Throwback Thursday: Mickey’s Christmas Carol Figures

Mickey’s Christmas Carol joined the large amount of adaptations of Charles Dickens’ A Chistmas Carol in 1983, and it was a match made in heaven. The show itself was an animated version of an earlier Disneyland records version of the story complete with musical numbers that were excised for the televised broadcast. The two versions are very similar, and I was an avid listener of the record for years before the actual cartoon was produced.

Having a character named Scrooge McDuck made this one a no-brainer, and the rest of the Disney mainstays fit seamlessly into the story. Nearly all the main characters had a role on the show, even if it was in blink and miss them roles like Chip and Dale.

Needless to say, it instantly became a perennial favorite and has stayed in my Christmas cartoon rotation along with Charlie Brown and the Grinch. On it’s 30th anniversary in 2013, it was released new blu-ray and looks as vibrant as ever.

Last year I decided to track down the full set of MCC figures released by Playing Mantis/Memory Lane in 2003. It wasn’t an easy assignment. Some were pretty easy; you can’t swing a wreath without hitting a ton of Goofy as Jacob Marley figures on Ebay. But the main man himself, Uncle Scrooge as Ebenezer Scrooge was the hardest to find. Fortuitous timing with an Ebay search alert let me swoop in and nab a BIN of a carded Scrooge for a way more reasonable price than I was expecting. All it took was a little diligence and I managed the entire set.

Amazingly, the line managed to release the entire main cast including all three of the Christmas Ghosts. It’s hard to get the entire cast of actual movies nowadays, so this was a minor miracle in itself. There were ten figures in all, including a Glow in the dark variant of Goofy’s portrayal of Scrooge’s deceased former partner, Jacob Marley. The Christmas Ghosts were packaged together in a box set.

The likenesses are all dead on to their animated appearance, and each figure is packed with a generous helping of items to fully flesh out their world. Morty Mouse as Tiny Tim is the winner in that regard, as he was packed with a tree, presents, a bear and a stool. Being the smallest single-carded figure they made him worth the 8 bucks or so he cost back in 2003.

I know, right?

I think my favorite thing that was included with any of them was the small piece of coal included with Mickey’s Bob Cratchit. Sure, they could have given him just the coal scuttle and nothing else, but the fact that they included a piece of coal that Scrooge was too miserly to allow Cratchit to use was an excellent touch. I’m easily amused, I guess.

The articulation is minimal but there’s jointed elbows and knees where appropriate. While I would love to get updated versions of each of these with the full compliment of articulation, I understand the limitations and I look at these more as display pieces that happen to move rather than full-fledged toys, and that’s fine.

For the most part the scales are accurate, except where it was fairly impossible, like Jiminy Cricket’s Ghost of Christmas past and the Giant’s Ghost of Christmas present. They are undersized and oversized respectively, but neither of them are anywhere close to being as small or large as they were in the broadcast. That’s also to be expected; the Willie the Giant was friggin’ ginormous and you can’t expect a relatively scaled house-sized giant for a reasonable price. If you want him to be in scale then you could always dress up in green robes and carry Scrooge around. Christmas fun for everyone!

This was an extremely rewarding set to track down, and if you’re a fan of Mickey’s Christmas Carol I’d highly suggest trying to track them down. If you’ve never seen the show itself, put it on this year and enjoy that also.

Buy on Ebay

Buy Mickey’s Christmas carol on Amazon

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