three Gogo's already inside.

For the last few weeks I've included the 'life size' photo feature with each review, but this time around it's going to be extra useful. These little guys are only 1" to 1 1/2" depending on the style of the character. That's mighty small, and it can be difficult to impress on the reader just how small they are without something like the LifeSizer software.

For more info, some cool print outs and downloads, and some on line extras check out the Crazy Bones official website.

Packaging - ***
These are blind packaged for the most part, although there are some limited sets where you can see what you're getting. regular readers know how much I love blind packaging (not), but I admit that with figures this small, I can give it a pass. If I'm paying $5, $6 or even more for a single figure (like Kid Robot), I'd be pretty annoyed, but when I can pick up a handful of them for the same price, it's a lot less frustrating when you get extras. For kids, there's the whole 'collect them, trade them with your friends' angle as well, making extras kinda handy.

Sculpting - ***1/2
I've included photos of 15 random characters from different series. They should give you an idea of the wide variety of characters, and the real potential of the basic concept to allow for very 'designer vinyl' styles across the board. I can easily see these being gateway collectibles for other more expensive Dunny's, Kid Robot, etc. figures, as the kids who collect these get older.

While these figures are very small, the detailing on the key features is clean and sharp. I was really impressed with the level of detail, and there were features sculpted into the characters that I couldn't see with the nekkid eye, but that came through in the close up photos.

As I said earlier, these are tiny, running right around that 1 1/2" mark, some slightly taller, some slightly shorter. They all stand great, even the ones with big heads and tiny feet.

Paint - ***1/2
Most of the paint work appears to be tampo style, and these are all quite clean and neat. Some stuff appears to be painted though (look at the brown one with the tan face, for example), and this work is equally well done.

I love the variety of expressions, with every style from Japanese vinyl to art deco represented.

Accessories - ***
Okay, so they are already pretty tiny - what's the accessory going to be?

You get a small collectible sticker for each figure as well, and these can be placed in either books you can buy at the store, or more basic versions you can print off on line from their website.

Fun Factor - ****
This review is very different from most in one key way - the weighting of the various categories. Normally, I weigh sculpt and paint very high, while the 'fun factor' could be medium to low in importance, depending on the figure or collectible.

Not this time around! In fact, it's the complete reverse - sure, I still want cool sculpts and paint jobs, since kids are going to want these to look great, but it's the fun they have with them that is the predominant factor. It's all about the collecting, trading, and playing, and these hit a home run in every aspect.

Obviously, the games the company has come up with are a great start, but these have the potential to be used in millions of games and play scenarios, limited only by your imagination. These are first and foremost great toys! The fact that they are also fun to collect turns out to be icing on the cake.

Value - ***
Compared to many other toys and figures currently on the market, these are a solid bargain. Toys R Us is trying to cut into this same market with their 'Trashies', which are about the same size and run at least a buck each in packs of 2, 5 or more. These run about that same buck each, which seems appropriate in the current market.

Things to Watch Out For -
If you're already a obsessive compulsive collector, these are likely to send you over the edge into hoarder territory. Or at least a small mental break down. Thankfully, they are tiny, making it much harder for you to fill up your house with them.

Overall - ****
While they might be similar to the marbles and jacks of by gone years, these have a whole lot more personality and style. My son and all his friends love them, and I think it's that perfect combination of collectibility and playability, something that's so hard to achieve.

I'm going to be snagging a bunch of packs for my son's stocking this year, and if he's extra good, he just might find a bigger set under the tree. Unless Santa keeps it for himself.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ***1/2
Fun Factor - ****
Value - ***
Overall - ****

Where to Buy 
Your best bet is just about any local big toy retailer - and a lot of the little mom and pop shops. You can find these for a buck to twenty bucks, depending on how many and what kind of limited set it might be.

Related Links -
You'll definitely want to check out the official Gogo's Crazy Bones site for lots of info, cool downloads and some on line extras.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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