Static Shock "Toys In The Hood" Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

The Man of Steel teams up with Dakota's hero in this all-new adventure, airing at 10:30am (ET) today.

Episode #39 - Toys In The Hood
Original Airdate - May 3rd, 2003.

Static teams up with Superman when the Man of Steel's old nemesis, Toyman, arrives in Dakota on a kidnapping scheme.

Comments?

[Frank White]

I'm glad Clark Kent is still "alive". I know there was some speculation that he was being Superman 24 hrs.

Is it just me or is Static/Superman more natural than Batman/Static. Maybe it's just Supes personality...

Toyman's voice is off.

I'm assuming Superman has been tracking Toyman, because it's odd he would just pop up when Static called for help.

Superman has blue eyes? I prefer his S:TAS black eyes

[tphile]

How does Static know about the Fortress of Solitude?
Isn't that supposed to be a secret?

[bat313]

The plot was kinda lame like the other superhero static cross overs (though A League of their own was alright) but the best part was seeing Superman. His old deisign is back and better then ever!! And Newborn is finally getting the hang of doing Superman's voice right!! I'm very much looking forward to the new season of justie league becuase of all this.
I don't have much to say about the episode becuase i don't like the idea of Darci beign so evil, i don't remember her being evil in Obsession, and i having much more of a personalitly too. I seriously doubt Toyman would need such huge and "superman inviting" toys to capture a girl in highschool. Plus, how creepy was the notion that toyman wanted to spend the rest of his live with a little highschool girl????? Two words, Stupid writting.
And lets not foget the stupid music. The commercial even had the real superman music, so why couldnt the show!!!!!!!!!! It's all so agrivating i just want to go back to sleep. I love static shock as a character, but the writers need to take some lessons and stop forcing cross overs, its' just upsetting both fans,
But thats just my two cents anyway,

[Frank White]

How does Static know about the Fortress of Solitude?
Isn't that supposed to be a secret?

It's not a secret, Angela Chen mentioned it in Bizzaro's World

[Drachentöter]

WB CONKED OUT ON ME IN THE MIDDLE. I didn't get to see most of the episode!!!



I'll comment on what I saw.

I love Superman's new design. Blue eys are good and it's preferable to....two black dots. The return of Clark Kent is also very welcome. Nice use of X-ray vision with Gear's ankle.

Unfortunately, the music blew. It just did not fit Superman at all. His theme was...mangled. Also, dialogue was pretty childish. Especially whatever Superman said when throwing the bus.

The little I saw of Toyman didn't seem all that special. I recall reading about his episodes in STAS, and I expected a much more sinister character. This guy sure is crafty, but not especially disturbing. The Darcy-Daisy plot seemed kind of cliche too.

I can't give it a rating, because I did not see the whole episode. Could someone please tell me if it will air again soon? Also, could someone tell me what happened at the end? To top it all off, family matters tore me away from the TV in the last five minutes. What happened to Daisy, Darcy, and Toyman?

[Drachentöter]

It's not a secret, Angela Chen mentioned it in Bizzaro's World

I wasn't aware he actually had a Fortress of Solitude in animated continuity. Was it ever seen in STAS?

[Mister Intensity]

I wasn't too crazy about Darci's scheme but I did like the interaction between Superman and Static. It kind of makes sense that Darci would turn to Toyman for help, remember when he last saw Darci, she was carrying Toyman in a suitcase. Darci wasn't exactly a goody-goody, you know. More than anything, she wanted to be human and she would do anything to be human.

However, the scheme itself was absurd. While I could understand Toyman being attracted to a teenage girl or even younger (let's face it, it's implied that his maturity, including his sexual maturity, is stunted), why would Darci want to be a teenager. If anything, she would probably want to be a fashion model, like she was before she went on the run.

I do agree that the giant toys made things too obvious. Smaller robots could have accomplished the same thing. The paddle with the growing ball stretched things a bit much for me. The end solution was also a bit lame. I buy the bit about auras but shouldn't Daisy-Darci have an aura as well, even though it wouldn't be the same one as the real Daisy's.

Overall, this episode failed at the level of plot, I do feel that everyone was in character (Darci was never really a good girl to begin with, remember, she was programmed by Toyman). The character interaction was well done but the overall scheme was hard to buy. Toyman's voice did lose a lot of its creepiness which weakened Toyman in my opinion.

I really hope that that Animated Toyman is used in a Batman story one of these days. There's a good Batman-Toyman confrontation storyline somewhere.

Mister Intensity

[stwasm]

It was good seeing the old design back on Superman -- although I STILL have a problem with no gold "S" on the back of the cape.

His blue eyes were a little creepy, but a nice touch. Yes, I agree that the music was corny. The story itself, I thought, was kinda lame.

Also, did anyone else have a problem with WB losing its signal during the episode? I live outside of Washington, DC, and right at the point of Daisy getting ready to introduce Clark Kent to the teacher, my station lost the signal for five minutes!!!! It didn't come back until Superman and Static were together searching for clues. Did I miss anything?

It also was nice to see Superman continuing to be trusted by citizens after the "Legacy" episode. I can't wait to see how the Justice League wraps up this loose end in the new season.

[tphile]

I wasn't aware he actually had a Fortress of Solitude in animated continuity. Was it ever seen in STAS?

Yes it began as the "intergalatic zoo" zoo craft in Main Man
he brought it back and said "this has possibilities"
Supergirl used it to operate the Superman robot in Legacy
and we saw it again in the JL episode of Batman Beyond

not the Krypton built home base or the Giant door and key versions

[Drachentöter]

It was good seeing the old design back on Superman -- although I STILL have a problem with no gold "S" on the back of the cape.

His blue eyes were a little creepy, but a nice touch. Yes, I agree that the music was corny. The story itself, I thought, was kinda lame.

Also, did anyone else have a problem with WB losing its signal during the episode? I live outside of Washington, DC, and right at the point of Daisy getting ready to introduce Clark Kent to the teacher, my station lost the signal for five minutes!!!! It didn't come back until Superman and Static were together searching for clues. Did I miss anything?

It also was nice to see Superman continuing to be trusted by citizens after the "Legacy" episode. I can't wait to see how the Justice League wraps up this loose end in the new season.

Yeah, ditto for me. I live in the same area. Guess we'll just have to wait for a rerun.

As for the gold "S," the creator's excuse is that it's "too difficult to animate" and I have no problem with it. It's just a letter.

[Digu Volz]

My TV blacked out, as well. Overall I really couldn't get a feel for the episode, though maybe that's due to the cold I have and missing that part of the episode, where everything seemed to be set up.

While there's nothing wrong with Superman making jokes... I dunno, it didn't sit well with me, nor was how Gear ended up forced out of the plot. Where's the love ? It must be because he's white.

Conversely, Superman looked better in this crossover than he has ever looked in any of the other series', imo. Whoever thought paying more detail to the eyes could do that ? And I agree that Newbern has improved. Yay for him !

Static's animation has been its greatest improvement.

I think I need to watch this episode before I say anything else... Kids' WB just had to ruin the whole thing. Oh well.

[JohnStewart-GL]

I thought it was pretty good. The plot wasnt as good as a league of their own though. I love Supes design. I never realized how much i missed it till i saw it back in action. I like the addition of blues eyes and i hope Jl uses them as well. Newburn did a great Job voicing Superman in this episode. overall a good 3 1/2 stars or 4 at the most.

[keds1017]

I thought this ep was cool ,it wasn't the best dc crossrover like the JL's 2 parter but better than "Hard as nails" ep. As for plotline it was pretty good , I think Darci just wanted to be Daisy no matter if she was adult or a teenager.. so i don't really see the problem in that.. as for the music i'm kinda disappointed becuase i hoping to hear the Superman theme that we heard in the promos but we got the some weird theme instead and at the end i thought finally Static and Daisy would kiss but no!!! why not? other than that i really had no problems. 4/5 stars

[superfreak]

I wish this design of superman appeared on JL. JL's superman looks like an overgrown ape (no offense to the artist or the production crew). This Superman looks agile and is more balanced. The color of the eyes is better then in STAS.

Overall, I like the episode. Superman's interaction with Static is smooth and the plot is excellent, except I don't the part that Darci wanted to be a teenager. I give this episode a four stars.

[Final C yourgod]

This is great episode I really saw no problems with it and I saw it 2 times. (I taped everything including the Teen Titans preview all with no ads) I didn’t like the Superman music at first, but I like it better then the old plain/dead song. I mean this is the 21-century it's time to redo everything. I loved this episode, but Superman using X-ray vision on Daisy for shame! Anyway I loved it even through I like Hard As Nails better; I hope we see Nails again. It would also be nice to see Permafrost even through I missed Frozen Out. I give it 4/5 stars.

[Final C yourgod]

I wish this design of superman appeared on JL. JL's superman looks like an overgrown ape (no offense to the artist or the production crew). This Superman looks agile and is more balanced. The color of the eyes is better then in STAS.

Overall, I like the episode. Superman's interaction with Static is smooth and the plot is excellent, except I don't the part that Darci wanted to be a teenager. I give this episode a four stars.

Darci wants to be young and have her whole life ahead of her.

[warmachine04]

"Toys in the Hood" could be classified as a good crossover episode but not great. The execution of this episode was weak compared to "A League of their Own." The episode had two significant flaws:
1) The story often dipped. The episode started fine but after the first 10 min. the mood seemed pretty lame. There are some good twists and action-packed momments including Superman finishing off the giant toy monkey with the wrecked school bus. The interaction between Static and Superman played better than one with Batman. The ending felt quite weak.
2) The Superman Theme just didnt play well for this episode. I'd expected a Techno version of the S:TAS music but this version was just lame.
Overall. I rather enjoyed the episode over "Hard as Nails" due to the interaction between Superman and Static. I felt the Static was too "Wow, Im with Superman" was just too much for the episode. The scene of Static and Daisy shows the possibilities of romance in future episode (this would be a good turn for the show). The design of Superman was fine. George Newborn's voice work showed improvement. I give the episode 3.5 stars.

[susan123]

I wasn't too crazy about Darci's scheme but I did like the interaction between Superman and Static. It kind of makes sense that Darci would turn to Toyman for help, remember when he last saw Darci, she was carrying Toyman in a suitcase. Darci wasn't exactly a goody-goody, you know. More than anything, she wanted to be human and she would do anything to be human.
Mister Intensity

I don't remember Darci putting Toyman in a suitcase. It doesn't sound something like the Standards & Practices would let air because they would be afraid that kids might start locking up other kids in suitcases. I remember the scene as her suitcase being heavy but I thought it might have been full of tools since she was a robot. I'll have to dig that episode out and watch it again.

I loved the STAS design of Superman. It's nice to see that he's not ready for Social Security yet. George Newbern has really improved--he almost sounds like Tim Daly. When the commercials were first shown I thought maybe it was Tim Daly. The plot was weak but hey, its a show for kids right? The trust between Static and Superman seemed more natural than between Static and Batman.

All in all not a bad episode. Not the greatest crossover but not bad.

[czyznyck99]

What in the world was that? I have been getting tired of the crossovers, for the simple reason that they don't establish Static as an independent hero. In this episode, Superman and Toyman were completely unnecessary. Evil Darcy was cool, she stuck by her dream to live forever, evn though her ultimate demise didn't make much sense to me. Toyman was obsessed with Darcy, so why would he just activate a fail safe? A "whatever" episode. 2 stars.

Later.