When my niece says something is cool, I go with it.
I’ve accepted the fact that no matter how ultimately cool I think things are, the things that quicken my own pulse are slowly drifting away from those item which flash and buzz and steadily towards ‘a neatly mown lawn’ or ‘an organized spice rack’. Sometimes, I have to outsource my coolness.
So, when my niece tells me to check out something, I do it. This month, she was taken by Happi-Go Luckies after encountering them in a store somewhere or other in her 9-year-old adventures. As a sucker for things that combine the aesthetic and the practical, they’re really very cool.
Happi-Go Luckies are, essentially, pens. Little knobby pens of delight, which have the unique distinction of also being little collectible figurines. It took me a little while of playing to realize this, but these Happi-Go Luckies pen figures share a lot of the qualities with the current designer toy movement. In fact, they’d look completely at home surrounded by KidRobot’s Dunnies, or the Artoyz Elements, or any of the other blind-boxed minifigures that are insanely popular right now. Jakks managed to get a designer toy under my hyper-critical radar. Kudos, Jakks. Taco Bell, you’re still on my list with those shoddy bell-head things that clearly rip off KR’s designers.
The first series of Luckies includes six different figures to collect, as well as a seventh ‘mystery’ figure that is unrevealed on the package (but revealed on the website). All of these are packaged in window boxes, so that you can see which character you’re buying, except for the ‘mystery’ boxes’, which can contain the rare seventh character – who is only sold at certain retailers, and is 1 for every 100 Luckies. In this way, it really becomes an exciting 
hunt, and with only six per set, it’s certainly an attainable hunt – especially at only four bucks each. It’s also a call back to the ‘blind box’ thing that dominates the collectible art figure market – but very, very subtly. ToyCyte debated the thrill of the blind box in a great series of articles (which I was also interviewed in), and ultimately, these Happi-Go Luckies fulfill almost everything you’d want by giving you the choice of how you buy your figures.
Of course, they’re neat figures, but how functional are they as pens? While they are bulbous, they’re not difficult to hold with my big, ugly man hands. The legs pop off of the figure, a quick twist extends the pen, and the legs are re-inserted (upside down) back into the torso, which grips the part and holds it in place for solid writing. The ink flows as well as any ball-point pen, thanks to the involvement of Pentech. This might be the exact thing we need to get my niece to start writing down her homework at the end of the day….
Each one also comes with a keychain attachment to hook ‘em onto your keychain or backpack like a charm, and a trading card to describe the character of each figure. There’s one for every personality, too – from silly, to dark & gothy, cute, sporty, nerdy – it’s all there. I also appreciate the fact, as a minifigure collector, that almost all of the figures have an original sculpt for the head portion. Far too often, companies wuss out and re-use parts inappropriately because it’s cheaper.
My personal favorite is ‘Flame’s The Name’, simply because of my not-so-secret robolust, but they’re all smartly done. Check out the website for more detailed photographs of the whole cast and their stories. I, for one, am sold on the coolness, and sheer unexpectedness of the integration of these completely diverse things. Good show.
