In the days following E3, we’ve been discussing the newest toys-to-life craze in the videogame world: Disney Infinity
. Borrowing a page from Activision’s Skylanders games, the latest of which (Skylanders Swap Force) we’ll be previewing extensively soon, Disney Infinity uses real-life toys that can be placed on a portal so that figure appears in the game itself. Because it’s a Disney game, Disney Infinity has a host of franchises from which to pull, giving it infinitely long legs in entertainment potential.
Yesterday we covered the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise as it relates to Disney Infinity. We took at look at two Disney Infinity figures — Davy Jones and Captain Barbossa — unboxing both toys and exploring them via video. We led with a Davy Jones Disney Infinity figure unboxing, then followed it up with a Captain Barbossa toy unboxing. In this article we’re switching franchises completely, opting instead for the very kid-friendly Cars play set for Disney Infinity.
We saw multiple Cars figures at E3 2013, including a Mater one that looks fantastic, but we didn’t manage to snag one for a hands-on video preview. Instead, what we managed to leave the LA Convention Center with was a full Cars Play Set for Disney Infinity
, which includes Lightning McQueen and Holley, from Cars 2. Each figure is rather hefty, but not in a bad way. Quite the contrary, these Cars toys seem durable enough to take the inevitable beating that kids will give them when they’re not being used for the videogame itself.
If you watch the Pirates videos linked above, you’ll notice that the figures from the Cars play set have a distinct visual design from the other franchises. This pattern holds true with The Lone Ranger figures and others that we’ll preview in the days and weeks to come. Like the real-life characters, the in-game worlds for each franchise’s play set have a unique visual design as well, almost to the point that it seems different design teams are creating each in-game world and real-world play set.
We’ll have more video and figure previews of Disney Infinity in the days to come. If you’re impatient to see what else is included, you can feel free to browse the full run-down of all the Disney Infinity toys at Amazon to see what other play sets and figures will be available when the game launches on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U later this summer.