As you can see my daughter Jenna is back to help me show off some, if not all, of my Buzz Lightyear books. Aren’t you glad I’m grouping some of these things together? Would be pretty boring reading about one book a day.

Toy Story Novelization for Kids

I’ll bet you didn’t know there was such a thing did you. The entire movie written out in novel form. And trust me, the book is way better than the movie. That’s a lie. I haven’t even read the cover of this book much less anything inside it.

It does have pictures… in the center.

Obviously just some screen grabs from the movie. It’s a cheap paperback… but it’s from the first movie probably printed in 1996. I like it.

Buzz-Shaped Board Book

This is a pretty cool little board book. If you’re not familiar with the term board book it’s because you’ve never had a toddler. This is probably the first item I’ve posted that doesn’t say “ages 3 and up” on it. The book is a little strange to read though. There is a snap there next to his hop that keeps it closed… and when it opens it does so at that crease you see across Buzz’s knees. So you read it like a normal book… except the binding is about 2 and a half inches long.

Excerpt from this marvelous tome: “His spaceman suit has flashing wings. He gets his lift from mattress springs”. There’s a grand total of five pages. The last page is actually kind of awesome: “Just count on Buzz he’ll always be… a friend beyond… infinity”. Toddlers read this and have their first happy cry.

Hardbound Toy Story Storybook

The little Mickey icon at the top labels this book as a Disney’s Wonderful World of Reading book. Anyone else bothered by the fact that Woody and Buzz are not centered on the cover?

Inside it tells the story of the first movie using screen caps from the film. No original art here. Printed in 1996. It’s a good little storybook… but nothing outstanding.

 

A Pair of Cheap Buzz Little Golden Books

I say cheap because back in my day the spine of Little Golden Books was actually golden. These are just a couple of books that came with two different Toy Story book packages. One is a joke book… from the original movie. That’s pretty cool. Here are a couple of jokes from this sure to be awesome joke book.

Oh these are pretty bad.

• Knock, knock. Who’s there? Ken. Ken who? Ken you come out and play?
• What did one block say to the other? Meet you at the corner.
• What did the cowboy say to the pencil? Draw, pardner.
• Knock, knock. Who’s there? Army. Army who? Army and you still friends?

No. No we’re not. Kid jokes are the worst.

The other book actually tells a pretty good story. It covers the opening scene from TS2 where Buzz is “real” and battling Zurg on an alien planet. It ends with a huge “Game Over” and it’s been Rex playing the whole time. To give the kids a morale, Buzz helps Rex to get his confidence back and “not let his friends down” by playing the video game again. And again. Toys have a strange way of expressing friendship.

Toy Story 2 Graphic Novel

I just got through dogging out a storybook because it used all screen caps and no new art. Now I’m going to tell you that though this book does the same thing… it’s awesome.

First off, it tells two stories. Not only TS2 but the original Toy Story as well. Each page is set up more like a graphic novel with black backgrounds, speech bubbles and visual sound effects.

It’s a hardbound book from 1999. In the credits it says this book was conceived by Robert Warner. Eww. I’m throwing it away.

Toy Story: The Essential Guide

Defiantly saved the best for last. We’re all familiar with these books. I haven’t met a single one that I don’t like. They have all these facts and details about each character. It’s like a book version of DVD extras. This one is no exception. It gives up the goods on the characters from TS1 and TS2.

Naturally the best part is the big two-page spread on your friend beyond infinity (tear).  I just learned something new after reviewing these pages. Did you know that he has Airtight Intergalactic Briefs? Says so right there. Strange and unnecessary. These are selling on ebay for around $14 bucks. Decent.

Well that does it for today.

Do you have any Buzz stuff laying around your house? Why not shoot it and email it to me at james@nlcast.com and I’ll feature it in the next post. If it has a story to go with it, much rather better.