The Incredibles!
Mike Pigott continues his series on superhero models with a look at a small range based on the CGI animated franchise, The Incredibles.
One of the most successful films of 2004 was The Incredibles, a CGI animated adventure about a family of retired superheroes, produced by Pixar Studios and released by Disney. Written and directed by Brad Bird, it was a rare example of a superhero pastiche that was actually better than many serious films in the genre. After a surprisingly long 14 year gap, a sequel was released in 2018.
MR INCREDIBLE
The Incredibles is set in Metroville, a city teeming with superheroes, at some point during the 1960s. The star of the film is Mr Incredible, a towering hero possessing enormous strength, nearinvulnerability and heightened senses. On his way to his wedding with Elastigirl, a superhero with stretching powers, he is drawn into a confrontation with his explosive enemy, Bomb Voyage. The ensuing fight damages property and injures people, and the resulting collateral damage and lawsuits cause the American government to ban all superheroes. The heroes are all given new identities and civilian jobs.
Mr Incredible and Elastigirl are given the identities of Bob and Helen Parr. Bob works in a dreary insurance office, while Helen stays home to raise a family.
Fifteen years later, the Parrs have three children - teenager Violet, young son Dash and baby Jack-Jack. To alleviate his boredom, Bob teams up with an old superhero ally, Frozone, who has the ability to project ice, to sneak out at night to fight crime. Soon Bob is fired from his job after attacking his petty boss, but then receives a lucrative offer for private superhero work. He is flown to a mysterious island to fight an out-of-control robot, which he defeats. His costume is damaged in the skirmish, so he visits super-costume designer Edna Mode, who provides him with a new red and black super-suit. Mr Incredible is summoned to the island again, and this time he is attacked by an evil super-villain mastermind, called Syndrome, who was a rejected wannabe sidekick from 15 years ago. Bob escapes and hides in a cave in the island, where he finds the remains of several other heroes who have been
murdered by Syndrome’s robots.
Back at home, a worried Helen contacts Edna to see if she knows the whereabouts of Bob. They are able to locate him from a tracking device she included in his new costume. Edna had designed matching super suits for the whole family. Helen borrows a plane and heads to the island, while the two older children stow away on board. Both have developed super powers - Violet can turn invisible and project force fields, while Dash has super speed. Syndrome destroys the plane as it approaches his island, but Elastigirl was able to escape with the kids by taking the shape of a parachute. Helen manages to free Bob, and the family follow Syndrome back to Metroville where he has unleashed a new version of his killer robot on the city. By fighting together, the family destroy the droid, and cause Syndrome to fly into a jet engine. The film ends with the family teaming up to fight a new villain, the Underminer.
THE INCREDIBLES 2
It wasn’t until 2018 that a sequel was released. Despite the 14 year gap, the sequel picks up minutes after the original. The Incredibles are chasing the Underminer, who uses a huge tunnelling machine to break into bank vaults and undermine building foundations. The machine is halted, but the Underminer escapes with the contents of the bank vault. A huge amount of collateral damage is done, and this time the government refuses to protect the heroes, so with their house destroyed the family have to live in a motel.
Soon after, they are contacted by a wealthy entrepreneur named Winston Deavour, who wants to make use of their services. A huge superhero fan, Deavour wants to hire the Incredibles for private missions, in order to redeem their reputations. However, most of the work goes to Helen, as her elastic powers are less likely to cause serious damage, leaving Bob at home babysitting little Jack-Jack, who is developing a wide array of super powers that he is unable to control. Helen rescues a runaway train, and also captures the Screenslaver, a villain who hypnotises people through their TV screens.
Winston Deavour hosts an international conference aboard his luxury yacht to legalise superheroes again. However, his sister Evelyn – who has a deep hatred of heroes – was the real Screenslaver, and duped Elastigirl into capturing a mind-controlled pawn. She plans to hypnotise all the superheroes on board the boat with special goggles, get them to destroy the city, and crash the yacht. She orders some of the heroes under her control to track down and capture Mr Incredible and the children, but they manage to escape using his car, the Incredibile. They land on the yacht, and Jack-Jack jumps into his mother’s arms and removes her goggles. The Incredibles free the captive heroes and stop the ship, while Helen captures the fleeing Evelyn. Later, super-heroes are legally reinstated.
JAKKS PACIFIC
While a large amount of merchandise was produced to tie-in with The Incredibles in 2005, there were no diecast models, despite the fact that Mr Incredible was seen driving his Incredible. It wasn’t until the 2018 sequel that any model vehicles were produced. However, they were not made by Hot Wheels, which had the Disney license (including related properties such as Marvel Comics and Star Wars). They were produced by a California-based toy manufacturer, Jakks Pacific, best known for its action figures, dolls and video games based on licensed properties.
Jakks Pacific was founded in 1995 by Jack Friedman, who had previously founded LJN toys in the 1970s. LJN had produced mainly licensed toys (including the ‘Road Stars’ diecast range) and Jakks Pacific continued in this vein - the first products being action figures based on WWF wrestlers. Jakks Pacific expanded quickly, mostly by acquiring other companies, including the diecast vehicle manufacturer, Road Champs, and is currently the sixth largest toy manufacturer in America. It was quite surprising to see Jakks get The Incredibles license, given that Hot Wheels had previously made diecast models from other Disney-Pixar films, such as Cars and Toy Story.
DIECAST INCREDIBLES 2 FIRST WAVE
There were four vehicles in the range, although only three castings, as there were two versions of the Incredibile. They were about the same size as Hot Wheels cars, but with better quality and finish. Like the CGI characters in the film, the cars have a slightly exaggerated, cartoony appearance.
INCREDIBILE
The Incredibile is the personal car of Mr Incredible. Although he had super strength, he couldn’t fly and needed a supercar to get around. The car was normally disguised as an anonymous black saloon, but with the push of a button it transformed into the Incredibile by way of rotating panels. Features of the car include a tracking device, rocket launchers, ejector seat, turbo-boost and hydrofoil mode. When superheroes were banned,
While a large amount of merchandise was produced to tie-in with The Incredibles in 2005, there were no diecast models, despite the fact that Mr Incredible was seen driving his Incredible. It wasn’t until the 2018 sequel that any model vehicles were produced. However, they were not made by Hot Wheels, which had the Disney license. They were produced by a Californiabased toy manufacturer, Jakks Pacific.
the Incredibile vanished, but later turned up in the possession of a wealthy collector, who is unable to operate it. Mr Incredible manages to locate the car’s remote control mechanism among his possessions, and summons the car to help him rescue Helen from the yacht. Later, Dash and Violet take control of the car, and are able to command it to use the hydrofoil skis to follow the boat.
The Incredibile is not based on any real car, but has a profile resembling a 1960s Ferrari, although with a raised front grille, and the car tapers towards the rear. There are indentations in the doors to allow airflow to the turbine engines, and a large, circular turbine exhaust on the boot. The car is painted black with a blue bonnet, with the fairing from the grille and a red disc on the bonnet forming a lower case ‘i’, similar to Mr Incredible’s original costume.
The Jakks Pacific model is very faithful to the screen Incredibile. The body is diecast, and painted metal-flake black, with the bonnet in pearlescent blue with a raised red dot. The base is in black plastic, while the bumpers, grille, and headlights are in chrome plastic. The interior is dark grey plastic, and is quite plain except for a detailed console. Clear front and rear windows are fitted. The wheels are very small, although this is a common feature in CGI animation. They have chrome hubs and black tyres.
BOOSTED INCREDIBILE
Although listed a separate model, this is really just a variation of the Incredibile. The only difference is that it has a tongue of flame shooting out of the turbine exhaust, representing the car in its ‘turbo boost’ mode. The flame is a conical plastic piece painted orange and yellow.
In France, The Incredibles was known as
Les Indestructibles, and the car was called the Indestructimobile.
POLICE CAR
Also appearing in both Incredibles films were a number of police cars that were seen being destroyed in the fight with the Underminer. The police cars are completely generic, but with styling cues from late-1950s American saloons. As with many CGI designed cars, the police car has an exaggerated look with very tall windows. The model has a diecast body with large rear fins and small wing mirrors. The base is black plastic, with a separate plated part incorporating the bumpers and grille. The interior is in grey plastic, with clear plastic glazing. A chrome roof light with a redpainted dome is plugged into the roof.
The car is finished in gloss black, with the lower halves of the front doors painted white. There are police star insignias the doors, and tiny number plates fitted at front and rear. A chrome trim strip is applied to each side, while the headlights and tail lights are touched up with paint. The wheels are chrome discs with black tyres, but larger than those on the Incredibile. On the back of the packaging, the Police Car was shown with all four doors painted white up to the window frames, although the released version only had the front doors finished in white up to the waistline.
UNDERMINER TUNNELLER
The evil Underminer is a rat-faced villain with robot hands and a miner’s helmet. He controls a massive underground vehicle called the Tunneller, a cylindrical vehicle with a massive drill on each end. He uses the Tunneller to break into underground bank vaults, and then uses a large vacuum cleaner to suck out all the valuables. Although the Incredibles were able to stop the Tunneller before it ploughed into City Hall, the Underminer escaped with the loot.
The model has a two-piece diecast centre section, painted brown. Positioned around the cylindrical body are six pairs of fake tank treads in grey plastic, with wheels concealed behind the bottom sets. At each end of the machine is a conical drill screw in silver grey plasticwith a convincing weathered finish.
PACKAGING
The four models were packaged in regular sized blister cards showing a large picture of the family in uniform, with a very small logo. The colour flipside of the pack showed a photo of the enclosed vehicle, but did not list the other models in the range. In the UK, these models were sold exclusively at Disney stores. They were reasonably priced at £4 each.
SECOND WAVE
In 2019, a second wave of four vehicles was released, this group featuring vehicles from the second film. Again the set included two versions of the Incredibile, plus two other vehicles that had appeared in the movie.
SUPER SHINE INCREDIBILE
The third version of the Incredibile represents the car when it was owned by the wealthy collector. Bob Parr was under the impression that the his super-car had been destroyed, and was very surprised years later to see on TV that it had been acquired by a private individual for his personal car collection. However, as the collector was not in possession of the key-fob, he was unable to activate the car, although he did keep it in tip-top condition with a super-shiny finish.
The model of the Super Shine Incredibile uses exactly the same casting as the previous two models of the car, but now in a different paint style. Instead of being painted metal flake black, it is now in electroplated gunmetal-grey with a mirror finish. The blue section of the bonnet has a pearlescent effect. Everything else is the same as the regular Incredibile.
INCREDIBILE WITH MISSILES
After Mr Incredible and the children retrieved the Incredibile, they headed off to the yacht to rescue Elastigirl. Along the way, Dash tries out several of the car’s functions, including the previously unseen rocket launchers. The rear wings of the car behind the turbine intakes have hidden panels that slide out, revealing them.
The fourth iteration of the Incredibile is a modified casting, with the missile launchers in the open position and a missile located in place. The open pods are painted silver; all other details are identical to the first Incredibile, including the base and interior, and the paint finish is the standard metallic black.
ELASTICYCLE
The Elasticycle is Elastigirl’s high-tech, electricpowered motorcycle provided to her by Winston Deavour when she was working for him. Elastigirl could separate the front wheel and handlebars from the rest of the bike, and was able to use her elastic body to connect the two halves and squeeze through narrow spaces or take tight corners. She used the bike this way in order to rescue the runaway Metrolev train.
The model Elasticycle is to a larger scale than the others in the range, but is very narrow. Like many toy motorbikes, it is cast in two halves and riveted together. The body is painted bright red with a gloss black seat, and silver trim on the headlight, front struts and footrests. An oval “Elastigirl” symbol is cast into each side. The handlebars are in soft, rubbery black plastic and include the brake grips. The wheels are in translucent grey plastic with printed spokes, and black rubber tyres are fitted. The model has no working parts, not even a turning front wheel, A clear plastic stand is included to allow the bike to be propped up.
METROLEV TRAIN
The final model in the range is based on the outof-control train rescued by Elastigirl. The brandnew Metrolev train, a type of Maglev monorail, goes haywire during its first public appearance… although this may have had something to do with Evelyn Deavour.
The Jakks model of the Metrolev Train – or rather the leading car of the train – is noticeably undersized compared to the other models, being about the width of half a marker pen. Despite its small size, it is an excellent model with a great design. The body is painted metallic blue with a silver roof. The detailed interior is grey plastic, and the windows are tinted a very light blue. The base is grey plastic, and has four concealed wheels. The headlights and roof air intake are in chrome plastic.
The second wave do not seem to have been imported to the UK and are not easy to find. As there is no sequel to The Incredibles in the pipeline, it is unlikely there will be a third wave of models. Two obvious choices seem to have been omitted
- the Incredibile in hydrofoil mode, and Winston Deavour’s yacht.
The author admits to not being a fan of either Disney movies or CGI animation, but makes an exception for The Incredibles films, which are better than many serious superhero features!
The second wave do not seem to have been imported to the UK and are not easy to find. As there is no sequel to The Incredibles in the pipeline, it is unlikely there will be a third wave of models. Two obvious choices seem to have been omitted - the Incredibile in hydrofoil mode, and Winston Deavour’s yacht.