Toy Story (franchise)/WMG

Arby and Chief are toys
Albeit ones that are bad at following the rules.

Bonny and Andy will turn out LGBT
Recall all the religious symbolism in the third movie? Once the toys, much angst and suicidal tendencies will enssue among our protagonists, as their deities betray their expectations.

The junkyard Earth from WALL-E begins with the Tri-County landfill
Supported by the presence of the Pizza Planet truck in Wall-E.
 * And Buzz's Bn L Batteries. We need a fanfic of Woody, Buzz and (a different) WALL-E doing... something. Some kind of adventure.

Andy and Sid are Master Hand and Crazy Hand from Super Smash Bros
Master Hand is the spirit of a child wishing to play with his toys. Crazy Hand is the spirit of wanting to destroy one's toys. Both, however, are innocent child-like souls in both the Toy Story and Super Smash Bros universes. (Now picture Luigi saving Captain Falcon from being destroyed by Crazy Hand.)

The Men in Black get involved when a toy reveals its sentience to humanity
Surely something must be keeping things in order if humanity has been ignorant this long. Consider Sid, he seemed just fine in toy story 3. Why do you think that is? If not the MIB maybe some men in blackish organization run by toys, which would explain why Woody and Buzz weren't tracked down. Toy Story 4? Lets just say Your Mileage May Vary
 * Sure, why not? They are turning Cars into James Bond! ...Or they 'added' 'James Bond'...
 * Well you tell me then!

The Toy Story trilogy is all about the life cycle of Woody, from the loss of his youth to death.
The first film opens with Woody and Andy playing. Play with Andy is representative of Woody's life. At the start of the film, Woody and Andy are playing and Woody is thematically in full bloom of his young adulthood, equivalent to his 20's. (disregard his actual age of at the time over forty, we are talking more about his mental/thematic age as it equates to his relationship to Andy, which is his life.) The first movie mainly concerns the arrival of Buzz Lightyear, which disrupts Woody's relationship with Andy. For Woody, this is the thematic equivalent of turning 30, realizing he's not the hot young thing on the block anymore and new, younger toys are catching Andy's eye. So the first movie is mostly about the loss of woody's youth and his adjustment to it.

The second movie then is the equivalent of Woody's midlife crisis, as an injury makes him realize he's aging and for the first time considers his own mortality. (that is, the end of his and Andy's relationship) he hastily re asses his priorities and out of panic falls under the sway of a cult leader, (the prospector) but is helped back from the brink by his friends and accepts the inevitability of the end.

And so, the third movie is about Woody's death, (the end of his relationship with Andy,) and what potentially comes after, but that deserves it's own entry.
 * This seems legit; Andy's tired of the toys, but is still attached enough to want them to stay safe in the attic (ie adult kids putting parents into a retirement home). At Sunnyside, most of the toys don't mind staying there, but Woody is determined to go back to Andy (older parents still hanging on to whatever connection they have with their kids). The dump/furnance scene obviously represents older people coming to terms with death and (depending on which person in the sky you subscribe to), Bonnie's room is the afterlife, most likely a form of reincarnation.

Toy Story 3 is thematically an exploration of death and various possibilities for the after life, including Heaven, Hell, Annihilation, (that is, no after life) and Re-incarnation.
As stated above, It is this troper's opinion that the trilogy is about the life and death of Woody, and his life is specifically defined as his relationship with Andy. The movie begins with he and the other toys facing the end of this relationship, which is their lives, and what will happen after. The movie presents several possibilities, and they are:

The Attic= Heaven, or rather Fluffy Cloud Heaven or Straw Man heaven: In this scenario, it is discussed that once the toys' lives effectively end, (no longer played with by andy because he's at college,) the toys expect to all go into the attic together. The attic is a place above andy's room, that is, like heaven, above where they lived. In this state, they will be together, and able to enjoy each other's company, and engage in fun diversions, like games, books and television. That is reminiscent of meeting your loved ones in heaven and being with them always. The toys even expect to be in the company of religious figures in the attic. Woody mentions that they'll get to hang out full time with "the guys from the Christmas decorations box." to which the other toys are noticeably Meh on. When we remember that a very common decoration for Christmas is a nativity set, which includes figurines of religious icons, it seems the toys will be with saints in their attic. But the toys are noticeably less than totally thrilled about going to the attic. while they would be together, they would not be played with by children, which is a toy's main reason for being. and this state is perpetual one. remember from the second movie we know that toys can potentially live forever if they are not destroyed. As far as these toys are concerned they will be in this attic forever just existing without purpose, meaning ennui is bound to set in, which is a common criticism for how many interpret heaven to be.

So while the attic isn't a thrilling prospect, the toys initially assume it is their best option. But circumstance means that that's not where they end up, as next they come face to face with...

Sunnyside Daycare = Hell: (note: another troper may come here and disagree, and say that it actually represents purgatory. And that's fine. I can see a case for that interpretation. but for this guess, I think it's Hell and I'll explain why.) The alternative the day care, which at first seems like a blessing but turns out to be anything but. Like the Attic, Daycare is a perpetual state: nothing stopping them from being daycare toys for all time. But here we see the polar opposite of the attic. While the attic promised everlasting togetherness with no play or struggle or anything that makes life interesting, the daycare offers ONLY play and struggle and pain and everything that makes life interesting but with nothing that makes it all worth while. They can't form relationships with the kids that play with them, and it really is only all torment. Nor can they turn to each other for comfort, as they are locked away separately. And they are all under the thumb of a selfish and brutal dictator who will not let them go because it makes his everlasting suffering slightly more tolerable, (yes, Lotso REALLY IS the devil himself.)

After struggle, the toys escape to a third place, which may either be the worst one yet, or surprisingly, an unexpected reprieve. Yes, I mean...

The Dump/The Incinerator = Annihilation/Oblivion/No Afterlife at All: (Again, I don't blame anyone who thinks that no, this is actually Hell. The imagery is certainly there. I just happen to disagree, here's why.) After the possibility of togetherness but pointlessness, and the possibility of ongoing torment, comes the possibility of complete destruction. The toys react with initial mortal terror, as complete destruction is indeed an on the surface very scary concept. There are several times they could be destroyed, but manage to just barely scrape by by the skin of their teeth. But at the very end, falling into the pit, no way out, and no hope of rescue, the toys, starting with Buzz, have a change in attitude. They accept it and intend to go out together, with dignity. The look on Buzz's face seems to say it all. Even if they escaped, where would the go? to lives of unending meaninglessness? They realize that they were there for Andy, and as such lived full lives, and wanting more is not necessary. The toys acceptance of this end perfectly encapsulates why some people find the idea of simple nothingness after death more comforting than an afterlife. You've lived your life well, there's nothing more to want.

But, that's not the end. An unexpected save gives the toys another chance, and Woody takes advantage of a possibility he glimpsed earlier in his journey but was not yet ready to accept. Now he is. Now, the toys go to...

Bonnie's house= reincarnation/rebirth: Andy lovingly hands his toys over to a young child. The toys see their two lives briefly meeting as Andy has a final play session with Bonnie, and then leaves. Now, Woody can finally say good bye. But in the spirited young Bonnie, the toys find a new relationship, and begin life anew, and find purpose again. It is a wonderful ending, but also a realization. yes, this solution does not offer the eternalness that the attic and the day care does, and when Bonnie grows up the toys will again be back in the same boat. But this experience has changed woody's outlook on such things. he no longer need fear death or want to find a final solution, but rather, to find joy in each wonderful knew situation, each wonderful new child, each new life, and to learn from them all. He no longer needs Andy to be his everything. Bonnie will love him and he her, but when she is done he and his friends will move on, with new life, hope and confidence.

Bonus:

Reformed Daycare = (maybe) True/Properly understood Heaven: The movie is pretty harsh on traditional views of both heaven and hell, but in the end credits, seeing the reformed Sunnyside daycare under Barbie and Ken, does offer a hopeful interpretation of an eternal state, suggesting that maybe after all, instead of the "attic" heaven described above, perhaps heaven is a place where you can be with friends and cared for forever WHILE still having a purpose and meaning to your existence, as seen in the restructured and better play scenes with the children. As you may have guessed, this is the aspect I've been able to develop the least.


 * Okay, my take on it is that life with Andy is this mortal coil, Sunnyside is Purgatory, the dump is Inferno, and life with Bonnie is Paradise.


 * Dude, it's not just Toy Story 3. If you've even seen the previous films, this theme of toy heaven and toy hell is prominent throughout the entire series. John Lasseter and the rest of the Pixarians even draw attention to this. Andy's room is obviously Toy Heaven where all the toys are played with and handled nicely (which is hinted at by Andy's cloud wallpaper). Sid's Room is obviously Toy Hell, where the toys not only die, constantly fearing for their lives, but are also tormented by a ruthless sadistic ruler. And from Toy Story 2, Al's room defines Toy Purgatory, a place where toys are politely handled, cleansed and kept in pristine MIB condition but are ultimately confined to glass cases, never to be played with.


 * Sunnyside as Purgatory doesn't really make sense, because souls in purgatory eventually make it to heaven. Toys in Sunnyside seem to either stay there or go to the dump. I would say that Sunnyside and the dump are both Hell. I also agree with the idea of Lotso as the Devil. Especially if you consider that he was once very deeply loved by a child, a scenario similar to Andy's room as toy heaven, except with a different kid. You know, Lucifer was apparently loved a lot by God before being reduced to Satan. And at one point he proudly says that in Sunnyside, toys have no owners and control their own destinies. This reminded me of Satan's statement in Paradise Lost: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in heaven"(is bringing Milton into a Toy Story discussion overanylyzing? Probably but its still fun).
 * Well, it's possible that some toys may actually move to the butterfly room from the caterpillar room, making it a perfect purgatory analogy. That is, if you want to imagine the butterfly room as Heaven, since it would technically be more akin to Hell (not in the sense that toys/souls are tortured there, but it's where Lotso/Satan and his followers/demons live.)


 * I would actually consider the Attic to be more of a Purgatory state, as they're waiting for "Andy to have his own kids" so they can be taken down and return to their purpose of being played with. They'll have things to amuse themselves, and perhaps can have moments to sneak downstairs to see how things are going, but cannot return to the world at large until designated to do so by Andy's family. (I.E waiting for judgement from "God" on whether returning to playtime, or Daycare or the dump) On the other hand, as they are going to be there indefinitely until then, I can see how it can be interpreted as a sort of straw heaven of perpetual togetherness but without real purpose, so I commend the WM Guesser for this highly detailed and fascinating theory.
 * Also, despite the acceptance of oblivion when it was about to happen, remember how the toys are after their rescue? they all realize that despite their misgivings about going to the attic, their experiences in Daycare and the dump have shown them that emotionally, it's perhaps the best place they have. Notice how Woody after their escape seems hesitant to send them back to the attic since he experienced real play for the first time in years with Bonnie. The other toys though realized that Andy loved them enough to keep them despite not needing them, and consider the attic a fitting end until later, as they'll always have each other.


 * I think the attic makes most sense either as purgatory or as limbo.

Alternate Theological Theory for Toy Story (Especially Toy Story 3)
In list format, as I tend to get sidetracked in prose:
 * Andy = God
 * Being played with = feeling loved by God
 * Being broken could represent sin, since Woody becomes fearful that Andy will not want to play with him anymore after his arm is ripped.
 * Sid = Pagan god?
 * Prospector = Nay Theist who doesn't see the point in trusting children who will just abandon you eventually.
 * Abandonment = belief God/child doesn't care about people/toys
 * Jessie struggles with this, in a "Problem of Evil"-esque way
 * Lotso takes this to its natural conclusion, becoming a devil figure (going by the Christian conception of Lucifer). Also a Nay Theist in ideology ("we don't follow any owner; we're free to make our own destinies," though he obviously know owners exist).
 * Especially meaningful near the climax: "Where is your Owner now?"
 * Andy's room = Heaven/life (the toys seem to have no issue with being played with in Andy's room forever)
 * College = Toy Apocalypse
 * Attic = Purgatory (waiting around in comfort you weren't abandoned, but still not exactly the best existence there is)
 * Daycare = Life, but in a very non-ideal way as opposed to Andy's room
 * Incinerator = Hell/possibly the Lake of Fire, for obvious reasons...
 * On the way home, I described this to my brother, who asked what was up with the ending. I said something along the lines of "Iono, Bonnie's Jesus." Alternatively, the "new Heaven and new Earth" described in Revelations (the new owner thing just kinda being part of the plot).
 * On the way home, I described this to my brother, who asked what was up with the ending. I said something along the lines of "Iono, Bonnie's Jesus." Alternatively, the "new Heaven and new Earth" described in Revelations (the new owner thing just kinda being part of the plot).

Combine this with the WMG of Toy Story's being a look at Woody's metaphorical life cycle and it all becomes pretty poignant.

More Religious/Literary Metaphor Theories After the Third Movie

 * The entire movie, series even, could be seen as a metaphor for mortality and death. Woody and his friends are alone in Andy's room, having "outlived" all of the other toys. Sunnyside could be seen as the Christian heaven, with the Butterfly room as paradise, and the Caterpillar room as purgatory. The garbage dump is pretty much Hell, and Bonnie's house is reincarnation. Woody and the toys are played with by a young child again, surrounded by other toys. But they do manage to communicate with Barbie, Ken, and the rest in "Heaven," so there's no telling what that means.
 * This Troper saw the dump more as a "Lovecraftian" vision of the afterlife - not a place of gleeful and active torment as in the "Caterpillar Room", but a [[Eldritch Location cold, alien realm designed only to bring a final and absolute End, operated by vast and incomprehensible beings who simply could not care about the horror of its existence. In truth, the whole movie is a gigantic gumbo of various interpretations of life after death, complementing Toy Story 2's theme of age and mortality - Lotso's ironic fate evokes the punishments of classical mythology, while the upsides of the "Attic" are similar to those of ancestor worship, adding on to the already obvious Heaven/Purgatory and Reincarnation themes noted above.
 * And Lotso bear and how he runs Sunnyside Daycare Center totally isn't a G-rated representation of several Real Life dictatorships! After coming home from the opening day, this troper's sister mentioned how Orwellian Lotso's grasp on Sunnyside was. For example, Lotso sending Potatohead to "The Box" or how Big Monkey was watching.
 * I swear, when Lotso taunted Woody with "Where is your Kid now?" before leaving them to die, what I heard in my mind was "Where is the Rock of your Salvation? Where is God now?" Lotso, throughout the film, is pretty much fanatical in his reviling of the notion that any relationship with an Owner (the nearest thing a toy has to God) could be good. Don't misunderstand. I don't think he symbolizes atheism. I think he symbolizes people who literally hate God.
 * Lotso might actually be a metaphor for someone who feels that God abandoned him in is hour of need. His "We are all trash" speech might represent someone who believes nothing happens after death.
 * Lotso can be seen as analogous to Satan or Lucifer, whose pride and jealousy turned him against his owner and motivated him to make all other toys feel unloved and dissatisfied ("Ain't no kid ever loved a toy, really"). But the paradise alternative he promises them (Sunnyside) turns out to be hellish (the Caterpillar Room). His system is finally overthrown when the hero whom everyone thought was dead returns to set them free.
 * Sunnyside is a metaphor for abusive nursing homes. Especially how they describe the toys as being "worn and broken down" and the toys are referred to as junk that needs to be sent away.
 * It's been suggested the film parallels the Holocaust. To summarize generally, Andy's toys stand-in for Jewish people, and are sent to a concentration camp for undesirables (ie. discarded or lost toys). Lotso and his friends are the Nazis who live lavishly while the prisoners are tortured (by the Caterpillar Room toddlers) under their watch. If our heroes don't survive said torture (get broken by the kids or what have you), they get thrown in the trash. And, finally, our heroes are eventually thrown into an incinerator.
 * From the same link directly above, it's been suggested the toys died in the incinerator, while their rescue and everything afterward is the afterlife; not much evidence is given for this, however.
 * I've read theories that Lotso's interpretation of Sunnyside ("No owners means no heartbreak") is a metaphor for promiscuity or casual relationships without commitment like marriage. Avoid the heartbreak of commitment and have fun "playing with" as many others as possible...
 * Lotso is a pimp.
 * While we're on the topic of religious themes, The LGMs religious veneration of The Claw possibly leads them on a spiritual journey. At the start, they were controlled by the claw, which chose who will go and who will stay. At the end, they have become The Claw, and have chosen who will go and who will stay for themselves!
 * Just to include every version of afterlife we can, Post-Lotso Sunnyside]] could be compared to Valhalla: The toys continue to struggle to survive the rough playing of the caterpillar room, but now they have teamwork on their side and can fix each other when they get broken, ready to face another day.

The toys' antics are all just the Witch's version of events
A Witch has attempted to materialise by presenting a magical version of events for occurrences in Toy Story. Some of these are fairly simple for a human explanation to be made, such as how the toys are always scattered across the room. The Witch's explanation is that the toys come alive, and move about themselves, but the human theory is that the kid simply didn't pack them away. There are harder problems though, such as the extra toys at the end of Toy Story 2. This is explained as his mother getting him new ones at a yard sale.

A telltale sign is how status quo is god. Even though Woody apparently gets his arm damaged, then repaired, it has to be damaged again in the Witch's scenario.

The entire thing is a challenge by the Witch, to see if you can come up with a human explanation. Is reasoning possible, or is the story a fantasy?

Following on, the toys are powered by magic (which is what the witch wants you to think). Children are able to use it to bring them to life in exciting scenarios (train robbery, etc.) but as soon as an adult enters, the magic toxin burns away the magic.

TL;DR: The entire thing is Umineko, for kids.


 * Or perhaps that Witch was Maria using the Magic of Origins to bring all toys to life a la Sakutaro?

Buzz thinking he was real had something to do with the scraped plot from the 3rd movie
It would explain a lot, like why no other toy seemed to relate to his delusions.
 * But humans have never seen a toy alive (except Sid... who probably wouldn't be believed by others anyway). So how would the humans recall the Buzz Lightyears if they had no idea they acted delusional?
 * Notice that its only the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command line of toys that are like this (Buzz, Zurg, the LG Ms). So it would make sense that it was a problem that the manufacturers did (indirectly, of course). Let's say, for instance, this was all caused by lead poisoning hazards: The toys would OF COURSE be recalled by the manufactures (it doesn't matter if the lead poisoning is what's causing the delusions in the toys as a side effect). Basically the WMG is that 'the delusions' are linked to the recalling...

Long ago...
There was a wizard. A very powerful wizard with several children. One day, they pestered him to no end to bring their toys to life, so he does. The children are astounded, so much so that they start to get a little rough with them. Eventually, one breaks and the magic escapes it, leaving it lifeless. But the spell lives on in other toys. But the memory of being broken haunts the minds of the toys of today. So they become inanimate whenever someone looks at them.

Emily is Andy's mom.
Emily, Jessie's previous owner, did grow up in the seventies, as betrayed by her psychedelic pink room, so she would obviously be of the older generation. And she must have lived in the same area as Andy's family if her Jessie doll ended up at one particular Al's Toy Barn in the area. The hairstyle we saw in the quick shots of Emily resembles Andy's mom's hairstyle from the first film. (Mrs. Davis switched from a ponytail to letting her hair down in the second film.)
 * I second! It would also explain why her son's favorite toy is from a TV show that aired before he was born and he is (most likely) unfamiliar with--Woody knew nothing of his "famous" origins, so presumably Andy doesn't either. Emily remembered the show from when she was growing up and decided to buy the "boy equivalent" of Jessie for her son.
 * Andy's Mom's name is Jenny Davis, and Woody was a hand-me-down from Andy's father
 * Where did you hear that her name is Jenny? Wikipedia's "Toy Story 3" article said that, and its citation led to a Twitter post by Lee Unkrich, which linked to a video of him announcing things about Toy Story 3. He said that Laurie Metcalf was coming back to do her voice but not what Mrs. Davis' first name was.
 * The cowboy hat that Andy wears when playing with Woody is identical to the one Emily wore (which is the same as Jessie's hat-- red with white loops strung through the edge of the brim). When Emily put Jessie into the donation box, she included her cowboy boots and the Jessie lunchbox, but not the hat. Andy's mom may have given Andy her old Jessie hat.
 * How would Jessie never recognize her? Years apart or no, there's no way Jessie wouldn't recognize her former Owner whom she completely loved...
 * Memories fade, especially of specific facial details. Hell, Woody doesn't remember anything besides Andy at all despite being around 50. Maybe Jessie simply doesn't remember what Emily looked like, or at least what she looked like after she stopped playing as much.
 * Plus, people change a lot over the years, especially after having children, as their faces change from wrinkles, graying hair, scars from pimples and skin tags, sagging skin in places, puberty... Its quite easy to not recognize an adult woman as being the 8 year old you knew.
 * Yeah, except that Emily wasn't 8 the last time Jessie saw her; that was the day Jessie was donated, when Emily had already gone through puberty.
 * Still, it'd be near impossible to recognize a ~40 year old woman as the ~15 year old you once knew.
 * Try looking at your parents' high school yearbooks and compare their pictures therein to pictures from them in early middle age, if you don't believe it.

Woody is Andy's missing father's toy.
If Woody is a reminder of Andy's apparently absent father it would certainly explain he has been Andy's favorite for so many years.
 * And also why in the third film, when Andy was leaving for college, Woody was the only toy that he had chosen to bring with him. All the other toys were meant to be placed in the attic.
 * The boy in the Woody's Round-Up video could very well be Andy's father as a kid. Being in the video is probably how he got Woody. When Woody saw him in the video, he remembers why he loves Andy so much.
 * He resembles Andy, too. I'm subscribing to the Emily Davis/young Mr. Davis theory/theories!
 * Ooh, ooh! I got it...Emily and Andy's-dad get together out of their shared love for Woody's Roundup and the toys!
 * Word of God confirms this.
 * Confirms what? The title of this WMG or that the kid in the show is his father? And where is the proof?
 * Come on, above troper. It's not hard to look on the main page OR the JBM page of Toy Story to figure out where that particular Word of God comes from. Don't be lazy. Anyway, they said (apparently in the DVD commentary) that Woody was meant to be his father's hand-me-down toy to Andy, but they just never bothered to expand on it. Let alone show any adult males in the first film.
 * The bullet points from "Word of God confirms this" and the line below were originally one bullet point deeper, and thus (mistakenly?) were under the sub-guess that Andy's father was in the Woody's Roundup video.

Andy is not popular at school.
Let's face it: his own neighbour, Sid, doesn't even seem aware of his existence, or pretends he isn't. Andy spends most of the time with his mother and sister or playing with his toys in his room, alone. As for the kids that did attend his birthday party, they obviously didn't like him very much, because all their gifts were cheap crap like board games and blankets. The Buzz Lightyear doll, you say? It was obviously his own mother's gift, since it is the most expensive. The kids only attended the party because of the food and/or because their mothers forced them at the request of Andy's mother, worried about the poor solitary kid.

To complete this sad picture, in the second movie his mother sends Andy to a cowboy camp in an obvious attempt to make him socialize with other children.
 * Someone identifies.
 * Not applicable. Cowboy camp is shown as not only a regular event for Andy (Woody remarks it's the only time he hasn't gone), but also something he enjoys.
 * Additionally, I think it's Sid and not Andy who's unpopular at school. I mean, really, Andy seems like a sweet kid, generally, while Sid is more like the class terror. Andy probably wants nothing to do with him, and I can't say I really blame him.
 * And for the presents, they're just little kids. All they can give Andy is what their own parents buy for them to give him. Therefore, cheap stuff like blankets and board games. When you're a kid, you only get cool presents from your own parents. This also goes for him playing with toys, he's only six years old, and thusly spends a lot of time with mother and sister, he's not a teen or adult that can go out all the time and hang out. I'm sure he has a few playdates, as the toys seem to have long stretches of time where they're left to their own devices.
 * Who said Andy and Sid go to the same school?
 * Last time I checked, neighbors who are the same age go to the same scho- Oh wait, Sid might go to a private school.
 * Or Andy goes to a private school. Or Sid constantly cuts class. Or their school has more than once class in each grade. Or Sid is actually a grade or more above Andy, or got held back. Etc, etc.
 * Andy and Sid aren't even close to the same age. Word of God says that Andy was 6 in the first film and Sid was 13.
 * This troper sticks to the theory that Andy's "crappy presents" were part of a Buzz Lightyear-themed birthday party, that she told the other kids to give Andy Buzz Lightyear-related stuff (bedsheets, lunchbox, etc.) so she can surprise him at the end with an actual Buzz action figure. It'd explain how Andy's room got filled with Buzz merchandise right after the party.
 * To be fair, I always got my friends crappy board games when I was little for their birthdays. Didn't mean they weren't my friends, my mom just thought everyone would like a game of Monopoly.
 * I support this theory because... Well, watch the trailer/opening credits for Toy Story 3. Notice how much of it is with Andy playing with his toys and how he doesn't have a single solitary friend. It's really kinda sad, and explains why he's so good to his toys.
 * His toys were even given party hats at one of his birthday parties.
 * Actually the birthday party was for Molly. And remember, we're only looking at a few minutes of home video, chosen to focus specifically on Andy's relationship with his toys - for all we know, there's a bunch of videos showing Andy in the school play, Andy at a track meet, Andy having a birthday party with his friends, etc.
 * Track meet? Man, now I can't stop thinking of a video with Dash in the background as a Freeze Frame Bonus.
 * If they ever show a picture of Andy's friends, they'll probably be younger versions of John Lasseter and various Pixar staffers.
 * In the first movie, he had a birthday party with other kids attending, which would suggest he had some friends at least. However, if Andy was still a rather shy, solitary child this would possibly explain why Andy was convinced to give away his toys to Bonnie, who we clearly see is a bit of a shy little girl; he felt a connection with her.


 * I agree with this for two reasons:

1. Why don't we see Andy's 'buddies' for the rest of the film, like maybe happening to meet them at the Pizza Planet? 2. Sure, it focuses solely on them, but isn't it weird that no other kid (or kid's mom) walks in and asks why Andy's sitting alone with toys and his mom's filming it?

Toy Story takes place in the Marvel Universe.
In the preview for Toy Story 3, a map of the world can be seen in Andy's room, with a vast green nation in sub-Saharan Africa. Disney owns Marvel, Disney owns Pixar, ergo the nation must be Wakanda.

The toys are animated by spirits a la Werewolf: The Apocalypse.
Toys are animated by emotional attachment and play. Human(oid) toys are usually animate from the time they're first received, non-humanoid toys pick up animation from play, and all toys get more personality and human-ness the longer they're around humans. Toys keep up the Masquerade because their child's imagination feeds their existence, and showing independence weakens or severs that link. Toys which are loved and played with long enough gain a great deal of "essence," developing not only their character but also their skills and abilities. A well-loved, much-played with toy can pull off incredible stunts, as seen in the toys' gradual increase in competence throughout the movies.

Once animated, a toy has to be destroyed to lose the spark of life, but they can be starved of "essence" without care or play, exactly equivalent to a human being starved of food and human contact. The Prospector, for instance, may have been animated simply by becoming a fixture in his dime store, only to go years without any real love or attention and thus kept barely alive and suffering. The cold admiration of a museum would keep him well-fed, if not ever really invested with love.
 * Lotso, on the other hand, absorbed some of the Essence of Thurifuge, Maeljin of Envy, and was in the process of turning Sunnyside into a wound. This makes his overthrow even happier, since really, would you want a servant of the archetypal embodiment of jealousy in charge of a daycare's spritual reflection?

The storyboard artists at Pixar didn't have much faith in Toy Story 3.
At the beginning of the movie, the title shown at first just says "Toy Story" with the traditional logo used for the first film, symbolizing the franchise as a whole. Then, a branding iron enters the frame and brands the "3" on below it, causing the logo and everything around it to burn down. Even if I don't necessarily believe this, it could symbolize the brutal hands of Executive Meddling coming in with a hot staff to cruelly brand a new movie into a franchise that the makers didn't feel needed it. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED Toy Story 3. I just thought of a new, interesting way to look at the otherwise forgettable scene. It'd also be a brilliant, subtle "screw you" for whatever filmmakers need one in the future.

Woody is a piece of bootleg merchandise for Woody's Roundup, not official.

 * He didn't even have to be made around the time that show still aired. Obviously, it was pretty popular and the merchandise became rare and valuable.
 * This would explain why Woody was not aware of his character's origin (or, ever thought he was the real character for that matter.) and also offers support in favor of Andy being Woody's first owner, not just his favorite.
 * While a collector like Al might take the bootleg as valuable I have my doubts that the toy museuem would and even if they did they would not put him with the other offical toys.

Buzz and Zurg actually came from a Star Wars-esque series
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is just a Spin-Off of that series.
 * Buzz works for the Galactic Alliance, so why not?

Andy was the kid from Tin Toy.

 * The fact that he's not horribly deformed in Toy Story can be put down to the Literary Agent Hypothesis.
 * The kid in that short is officially known as "Billy", and he chased "Tinny" around.

Toys lose their magic if humans see them too much.
The reason why toys "play dead" in front of humans is because they're magical, and some part of their subconscious knows this. They also (even if subconsciously) know that if humans see them moving around too much, they'll lose the magical ability to come to life. Hence Woody telling the freaks at Sid's house "we're gonna have to break a few rules".
 * You mean like Weeping Angels?
 * This reminds me of the Muppet special called The Christmas Toy, in which, by the laws of this show, a toy cannot be caught acting alive in front of a human, or they'll be "frozen"- i.e., they plop down and lose their ability to come alive and just exist as a regular toy for all eternity! Granted, this effect happens immediately, not after a period of exposure with humans.
 * But what about babies? Molly saw Woody and Buzz through the side-view mirror, and in the short Tin Toy, Billy chased Tinny around the room. I can understand when animals, like Buster and Scud, see them because they're not humans. But babies ARE humans.
 * They don't remember things as clearly as adults or kids.
 * But if babies see toys moving, wouldn't that make them lose their ability to come to life regardless of the baby remembering?

Toys have a truly inanimate state.
Which means that they go into a state of suspended animation when they "play dead" around humans. Notice when Woody and Buzz fight, they both have reflexes to pain, and yell when hurt. However, when around Sid, the daycare kids, or even Andy plays a little rough sometimes, they have no response. They don't even flinch as they're being ripped to pieces.
 * So in a sense, all the toys are possums?
 * I always thought they held it in around humans out of neccesity. They're really good at it due to being toys. When around toys they react normally with proper responses and reflexes because there's no need to hold them in.
 * In Toy Story 2, Andy's mom picks up Rex, and his eyes shift nervously. Toys also wink to each other on a few separate occasions in the first two movies. It made sense to me that they can control what parts of their body are inanimate. The cleaner from the second movie cleaning off Woody's eyes is a good example of this.
 * I'm pretty sure Toy Story 3 confirmed that they were just acting. When Bonnie makes Woody her new toy and all the other toys introduce themselves, they talk like they're actors.
 * I believe that they have to choose to move in front of humans over the age of two at least where the given human is looking.

Andy is related to Carl and Ellie from Up.

 * One of the Freeze Frame Bonuses in the third movie is a Postcard from Carl and Ellie Fredricksen on the corkboard in Andy's room. It's possible that they are his great-aunt and -uncle, which makes it a cool easter egg linking two of Pixar's movies.
 * If I had to say, Elle is likely the one related to Andy, possibly on his father's side. They're both free spirited, very imaginative, and get along well with others.

Pixar created Toy Story to make up for The Brave Little Toaster's commercial failure.
We all know that Pixar was formed by the people who worked on the latter, and it shows. Pixar's mascot is a sentient desk lamp (a sentient desk lamp was one of the five main characters in The Brave Little Toaster) and the famous "A113" appears in this movie. This film was great, but flopped at the box office. So what did Pixar do? They made a blockbuster film featuring living toys (the previous had living appliances) that ended up doing very well at the box office. Even weirder, they made a movie about living cars years later. Living vehicles appeared in The Brave Little Toaster.

Toys come alive because kids need them.
The most common theory I've seen is that a child's love brings the toys to life. But that doesn't explain Prospector, and Sid's toys. What brings the toys to life is not the love, but the needing. Toys are (after parents) a childs first friends, and being alive helps comfort children, even though the kids don't know it. Even Sid needed his toys as a sort of outlet for his agression. Prospector was alive because he needed to help some kid, but he never really got a chance.

Mr. Potato Head is a Time Lord
Man that sounded cool when I typed it. "Time Lord/WMG"
 * The above troper has been * ZOT* ted. The above troper owes the wiki one thesis on the nature of reality in the Pixar film of their choice ("Instrumentality", "Haruhi", and "Dying Dream" don't count). ...Though he does have a pocket that's got to be bigger on the inside.
 * ...His ass is a Tardis!
 * Done and Done


 * The troper responsible for the * ZOT* ting of the preceding troper, has been * ZOT* ted.

Woody doesn't remember Woody's Roundup because he was produced as a prop, not a toy.
He was played with a lot in the past 20 and 50 years, it gets kind of blurry for the first few decades to the point where he doesn't even recall the pre-Black Bart storylines with the more intricate scenario props. He never did have the Woody's Roundup mythos imprinted on him, as opposed to the Buzz Lightyears, Emperor Zergs, and probably Jessies, Bullseyes, and possily Stinky Petes how do I even still know this stuff!? The mass-produced Woody dolls are much lower quality than the Super Prototype made in the making of the show, and were played with much more than the secondary character toys, so few if any are left in existence outside the hands of collectors who know exactly what they can be worth. Now, if only Word of God could oh-so-conveniently mention that Andy has an aunt on his father's side of the family...
 * I'm sorry, but what does a paternal aunt have to do with this theory at all?
 * Emily? I don't even remember.

Sid goes into toy design

 * Will Wright and Mike Mozart seem to think he's perfect for it.
 * That's an interesting idea, but it would have to be a few years after his job as a garbage worker.
 * Maybe he's working his way through college?

Sid will eventually grow up to be Mr. Crocker
You know what's weird? Sid actually kind of looks like a younger, less deformed version of Mr. Crocker from The Fairly Odd Parents. He loves playing the villain role and appears to be a sadist when treating his toys, albeit to a much lesser degree than Crocker. Mix this in with his childhood trauma and you've got a potential spaz for trying to prove the existence of DEMONIC LIVING TOYS!.
 * I wouldn't be too sure. Here's a picture of him as a teenager in the third film (for some this may be a spoiler): –  Does that look like Crocker?
 * Not yet, at least. Don't forget, Mr. Crocker is well over 40 years old, while Sid is still probably in his late teens. Also, depending on how you look at it, Crocker might actually have been very handsome if it wasn't for Turner.
 * Sid has to be 18 at the youngest. He's probably 19, or even 20. Andy starts the series at 6, and Sid is definitely not younger than that. 8 is a plausible age for Sid during Toy Story 1.
 * Jossed. Mr. Crocker's full name is Denzel Crocker (correct me if I'm wrong, but still), and Sid's full name is Sid Phillips.
 * Uh, that means jack squat. Ever heard of changing your name?
 * Except we see Crocker as a kid and he was still "Denzel Crocker" then (and wore glasses as well). Not to mention he didn't have a sister, lived in the wrong house, and was explicitly stated to be a child of the Seventies as opposed to the modern day.
 * Sid Phillips and Denzel Crocker look nothing alike, either as kids, teenagers, or adults. That, combined with the evidence one line above, should be enough to completely joss this guess. Sorry!
 * Fine, for sake of the argument, while Sid most likely isn't going to be Mr. Crocker, he does/will indefinitely have Mr. Crocker-  like  complex. This is fairly obvious, as stated above from his psychological trauma issues, and the fact that should any additional evidence about Living Toys! wouldn't take much to push him over the edge. Heck, that might be a reason why he's working at the dump, seeing toys getting destroyed again probably calms him down!

The toys are evolved forms of the Weeping Angels
The reason the toys are inanimate is because they are quantum-locked, they can only move when they aren't looked at. Yet they've evolved so that they can look at each other, and when they evolved they lost their powers to send people through time. And the reason that they could move when they attacked Sid was that he continuously kept blinking in fear when seeing the toys, therefore they could move.

The toys are domesticated Weeping Angels.
Same powers, but harmless and cute instead of dangerous and terrifying. They also got the power to be made of cloth and plastic, much more amiable personalities, can see each other, and can move if seen, but due to a racial memory usually don't bother.
 * I hate you, I hate you and the above guesses, I was just getting over the nightmares of the weeping angels and now they're back.
 * ** Way to ruin the franchise for me. I'm going to see those statues every time I watch these movies now. There is no escape...

Andy's mom is a witch/dabbles in magic and all of Andy's and Molly's toys used to be people from the neighborhood who have been turned into toys
It's a little far-fetched (Like everything here has been the epitome of sane thinking), but I do have some evidence to back this up:
 * With the exception of Andy's family, Sid's family, Al (from Al's Toy Barn), and ), there are no other families in the neighborhood (the [DVD commentary pointed out that most of the people at Pizza Planet in Toy Story 1 are just different-colored clones of Andy, Molly, and their mom). The kids that came to Andy's party have to be from another neighborhood (or are blissfully unaware that their parents are "missing").
 * It's never really explained how Andy's toys, and Molly's Little Bo Peep figurine, gained the power to come to life. You'd think for a Disney movie there'd be some kind of origin, but this is Pixar where viewers are just supposed to accept the fact that the toys have the ability to come to life just out of the blue (hey, it worked for Cars) or draw their own conclusion about how the toys come to life (i.e., the power of being loved and played with is what keeps toys alive. If that were true, explain Sid's toys...or Jessie after her original owner left her on the side of the road in a donation box. Someone, please?). My conclusion is that, underneath her sunny, suburban mom exterior, Andy's mom practices some kind of witchcraft that turns the neighbors she hates into toys her son can play with forever (or at least until Toy Story 3). Here's a list of what each toy used to be:
 * The Woody doll is Andy's father, who was punished for not spending time with his family (and probably beat Andy's mom or cheated on her).
 * The Little Bo Peep figurine? The woman who stole Andy's dad away from the family and a fellow housewife and mom who always did things better than Andy's mom (including snag men). It does explain why the romantic relationship Bo has with Woody feels like it's been around for a long time.
 * Mr. Potato Head was a grouchy neighbor who always yelled at Andy and his friends to get off the lawn and threw potatoes at them if they didn't comply.
 * Hamm the piggy bank was a banker who was about to foreclose on the home.
 * The Etch-a-Sketch was a hack caricaturist who was hired to do children's parties and never held down a steady, 9-to-5 job. He lived with Andy's family for a time because he got kicked out of his parents' basement and Andy's mom felt sorry for him, but when he began sponging off his hostess, Andy's mom used magic to get rid of him once and for all.
 * Sarge (the green, plastic Army man) was a Shell-Shocked Veteran-turned-school bus driver. He fell under Andy's mom's spell after nearly crashing the bus with her precious little snowflake inside of it (this happened when Andy was in the second grade) thanks to one of his many 'Nam flashbacks. The Combat Carl that Sid blew up was Sarge's friend.
 * The Speak 'n Spell was a nerdy kid who always defeated Andy in classroom spelling bees and drove Andy into being home-schooled.
 * Rex (the plastic T-Rex toy) was just the wussy Goth and town Butt Monkey. Andy's mom cast a spell on him accidentally, but since no one really cared about him, his disappearance wasn't a total loss.
 * Slinky the Dog -- a redneck who let his dog roam free around the neighborhood. It pissed off the block association (of which Andy's mom is head).
 * The hockey puck: a "hockey mom" who repeatedly made fun of Andy's mom for coddling her son and daughter.
 * Lenny the wind-up binoculars: a local Peeping Tom, natch.
 * The rubber, squeaky shark: a nerdy video store clerk who always bothered Andy's mom with recommedations of the movie Jaws.
 * Now, the other toys and the Buzz Lightyear doll weren't humans who are now sentenced to a lifetime plastic imprisonment, but Andy's mom's magic is so powerful that anything inanimate can come to life in there (with some exceptions: the bed, the crib, the walls, the posters, the books, the furniture, and the board games).
 * This doesn't explain the other toys that don't belong to Andy, though. Why are Sid's toys alive? The Crane game Aliens? The Roundup Gang? Al's Toy Barn Toys? Sunnyside Daycare Toys? Tons of the toys don't have any form of relationship to Andy or his Mom.
 * I didn't say it was a perfect Wild Mass Guessing, though The Round-Up Gang could have been a girl from Andy's mom's childhood (named Jessie) who loved cowboy stuff and made fun of Andy's mom for not being a tomboy (Stinky Pete is Jessie's grandfather and Bulls-Eye is the horse Jessie always rode) and the first person Andy's mom turned into a toy in an act of Carrie-style revenge. And who's to say that Andy's mom's magic is perfect? The toys that come to life and weren't people that were close to Andy's family could have been innocent victims who just woke up one day and found themselves encased in plastic due to a faulty spell. As for Sid's toys, well, they used to be Andy's toys, but Sid stole them and used them for his own twisted games.
 * That's the wildest mass guessing I've ever read. It's more out there than the idea of Sid being Mr. Crocker.
 * Yet it still pales in comparison to that Mr. Potato Head being a Timelord.
 * Alternatively, she (or someone in the neighborhood) once tried to bring a toy to life, but thought it a failure since they never saw the toy move. Area of effect spell that doesn't wear off means living toys in the whole city for all time.

In Real Life, PIXAR donated real Toy Story characters to local daycare centers for inspiration.
This might actually make sense. PIXAR is known for doing amazing outside research when making their films. The employees donated the Toy Story toys to daycare centers and then videotaped how the children actually played with the toys.

Andy's real name is Pietro Maximoff, or his father is a Super.
In Toy Story 2, Andy's hair is seen to be seemingly graying prematurely, and his father never being around can be attributed to it being Magneto going around crusading for Mutant Superiority, or him being away on Superhero Duty, but there is one other hint besides "Disney Owns Marvel".
 * In TS2, Andy's mom says he has five minutes before they have to leave for Cowboy Camp. Andy is able to string up Bo Peep, arrange all of his Army Men perfectly in front of Hamm, put Buzz on RC in a box, set up the ramp so it exactly hits Hamm, and acting it out takes about a minute, and this all comes from the room being in disarray after Buster ran rampant looking for Woody. No kid can set all of that up (particularly the Army Men) in five minutes, barring being a Speedster. Ergo, he is somehow related to a Super-being.
 * Or, like this troper's mother, when Andy's Mom says five minutes, she really means half an hour.
 * Molly doesn't look like Scarlet Witch. She could dye her hair, but this will make coming home for the holidays very awkward.

Instead of just hitching a ride in the garbage truck, Woody just out and asked Sid for help.
Grabage trucks make a lot of stops, and the toys were in a hurry. Leaning may or may not have been involved. (Considering what Sid probably took away from the first film, it's quite possible all they had to do to convince him to take them home was to just say hi.) -I like this idea! It totally could have happened off screen.
 * It actually fills in a plot hole with the garbage truck which is how they could have taken a lift on it. There is nothing for them to hold on to outside the truck and the truck itelf is far to dangerous to jump in (as we've seen it crushes everyone inside it), taking the front seat with Sid's consent was the only way it could have worked out. I'm actually given the impression that it was the original intention but the writers felt having a human interact with the toys like that would break the convention too much (especially for those who had not seen the first film and didn't know who Sid was) so instead they left it as heavily implied.
 * Dude, if that did happen, Sid truly would become Mr. Crocker, as he would probably experience a mental relapse in his childhood trauma, as well as a confirmation in his belief that DEMONIC LIVING TOYS do exist.
 * As much as I love this theory, I get the feeling that no matter how Sid's dealt with his trauma since the first movie, or how he deals with other toys, encountering Woody would make him curl up in the fetal position, muttering "you're the doll" repeatedly.
 * It is possible he's actually greatful for scaring him straight though. He might have realized he'd have been a far worse person if they'd not scared the heck out of him. Or have realized it was his own sadism that resulted in them scaring him, Woody did tell him so. His own words imply that he actually did treat his toys better after them (he says he had a Lotso toy as a kid and loved it, meaning ether he had one already and we never saw it or he got it after he was tramatized and treated it better) and liked actualy playing with toys instead of torturing them. If that happened, then odds are he'd be grateful that they scared him straight and willingly gave them a ride. As for why he tied them to the front of his truck, perhaps he thought the toys in the dump were already dead or thought he was displaying them proudly. Ether way, they probably would've informed him Lotso was a Complete Monster and deserved it.

Ken and Barbie in TS3 are a Stealth Parody of Love At First Sight couples.
I mean, just * look* at them.
 * I would say they're not even so much a Stealth Parody as a parody. This is particularly satisfying because, who do we know who has a reputation for using Love At First Sight?
 * Barbie and Ken are parodies of themselves throughout the entire movie, this is just part of the whole shebang.

Woody was a collectible owned by Andy's dad (slightly related to an above WMG).
From Toy Story 2, it's clear that Woody's Roundup was an old, old show and that merchandise from it ends up becoming quite collectible. Furthermore, Stinky Pete's situation seems to indicate poor sales. It seems probable that Woody was bought to be a collectible, left in storage for many years, and was only first played with when Andy came across him. It also explains Woody's jealousy of anyone getting between him and Andy in the first movie and why he doesn't remember his own show backstory.
 * Collaborate with the franchise toy theory below to fully explain Woody's situation, and Buzz too.

Toys can tap into children's imaginations while in their inanimate state.
The ridiculously awesome intro sequence is what being played with is like from the toys' point of view. One of the reasons, perhaps the main reason, that toys love children playing with them, is that they experience it the way the child imagines it. This makes perfect sense when you think about it in relation to the movies, and is also completely awesome. I mean think about it- no wonder Buzz took so long to realise he was a toy, when he could fly and shoot lasers for a few hours each day, and Woody, being the favourite toy, naturally takes centre stage most of the time, which likely is one reason why he's so loyal. This would suggest that the toys can 'see' the game as if it is actually happening, just like the start of the third film, and though they know it isn't 'real', how their owner plays with them can subconciously affect how they see each other. Would explain a few things about how the toys act:
 * I am going to consider this canon whenever I rewatch the trilogy from now on!
 * If Toys can tap into their childrens' imaginations, then this might explain why Jonny knows that Plank is alive.
 * No wonder Buzz was so confused (traumatized?) after that whole Mrs. Nesbitt thing.
 * The toys look up to Woody and Buzz as leaders because they is always portrayed as the heroes. Potatohead is resentful of Woody in the first film because Andy always used him as a villain for him to foil, and it made him bitter.
 * Why Woody came to hate Buzz so quickly - aside from straight jealousy, Andy kept playing games where he made Buzz beat Woody up.
 * Why Rex feels pressure to be scary - He's naturally shy, but Andy always plays him as a frightening monster.
 * In the third film, Lotso seemed to be one of the more popular toys with the Butterfly room kids, which would aid his ability to lead the rest of them and convince them of his philosophy.
 * Fridge Horror: Good gravy. If that's the case, that let us only shudder horrifically at whatever the toys were experiencing when the toddlers played with them. Imagine The carnage, the destruction, the senseless violence, the horror, THE HORROR!

Once a new name is written on a toy, they forget their old owners as if reprogrammed.
Though it takes a long time. Woody obviously is a very old toy, and I think Andy's mother even tells Al he's a family heirloom. Yet no mention is ever made of any previous owners and Woody's identity is heavily based on the fact he is Andy's toy. A lot of the other toys don't seem to understand this (as they don't have Andy's name on them). And Woody didn't forget Andy during his restoration since the name was merely painted over and he didn't get a new label and Jessie hasn't forgotten Emily since she doesn't appear to have been marked.
 * Jossed. In the third film, Jessie mentions (about her ) that

When the previous owner of a toy dies, that toy forgets about the previous owner and believes that the current owner always owned the toy.
Otherwise, Woody, who had to be well over 35 years old by the time Andy got a hold of him, would have struggled with the memories of his previous owner, who may have died after selling Woody, but before the movies.

Somewhat related to the WMG above about Andy's Father, he is Woody.
Andy's father couldn't bear to leave his son, with his death coming soon his loyal Woody doll offered his body to place his soul in so he could always be there. His last will before he died left everything to his mom, and especially a Woody doll for Andy. However in the process of becoming a toy he forgets everything explaining why in TS2 he didn't know there was a TV show or merchandise of him. Now that he is a toy, he is wired like a toy, but he is different because he was a human soul. Notice the pattern of him being FIERCELY loyal to Andy, the thought of even leaving his house is something in TS3 that he didn't even want to consider until, like a good parent, he understands he needs to let his son go to college on his own.
 * Alternatively, Mrs. Davis in fact DOES practice witchcraft/voodoo/dark magic/etc. And combined with the theory above and/or a bit of the machine from 9, placed Mr. Davis' soul in Woody. Now all we need to figure out is what happened to that lost Woody soul that was sacrificed.

Woody is Andy's dad's Horcrux!
In the style of the diary, only less evil. This is because, yes, a person has to die in order to make a Horcrux, but they don't have to be murdered. Mrs. Davis was present, and she performed the Horcrux spell right as Mr. Davis died. Since he died, but nobody killed him, nobody's soul was torn, so his entire being was condensed into Woody. And he doesn't remember because... the process of being turned into fluff is very stressful on a mind, so something had to give, and memories were the first thing to go.
 * The problem with that theory is that you have to commit murder to create the Horcrux. Then again, seeing as how no one ever mentions anything about Andy's dad...

People are reincarnated into toys that represent their death.
Buzz was an astronaut killed on the job, the Potato-heads were dismembered, Woody was bitten by a snake in his boot, Slinky was severed in half, Great Shape Barbie had an eating disorder, Lotso had a severe strawberry allergy....
 * Regarding that last one...maybe he was
 * I like this theory.
 * See, I was thinking his strawberry allergy made him puff up so that he suffocated from a closed off airway, which is why he's purple and fluffy.
 * Alternately, Woody was an actor who appeared in many Westerns and was killed on the job when someone shot a gun that contained a real bullet instead of a blank. This would explain why he has no gun in his holster: he's too afraid to carry one.
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Strode Check out the date of death. Then scroll down to the bottom.
 * And another alternate theory for Lotso: he lived in a country where the original leader (Daisy, his owner) was assassinated or removed in some other horrible way and replaced . Everyone was (in terms of increasing severity): imprisoned, sent to The Box (Potato Head), brainwashed , or killed.
 * Lotso is Stalin. Enough said.
 * Hamm was a banker with clogged arteries, Bo Peep was a fragile Distressed Damsel who didn't get rescued in time, Ken was...well possibly strangled by an ascot but his murderer also cut off something. I'm guessing Rex and Trixie were paleontologists or animators/SFX people who worked on dinosaur movies, which somehow led to their demise.
 * Mr. Pricklepants was a classically trained actor who died during a stage stunt, the little green men are victims of a radiation accident involving a claw, the Prospector was actually trapped in a mine and died, and Jessie was a cowgirl abandoned in the desert to die. Say, this WMG is fun!
 * I've got some: Dolly was a fashion designer who got into messy sewing accident, Twitch was a entomologist who died from an poisonous insect bite, chatterphone was a gangster who died in a gunfight, Toroto was a anime animator who died while animating said movie, and stretch was a diver who was attacked by an octopus (no not that attack!).
 * Got a few more: Wheezy was a has-been singer who died onstage from lack of oxygen while singing a high-pitched song he could sing in his youth, Slinky was not only torn in half but by wild dogs no less, Bullseye was a champion race horse who broke a leg and was melted down for glue. Bo-peep's sheep became mutton.
 * Maybe Bullseye was an actor in samurai movies who was shot in the eye by a bow on the job, Big Baby was a cattle farmer that tried to infiltrate another farm but was trampled and knocked into a well, the squeaky shark was a swimmer strangled by a rope, Sarge was a vetrean covered in acid, Zurg tied himself to a lighnining rod and was zapped in the teeth, Chunk was killed in a rock silde, Rocky was a wrestler thrown out of the arena onto a jagged rock, Etch A Sketch was sliced into pieces by a fan, and Speak-n-Spell fell of a staircase into a factory for PCs and was crushed.
 * I have a wicked idea how this WMG applies to Sids mutant toys, they started out a seperate toys until sid combined them, meaning two ( or more) souls sharing one body, Legs was a failing supermodel who died of botched liposuction combined with constuction worker who died when a crane fell on top of him, Babyface was Big Baby's younger brother in life who died from accidental decaptation combined with a steel worker who died when he fell into the molted metal, the toy who is half skateboard is part teenager who died in a skating accident and part pilot who's plane had crashed, some of them with mouths can talk but they are creeped out by the sound of their voice.
 * The Speak N' Spell (forget if it had a name) was an elementary school teacher killed in an accident when he was correcting English papers. RC was a NASCAR racer who died in an automobile accident. Bo Peep was a shepherdess who died in some sort of freak slaughtering accident. The soldiers were... soldiers. The peapod kids from 3 were conjoined twins who died in-utero, and Buttercup GOT IMPALED BY A UNICORN YEAAAAHHH
 * If I may get in on specifics for the soldiers, Sarge was clearly a Sergeant (and being the point of authority put a target on his head). The Minesweeper stepped on a landmine. The Medics had their field hospital bombed, or died while attempting to save someone else. The Combat Carl was blown up by a tank or mortar round (thus making his destruction recursive). The Paratroopers partook in an aerial assault (such as Market Garden or the invasion of Crete). The man Sarge refuses to leave quite nearly dies the same way twice: he was killed the first time by being crushed (possibly by a tank)
 * I showed this theory to a friend, an he suggested that Wheezy had asthma and died of complications.
 * Ooh, I've got one! Big Baby was an abandoned baby who died before anyone could find him! Damn, I just made myself sad...
 * Slinky dog could've been a person who was crushed to death, cue accordion style corpse.
 * Or maybe Slinky was a junkyard weiner dog that got on to that thing that crushes trash and got crushed to death, accordian-style.

People are reincarnated into toys that had a significants to them
Slightly similar to the above, but only when someone dies, their being becomes part of a significant toy to them. So when Andy's father died, his being combined with Woody's, hence why woody is so devoted to Andy. He's watching his (former) son grown up.
 * This also why Buzz initially believes he's the real Buzz: He hadn't acquired a soul yet.

The identical Barbie dolls that appeared during the Hilarious Outtakes of the second movie did get a part on the third.
If you can't remember, during the outtakes, Stinky Pete was seen talking to two identical Barbie dolls and tells them he's sure he can get a part for them in Toy Story 3. And he did: one of the Barbies is the main Barbie doll and the other is her stunt double.

Emily is Daisy's mom (If she's not Andy's mom).
Emily was a kid in the 50s, 60s, or 70s (?) when "Woody's Roundup" was popular. Daisy was a little girl in the 80s, when Lots-o'-Huggin' bears were popular. Emily, Daisy's mom, and Daisy all seem to have similar hair, just like Ms. Davis had hair like Emily.

Andy will become a writer.
Whether it's children's books or a TV show, Andy is shown to be more than capable of making a decent plot.

Andy will become an animator, possibly at Pixar.
All Logic Bomb possibilities aside, all the material is there.
 * Andy can create and expand stories quite well (all three films).
 * He easily sees life from in line with the imagination and wonder of a child (playing with Bonnie).
 * He spends quite a bit of time at his computer/desk from how he sits in it/wear on the chair. A stretch, but plausible.
 * A shot of Andy's bulletin board shows he won an art contest. It was from the sixth grade, but the thing that turns on the lightbulb for your future career would be kept in a place of honor on your desk, wouldn't it?
 * Many of the posters in Andy's room lean toward the same style and aestetic. This leaves the option that Andy designed them, he is a fan of a certain artist, or there is one graphic artist in the Tri-County area.
 * His acceptance letter (also on bulletin board) is to a California college sounding suspiciously like the Pixar cabbage-patch Cal Arts. Also the PU pennant on his wall stood for Pixar University, accoring to a laughing Lee Unkrich

Andy will return in a Toy Story short as Bonnie's babysitter.
Similar to the one above, Andy has already proven that he has an amazing rapport with her, being one of the few people she actually opened up to in the film. Not only would be an amazing Crowning Moment of Heartwarming if this happened, it would be great to see another scene with them playing together.
 * Alternatively, Andy will stop by Bonnie's house when he comes home for Christmas later that year.

Toys really do come to alive in Real Life
And Pixar just videotaped them for the films. How else could one possibly explain how they get so many name brand toys to star in their films, as well as Hilarious Outtakes scenes if the toys aren't paid professionals acting in the film? They're all paid actors distributed by the toy companies in order to star in the Toy Story films.
 * That wouldn't explain the quality increase throughout each of the movies. Compare Woody's model from Toy Story 1 to Toy Story 3 and you'll see that Woody is much more detailed (Fabric looks more realistic, light hits the materials all the toys are made from realisticaly, etc.) Not to mention the change in apperance of the humans and attention to detail in the backgrounds.
 * Better cameras, not better toys.
 * Or, maybe they videotaped them, then used Rotoscoping to create the animation. That way, Pixar's secret doesn't get out, because it matches the animation technology of the time.

Andy is narrating the three movies
Either he is writing a book, or he's narrating the toys adventures to Bonnie. He remembers when he got his Buzz Lightyear, and, after misplacing it and Woody, made up an adventure about how they befriended. In the Summer he got Jessie and Bullseye, he fabricated a story about how his other toys had rescued them, but in reality he discovered them at the attic(They were his mom's, as one WMG above suggest) or he got them at Cowboy Camp from a girl named Emily. In the third movie, he's debating what to do with them, and came with several possibilities, and how his beloved toys would react to each one.
 * And after he graduates college and becomes a film director, he'll remember his stories and think, "I should make a film trilogy about this..."

Woody has no fear of being stored in the attic for a long time -- perhaps until Andy has his children -- because he's done it before.
He belonged to Andy's father ("an old family toy"), his owner stored him the attic when he grew up, and passed him down to his son years later. All the other toys, save Jessie, never belonged to anyone else except Andy, which is why it takes Woody awhile to sell them on the idea of this being a Best Case Scenario.

Bonnie eventually gets a Mira Nova action figure and Woody will hook up with it.
Buzz hooked up with the girl toy from Woody's show, it only makes sense that Woody hooks up with the girl toy with Buzz's show.
 * Nonononono. It will turn out that Bo Peep's lamp was sold to Bonnie's mom, and she was placed at a part of her house that Woody didn't visit before.
 * Or perhaps he hooks up with Dolly... Nah, the above comment makes the most CMOH sense.
 * The Mira Nova theory makes lots of sense. Cracky, but makes sense. This troper would love it if it happened canonically, since it would be like a Pair the Spares situation. I admit that I think Woody/Mira would be kinda cute.
 * Well, Buzz fell for Jessie because she was an Action Girl(He expresses certain interest first, and is completely taken when Jessie pulls a stunt) while Woody's ideal girl was a more "traditional" girl. A Girly girl Closer to Earth, if Mira Nova enters the picture, it's more probable a Love Triangle between Buzz, Jessie and Mira would happen. Plus, if we get Bo Peep back, we'll get a much deserved CMOH, plus, we will be able to see how Jessie and her interact.

Pixar collected all the tears shed during WALL-E and Up...
...And used them to fuel their computers to make Toy Story 3. All the sorrow and sadness everyone felt was then channelled into said movie, making it the Tear Jerker fest that it was.

Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor is the voice of all Buzz Lightyears
The films take place in the same universe as Home Improvement, evidenced by the Binford tool box in Sid's room in the first film. Tool Time host Tim Taylor was at some point hired to be the voice of Buzz Lightyear for all the toys and tv shows. The scene in an episode of Home Improvement where Tim plays with his niece's Buzz toy is him knowingly playing with Buzz Lightyear merchandise from the character voiced by himself, instead of Toy Story merchandise of a character voiced by Tim Allen.

All toys have at least a little connection to their characters
Lotso-Huggin' Bear does, in fact, like hugs. Plus, Barbie and Ken feel like they were made for each other, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head act like an old married couple, and all Buzz Lightyear toys think they are their character. Woody also feels a connection to Jessie and Stinky Pete, because on the show they were his sidekicks. Perhaps, although not as severe as the Lightyear characters, all toys based on existing characters react to the toys in their line in a similar way as they are supposed to.
 * Well, toys come off the assembly line fully-formed, and don't really have time to 'grow up', so it makes sense that they'd start with the personality that that the toy's maker has given it- and even after they realise they're toys, it probably takes a long time for it to change significantly. Compare Woody to Buzz- Woody's almost completely forgotten his original identity, and if anything he starts acting more like a cowboy after watching Woody's Roundup, while Buzz maintains his Space Ranger speech patterns, personality and mannerisms for all movies. (especially the third)

Pixar will make a Toy Story 4 that reunites Bo and Woody.
If Unkrich has really been paying close attention to fans' reactions to the third movie, hopefully he'll notice that half of fan fics written since its premiere are either about Woody reuniting with Bo or filling in the blanks on how he lost her.
 * The plan for Post-Toy Story 3 material with the characters is a series of shorts similar to what Cars got, the first of which will be in front of Cars 2. A story of Woody reuniting with Bo would fit the format better anyways.
 * Toy Story 4 would destroy a fitting end to the TS saga. TS escaped fate as a Franchise Zombie. Let's leave the Bo Peep/Woody reunitings to bonus short films (or fanfiction).
 * It's interesting that you say that. Toy Story has been marketable for 15 years. Even in the 10 years between the last two movies, there was always a steady stream of Toy Story merchandise. I think this indicates to everyone involved that there is really no need for more Toy Story films, as the whole franchise is overall successful enough that they don't have to go down the Franchise Zombie path.
 * And The Incredibles has shown that Pixar won't make sequels if they don't feel they need to. Toy Story had a full character arc that's been drawn to a close. We might see some shorts or comics that take place afterwards, though.

Toy Story 4 will have toys revel to the world that they are alive (or get revenge on humans).

 * The only reason for this is Rule of Cool
 * The series always had fantasy elements, but it was never the focus of the three stories- just the premise. No explanation for living toys is explained, which is why I think this is such a great idea for a fourth film. However, it may become TOO fantastical or science-fiction-y, so it could lose the touch of the first three films.

What if Lotso manages to escape from the dump?

 * 1: He manages to make his way back to Sunnyside and gets himself in (either by somehow getting himself donated, or just sneaking in). When he arrives, all of his former minions Zerg Rush him and throw him back into the dumpster. And this time, without the toys he left to die to save him, he will be shredded and incinerated.
 * 2: He gets back to Sunnyside, and finds that while a lot of the toys are against him now, there are still some that are loyal to him. What happens next? A toy civil war (Lotso's toys Vs. Ken and Barbie's toys), of course!
 * After the civil war he regains his reign, with the few that still pledge loyal or are too scared, but with even harder and more psychopathic rules, turning the place into a real Crapsack World Dystopia. This time, however, there will be a La Résistance force lead by Barbie and helped by Woody and gang from the outside. They actively try to hatch an assignation plot to get rid of Lotso for good. Oh dear God I want to see this so much.
 * Fridge Brilliance: This scenario would just compound the religious metaphors. Don't know what I'm talking about? Read Revelation Chapter 20. After Jesus destroys Satan's forces, Satan is bound up and cast into the abyss for a thousand years, while all the believers live in peace (including resurrecting those that have died). But at the end of the thousand years, Satan gets one final reprieve, which he spends launching another great rebellion that leads to him and his army being consigned to the Lake of Fire.
 * 3: The "Heartwarming" one, if it's not entirely believable.. He manages to track down Daisy (to, I dunno, get revenge on her somehow? Find the replacement Lotso and rough him up?), who is now an adult. She then finds him and recognizes him as the Lotso she lost, and Lotso realizes that he was completely wrong about everything, and is finally happy again. He could even pull a Heel Face Turn by apologizing to everyone he's hurt in the past. However, the replacement Lotso is still with Daisy (she could have kept him around as a treasure), and he's starting to feel jealous and unloved...
 * Or more likely, Lotso will just fall apart eventually. He probably won't last very long being strapped to the the front of a waste disposal vehicle which has to sort through hundreds of pounds of trash each day. And considering how old and ragged he already is, it doesn't look it'll take much for him to get ripped to shreds.
 * He might be the Lotso seen in Up. The one seen in the corner of a girl's room. He's off in the corner because he still doesn't want an owner.
 * Maybe Sid, since he works at the dump, could see Lotso and those other bug riddled toys tied to that truck and save them because he's still paranoid about toys being alive.
 * I gots a better idea: He finally does get free and soon finds who else but... Stinky Pete, abandoned by HIS new owner. Lotso then uses this to convert stinky back to the bad side and plans to get revenge on woody and co after going to sunnyside and seeing things have changed. they then follow molly home and attempt vengance but in the end, pete has a change of heart and sacrifices himself to save everyone from lotso... only to be saved by buzz, while lotso is found by the garbage man and put back on the truck.

Unless Woody reunites with Bo Peep somehow, he and Dolly will become more than friends.

 * Woody is romantically lonely because Bo Peep isn't in his life anymore. Dolly doesn't seem to have any romantic relations with Bonnie's other toys - in fact, from what we see, she seems to be the leader/TeamMom of the group, much like Woody is with Andy's other toys. And they're both dolls.
 * WooDolly!
 * Unfortunately, wouldn't that mean Hot Skitty On Wailord Action? Squick.
 * ...let's not get into that.

The dump worker who picks up Lotso at the end of the movie is/was Daisy hirself, having transitioned from female to male (transgender). Lotso has returned to his owner.

 * S/he does say they used to have one...
 * Or alternatively, Daisy is married to the dump worker and realized it was her Lotso when visiting him on the job.
 * Even more Ironic Punishment, I like this.

Slinky Dog's body is made of Nintendium.
Anyone who's ever owned a slinky before knows that they're usually very easy to bend or "overstretch", thus permanently ruining the coils. Over the course of the three films, Slinky Dog has been stretched to the point of feeling physical pain, used as a bungie cord multiple times, had several objects tangled up in his coils, and come within inches of an incinerator without showing any signs of melting.And yet, when all's said and done, his body is as good as new. The only plausible explanation is that he was manufactured at the same factory that produces Nintendo products.
 * I always thought that it was because Slinky has the potential to manipulate his springs according to however he wants to. He may have just been to tired immediately after the whole "car chase" scene to retract them, but after he regained some strength, he was able to rebend them back in place (which is why we later see him back to his shorter self). That's why he can also do this:

Objects, not just toys, can come alive only after a child puts character into it.
Think about it. In a world where Toys come alive, there's no reason why we'd also see Lawn Gnomes and Christmas decorations come alive too. PIXAR execs have also stated that homemade toys can come to life as well, which means that in some point in time, that mass of just materials and stuff can suddenly come alive. Toys, objects and other things can come alive in the Toy Story world as soon as a child portrays their own character into it. This may not always be their permanent personality, but it is the initial spark that gives toys, christmas decorations, lawn gnomes, and whatevers the power of sentience. That's why at the end of Toy Story 3, Andy's definition of the characteristics of the toy's personality (with the possible exception of Rex) was so completely spot on to their true ones.
 * This explains why the spin & say in 3 doesn't have a personality, but Andy's Etch-a-Sketch does.
 * Andy's definition of their personalities wasn't spot on at all. He had Ham and Potato Head as villains, and Slinky Dog as their forcefield dog-thing. It also doesn't explain why Etch-a-Sketch had a personality, since Andy never gave it one in any of the skits.
 * Could have been off screen, remember, we've only seen a fraction of Andy's playtime with his toys. For all we know, he might also have placed Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head as "good guys" as well as included Etch and his other toys in his play as well.
 * That and villainous toys don't have to be villainous characters. (and likewise, see Pete and Lotso) They don't have to act like the kid thinks they do, they just need to be played with. We've also seen that some toys, especially Bonnie's, see themselves as 'actors' of sorts, that are 'cast' in various roles depending on what their kid is imagining today- even the villainous toys (such as Zurg) see themselves as Punch Clock Villains, while we've seen with Lotso that toys that seem nice don't necessarily have to be that way.
 * So basically Kid Radd, then?

== Toys by default are aware they are a toy immediately after being built. However, toys that are adapted from characters in a franchise start out in a "demo mode" where they believe they are that character. They need to go through a traumatic realization in order to believe otherwise. Therefore, Buzz Lightyears initially don't get along well with other toys. == The other toys in the films were aware what they were, but Buzz was the only toy we saw getting received by Andy, and the other toys were already through that experience. It may have been too traumatic for them ever to mention it again.
 * so does that mean Woody originally thought that he was the "real Woody?"
 * By this theory, yes, Woody thought he was the real cowboy from Woody's Round-Up. But TS2 shows that not only did he realize otherwise, but he COMPLETELY FORGOT about it! Maybe he had amnesia from being knocked in the head?

Toys can "see" in all directions while in their inanimate state, even in directions where their eyes could not possibly sense, like a radar.
Toys always know what happens around them in moments when they are not alive, since they comment on those events once they do come alive again. And, not all toys have eyes- they HAVE to have known or witnessed the humans in their inanimate state somehow.
 * This seems to be supported by Woody's Line to Sid in the first movie "we toys see everything"

Andy studies Artifical Intelligence in college
When this troper was watching Toy Story 3 today, he believed he saw the letters 'A I' on the spine of a book inside the box that woody was packed in at the beggining of the film. The theory is that Andy studies artifical intelligence, and eventually starts up a company that specializes in creating artifical intelligence in robots. Thus leading to a revolution in technology, and creating a new type of 'super-toys', which is related back to his love of playing with Woody and the gang. Thus through countless inventions and events over the years, he marries a woman with the last name of Hobby and takes her name, and invents a robot that is capable of true love. Thus creating the events of AI Artificial Intelligence.
 * Or Small Soldiers.

Rex is a skilled gamer.
In Toy Story 2, the first 5 minutes is Rex playing Buzz Lightyear of Star Command on a SNES. When Andy isn't looking, Rex must be playing many other games such as Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox, The Legend of Zelda, and more. He just can't beat the final level of Buzz's first videogame.
 * To say nothing of the fact that despite his short arms he has obviously managed to get past all the other obstacles he has to get through before the Zurg boss battle.
 * Assuming all that wasn't just a cutscene.
 * Those are some pretty damn good graphics for an SNES... or a licenced game!
 * Pity about the short arms. For that matter, Trixie's MSN message might not have been what you thought it was but it sounded like a game- maybe Trixie is a tabletop gaming geek! (and thus, Bonnie will end up playing Dungeons and Dragons. And maybe Warhammer 40000. Now that would get... interesting... I'm imagining a more Grimdark version of the Army Men)
 * Or trying to be a backseat gamer while Rex played Army Men (the licensed video game released between TS2 and TS3).
 * Of course, this means off-brand primary color army men, as well as cowboys and indians, is more speedier since da red wunz go FASTA! Yes, Bonnie will play as da orks, her hyperactive imagination cannot be contained by mere Imperium control.

In the Toy Story universe, Lego bricks can form Hive Minds.
The more bricks are put together, the smarter they become. Individual bricks are animal-level (perhaps merely like insects), but full models (and probably minifigs as well) are sapient. Kind of like the Lekgolo, come to think of it.
 * Kind of like the Geth, if you ask me...
 * The Replicators? It's surprising how many evil alien races are based on sentient Lego bricks...
 * That would explain SCP-387. For some reason a batch of Legos were created that didn't have toys instinctive reflex to "freeze" around humans. SCP-705 might be the same basic idea.

Toys with demos or "try me" modes believe that they are whatever character or object they were manufactured as when they're in that mode.
Related to the "toys based on characters" theory above. Andy never switched Buzz from "Demo" to "Play." Either Sid did it when we weren't looking (and Buzz needed to acclimate to being a toy), or Buzz unconsciously switched himself when he saw the TV ad for Buzz Lightyears. The Spin and Speak in the third movie can be switched to a demo mode, which is what was done when he went against Lotso in an eerily similar way to the way Buzz did, and that is why it just acts like a Spin and Speak and has no personality.

Toys with "try me" tabs protruding from their battery compartments, however, can never go back once the tab is pulled.
 * Alternately: Buzz was still in demo mode after seeing the commercial, which is why he still tried to fly afterward. The fall jiggled his switch to play mode, his existential horror resulted mainly from 'waking up' maimed and trapped in Sid's house.


 * OR, alternativley (again!) toys that have a 'demo mode' all start out with their delusion of being real before being put into 'play mode': either by their owner by simply switching the button (like how i'm assuming alot of Andy's other toys, to explain why they didnt go therough the same thing as Buzz) but if an owner doesn't do that, the toy must realize for itself that its only a toy, like Buzz, and the trauma is what causes the switch to move on its own (like a snap of realization in the brain; instantly!) Toys without demo switches don't need to go through this experiance.


 * Or, being in demo mode makes you mechanical, and gives you trouble retaining long term memories, generally dummer, broken record and doesn't think about reality dummer not place where you keep knives dummer. Overall Demo Mode is a cheep imitation of play mode like it is in real life. The Buzz they knew and loved did not fit into Demo modes limited way of thinking so he forgot who he was. Buzz in play mode with amnesia might realize something is wrong with the picture and realize that....Lotso is evil and tricked me into keeping innocent people prisinor. Buzz is usually quite not that gullable even in his show.

All toys forget their previous owners once their new owner gives them a new identity.
Woody doesn't forget the hypothetical Andy's Dad randomly; it's because Andy's Dad knew Woody as the character from the show. When Woody was left to Andy, Andy had never seen Woody's Round-Up and just knew him as a random cowboy doll; naming him Sheriff Woody was just a coincidence, and the trappings of his identity as the kid's show character were absent. Jessie doesn't forget Emily because by the time Andy received her, he was aware of the show and of Jessie's canon ability as a yodeling cowgirl, and her identity remained intact.
 * It's possible that Andy's mom gave Woody to him and told him "This is Sheriff Woody, he was your father's favorite toy". Even if she hadn't seen the show, Andy's mom would have probably heard Woody's name from her husband at some point.
 * But you forgot one thing: Andy told her the personalities of all the toys. They should be fine.
 * This was jossed, in the original, no less. Buzz still remembered everything after Sid's sister gave him a new identity by rechristening him "Mrs. Nesbit."
 * But she never ascribed a complete identity or personality to him, and he was too traumatized by the initial stripping of his previous identity as The Real Buzz Lightyear for him to accept it as his role in his owner's play-world. If she'd kept him and loved him as Mrs. Nesbit, he would have.
 * One possible problem with this theory -- it's mentioned by Bonnie's toys that Bonnie does a lot of 'improv' (which I imagine to be lots of making stuff up at random), yet they seem to have clearly defined personalities outside of this.
 * But that makes no sense. We know for a fact that Jessie still remembers Emily in Toy Story 3. When she thinks she's going back into storage she curls up into a ball saying "It's Emily all over again!"

The toys end up living with Calvin.
After Bonnie grows up, her mother ends up selling the toys at a yard sale, and they all get bought by Calvin's parents. They enjoy being played by Calvin even more than Andy and Bonnie because a) Calvin will never grow up and b) he can see toys move without any sort of awful effect on them.
 * Correction: Bonnie is Calvin's mom. Calvin's dad was a kid when people still used black-and-white photography for everyday purposes because his parents (like him) were nostalgic and thanks to the increased lifespan of the future, intergenerational adult relationships and looking middle-aged well into your 60s and 70s is becoming more and more common.

Animate toys are most of this site's Tropers
They may even be... * Gasp* THE INVENTORS OF THE SITE AND ITS ADMINISTRAITORS!!!!!!!!!!!
 * "Oh, uh... that's just another dinosaur across the street- here let me just take care of that! ...just a dinosaur."
 * What happens when a human discovers their edits though!? I'm sure the toys wouldn't remember to clear the history every time!
 * Oh, our, er, I mean their humans don't, er, I mean, probably don't even frequent the wiki, and they're too young to think to check the pages previously viewed history.
 * Yeah, but our their owners' parents are old enough to check search histories... you they might want to be more careful.

Chatter Telephone will go into telemarketing.
Well, what else can we expect from a toy telephone? Plus, with his oh-so-cool Film Noir voice, who wouldn't want to buy anything from him?

Dolly is related to Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas
In addition to both being both misfit ragdolls, both Dolly and Sally have the obvious appearance of DIY craftsmanship. Sally is noticeably hand created, with yarn hair and obvious stitching lines and mismatched fabric for clothing. Dolly was originally planned as a homemade toy that Bonnie and her Mom made together. Her hair is made out of foam felt, while her outfit is crude with mismatching buttons and obvious green stitching. And yes, while both have differing personalities, they both shown to be gentle and kind-hearted towards their loved ones (Jack and Bonnie, respectively). Plus, is it just me, or does Dolly seem more than a little shaky in walk cycle?

Lotso's memories could have been reset
When Lotso has Buzz reset in Toy Story 3, Buzz reverts back to the mentality he was in when he was first brought out of his box years ago. That got me to wondering... the Lotso toy from the new Toy Story collection line is apparently supposed to be exactly like the Lotso in the movie. That means he must also have a reset button inside of him. One way he could have been defeated in the movie was having his reset button pressed, reverting him back to the nice toy he used to be before Daisy owned him.
 * Do bears... do bears even have reset buttons?
 * The real life toy's back can be opened up and inside there's a battery powered voicebox that can be turned on/off.
 * I don't think the in-universe Lotso talked though, or had any electronic components, so not likely a reset button.

Andy gets Woody back in the future
A couple years after TS3, Molly becomes Bonnie's babysitter. She tells Bonnie all about the fun her brother used to have with Woody and Buzz et. al, and they bond over the toys. Then Bonnie gets too big to have a babysitter anymore, but she and Molly keep in touch. Then, when Bonnie is ready to go away to college, Molly tells her that Andy and his wife have a child, and Bonnie decides to give the toys back. It turns out that Andy married Emily's daughter. One day when Emily is over visiting, Andy's wife mentions the box of hand-me-down toys and Emily is reunited with Jesse.

Sid makes friends with the toys he tortured eventually
If Sid is the garbage man from Toy Story 3, and he is a spunky rocker going on with his life rather than being in a mental hospital from seeing LIVING TOYS, then...
 * 1) Sid apologized to the mutant toys, they came to life in front of him briefly and accepted the apology, and Sid pretended he never saw anything.
 * 2) Sid convinced himself it was all a bad dream, and regained sanity.
 * He was probably just really nice to toys from then on. Heck, maybe he starts fixing up ones he finds at the dump.

All Barbies are geniuses
With the sheer number of jobs held by Barbie dolls over the years, each Barbie should theoretically possess the skills and knowledge to be anything from a housewife to a rocket scientist to an underwater demolitions expert.
 * The exception is probably the Barbies that are structurally different and specific to the job they were packaged as- the gymnast Barbies with real jumping jack action, the ones with voice boxes, etc. Those are probably restricted to the knowledge of the job on the box, since they cannot literally become a different job Barbie with a change of outfit.
 * Who says? Speaking of which, THAT is the kind of Barbie movie they should make.
 * This Troper's mother used to have a Barbie doll who came with no clothes, and a brother (actually, multiple) who had G.I. Joe Figures (as in, the classic realistic GI Joe, not the scifi one we have today), and hence the doll often ended up in military uniforms. Can we assume that, since other girls probably did this too, Barbie also knows how to field strip and operate an M16A1?
 * Yes.
 * Canon. Mattel has sold 'Army Barbie'. There's one for the other branches. Ever consider just where Barbie Sgt Roberts learned how to take down a man and snap his neck?

Bonnie will become a Woody/Jessie shipper
There are enough of them among the fans, who actually know about Bo-Peep and the Buzz/Jessie romance. All that kid is going to know is that she's got a cowboy and a cowgirl who look like they were made for each other. That's probably going to cause some trouble.
 * Most fan fics I've read dealing with this do have her notice how alike her new cowboy and cowgirl are... and thus consider them brother and sister in her mind.
 * While that does seem in character for her she could also go the Woody/Jessie Shipper On Deck way. A lot of kids have ship characters like that and have cowboy - cowgirl fantasies. It however seems slightly more possible, at her current age though, that she will make them have a Like Brother and Sister relationship. But if she did become a shipper, how would the affect the two?
 * And if you take an above theory on toys being subconsciously effected by the roles their owners put them in into account... oh boy.

Some of the daycare kids are kids from other Pixar movies
Or at least they greatly resemble kids from other Pixar movies. This little girl for example looks a lot like Boo from Monsters Inc.. And this little girl looks a lot like Dee, seen briefly in Up.
 * I like those ideas, but unfortunately Lee said that the first girl isn't Boo. And the second girl doesn't look like Dee. (Dee has a Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear in her bedroom, by the way.)
 * Aw, that's too bad about Boo. But I still like to think the second girl is Dee. The humans in Up are more cartoonish/stylized than the humans in the Toy Story universe, which is why their faces look different. I also like to think that the Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear in her room is the same one from Toy Story 3, who somehow got off that garbage truck and ended up with her, but that's another fan theory entirely.

The character of Woody from Woody's Round-Up had amnesia when Woody's toy was manufactured.
Since (presumably) toys like Buzz would only know about their 'character' up until the point in the franchise when they were made, that reflects their state of being. Woody was created during a cliff-hanger arc where the 'real' Woody had hit his head and lost his memory, for dramatic purposes. Like Buzz, he came out of his packaging with his character's personality... which was that of someone with no memory. Other toys told him he was a toy, but he never really 'switched' modes from 'character' to 'toy' the way Buzz did - he just accepted the explanation for lack of anything else. When he's left without anyone or anything to remind him of what's going on, he defaults back into 'amnesia' mode. That's why he doesn't remember anything prior to becoming Andy's toy. It's also part of the reason why having Andy's name on his boot is so important to him, it works like "P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney" did for Dory in Finding Nemo, and he uses it as an anchor when things start to get fuzzy, in addition to a sign of Andy's attachment to him.
 * Presumably nothin'. It's canon that Buzz doesn't know anything that happened to the Star Command-continuity Buzz after TS1 until he learns it as a toy.

Toys in Toy Story are possessed by faerie spirits.
There are lots of stories of mischief spirits and sprites and stuff that move objects around, mess with people, don't like to be seen, and so on in all kinds of human folklore. There are also lots of tales about objects made in human likenesses having unusual magical properties. As toy manufacturing boomed, human-looking toys became the vessel-of-choice for such faeries to hide in. It became so common, in fact, that eventually the faeries began to forget that they weren't actually toys to begin with, partly because of the innate magic already present in such objects, and partly because of a life of childish fantasy and adoration suited most of them very well. When their more human-shaped vessels were destroyed, they began spreading into other toys that had been used alongside them - hence dinosaurs, speak-and-spells, and whatnot commonly gained a sort of sentience, too. They can also subconsciously affect certain other objects around them with their magic, without realizing that's what they're doing, which is why some toys have a kind-of-sentience (like the Magic 8-Ball) or none (like the noise-machine in 3). The reason why they all go 'still' in the presence of humans harkens back to their ancient instincts on not being caught or seen, and is an old rule of lots of faerie magic. Brownies, for example, are generally benevolent spirits who are forced to leave a place forever if they are seen or caught by the humans living there.

The series takes place in a city named Tri-Country.
Because a lot of things in the series have really awkward names otherwise, particularly "Tri-County International Airport." Only the use in the Buzz Lightyear commercial in the first movie really makes sense at all, and even then it's ludicrously non-specific.
 * Confirmed in every single Toy Story film, wherein they say "Tri County Area".
 * The guess seems to have been that the city was called "Tri-County", not that it happens in a tri-county area.
 * Did you say Tri County Area?
 * Yes, yes he did. What he didn't say was "Tri-State Area".
 * You know what? I don't even care. The concept is just too awesome to pass up.
 * "...and so, Perry the Platypus, I will use this Toy Liveinator to cause every doll, action figure and toy in the entire Tri-State Area to come to life, and-" "*Platypus sounds*" "-wait, Tri-COUNTY Area? Man, I've had it wrong for years!"

Buzz's Spanish translator took a few liberties with the localisation.
For some reason or other, they decided to turn Buzz into a delightfully stereotypical Badass Spaniard, Latin Lover etc in spaaaaaace, which reflects on the personality of the toys on the Spanish language setting.

The garbage truck Lotso was tied to at the end will get into a wreck.
The other toys tied to the grill and the people inside will be saved, but Lotso will die a painful death when the strawberry-stuffing inside him catches fire.
 * So you'd rather Lotso was released from his earthly suffering instead of surviving a fate worse than death for the rest of his life? Okay. Whatever floats your boat.

Pizza Planet is a memorial.
Specifically, a memorial to Captain B. McCrea, cultivator of the first pizza plant. As to why there's a Pizza Planet truck amongst the wreckage of Earth? Well, that's the end result of Pizza Planet's failed experiments in utilizing time travel, in an attempt to deliver pizzas fifteen minutes before you even order one.

Franchise toys aren't necessarily aware that they're part of a franchise.
Both Woody and Buzz are completely unaware of the franchises that they belong to until they see direct proof of it. (a TV ad, and the Woody's Roundup merchandise) It could be reasonable to conclude from here that while they're 'pre-programmed' with the personalities of the character, but not necessarily knowledge of their fellow cast members or expanded universe- for all they know, their entire world consists of the packaging blurb. Perhaps a kind of failsafe in case they never meet another of their kind, as what probably happened to Woody- considering Woody's Roundup ended up Deader Than Disco after wild popularity, it's not surprising that he never got to see it.
 * Sorry, doesn't work. TS 2's Buzz and Zurg know each other well enough to try to kill each other, and both are fresh out of the box. Then again, their 'toy' personalities are innately entwined. And note that Barbie and Ken had a feeling they were made for each other, too.
 * Though Pixar could've just been making a pun on Barbie and Ken's point. Also works on a theory above that they're a parody of love at first sight movies; how many times have you heard "it's like we're made for each other"?

Toys for very young children, especially the very durable kind, are the strongest toys when animate.
The most dangerous and powerful toys in the series, particularly Big Baby, are baby toys that are designed to survive the kind of abuse that day care kids can dish out- thus, they can pose a violent threat to other toys being strong and hard to hurt, hence why Big Baby is the enforcer. Buzz Lightyear is also pretty tough and well designed, since when Brainwashed and Crazy he could beat down all the other toys in ten seconds flat.

On the other hand, toys with particular articulation and humanoid designs, like Buzz and Woody, are much faster and more agile than most. (Woody seems to engage in Offscreen Teleportation several times, he's less a cowboy, more a ninja) And other unusual toys, such as the Potato Heads, seem to have their own useful abilities. Seems an irony that the more complex, sophisticated and fragile toys, such as model kits and replicas favoured by older kids and nerds, are probably among the most fragile and least capable toys of the lot.
 * Yeah, but you just know that the 300-piece scale Gundam model with 22 points of artuclation is going to be one nimble toy.
 * True, and army men don't have real weapons or strength, but they have numbers.

The Pizza Planet Truck is an anthropomorphic, omniscient God
. Think about it. In just about every single Toy Story film, the Pizza Planet Truck always comes out of nowhere as a universal transport and serves as the series' Deus Ex Machina (and sometimes its rival. Somehow it's always at the exact right place our heroes are and where exactly to take them. The only logical solution- It's An All-Knowing GOD!
 * The Claaaw works in mysterious ways.

Andy's playing with Woody was what made him forget his own show.
Going with the guesses above that the toys experience playtime from the human's imagination (like the opening of Toy Story 3). This is why Buzz took so long to realize he wasn't a toy, because Andy kept making him fly through space, and generally doing 'Buzz' things, like taking down Zurg's minions.

The same thing happened to Woody, but caused the opposite effect. Andy had never heard of Woody's Roundup (or, if he did, he clearly wasn't a huge fan), and just played Woody as a generic cowboy, who happened to be named Woody. Over the years, Woody just came to believe that he was a toy cowboy who just happened to be named Woody.

The garbageman who takes Lotso at the end of Toy Story 3 is Daisy's son.
Daisy passed on her replacement Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear to her son after he was born, which is the bear the garbageman referenced.

Toy Story 3 will signal the end of the cartoon CG film trend.
Just as Toy Story 1 started the craze of producing cartoon feature films in CGI, the last film encapsulates it. This is the very end of the series, so it is only fitting that it will metaphysically have some affect on the industry as well. People are nowhere near as dazzled by CG as they used to be. It will be a few years before we see the effects, but it could happen. CG will still be used in live-action hybrids (Avatar, as an example), but cartoons will slowly be made in other mediums. In a few decades, Pixar will be the LAST studio to produce the LAST cartoon CG film!

Bonnie will be the subject of many a Dark Fic
Not that I want that to be the case...

The barbies share a Hive Mind.
Think about it: Toy Story 3 Barbie should have no way of knowing what a democracy is like, and yet shows that knowledge. However, there exists a President Barbie, who would know these things. The explanation, therefore, is that all Barbie's collective knowledge and memories are pooled together, then extracted and uploaded to the specific doll as needed.
 * Why wouldn't Great Shape Barbie have any idea what Democracy is? Aerobics Instructor = bad at history? Barbie in the Barbie canon has always been smart (except for that "Math is tough" thing in 1992. But clearly she got over it) Girlie does not equal dumb.
 * I don't think is a "Hive Mind" as much as "New models have the knowledge of previous ones", so, while the first Barbie would have only her knowledge, the next ones in the line would haver her own personality and the previous ones. Alternatively, Molly is interested in politics.
 * Molly might have taken her Barbie to play with other girls and their toys, and met other Barbies (but by sheer coincidence no Kens) to chat with.

Andy and Bonnie will create an online webcomic together.

 * The college that Andy is attending is Cal Arts University, and practices drawing artwork and graphic novels in his spare time. During one of his trips back home, he babysits for Bonnie, and realizes that she has an incredibly active imagination, creating wildly vivid story lines for the toys. They decide to join forces together they create the online webcomic Laser Sheriff!
 * Or Kid Radd

Toy Story 2 takes place in the early to mid 90s
For one Rex plays a Snes type console SNES during the beginning of 2. While that wouldn't be a far cry from it being in the late 90s, most kids moved onto newer consoles. Also if this movie did take place in 2010, subtract 18 and you get 1992.
 * Tour guide Barbie says that Buzz Lightyear toys were in short supply in 1995 and A Bugs Life toys are seen in Al's Toy Barn.

There will be a spinoff TV series based off Toy Story
3D or 2D. It will be an AU Defictionlization series like Buzz's show, an AU series where the characters are living beings, or a story based on their adventures with Bonnie.

Woody and Jessie are not brother and sister
It's just a "Like Brother and Sister" or Platonic Life Partners relationship, however the characters from the show they're based off show no signs of being related.

Jessie has a crush on Woody
The Relationship Writing Fumble seems too consistent and deliberate, and they didn't fix it for 3. Their relationship only at times fits "Like Brother and Sister" but usually it's a platonic best friend type relationship. She seems for affectionate and reliant on Woody then toward Buzz. Though this theory doesn't "ruin" her affections for Buzz either; It's not like people can't like two people at the same time or like one person more then the other.
 * Considering that Woody probably saved her life multiple times within the continuity of the TV show (even with the final episode missing) and that she spent an untold number of years waiting to be 'rescued' from storage, Jessie could easily have developed a sort of Knight in Shining Armour complex over him before they had even met.
 * Not only does Jessie like Woody but so does Buzz. It all makes sense now.
 * All three of them like each other. At the same time.
 * Exactly.

Pixar will create a short that shows how the Aliens got to the crane in 3 and put it on the DVD release.
It will be, like many things Pixar's had a hand in, awe-inspiring and hilarious.

Jessie suffers from PSTD
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Look up the symptoms. They match Jessie quite well. Either that or she suffers from another sort of anxiety disorder related to abandonment. She also suffers from panic disorder and claustrophobia.

Toy Story 4 will be a midquel.
If that Tim Allen rumor is true. If it's somewhat true, then I'm up for a special or spinoff animated series.
 * A Wall E crossover. Or maybe a movie based off romance?

Mr. Potato Head is the true villain of the original
Think about it. He instigates and says things that obviously would not happen (a cowboy ragdoll not having a laser, being put in the attic) solely to tick Woody off. See here for a deeper analysis into his antagonism. However, that article questions how Mr. Potato Head would "rank up" upon Woody's defeat. It's simple, we already know that Mr. Potato Head is up there with Rex and Slinky, and I'll even throw Hamm and RC in there:
 * Buzz: As the article states, Buzz would be easy to get rid of due to his delusions, and Mr. Potato Head gets lucky with Woody taking care of him.
 * Slinky: He could easily be framed as an accomplice of Woody. Plus, he's not really competition when it comes to "snuggling" with Andy, as snuggling with a slinky would be quite dangerous.
 * Rex: A gullible Cloudcuckoolander that would easily give in to peer pressure. Also, unpopular (him and Potato Head being leftovers when it came to picking moving buddies) and being more sympathetic to Woody than most of the other toys.
 * Hamm: Well, first off it would be pretty weird if Andy brought a piggy bank everywhere. Not to mention, Hamm wouldn't really want to be Andy's favorite; at no point in the series does he express a desire to even be played with. As a piggy bank, he simply enjoys collecting things, whether it is change, Woody's hat, Mr. Potato Head's parts, Barbie's Corvette, or trivial facts. Also add that Hamm and Potato Head appear to be best friends and he's really not competition at all.
 * RC: He's only "top tier" in the original, but I'll include him anyway (after all, he was probably given a reduced role/written out because it's easier to write for a horse than a remote-controlled car as the Team Pet). RC is probably one of the easiest to get rid of. Again, it would be weird for Andy to snuggle with him at night. Also, Mr. Potato Head appears to be the only one that can understand him, so there's that. Oh, and he can be remote-controlled against his will and eventually become immobile when his batteries die.
 * Anyway, in summation, Mr. Potato Head was always plotting to get rid of Woody in order to become Andy's favorite toy. His reasons for his villainy? He was tired of always being cast as a butt Monkey/Chew Toy and wanted to be a hero for a change. He still had a desire to usurp Woody and Buzz up until Mrs. Potato Head showed up, as he now gets to be the villain/butt monkey/chew toy with her, and he will always be her hero.
 * Potato Head might very well not understand RC at all and just be pulling a pre-decided dialogue to incriminate Woody. After all, it's not like RC could shout then "I didn't say any of this!".
 * I think he was intended to be an antagonist, I mean, he got Laser-Guided Karma at the end of the climax with RC crashing into him and sending his peices flying.

This is the Toy Story timeline.
It just makes the most sense:
 * The series all began on November 22, 1995 and Andy was turning 7 the next week.
 * Reason for the date: Tour Guide Barbie comments that Buzz Lightyear action figures were released in 1995, and Andy probably got Buzz when he was brand new (plus commercials were still being shown). Also, Andy is born sometime in the latter half of the year, as he is leaving for college at the age of 17. In addition, it would just be cute and Pixar-like to have the movie start on the same day it was released.
 * No, it's summer. The toys comment on Sid getting kicked out of summer camp early, so it's summer, and the plants are green not fall colors which they would be by then.
 * Reason for Andy turning 7: Making him just a year younger would make Mr. Potato Head's "He's been Andy's favorite since kindergarten!" comment very awkward: He's only been Andy's favorite for a few months? Making him even younger would involve time travel (then again Potato Head is a Time Lord...) or Andy being a child genius. Also, a full year does not pass between the original and 2, and we know that a) 2 and 3 are 10 years apart, and b) Andy is 17 in 3.
 * The first sequel takes place in August of 1996.
 * It's the summertime for a fact (Cowboy Camp), Andy nor Molly seem to be significantly older, and the calendar in Andy's room is in the month of August. Wheezy was likely obtained either on the Christmas shown at the end of the original, or sometime in between (though earlier in the year, as Woody implies his squeaker broke months ago).
 * I believe Wheezy was supposed to be an old toy; in the background all along and then forgotten because he was on the shelf with a broken squeaker.
 * The second sequel takes place in August of 2006.
 * The calendar again says August, plus it just makes sense: class usually starts in late August or early September.
 * Quod erat demonstrandum.

Tri-County is somewhere in Sunnydale California.
not much to go on here but my brain was ticking recently going between the words Sunnyside and Sunnydale and i thoguth about it and it would explain why the toys are animet considering thenature of the Hellmouth. which leads me to my next idea. Barbie/Jessie is a slayer some how there was some Hellmouth weirdness and the Slayer was reincarnated into a toy.

Woody's escape wasn't "lucky" -- Lotso let him escape.
Based on Woody's attitude during Lotso's sermon about Sunnyside and professed loyalty to Andy ("Because we're Andy's toys!"), Lotso theorized Woody probably couldn't be persuaded easily into buying his utopian act or adhering to the rules of Sunnyside. So he let him leave, deciding he was better off without a potential troublemaker in the fold. Plus, he got the added bonus of using him to threaten his friends. He never expected, once he was safely away, that Woody would even consider returning and putting himself in danger just to help his friends.

Andy and Molly are one of Freddy Krueger's future victims
It's a fact that Andy's family lives on Elm street and their small suburban neighbourhood does resemble Springwood. This may be just an easter egg but I really like the crossover theory.

The Pizza Planet truck is a harbinger of great events
Think about it. In Toy Story it indirectly brings Woody and Buzz to Sid's house. In Toy Story 3 we see that it brought Lotso, Big Baby, and Chuckles to Sunnyside. In A Bug's Life, it is there when Flik meets the "warrior bugs". In Monsters, Inc., the same trailer where it was in A Bug's Life is also where Randall has fate defeat him. However, the most important appearance of the truck would be Toy Story 2. Yes, it allows the toys to catch up to Al and all. But more importantly, it is in that truck where they encounter the 3 aliens who would later save Andy's Toys from certain death.

Alternatively, the aliens have some kind of mystic quality (which they have been wrongly attributing to The Claw), hence why there is nothing special about the Pizza Planet truck post-Toy Story 2 (TS 3's is a flashback, and Monsters, Inc. either takes place before TS2 or the guy has more alien toys at home).
 * To elaborate on the idea for other movies, there's also the Pizza Planet truck being one of the items that frustrates EVE in WALL-E into getting stuck on the magnet and destroying the ships, causing the first real interaction between her and WALL-E. I'm drawing a blank for the other ones, though.

The Toy Story short that will be played with Cars 2 will show
...because.

Bonnie is Geri's granddaughter from Geri's Game
Both like fixing up toys and both are very imaginative.

Lotso is Black Friday!Woody only pink and fluffy.
Compare the scene in the Black Friday reel after Woody throws Buzz out of the window to the way Lotso behaves when confronted at the garbage shoot. When the other toys attempt to call Woody on his behaviour he shows utter contempt for all of them and is outright sadistic towards his enforcer, Slinky. Pixar rewrote him after realising that he was a complete jerk and wouldn't work as a hero. Maybe they reworked that version of him as a villain.

Toy Story 4 will be the ultimate Brown Note.
Everyone will switch betwwen laughing and crying so rapidly they'll have heart attacks and die.
 * Or rather, they will be inspired to commit suicide as life would not be worth living after seeing such a perfect film

A toy's mental state when they come out of the box depends on how they were manufactured...
...Namely, how much they are made by hand. They start out with a 'default' personality based on their character and become instilled with independant traits the more they are handled. Al states that Woody was sewn and painted by hand - he was handled to the extent that he couldn't remember his previous personality at all. At the opposite end of the scale, Buzz, a new, high-tech toy, came off a fully automated production line without any human contact, and came out of the box with the full default personality and memories. Toys like the Green Army Men, the Aliens, Barbie and Ken had minimal handling - they play to type, but are at least self-aware. It's less obvious with toys like, say, Rex and Potatohead because they didn't have personalities to begin with.

Toys are only alive for as long as they are wanted by someone
All toys start pre-packaged, and most aren't self aware at all, as evident in the toy shop in 2. The only toys we see alive ae the hugely popular Barbie toys, and the even more popular Buzz Lightyear of Star Command line. Because these two lines are the most popular toy lines alive, the sheer amount of kids who want them as presents is enough for the to come to life, though the Buzz Lightyears "are suspended in hypersleep".

Once they're bought, the toys become alive for as long as they're wanted. Most toys therefore stop being wanted long before they get destroyed, and those that do break slowly stop living as they're forgotten about. Such is the case of Wheezey in 2.

Since Al wanted the complete Wood's Roundup collection (albeit for profit), the toys he collected were still alive, hence how Jessie and the Prospector were still alive, despite one being abandoned, and the other never having a child owner, that want brought them to life.

Sid's toys, despite haing been blown to bits, are still wanted. He's warped in the head, and prefers his toys to look freakish, and doesn't see the harm in taking two average toys and mixing them into something he wants even more.

Lotso and Big Baby were still wanted, even though they got replaced. Lotso's owner still wanted "her Lotso" even though she was now on her second Lotso. Hence they stayed alive until they got to the nursery, where they were wanted by other kids, and continued living.

Finally Andy never wanted to give up his toys. It's obvious throughout 3 that he still wants them he just thinks he's too old to be playing with toys now. Inspite of this, he never stops wanting them, choosing to store them safely in the attic, and this wanting keeps them alive throughout all the things they endure at both the nursery and at the garbage dump.
 * Why, then, does Emperor Zurg pop out of the package to pursue Buzz in Toy Story 2, when he was never used yet?

All Lots-o-Huggin' Bears meet tragic/unfortunate ends.
In much of the same way that Buzz Lightyear toys were made with built-in personalities and back stories, Lots-o-Huggin' Bears were crafted with the sole purpose of being their owner's best friend, no matter what. Unfortunately, this leads them to be extremely codependent. Lotso's unexpected separation from Diasy despite his pre-programmed need for human friendship lead to him becoming the psychological mess that he was. The Lotso Daisy replaced her original with also eventually went insane once she outgrew him and he killed himself.

The "Sheriff Woody" doll predates "Woody's Roundup"
It's not unheard of for popular toys to have a movie based off of them (Barbie, for instance), so a TV show isn't too far out there. Jessie, Bullseye and Pete were based on characters created for the show, so they have all of the 'pre-set' memories, but Woody was made before the show was, which would explain him not knowing "who he is". It would also explain (aside from the main character being the most popular/hardest to come by) why Al had such a hard time finding a Woody doll-- they would be much rarer than the toys who were created for the show.
 * This solves all questions related to Woody's knowledge of his franchise so well, it ought to be made canon!
 * But wouldn't there still be Woody dolls produced based on the show itself?
 * Sure, but they wouldn't be worth as much on several different levels. It's kind of like owning a first print issue of a comic book; the obvious comparison is to Action Comics #1. In this case, it's worth a lot of money because it introduced a wildly popular character (Superman) and there were 100 or fewer copies printed; our Woody, being one of the dolls that inspired the series, is worth quite a bit more money than one of the post-Roundup dolls. If I've totally missed your point and you were talking about the memory issue, then those dolls would have knowledge of Woody's Roundup, but the sheriff we all know and love would still be in the dark, since that has no impact on when he was manufactured.... Wow. I just out-nerded myself. Why doesn't that bother me more?
 * Don't worry about it, because Action Comics #1 is rare today not because so few copies were printed, but rather because so few copies survived destruction in World War Two era paper drives.

The Janitor in Toy Story 3 is either Scruffy the Janitor from Futurama or an ancestor of Scruffy.

 * That Janitor has the same type of mustache as Scruffy and when I look at that guy, I think of Scruffy. Maybe Scruffy of Toy Story 3 is an ancestor/great-great-(and so on) grandfather of the Scruffy we know and love on Futurama. Or the Janitor went into a cryogenic tube after this movie and came out sometime before the events of Futurama started.

All of the Pixar films take place in the same universe.
Except for Cars, which takes place after the movie 9 when the ragdolls reprogrammed the robots to make cars.


 * In Toy Story 3 Andy has a postcard from Carl and Ellie Fredrickson.
 * In Monster's Inc. Boo has a Jessie doll.
 * Buzz has Buy N Large batteries in Toy Story 3.
 * The toys go past a leaf with two of the bugs from A Bug's Life in Toy Story 2.
 * A Lotso Huggin' Bear was in Up.
 * Rex was in the credits of Monster's Inc., so maybe a human made the Rex toy after he scared him as a kid.
 * There's a Buzz Lightyear toy in the dentist's office in Finding Nemo.
 * And of course, every film has the Pizza Planet truck in it.
 * Except the Incredibles, which otherwise has no connections to Toy Story. Hmm...
 * Actually it does appear, very breifly in the first scene. So it's still possible...

In between TS2 and TS3 (spoilers), was...
...Given to Carl and Elle for use in their baby's new room. The only evidence that I have of this is that Andy and the Frederickson's are somehow connected (there's a easter egg postcard in Andy's room from them). After, Bo was given away by because the Frederickson's didn't want. Somehow Bo will find her way back to the rest of the gang. Really.

Buy n Large Batteries really are something special...
The BnL company was experimenting with batteries that also held the "memories" of their subject. They wanted to try and build A.I. enhanced robots, but they were trying out new ways of maintaining a robots "memories" even if something happened too it, so that the robots would continue to do the job. It's why both and  get they're memories back after they've been hurt badly- because the batteries literally remember.

Andy suspected his toys were alive.
He didn't know for sure -- he never secretly caught them moving and talking -- but he saw (or just barely missed) and heard enough throughout his life to start thinking weird things happened with his toys whenever he wasn't around -- enough to make him suspicious but not to make it unquestionably clear to him that toys are alive (unlike Sid). He wouldn't tell anyone, of course, or they would think he was crazy, but he did take extra good care of his toys and never threw the most important ones away but kept them safe in his room. By the time he was 17, he consciously convinced himself it was just his childish imagination, but subconsciously, he still wasn't sure. This is why he couldn't throw them away, sell them online with no way of knowing how they would be treated by new owners, or donate them to a daycare center (being a kid more recently than his mom, he knows how little kids destroy play with toys!). With Bonnie, Andy (subconsciously) knew the toys would be safe and happy having someone to play with again. He took the opportunity with Bonnie to say good-bye to them; that's what we all use little kids for, after all -- a cover for doing childish things we secretly still love but have "outgrown." When Woody "waved" good-bye to him at the end, all the old suspicions came back, so, even though he couldn't be sure, he said, "Thanks, guys"... just in case.

Daisy's parents are behind the events of Toy Story 3!
What? Don't look at me like that. This is WMG, anyway.
 * You know what? That would make a very interesting fanfic...

Daisy grows up to become a Yellow Power Ranger
The Power Rangers are known for wearing the colour that corresponds to their suits when they are not out saving the world in very Color Character fashion. In the, Daisy wears lots of yellow. Ergo, sometime in her future, she becomes one of the Power Rangers.

Andy and Rob are going to meet at college, and become friends.
It's just meant to be...

The garbageman who puts Lotso on his truck is Cartman all grown up.
The frog with Lotso on the truck looks kind of like Cartman's Clyde Frog.

Toy Story 4 will be a spin-off not a sequel
New toys, new kid, the old story ended but a new one will begin. Bonus points if it's Andy's kid

Bonnie is a Miyazaki fan.
Why else would she have a Totoro plushie?
 * Kids have random toys from shows they don't even know exists all the time, case in point: Woody. OTOH, it's also believable that her mom is the Miyazaki fan, or someone else who is a fan gave her the Totoro plushie.(Bonus points if it was Andy's mom)

Andy was named after his father.
Andy didn't write his name on Woody's shoe; instead, he traced over and darkened the faded Andy already written on it. It just doesn't make sense for a boy to all of a sudden write his name on a pristine hand-me-down, especially when he didn't write his name on all his other toys- in fact, he didn't write his name on any of them until he got Buzz.
 * Lots of kids write their names on their toys, especially the ones they're really attached to and might want to take to school. (This troper still has some of her brothers' action figures, marked JP and MP, as well as her own with LJ.) The bottom of the foot tends to be the easiest place to write the name, so it's likely that some of Andy's other toys are marked there, and we just haven't seen it.

The Rapeface Woody is Japan's revenge on the real one.
Woody near-instantly rejected living in a Tokyo toy museum; he said it because he had to return to Andy, but Japanese toy makers saw it as an insult. So what do they do? Ruin his image by creating a doll of him wearing a Slasher Smile.

Andy has autism/Asperger's Syndrome
This is a theory I've held in my canon for quite some time: Andy has a mild case of autism, with both helped and hindered him throughout his life. Basicly, it boils down to this: If anyone has any further evidence, please feel free to add on to this theory.
 * His attachment to the toys he gave personality to comes from his deep-seated understanding they are truly alive. While he did come to terms with them being inanimate (to him, at least), he still saw his childhood fantasies in them, and felt for them as much as he did before.
 * He has a much larger imagination than many others, and is capable of creating entire worlds in his mind. However, as he grows older, he finds it easier to seperate fantasy and reality, but is still capable of feeling his fantasy world in adulthood.
 * He has friends, but they share similar interests as him. The Buzz Lightyear-themed party implies that his friends are into fantastic adventures as much as he is, and he genuinely has fun when they're around. However, as we see them rather infrequently, we can assume he finds it difficult actually inviting them to his house, often seen in autistic children.
 * He is a kind older brother, and jokingly bickers with his relatively antagonistic sister, but still cares about her. Many high-functioning autistic children have this relationship with their non-autistic siblings.
 * As he grows older, he is well adjusted and, while still nostalgic of his childhood, has moved on. He recognizes that he needs to be responsible, as he is an adult, and does so.
 * Lastly, he identifies with children who have similar behaviors as he did when he was a child. Bonnie, who I also believe to has autism for the same reasons, is the correct inheretor of the toys, as she has the right combination of creativity and kindness, something that Andy recognizes. When he realizes how Bonnie acts, he decides she is the only person deserving of Woody, and gives him to her.

My heart belongs to Daisy literarly means Daisy owns my heart.
Having the locket destroyed was painful but ultimateltely gave Big Baby ownership of his own heart allowing him to move on, find a new family, and actually have his heart heal. Daisy was what connected Lotso and Big Baby and with that connection destroyed Big Baby was able to hear Lotso's words for what they really were a bunch of trash.

Unlike the other toys Buzz believed Woody about the attik it was besides the point for him.
He is calm after they escape and doesn't think it makes sence. He is not angry at Andy, or Woody. I believe Buzz just doesn't think the other toys will want to wait in the attic for Andy have kids of his own collecting dust. His main problem with leaving was abandoning Woody from the start. Since he sees the toys will indeed be happy at day care he chooses day care.

Bonnie half knows all the good toys end up in the caterpillar room.
Thats why her mom looked for her there.

Sid wasn't nuts!
All of his telling people that his toys were alive wern't lunatic ravings! He's really the sole witness of the amazing phenominon of our toys coming to life!
 * Yeah right. Next you'll be claiming that these "magic toys" of yours are behind the mysterious security tape vanishings at Sunyside Daycare.

Bo Peep was sold/given away to Bonnie's family
The reason we didn't see her in the movie was either A) She just happened to be in a room that Woody didn't have the chance to visit (possibly the conservatory, or the Billard Room), or B) She happened to be going on a different, completely unrelated adventure of her own during the events of Toy Story 3, and didn't get back until sometime after the credits. I can just hear Bonnie now: "Oh, there you are, Peep! I've been looking all over for...why are you wearing an airport tag from Guatemala?"

Babyface, the leader of Sid's toys, is a girl
Just a bit of Fridge Logic; the head obviously came from a doll similar to Big Baby and at some point had hair, but nearly all baby boy dolls are bald.

The antagonist of a hypothetical new installment...
Would be Bonnie's computer. Seriously, what's more likely to make a kid start ignoring their toys? Especially in the modern world. The computer, if anthropomorphized, might even be intentionally perpetrating this.

Stinky Pete lied about the "Woody's Roundup" finale.
Stinky Pete told Woody that "Woody's Roundup" was cancelled  Now, whether or not this is accurate is doubtful concerning Pete later reveals how hell bent he is to go to the museum in Japan, and won't stand for Woody's crap. Also, it wasn't revealed that Jesse and Bullseye actually believed him. After all, concerning how long they've been in storage before Woody came along, there hasn't been time to check some sources, if you know what I mean. Now, before you mention the magazines Al has on the show, may I interject that even though Al is a die-hard collector of "Woody's Roundup" merchandise, I'm doubtful he has everything to complete his collection. Also, it doesn't seem Al owns a computer that would allow proof to be learned that would call out Stinky Pete's "facts".

...but, this wouldn't hold up without my #1 piece of evidence: the tape of the last episode. Not once is it made aware that the tape was removed from Al's VCR after being put in. Hell,, a "Woody's Roundup" tape plays, so who's to say it's NOT the same tape! Not to mention that it, in fact, is the tape Woody plays for his friends when they come to rescue him.

Why is this important? Well, listen carefully after Buzz closes the hatch and we cut to Woody. On the TV, we hear TVJesse and TVWoody talking, with the later ending the show after. ...since it's likely that the tape playing is the tape of the final episode, well...

You know that cool, geeky chick you're always playing online games with late at night, but you've never met in-person or via webcam? That's Trixie.

 * I believe this

Somewhere in Andy's universe somebody is posting the following theories.

 * Zurg is payed off by some people in the Galactic Alliance basically to keep a threat around and justify certain actions. Seriously why would he pick the day Buzz was trying to convince Tangia to join the Galactic Alliance to prove he's a threat. Where else would he get his money since he apparently never wins?
 * Zurg and Buzz don't realize this. Zurg's being given money and some information that it would benefit certain people to have but doesn't realize where his dirty money and information is coming from or that he's bein used as a pawn. Buzz is to trusting to think of this.
 * If Zurg had decided to cast off his evil heritage and become for instance a waiter it would have caused the end of the universe as they knew it and not in a good way. Instead of Zurgs son being raised without knowledge of is heritage he would have bean kidnapped by his granpa who would otherwise have not known he existed. His granpa would suceed with his granson where he failed with his son. His grandson would be hyper competent and destroy/conquer the universe simply for a challenge.
 * Buzz Lightyear has autisn/aspergers or some other metal problem on that level.
 * He really seems to believe in the rules beyond a normal person, he didn't pick up on the wirewolf guy disliking him, he actually belirved that Zurg put kittens in trees as part of his schemes.

There won't be a Toy Story 4
I just can't see Pixar letting it happen (and Disney does seem to respect their decisions well enough). But there will be more than just the Cars 2 pre-movie short. Likely, the shorts will be all about random misadventures, some will expand on the time between the first and second films, and a few will detail events preceeding the third. And likely a few will take place after the third, maybe even reuniting Bo Peep with Woody. Eventually, the shorts might get spliced into a sort of pseudo film, likely with an added backstory that ends with a distant finale. In that sense, it won't ruin the note TS 3 went out on, but at the same time reaffirm that everything the series taught us over the years.

Bo Peep was BROKEN. Woody watched the pieces swept up before his eyes and thrown away.
Sorry, someone had to say it.

Woody spoke to Sid again at the end of Toy Story 3 to get the ride back to Andy's house.

 * This was spoken about above. See there for more info.

Senator Meachum was reincarnated in the form of Lotso. Alternately, Lotso was possessed by Senator Meachum's ghost sometime after being abandoned by Daisy.
Not much for this other than the actor connection regarding Ned Beatty, but a WMG is a WMG.
 * "Are you out of your mind? Are you out of your damn mind?! I am the ruler of Sunnyside!"

The character of Woody died in the last episode of Woody's Round-Up.
Related to another WMG above, there was a "Woody's Finest Hour" episode aired where the character sacrificed himself for his friends, thus ending the series. The Woody doll Andy has was built after the final episode and, with his character no longer in existence, he retained no memories of him the way Buzz does. Jessie, Bullseye, and Stinky Pete would remember even if they were created after the final episode because their characters didn't die. This could also explain why Andy always makes Woody the hero of his games.

Dolly likes Chuckles, Actor guy likes one of the LG Ms, Hamm likes Buttercup, and Bullseye likes Totoro.
I'm basing this on the ending song and saying with the exception of the note and the scenes before it which are all Barbie X Ken all the scenes depict a paring. Actually I think the Totoro X Bullseye pairing makes the most scence of all of there.

Toy Story takes place at the same time that My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic first started airing.
And Sid is a brony. That's why while he was asleep he said: "I wanna ride the pony"


 * And Buttercup's true identity? Surprise, the predecessor to Pinkie Pie, but a unicorn instead of a pegasus. (Dolly said that at Bonnie's house, toys have the opportunity to change their names, and the toy Bonnie knew as "Baron Von Shush" was listed in the credits as "Mr. Pricklepants". This, combined with Hasbro's connection to both franchises makes it entirely logical that Buttercup is just Unicorn!Surprise under an alias.)

Lotso's backstory is more ironic than it first appears if you look at the origional idea for him
Somebody believes they were abandoned and replaced and is taking it out on others. Turns out he was replaced but by people who didn't know how special he was because they likely couldn't find him and wanted to protect there daughter. This reminds me of a series of movies I used to watch... what was it called again?

Ken was abandoned because he was a girls toy.
He's not the only male girls toy we see yet he's the only one who seems sensative about it. Given he might just be the only one people teased about it, (Lotso would kill you and Buttercups friends are nice) but it still appears that toys are not overly cruel to male girls toys. It makes sence that there is something making him sensative about the issue possably his male owner being teased for having a girls toy and then abandoning him and because he is sensative about the issue he is fun to taunt so the other toys do. He can not tell the other toys why he is sensative about this because if Lotso knew he was defending his relationship with his previous owner he would not live long and if the other toys knew this they could blacknail him.

Hobbes is a rare toy who chose to reveal himself to his owner.
The reason we don't see Calvin play with any other talking toys is that they've all rejected Hobbes for this betrayal of some intrinsic toy 'code'. Hobbes still has enough instinct to become 'toy' every time another child or adult comes along, which is why it seems like he's nothing but a stuffed tiger.

The Buzz Lightyear toyline isn't based on a cartoon or comic. Buzz is a real person in-universe.
When arguing that Buzz is just a toy, everyone always tells him that he's not "the real Buzz Lightyear" instead of producing evidence that Buzz Lightyear is a fictional character. While you all play with your toys and scarf your Pizza Planet, Buzz is out there risking his life to colonize uncharted space. Zurg may be real too, but maybe he's just a sensationalized villain to give Buzz's dangers a face.

Toys are alive because of Haruhi Suzumiya
Haruhi always wanted toys to be alive in her childhood, and the first movie takes place in the year when Haruhi started using her Reality Warper powers. Makes sense in how Woody has no apparent memories of anyone besides Andy, the other toys and limited knowledge of Andy's family., despite Andy's mum saying Woody was an old family toy.

Jessie was actually supposed to be Woody's new girlfriend
The guys at Pixar thought that Jessie should be Woody's new girlfriend so they bought a ticket for Bo Beep. But after realizing the fans' reactions towards Jessie X Buzz, they decided to give them what they wanted.

Randall from Monter's Inc is the key between TS, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, Ratatoullie, and eventually causes the polluted future in Wall-E
After Randall sent to the trailer house by Sully and Mike, he started bleeding. His blood is way genetically different from any beings on Earth, and as it drips on the ground and on the ant island, it mutates the bugs in way that they can understand each other in a human-like manner. The blood flows to Paris to infect the rats, and eventually to Sydney to the fish and birds. Eventually Randall gives up on trying to find a door leading back to the Monsters world so he decides to stay in the Human world and create technology to make his own door back. He must have some degree in futuristic technology because he built the scream extractor. Eventually he creates sentient toys, and the technology of the future. Randall creates a door back, leaving his technology behind. The humans abuse his technology, the sentient toys eventually become trash, and WALL-E's apocalypse world is made.

Sid is still a toy modder, but not a mad-doctor type, and channels his aggression into drumming.
I always saw Sid as being The Unfavorite; he's kind of a childish brat, but he has an elaborate, dark fantasy life, his bed has no blankets or sheets or frame, and most of his toys seem like things he must have gotten when he was much younger (the baby doll, the jack in the box, the plastic dinosaurs, Ducky, etc) or stole from other kids. He has no apparent empathy for anybody and his parents seem to be largely oblivious to anything he does (who lets their kid skateboard across town by himself at night?). Meanwhile, Hannah is clean, has cleaner, newer toys, a furnished room, and is generally a more well-adjusted kid. Sid was using his toys to work out his aggressions against his neglectful parents. Although he was initially traumatized by seeing his toys come to life and swarm him, angry at being abused, he realized that he'd never really been alone at all, and moved on to music as a means to express himself while reserving toy-modding as a way to heal emotionally. He never did learn to empathize with people because of his terrible relationship with his family, but he was able to find a job where he wouldn't have to interact with people and still have the opportunity to find discarded toys to fix. The only reason he didn't collect Woody and company is because he never actually saw them.

The aliens really are aliens.
They are not toys. They can pretend to be because they are so small. They're just the advance scouts. Nobody is expecting the coming invasion.

The term for the toys being played with is a G-rated version of sexual intercourse

 * WHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTT!!!! No...Just...No

Andy and Sid used to be friends. And their dads died in a war.
Think about it. They're much more alike once you start to compare them. To start with:
 * They're the same age, or close. At the very least, Sid has a year or two on Andy.
 * Sid's braces aside, they LOOK similar. Sid has more of a buzz-cut, though, but close enough. Part of this may have to do with the state of animation at the time of the first film, but still.
 * Heck, they're practically next-door neighbors. More on that later.
 * They both have a younger sister and a dog.
 * Their father figure is missing. That's important.
 * Finally, they both have their toys.

Here's where the guessing starts coming in...

Consider, if you will, the possibility that Andy and Sid were friends. Now, the other part of this WMG is that their dads were killed in action. There is a little bit to support this. First is more than plenty of above WMG's suggesting that Woody was Andy's father's toy; if true, this would have helped to cope with that loss. Even more important than that are Andy's Army Men. Perhaps Andy's father was in the military, most likely the Army. (On a related note, the context of Woody and his dialogue with the Army Men at the start of the first movie has a whole new meaning...)

So we've established the probability that Andy's dad was in a war, and he was killed in action. From the above similarities between Andy and Sid, it follows that Sid's dad was also in the Army, and was also killed in action. There's no Army Men to support this, but Sid has used some tactical terminology; Sid's first scene, and the sequences where Sid was planning, delaying, and preparing Buzz's...erm, session...both played out as a kid/teen's glorified view of a military operation.

It's clear that Sid is probably an older version of Andy, if not a dark reflection. Hannah, Sid's sister, is older than Molly, Andy's sister, and Andy only gets his dog at the end of the first movie, whereas Sid has had Spot from the start of the film. So how did two similar kids end up so different? Their toys.

If Woody is indeed meant to be Andy's father's toy, or at least a reminder of him, this would have helped Andy cope with his dad dying. Sid, so far as we know, never had that. One became a more-or-less normal kid, and the other became a bully to all toys. Instead of coping with the loss, Sid takes his feelings out on his toys.

Finally, this divergence sets up the events of the first Toy Story movie. As Sid got worse, Andy stopped hanging out with him. Sid's getting worse also gives Andy's mother a reason to move: a better place for Andy to grow up, one where the neighbors weren't firecracking their own toys 24/7 and the dogs didn't attack everything in sight.

In summary, Sid's behavior is explained by the Freudian Excuse of a lost father figure. Andy never went down that path because he had a couple of coping mechanisms in place. But they probably used to be friends, or at least were very similar to begin with.

It's also likely that Andy's father and Sid's father may have been friends themselves, or perhaps in the same unit. It would make sense, but there's no way to prove it.