something about Toy Story toys is so strange to me. versions of animated characters based on real world toys, turned back into toys that are slightly different than the actual toys. slinky dog with a rubber spiral instead of a classic metal slinky. the porcelain bo peep and cloth woody turned into jointed plastic action figures. when toy story 4 came out and i saw a $30 talking action figure of forky, a character made out of a spork and a pipe cleaner, i stood in the walmart toy aisle staring at it like cameron from ferris bueller's day off staring at that painting in the art museum
Something I think about is my nephew's Buzz Lightyear toy. When I was a little kid, I had a Buzz of my own. It had spring-loaded pop-out wings, articulated fingers, a light-up LED wrist-laser. The buttons could be pressed, it spoke the exact same voice clips the toy himself would say in the movie. This toy, for the most part, was a near-perfect simulacrum of the movie character.
I bought my nephew a Buzz for his last birthday. Solid, permanently-open hands. 'Buttons' now a part of the mold, wrist-laser a mere printed sticker. No wings. Voice lines sound like a different person altogether.
In Toy Story 1, Buzz has to reckon with being a toy. In 2, he sees a whole store aisle lined with his identical clones. But I have to wonder, would it be worse if he could see each new generation of clones become something less and less like him? You were already an abstraction of a spaceman, and now these toys are an abstraction of a toy, a copy of a copy, speaking in a weak imitation of your own voice.
