Marvel super heroes might dominate Disney Infinity 2.0, but Disney’s classic characters aren’t completely squeezed out of the fun this time. The second wave of figures for the game featured eight familiar faces from various Disney movies, all wrapped up under the title of Disney Originals. It might be slim pickings compared to the Marvel onslaught, but it’s a nice complement to the almost thirty Disney characters released for the first game throughout 2013 and 2014. There are no playsets for any of the new Disney Originals, so you can only use them in the Toybox mode, but that’s the best part of Disney Infinity anyway, so no complaints from this guy. No, I’ll save my complaints for the figures themselves, as well as my praise. Just as I’ve ranked Nintendo’s Amiibos in a couple of pieces, I’m presenting to you today the definitive account of my own personal opinions on these collectible figures. And since Disney Infinity toys are way more interactive in-game, these rankings won’t just be based on aesthetics. What the toy lets me do in an Infinity Toybox is as important as how the toy looks.
Note: Jasmine isn’t being released until February. We’ll find room for her once she’s out.
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8. Aladdin is a master jumper and wields a mean scimitar, but his big move is a whirlwind he can unleash through his lamp. He's a good, basic fighter, but a bit dull both as an in-game character and as a collectible figure.
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7. Tinker Bell shouldn't talk. I'm sorry, but I'm a classicist. I know kids today have a whole franchise based around Tinker Bell and her fairy friends, but she was silent in Peter Pan, and every time she talks in Disney Infinity it just feels wrong. It's good to have more female characters in the game, and her moveset is fast and fun, but this version of Tinker Bell ignores what the word "original" means.
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6. Merida from Brave has amazing hair, and there's nothing we can say that will detract from that. She's a useful fighter, handy with a sword and bow, but her abilities don't really stand out amid the crowded Infinity field. Her statue is better than she is in-game, with her crouching dynamically before letting an arrow fly.
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5. Baymax. Baymax is a powerhouse who uses his body as a weapon, and I mean that literally—he fires his hands at enemies. He's fun to fly with, like all of Infinity's flyers, and can also heal partners, making him useful in co-op. His figure is one of the biggest yet in Infinity, as oversized as the Hulk and Wreck-It Ralph. He looks cool but has a weird pedigree—it's the Disneyfied version of Marvel's take on manga.
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4. Stitch from Lilo & Stitch is as adorable as ever, a weird little alien-pug hybrid with huge, floppy rabbit ears. His blasters are fairly generic as far as Infinity guns go, but his sprint mechanic is a useful way to move around the map and his four-armed special move is appropriately destructive.
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3. Hiro Hamada from Big Hero 6 makes for a dull figure, looking like a cross between Mega Man and the movie version of Ender's Game, but he might have the coolest and most entertaining moves of any Infinity character. His nanobot-based attacks buffet bad guys with makeshift structures, which are impressively animated by the game. It's the closest the game's gotten to sci-fi so far.
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2. Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty is a powerful character and one of the most visually striking figures yet for the game. The statue has a slightly more cartoonish look than her original design from 1959, probably because she's maybe the most frightening of all Disney villains and needed to be softened a bit. She can sprout lustrous black wings to soar through the game, and her forest-based attacks can cut through large swaths of enemies. She's beautifully designed from all angles.
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1. Donald Duck is the best new Disney Original because he's the most original. What I mean is he's the oldest of the bunch. Donald is the kind of classic, decades-old character that probably should've been in the game from the beginning. His pose is perfectly in character, looking righteously perturbed, and his audio is the best in the game, all agitated quacks and angry bluster. His rage-based offense is adorable, with Donald exploding into tantrums and using hammers and brooms to take out enemies. He might be the best thing about Disney Infinity, period.