Sliding Scale of Living Toys

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

In fiction, especially works aimed at children or set in worlds with a tenuous grip on sanity, it's not uncommon for toys and other inanimate objects to be depicted as having minds of their own. They can think, they can muse, they can ponder, they can rail at their arbitrary existence or gush about how perfect their lives are, and sometimes they can get up, move around and do things that you wouldn't expect them to do...though only while no one's looking, in most cases.

Sometimes they're like little people, only shaped like teddy bears or toasters; other times, they're prisoners of their plastic/fabric/metal bodies, totally incapable of doing anything but what their owner poses them to do. It doesn't matter if it's an action figure or a lawnmower or even an industrial washing machine: in a world of Living Toys, anything is fair game.

A word of caution: if it's supposed to have a mind of its own via Artificial Intelligence or Applied Phlebotinum, it doesn't belong here. A Ridiculously Human Robot that can fit in your palm is still just a Ridiculously Human Robot, not a Living Toy.

Subtrope of Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism.

Examples of Sliding Scale of Living Toys include:

Level 0: Immobile, But Still Sentient

The toy has no capacity for movement, mechanical and electrical parts notwithstanding. Its life is shaped entirely by the people that play with it. As it must be a Living Toy to fall into this category, this toy is at least capable of an internal monologue. It may also be able to communicate with other toys through some sort of ill-explained "psychic" connection.

Level 0 Examples

  • The Velveteen Rabbit, before becoming real.
  • Stinky the skunk in Kim & Jason.
  • Johnny the Homicidal Maniac has a couple of these.
    • First of all is Shmee, though in JTHM, he is just a toy. However, in the spinoff series Squee, Squee has a dream in which Shmee is alive and talks to Squee, saying that he is his "trauma-sponge" that works to free Squee of all his fears. And he does a, well, okay job...
    • Native only to the original JTHM series, not any spinoffs, are the two Doughboys, Mr. Fuck/Mr. Eff and Psycho-Doughboy/D-boy. At first, you assume they only appear to speak due to Johnny's extreme imagination, but they actually have different personalities and goals. Mr. Fuck (ironically not the one with the word "fuck" written on him) wants Johnny to kill and use his victims' blood to keep the monster behind the wall at bay, thus giving the Doughboys more of the monster's power and sentience. Psycho-Doughboy instead wants Johnny dead so that he will stop giving them power and thus, both will die and stay inanimate. For a while, they become living beings and can move about, even after Johnny's death, but this doesn't last.
  • Happy Horse from Good Luck Charlie.
  • The book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is narrated by a China doll, Edward Tulane, as he describes the different owners he encounters (and the persons they assign him) after being lost by his original owner.
  • The dolls in most of Rumer Godden's childrens' books.
  • Emily from Soukou no Strain is expected to be psychic to some capacity, since the doll is only an outer shell for the Mimic, a device built for pilot-machine interface. Still, from her introduction on, she's shown to have mental capabilities outside the range of a regular Mimic, and she shares the senses and identity of the little alien girl, also named Emily. It's stated later on, when you learn their backstory, that "Sara didn't link with that Mimic -- it linked with her.
  • The Steadfast Tin Soldier in the original fairy tale. (Though it is suggested the troll might be a level 1 or higher.)


Level 1: Schrodinger's Toy

The toy is capable of moving on its own, but can only do so while not being observed. There may be a danger of it losing the ability to move forever if it is observed out of position from where it was last left.

Level 1 Examples

Level 2: Toy Masquerade

The toy can switch between animate and inanimate at will, and may communicate with animals, babies, or generally anyone who can't betray their secret. Such toys need to hide their sentience in the presence of older humans, sapient races and even toys that fall on higher levels of the scale. However, they are different from Level 1 toys in that they can go out of their masquerade, but this is extremely rare if done at all.

Level 2 Examples

  • Toy Story falls in this level except for that one scene in Sid's yard, in which case it's around Level 3.
  • The Brave Little Toaster (mostly just appliances and household devices, but there's been at least one toy character in the trilogy.)
  • The title characters in the British cartoon series "The Raggy Dolls", dolls that live in the reject bin of a toy factory. Each had a minor defect that mean they could not be sold and they spend their time forgotten in a bin having adventures. They are never observed moving so one assumes they are Level 2.
  • The Sanderson's toys in Chibi-Robo!
  • Talky Tina from The Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll". What keeps her from being level 1 is the fact that she verbally threatens people, though no one sees her move on her own.
  • The lawn ornaments in Gnomeo and Juliet fall under this category, sometimes freezing into positions that would compromise The Masquerade when seen fighting.


Level 3: "Imaginary" Friend

The toy is fully animate, but observers will be unable to identify it as something other than an ordinary toy. Only certain members of a sentient species can see these toys for what they are, and those members will usually fail to convince others that the toy is anything more than an imaginary friend.

Level 3 Examples

  • Hobbes from Calvin and Hobbes
  • The clown toy from The Clown Story
  • Sakutaro from Umineko no Naku Koro ni
  • The animals in Shoebox Zoo.
  • Screwy the baseball and Darling the baseball bat from Everyones Hero
  • The toys on the Disney Junior series Doc McStuffins seem to be somewhere between Level 2 and Level 3. They come to life when around the titular Doc, but "get stuffed" when anyone else shows up on the scene.
  • Chucky from Child's Play is this level (well, except for the "friend" part perhaps) for much of his movies, showing his real nature only to the boy. He has a tendency to start at level 2 and end up at level 4 though.


Level 4: I've Got No Strings

The toy is fully animate, and everyone around it can see that it is alive, but it is still quite obviously a toy, being made of wood, stuffed with cotton, etc.

Level 4 Examples

  • Pinocchio, the Level Namer
  • The sackdolls in 9
  • The Doughboys mentioned earlier in Level 0, briefly become this right before they are destroyed for good.
  • The titular dolls from Rozen Maiden. Jun is even a little shocked when he sees Shinku's and Hinaichigo's joints for the first time, despite being aware that they are dolls, because he's gotten so used to them behaving like normal girls.
  • The household objects in Disney's Beauty and the Beast including some toy-like Christmas decorations.
    • Subverted, in that they were actually cursed.
  • Toys in the sequel for The Legend of the Titanic.
  • Toys in Noddy are this level, but some of them, like Noddy and Dinah Doll are Level 5.
  • Tools in Handy Manny.
  • Pokota from Himechan no Ribon but he hides away from anybody who doesn't know the secret.
  • Kon from Bleach, a "modsoul" trapped in the body of a stuffed lion.
  • A lot of the exhibits in Night at the Museum.
  • Puppet Angel during the Angel episode "Smile Time" (though, of course, he was previously an animate being): "I'm made of felt, and my nose comes off."
  • The titular family in The Mennyms, who are human-sized dolls and very convincingly made, but have beaded eyes, yarn for hair and so on. But they are alive and do everything except eat. The books centre on their ongoing efforts not to have their status as dolls discovered by anyone outside the family.
  • "Tom the Teddy" (actually Voldemort's soul stuck into a teddy bear), in Dodgers, Dresses, Teddy Bears and Spot, a Harry Potter/The Munsters crossover by Clell65619.

Level 5: Seems So Real and Living

Like Level 4, they are fully animate and everyone around them can see that it is alive, and are still toys, made of wood, stuffed with cotton, etc. However, they seem so real to the viewers that they tend to forget this and view them as if they were actually living beings.

Film

Literature

  • Stuffed animals in Winnie the Pooh are this level, because the many of the viewers tend to forget that they are stuffed animals and sometimes treat them as if they are just as real as actual living animals like Rabbit and Owl.
  • Some of the toys in Noddy like Noddy and Dinah Doll are this level.

Live-Action TV

  • Bob, a ventriloquist dummy, from Soap is a subversion to this, he is strictly an inanimate object but he talks so often and so life-like that often characters think he is real and he's more popular than the character who uses him.

Web Comics

  • Reynardine possessing Annie's toy wolf in Gunnerkrigg Court. Can become Level 6 at will.


Level 6: Real and Living To Everyone

The toy has somehow become a living being, and no longer looks like a toy. Although these toys may be biologically indistinct from normal living beings, the fact remains that they were created and animated through unconventional means, like Love Imbues Life or Applied Phlebotinum.

Level 6 Examples

  • Pinocchio, after becoming real.
  • The Velveteen Rabbit, after becoming real.
  • The Ghost of Martel, after becoming 'real' from the Innocence.
  • All the toy figures in the Indian in The Cupboard series become fully human/real (but still miniature) when the magic key is used on the item containing them (a cupboard, a chest, and a car).
  • SCP Foundation has an SCP that can possess toys and turn them into real, full sized versions of themselves. As you could expect from SCP Foundation, it's creepy. Imagine kid's beloved Teddy turning into real grizzly.
  • Geno, from Super Mario RPG, a Badass laser-blasting doll animated by a higher being from the Star Road after its destruction to assist in the recovery of the Star Pieces.
  • There was an early 80's children's show called Today's Special that starred a mannequin that came to life as long as he wore his magic hat and didn't leave the store.
  • In Life Size, Lindsay Lohan's character accidentally brings Eve (a Captain Ersatz of Barbie played by Tyra Banks) to life during a ritual meant to bring her Missing Mom Back from the Dead and subsequently has to deal with Eve's Fish Out of Water status and Manic Pixie Dream Girl tendencies. In the end, Eve willingly turns herself back into a doll so that the things she's learned will carry over to all Eve dolls, giving them a much-needed cultural update and saving the entire line from cancellation.
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