Image via WikipediaYou know what's really frustrating? When your child discovers a new character, but it's a character from a movie released 13 years ago. I am of course talking about Buzz Lightyear. My boys are obsessed with Buzz, Woody, Rex and Zurg. Unfortunately, because the movie was released so long ago, there is limited Toy Story merchandise available for purchase. This is an especially big problem considering they have a birthday coming up. Yes, there are a few items to be found at Target or Toys 'R Us, and I have found a few things on eBay, but I know if this were 1995 I'd have a lot more to pick from.

What was really surprising is when we visited Disney World a few months ago, and found a similar dearth of good product. When we got to the Disney Studios, I immediately took the boys over to Al's Toy Barn only to discover it was just a facade, with a cart set up nearby selling a few items. Now, I generally believe Disney is the king of merchandising, but what the heck? Does it not seem obvious that Al's Toy Barn should be, well, a toy store??? Of course I also think the Indy cars ride in the Magic Kingdom should be rethemed as a Cars attraction, but that's another story.

The new Toy Story Mania attraction was set to open about a month after our visit. I would imagine they've added a retail area near this new ride, but unfortunately this did not help us. Of course, many of the products they did offer were so big (like the giant Buzz Lightyear claw) that we would never have been able to bring them home in our luggage.

Oh well, I guess I'll just continue to scour the Internet . . .