Looney Tunes Band

Years on the Tree: 16
Acquired: A Christmas present from my father.
Fun Fact: When Space Jam was released I owned all of the plush toys McDonald's released, even Lola the girl bunny. We went to McDonald's like every other day because I am a completist and I had to have them all. I did this with EVERY Happy Meal toy line to the point where I just wanted to run out with the window display Ronald held/tempted me with. My brother and I did the same thing to my parents with the Sonic the Hedgehog toys, The Power Ranger Movie toys, and the Jurassic Park cups just to name a few. It took me 14 minutes to run the mile in 6th grade, but I had some cool toys to go home and sulk to back then.  


I have worked 18 of the last 25 hours so today's post will not be Biggie Sized. It is going to be somewhere between a Kids Meal and a Small Combo. (More fast food references. My heart may not make it until the 25th).

Anywho, behold the Looney Tunes Band!!! These were an early Christmas present from my dad a long time ago from Menards Hardware. I had asked for these guys for Christmas which meant that if I received them for Christmas I would get to look at them for a few days before they had to be shoved in a box for 11 months. So, I got this one early. I have always been a huge fan of Looney Tunes and their various incarnations through the years. I find myself watching the new Looney Tunes with Luke every now and then. It is good to see the ol' gang now and then. I take comfort in knowing that there is no way to really "cancel" Looney Tunes. They are icons that will always be around staying fresh for a new generation.

     I love these guys because they are all linked together on the same cord, but the makers decided to make that cord really, really long just in case you wanted to have Bugs playing Tuba in the living room and Daffy playing sax in the bathroom. I like the long cord because it means that these guys are completely spread out in the Box-O-Ornaments every year. This gives me the opportunity to open the box and find Daffy (the first player in the link) and say "Come on, we're getting the band back together" a la Joliet Jake from 'The Blues Brothers'.

     The Looney Tunes Band plays over 20 Christmas songs. I cannot say that the sound quality is the best. I mean, this was some cutting-edge technology in 1996. Every year, there is that initial One More Year Prayer that accompanies so many of my Christmas relics. What really stinks is the Catch 22 that the Looney Tunes Band presses on me each December. If the volume is turned too high, the song will crackle and skip. If the volume is too low, you cannot hear the song that the band is playing over the gears that allow the characters to move on their respective bases. Each figure can weigh only up to 5 ounces, but the sound each motor makes (X4) is loud enough to mistaken for a small coffee bean grinder.  So, I am kind of at a loss for what to do. The sound quality is not getting better, and the Gears of Might in each motor are getting louder. Let's put it to a graph:

Legend:

Red D - Distance from Tree (Measured in Steps)
Blue S - Sound Quality/Volume (Measured in....hmmm....let's make up a new unit of measure. How bout Nermals (after Garfield's Nemesis)
Green Line - The ideal place where you can stand far enough away from the tree to not hear the Gears of Might, but also not have too much crackling from blown speakers.

Luke loves these guys and I am hoping that they make it a few more years in the DeFelice household. They have to - they are on a mission from God.