Customer Reviews

Toy Story 3 Talking Action Figure - Buzz Lightyear

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My son (just turned three) absolutely loves this toy! It says quite a few phrases, the legs move and bend and there's a button to pop out the "wings". It's actually a pretty big toy, larger than I thought it would be. My only complaint is that the helmet area does not appear to be very well connected - it looks like it's going to pop off with any sort of rougher play. Overall I'm very happy with the purchase though. My son's eyes lit up when he received this.

UPDATE: After four months of daily play, the wings fell off. The manufacturer attached the wings to the body with a hidden string, however, so the wings don't get lost. They must have anticipated this problem. You can put the wings back together, but you have to press the "wing" button a few times (at least on mine now) for them to pop back out. So - with months of daily play the wings did break, but my son still loves this toy!

Any parent shopping for Toy Story toys for their newly-obsessed young one will find themselves confronted with a confusing array of options. It seems that they have different licensing fees depending on how accurate the facial features, and whether or not the toy you are purchasing has the actual actor's voice or not.

This Buzz Lightyear, for example, looks exactly like the Buzz from the movies, and features Tim Allen's voice for the myriad sayings it spouts. Furthermore, it has wings that pop out when the red button on Buzz's chest is pushed, and a "laser" that fires. This Buzz looks and sounds just like the Buzz from the movie, and our son loves it.

This Buzz falls in the mid-to-high-end price range of available Buzz Lightyear dolls available. I think the only other one out there that is more expensive is the Toy Story Collection Buzz Lightyear, and the differences between the two cannot be determined just by looking through the box. This Buzz is stiff, the knees and feet are extremely difficult to bend.

At first I thought it was just the Buzz we'd gotten, which also came without its backpack on. So when I returned Buzz for a new one, I was surprised to find that the new one's knees didn't bend very easily either. I figured this was just the way it is, until my son and I stopped by the Disney Store and wound up playing with the more expensive Buzz.

The more expensive Buzz is more articulated, and is built to flex much more easily. I still worry that my son is going to snap Buzz's legs off any time he tries to bend him at the knee - it takes a ton of force, honestly.

All told, this Buzz is awesome. I wouldn't have known that a better Buzz was out there, until we stumbled across the one in the Disney Store. He says all of the key phrases in Tim Allen's voice, and has the flashing laser to go along with 'em. But when it comes to the ability to pose this Buzz, his leg-joints are all locked up.

I bought this for my friend's son for Christmas. She says that he still really loves it and plays with it all the time. And all of his little friends like to play with it too. But, the wing already doesn't work right. I would have expected it to last a little longer than a month. My older daughter had one of the original buzz light year toys several years ago and she played with it for years and it is still in one piece. I guess "they" really just don't make toys like they used to.

My son is enamored with Buzz Lightyear and was beyond thrilled when he got this as an early Christmas gift. It is a really fun toy and is true to the one depicted in the Toy Story movies.

However, it took me for-e-ver to free Buzz from the packaging...then spent nearly an hour working to remove tape/plastic covered wiring (that held him in the box) from underneath his backpack. We mangled the plastic trying to remove the backpack, which is also necessary to change the batteries. I was all over the internet searching for how to remove the backpack and found that most people recommended using a small, flat screwdriver to wedge between the backpack/Buzz's body then pulling the backpack straight up (DON'T do it this way - read on!). It is MUCH more difficult than it sounds. The instructions on the box are minimal, at best ("pull off backpack, install batteries" - oh wow, thanks).
My husband, father and myself all worked to pull off the stupid backpack - you must use a very thin, long flathead screwdriver and go up UNDERNEATH the backpack. On either side of the backpack there are ball & socket-like joints that hold the backpack on. If you can press on one of those tabs to pop the joint, the backpack will come off; however, if you don't know this, it's a nightmare.

Additionally, it took even more time to remove those silly plastic/metal wires from around his wings because they were pulled so taut. Honestly, companies really need to think about better ways to package toys. Mangling an expensive toy trying to remove superfluous packaging is beyond ridiculous - and changing the batteries should not require a PhD in engineering.

This is a very cool Buzz Lightyear with some minor flaws, though. I haven't had him very long, so I can't say anything on durability, but he appears to be somewhat solid. My main issue is the articulation-- 'Blast Off Buzz' does exactly that. His articulation is designed to let him fly around, and not much else. His arms don't come down very far, about 45° at most. On the other hand, he has great mobility if you want his arms above his head (flying a la Superman). His knees and ankles DO bend, though they are VERY stiff, I was worried that I was breaking something at first. I would be very cautious about this, particularly with younger kids, since they might not be able to tell the difference between 'being stiff' and 'breaking', and push too hard. Again, not the best range of motion. If that's what you're looking for, a different Buzz might be up your alley.

The only other thing I have to say is that it's very easy to accidentally tap his buttons and cause him to talk without meaning to, which isn't that great for battery life or sanity after a certain point. Unfortunately, I've yet to find an 'off switch' to help preserve both, unless it's in his battery pack, which is a little difficult to get to. It's under the screwed-in plate under his wings (which you get to by popping his back panel off-- don't worry, it comes off pretty easily and the pegs that hold it in look very solid, you just need to pull straight out. Still, best if you do this for your child, so as to not risk snapping the pegs.

All in all, however, I think he's great-- his wings and buttons (including laser) all work just like they should, and it's Tim Allen's voice coming out of the voice box. I laughed so hard the first time I heard him introduce himself, only to be followed by a musical theme. I'd suggest doing some research and checking on other versions first, but if you think this is right for your child (or for you!) I would definitely recommend him.

Play gently...not an easy task for preschool boys! In just over a month, Buzz has lost an arm and a leg. He still talks, but he's not much of a superhero without a left arm or leg. Hope he was a righty!

My son received this as a gift for Christmas, and was THRILLED!! He loves this Buzz, he says a few different phrases, and his wings pop open, etc. BUT... One of the wings keeps on loosing up, with regular play (he is careful, not rough, because he loves this toy so much), and causes the wings to catch. Is fixable, but seems as though I am fixing it often. The other day he was accidentally dropped, (from a 4 yr old height...not that far) and HIS ARM BROKE OFF. Permanently. No fixing it. So now my son is CRUSHED, and I will be out another $30...

Our youngest son fell in love with Toy Story last year, so we got this for him for Christmas. He already had a nearly identical Buzz that belonged to his oldest brother, but this one said more phrases than the old one. He absolutely loved it and played with both it and the old Buzz every day - Until yesterday. He was playing with new Buzz when the leg suddenly broke off at the knee. My husband was right there with him and said he wasn't playing rough with the toy at all. Our old Buzz Lightyear was purchased for my oldest son (now 12) after the first movie... It's still completely intact and working after almost ten years and three kids. It's disappointing to see how much the quality has apparently slipped in a relatively short amount of time.

We purchased this toy after Christmas when they were back in stock at our local store. My 2 daughters received Jessie and Bullseye for Christmas and their older brother had wanted a comparably-sized Buzz to play along but we had refused to pay out the nose for it. It was quite a bit cheaper than here on Amazon (and I knew that when I saw it) so we decided to get one. We were able to push the buttons at the store and they worked so we figured it was OK (I had read the reviews here about problems with Buzz's buttons not working).

When we got it home, and after my husband had already spent about 10 minutes trying to get the thing out of the box, my son tried the 3 "talking buttons" on the front again and they were NOT working. It would get about half of the "I'm Buzz Lightyear and I come in peace" out before making a weird noise and quitting. We'd already spent a lot of energy just trying to liberate Buzz from the box so my husband finished it (another 10 minutes, I am not exaggerating) and we let my son play with it. We were pretty irked about it not working properly but my son was excited so we just went along with it and didn't say anything about what a piece of junk it must be.

The next day, my daughter was playing with Buzz and accidentally dropped him about 3 feet onto the carpet. And then the next time my son pushed a button, VOILA! We had a fully-functioning Buzz! Wow, he has a lot to say! What were we thinking buying this thing?!?!

There have been a couple of times that Buzz would start malfunctioning again, but a nice smack on the chest by my husband has brought him back. All 4 of my children enjoy playing with him, though I make sure our 1 year old is sitting on the floor with Buzz so that if Buzz gets dropped, it won't be a long fall. I'm surprised the batteries are still going strong with all the talking and laser-shooting Buzz does around here.

P.S. I gave Buzz 3 stars for educational value because my children have learned the words "recon" (short for "reconnaissance") and "reinforcements" from it.

Besides the fact that his wings are already broken and don't always pop out, or that he's really stiff and it's often hard to change the positions of his arms and legs, the biggest problem I have with this toy is his battery life. My son plays with Buzz about 3 total hours of the day, broken up into several different small playtimes. He doesn't press the buttons every time and sometimes just flies him around the room. However, his batteries have already been changed 3 times since I received the item 4 days ago. It takes AA batteries, so it's going to cost a ton by the end of the month. I am going to try rechargeables this round and see if it makes a difference. Either way, that's excessive and ridiculous.

That said, my son loves Buzz and won't let his younger brother anywhere near it. It's really broaded his newly developing imagination, as now he pushes a "button" on his own chest to pop out his own "wings" and then flies around the house.