• Member Since 17th May, 2012
  • offline last seen Yesterday

BlueBastard


Supercharging at MAXIMUM LEVELS!

E

Nobody thinks too much about those toys included in the kiddie meals from fast food resturaunts, just promotional cheap freebies to appeal to the kids. The kids will enjoy the little toy for about a day before ultimately forgetting about them - after all, they are usually just simple playthings built around one gimmick. The journey of these figures generally end with them being forlorn and forgotten, lost in the cracks of life. But these toys wish to be recognized as toys just as much as the bigger, more robust offerings in stores, that dream being rarely ever fulfilled.

Such was the case for one poor Cheerilee, a Happy Meal figure who felt she had lost everything. Her comb accessory long gone, abandoned by her owner in a public place, and every day could bring further physical erosion. Nobody pays much attention to her, the fuschia plastic thing left floating forlorn in the pool, and she's certain it is only a matter of time before she meets her end in the trash. After all, she's worthless, she's served her purpose long ago.

But all she needs is to be shown a little love from somebody who still cares. And it can come from the most unexpected and unusual of sources.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 26 )

This gave me a weird Toy Story vibe.

Did MacDonald's really put out My Little pony toys?

8937249 Yep, and they still do from time to time.

You just have to watch the promos for them to know when to catch them, is the thing.

I actually really like these types of stories. Someday, I'd like to do a "robot gains emotions" story...except with the "robot" as a FurReal Friends-type toy.

And it is strange how collectors value "cheaper" toys. I have a couple of handmade MLP plush I love, but I also love my Toys R Us Tempest plush. The handmade Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are more accurate, but the Tempest is made out of less firm fabric, so she has a squishy belly. I actually like that part of the toy so much that I've actually headcanoned that show Tempest has a tiny belly squish under all that armor.

I'm not fucking crying! You're crying!

*Unholsters Glock*

Where the fuck are they! Those son's'uhbitches onion cutting ninjas! I'll kill'em all!

8937190
A good kind of weird feeling, I hope.

8937249
They did, and currently there's a third wave going on in I believe the Eastern European part of the world, based on the Cutie Mark Crew blindbag theme Hasbro is going to launch at some point.

8937291
Heh, I actually have a story idea for the whole "robot gains emotions" concept myself, complete with the FurReal friends allegory (ever see the life-size pony robot toy they made?). I'm saving it for NaNoWriMo this November.

8937335
Took me a moment to figure out what you were even talking about :trollestia:

8937375
Good enough to upvote weird. :)

I was going to say this story goes perfectly with "When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2, but it doesn't. The Cheerilee toy was never loved until she met the Camera Man. She was merely a temporary distraction for the countless kids who played with her for a few minutes before moving on to the next thing.

She's more like the toys from the Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer -- made flawed and weird, feeling like she was unworthy of love. When she finally felt it, she dared not believe it was true for fear of breaking her heart again. When she knew it wasn't a fluke, when she was loved and accepted, it was the perfect bow on the gift, so to speak.

Bravo. I'm so glad this little piece of poorly-painted plastic found a good home.

Reading this really makes me wish I had a spare comb base for her that I could give you.

Especially if it ended with a bonus chapter of her reacting to getting her one accessory back. ^^;

A very touching story, good job :D, now im going to sleep happy, thanks form that.

my username comes from the fact that im a dead inside workaholic, who comes from an absurdly religious family and works to avoid the nutty fuckers and I run a small firm of machinists I haven't smiled in years and ponyfics are my guilty pleasure that none can know about.
and you made me tear up. holy fucking shit man. have a well earned like.
the only pony merch I even own is a little squishy rubber dashie and a cast plastic big mac that I found a few years back near a local store

never thought i'd be crying over a MacDonald's toy eight or so years ago when i first got into MLP but here we are :raritycry:

In hindsight, I'm surprised there aren't more "MLP character comes to life as toy in human world"-stories.

8937249
They did two or three times prior, with the last being about two years ago, where Starlight was part of the set. There's presumably an upcoming one of the upcoming line of Cutie Mark Squad, but it's unknown if America is getting these

I actually have a Pinkie Pie, a Fluttershy, and a Cheerilee (The SAME Cheerilee, no less.) floating around my home.

This is a touching story. It presents a range of emotion, both tragic and positive, and comes to a satisfactory conclusion -- it's a story, not an aimless "feely" prose piece. Nicely done!

There are a few places you could tighten things up a bit and make it even stronger. I'll try to call them out below.

Some specific feedback:

... the only other piece I was designed to work with; my combination base and comb, was destined to be lost.

- this resonates strongly -- a lost toy pining for a piece of itself that it will never, ever see again. Ouch.

I wanted to cry out to her as I watched her mother take her by the hand and lead her away, leaving me on my side on that hard concrete edge of the pool, but that’s not how toys work.

- This is well done. Though to be fair I'm a sucker for "abandoned toy" images in any case. That scene in Toy Story 2, where Jessie is peering wide-eyed out of the box at the donations bin, unable to *believe* what just happened? It tears my heart out, every... freaking... time!

And indeed, on the inside of my left foreleg reads MADE FOR McD’s CHINA CWB CHINA, while my inner left rear leg merely reads © 2011 Hasbro.
But Hasbro didn’t make me – I’m just a cheap McDonald’s toy

- You could omit the Hasbro mark here, and it would be stronger -- it would help keep the focus on the mark that the toy feels truly condemns it.

... I feel silly after having done that...

- I'd try removing this paragraph, or folding the last sentence into the preceding one, because it overextends the point just a hair.

... at is within a high-end gated golfing community...

- You've mentioned this already, so it feels a little repetitious -- one thing you want to avoid is making the toy sound like it's griping cynically, since a lot of the reader's sympathy comes from seeing the toy as an unfortunate victim.

... it’s strange for a toy to desire the opposite of playtime, my expressed reason for existing ...

- A nice point of ironic contrast.

As I make eye contact with this new human...

- I realize this is told from life, but it would be good to have at least a couple details of the person who finds the toy, given how important this person is to the narrative. Even just hair color or some other feature, so the character feels like a story character. Without this, it feels a little like a self-insert, which I'm pretty sure isn't what you're going for.

... he is one of the younger people there. Probably a grandson.

- This feels inconsistent with describing him as a man later in the story; e.g. calling him a "young man" instead would work fine, and fit this initial description better, or you could just age him here a bit to match the overall description.

This repeated game of ‘hide and then tell the bag’s owner to go seek’ went on for two or three hours during the event... and returned me to the table for the eighth or ninth time that day.

- You actually don't need the repetition here, and it would help tighten up the flow overall. (The observations about the owner of the camera are good, it's just the beginning and the ending of this paragraph that's an issue.)

[Then I heard t]he opening and closing of car doors. The rumble of a car engine turning on..."

- Just a suggestion -- the sentence feels a little too abrupt here by itself.

... most of them filled with geometric figures in bright colors, organized by some kind of criteria I was unfamiliar with...

"Geometric" is a little too abstract -- for a moment I thought they were Rubik's Cubes and similar puzzles. How about "anthropomorphic" or "robotic", or maybe just describe them as "action figures"?

... one thing you do better than ...

- How about "the one thing about you that is better than"? Since what follows is a description of a feature, not an action.

But I don’t care about that anymore. Because here, in this collection, is where I belong now. And I couldn’t be happier.

- This is a nice resolution to the story. I love it when a plan comes together! :twilightsmile:

This was absolutely stunning. I had gone into this thinking it was gonna be the same old "Toy Story" plot, and while it had the basic idea, it also had something more. Something that constantly left me wondering if this was going to end well or badly, with optimism or pessimism (especially considering the "Sad" tag - these stories can go either way). In a way I did relate to McDonald's Cheerilee - in wondering if this was just some short-term happiness before returning to the usual, depressing life. I was so glad that this turned out not to be the case, and your note at the end just made things all the more sweeter, and gave me an even greater appreciation for this one-shot (I guess the chapter title didn't really mean anything to me until your note confirmed that it was on purpose.)

Overall, a fantastic take on what some may consider a cliche today, but you managed to make it seem like something original.

...it took me far too long to read this story. It was so terribly sweet. If my dentist finds a cavity today, I'm blaming it on this story.

In all seriousness, however, well done.

8937335
Stupid Ninjas! :applecry:

8938048
I actually found the lightning bolt/comb for the 2011 Rainbow Dash that I was missing while checking out a mobile home I was considering renting in 2012. Needless to say, I ended up renting the trailer.

In all seriousness I did end up crying during this reading. Partially because two months ago I had to move out of state, and was short several hundred dollars. So I ended up going to the Toy Shack (as seen on Las Vegas's Pawn Stars, and let me tell you, Johnny is not a nice guy. I would say more, but . . . if you can't say anything nice . . . I suppose he has a good grasp of objective capitalism?) And as a result of desperation, I let go of the majority of my MLP collection for less than $650. Original retail of well over $5,000, but more than that, each piece I had a connection with. I had been planning and saving for years to turn my collection into a interior design arrangement. A household surrounded by pony, a refuge from the harshness of the 'real' world. And I had to abandon them all to a man who made Al, of Al's Toy Barn, look empathetic. All because of bad financial planning. Not that I have any regrets or anything. What was I saying . . . oh yeah, good story, well written, and it struck a very personal chord with me. :fluttercry:
:pinkiesad2:

8937335
Stupid Ninjas! :applecry:

8938048
I actually found the lightning bolt/comb for the 2011 Rainbow Dash that I was missing while checking out a mobile home I was considering renting in 2012. Needless to say, I ended up renting the trailer.

In all seriousness I did end up crying during this reading. Partially because two months ago I had to move out of state, and was short several hundred dollars. So I ended up going to the Toy Shack (as seen on Las Vegas's Pawn Stars, and let me tell you, Johnny is not a nice guy. I would say more, but . . . if you can't say anything nice . . . I suppose he has a good grasp of objective capitalism?) And as a result of desperation, I let go of the majority of my MLP collection for less than $650. Original retail of well over $5,000, but more than that, each piece I had a connection with. I had been planning and saving for years to turn my collection into a interior design arrangement. A household surrounded by pony, a refuge from the harshness of the 'real' world. And I had to abandon them all to a man who made Al, of Al's Toy Barn, look empathetic. All because of bad financial planning. Not that I have any regrets or anything. What was I saying . . . oh yeah, good story, well written, and it struck a very personal chord with me. :fluttercry:
:pinkiesad2:

Looking in good nick, I must say! I collect old toys as well, although my main focus is the old Thomas and Friends ERTL range. Cheerilee's tale here reminded me of Jessie from Toy Story.

Man, I suddenly feel awful about throwing old toys out...

Great story. Very moving.

I have that cheereelee too. God I miss the older days of the fandom, when I was shiny and new and felt like I had worth.

Mine isn’t this a nice gem to find years later. Very well done

Also judging by how cheerilee was described as being a McDonald’s happy meal you and appears to be described as having spent a long time at the pool, it is entirely possible that that mlp line stopped ages ago and she has got quite a bit of value

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