I’ll say it again: you should check out dem Bratz vehicles.
This past month has actually been a really good one for Big-Ass vehicle finds (so come on back next week too!), so much so I’ve actually had trouble deciding how to cover them. This one here, I had intended to show once I started working on it. But due to current events, the Bratz vehicle feels a little more timely than the others. So, we’ll get a look at it today, do a little rundown, and if you’d like to see what my plans for it are (and I think you might) please let me know in the comments.
So, those current events. As we are all now painfully aware, we may be experiencing the twilight of the Toys R Us franchise, at least as we know it today. By the time you’re reading this, details may be more clear, but as of my writing, we’re essentially preparing for their liquidation.
But just before I sat down to work here, there was discussion once again of company MGA looking to try another buyout of Toys R Us, so far as to even put money on the table. You may already know this, but MGA might sound familiar in the toy world. That’s because they produced the Bratz mechandise. Bam! Relevancy!
Regardless of what may happen tomorrow, MGA can at least be very proud of the vehicles they produced for this line. They are full of unique design and interesting features. If the other two I own though, I find this to truly be the most impressive.
At over two-feet long, the Rollin Runway is the largest land vehicle in my collection, even making the mighty Abrams feel small. Fortunately, all that space isn’t wasted like it can be on other large vehicles — looking at you, DC Collectibles — there is a playset component, and a surprising amount of interactions in the truck mode.
For starters, the whole assembly rolls on two axles and plastic tires, has working doors on the cab and trailer, working lights on the cab, and a functional radio! Well, kinda. I think I can barely hear it. Bit of a shame this predates the Bluetooth revolution because then I could make this thing crank out non-stop ’80s tunes. EDIT: as I was putting this together, lo and behold, the damn thing has an audio jack. And runway lights! My hat’s off to you, 2000s Bratz designers. I am genuinely impressed.
The cab is really big and open, as semi cabs can be. Intended for the lanky Bratz dolls, this makes 6-inch figures fit super easy. The body has a lot of really nice vac-metal running along it, and were it not for those Bratz stickers, even the color is not bad at all out of the box. There are some functioning drawers along the sides of the trailer (though some of mine are missing), and of course there are the trailer’s features.
Like the name would imply, this folds out into a runway. As fun as a Mezco fashion show would be, it doesn’t take a ton of imagination to find some more action-packed applications for this cool feature.
And what applications might those be? Honestly, there’s tons for a vehicle like this, and they can range from the very real world daily hauler to the exotic, even Road Warrior stuff, with some work. I’m going to take this one somewhere a little more … heroic.
