Snoopy's Contest Winning Display (A Charlie Brown Christmas (Memory Lane)) Review

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Snoopy's Contest Winning Display (A Charlie Brown Christmas (Memory Lane)) Review

Snoopy's Contest Winning Display
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Memory Lane) (Memory Lane)It's Christmas once again, which means it's time to watch plenty of holiday specials, including the ever-beloved A Charlie Brown Christmas. The most well-known animated special featuring the Peanuts cast, it was a television tradition for years until Apple got the rights to it, but as long as you can watch it yearly, that's no issue.

Back in the early 2000s, a company known as Playing Mantis nabbed the Peanuts license for their "Memory Lane" brand, and they put out plenty of great figures with a lot of heart put into them. I'll admit I don't have much of them, but I'd be more than happy to build up a big collection. My personal favorite of the few I own is related to the aforementioned Christmas special, featuring Snoopy and his decorated doghouse.

The set actually received two releases, one by Playing Mantis, and another by their successor, Forever Fun. The release I got is the later one, and the packaging is different for both releases. The Forever Fun reissue has a red and green box that's simple in nature, but I feel it works well for the license, and it does a good job showing off everything inside, along with a nice backdrop. There's a couple twist ties, but I didn't have to worry about them, since I got the set opened at Goodwill for dirt cheap.

Let's start with the star of the set, Snoopy. At 3" tall, he's a small figure, but he's also an easy design to convert into three dimensions. The figure is dead-on to the beagle, with a nice, happy expression that fits him well. He's mostly white, but the areas that aren't just that have clean paint/printing. One thing to note is that his collar is red instead of black, something that may have either been a licensor decision or something PM wanted to do. Snoopy gets decent articulation, with swivels at the neck, shoulders, and shins, as well as a diagonal waist cut so he can be posed sitting. Smart thinking on the sculptor's part.

Then we get his doghouse, decorated for the holidays. At around 6 1/2" tall, 5" long, and 3 3/4" wide, the roof is covered in snow, and is decked out with signs, lights, and chains. It's clearly based off the special, but it's not super accurate (for starters, it was blue in the source material, not red). Still, it's good enough for me, though the paint could be much better on it, especially on the chains. It also has a special feature: push the first place ribbon, and the lights flash while the classic Peanuts theme plays. It works great, but it's a little tough to activate.

A few other accessories are included to round out the set, such as a big, flat snow platform. The base is 8 1/4" long and 6" wide, but only less than an inch tall. The texture on it is great, and there's flat spots for Snoopy and his property to rest on. There's also a snow-covered fence, scaling 8" long and 5 5/8" tall, and it goes with the base to create a fitting diorama for the figure and doghouse. Lastly, there's Snoopy's food bowl, with a tower on bones on it. It's another thing lifted right from the special, and it helps add a bit more personality to the display. The original Playing Mantis release had a box of leftover decorations, but it's not included with the Forever Fun release, likely because they felt it was unnecessary.

Overall, the set is pretty cool, thanks to plenty of parts that create a unique display. While the doghouse could look better, the lights and sound feature makes up for it. If you're a Peanuts fan, you'll definitely want to scout out this set. In fact, don't just get it for yourself, get one for a friend; it'll be the perfect Christmas gift.

- 12/25/23