Raving Toy Maniac

I've read that a few places online. I think a lot of criticism (or just straight up bashing) comes from his voice and long pauses during reviews.

I'm not a fan of Dan's reviews. He's a bit uniformed at times and he leaves in too many long unnecessary pauses. Still they're more professional looking than the majority of video reviews out there. He's also really upbeat and positive but that might be off-putting to the people who prefer doom and gloom.

I don't know about creepy, but I'll admit to being a bit jealous of a guy who gets toys early(free?) so he can make very amateurish looking, goofy, praise-fests. I've mostly only seen his Ghostbuster reviews, but does he ever say anything bad about anything? He seems almost besides himself with glee at every single thing he looks at. He probably needs a cigarette after he finishes each video.

It's one thing when it's the fourteen year old kid who's not putting together a polished video...but Dan seems to be the most 'professional toy reviewer' on YouTube and the only difference I really see between him and the fourteen year old kids is he often gets figures first, directly from companies.

Haha, Yeah I get that vibe watching his videos too.

I don't know Pixel Dan personally. He does good youtube reviews? He's a mattyboy? Yeah..

"He seems almost besides himself with glee at every single thing he looks at."

Somebody ENJOYING toys? The NERVE!! -I- like my toys like I like my movies: depressing, morose, inexplicable, and leaving me hating life. It makes me seem deep.

Are they not called "reviews"? I love most the toys I buy because I buy what I expect to like after looking at photos and others' reports. I'm looking at my new Rocky figures now and I'm thrilled with them. But "review" implies a semi-in depth, unbiased, objective analysis, not just going "Gee, golly, these are awesome!". Again, I've mostly seen the Ghostbuster videos, can someone point me to any "review" where he's negative? It's not about being "depressing and morose" or "being deep", it's about honesty. Maybe Dan honestly looooooves every toy ever made, that's great for him. But it's not something very informative to have in a review format. What if your newspaper gave every movie four stars week after week after week? What would be the point of paying them to do that and printing it each week? Maybe I'm taking it too seriously, but there's just something uninteresting and disingenuous about a guy who's lucky enough to get figures early just to hype them out of the stratosphere. It feels like a phony baloney, sycophantic corporate sham.

Maybe it's just the "review" part that gets to me. Maybe "breakdown" might be a better word to use than "review" since he mostly seems to just rattle off bulletpoints about the figure. By contrast, the Fwoosh's "First Looks" don't try to present themselves as a review and even still they are much more objective.

He's been somewhat critical of some aspects of a few MOTUC figures in the reviews I've seen. Never anything harsh, just things he loves less than other things.

I don't mind Dan, overall; I think it's nice to see someone so unapologetic and enthusiastic in this hobby. That said, I think you have to watch his reviews in the proper context as he's basically become Mattel's unofficial pitchman.

-JJJ

Here my line of thinking in that:

If you're truly a fan, and you're getting free stuff out of the deal, are you going to go out of your way to slam the ones giving the free stuff to you? I sure wouldn't!

Example: I used to do reviews and articles for (bleep). One time I contacted Mezco about possibly sending some of the second Hellboy series for review. However, they had a pretty shallow showing at Toy Fair or SDCC that year, and as a fan, I was pretty damn vocal about my discontent with them. Actually, in true Blanka fashion, I bashed on them pretty hardcore--no filter. How they "Used to be the ones I looked forward to every year, and now you have to search around to even find them. They stopped caring about what we, the fan,s wanted, and more about the bottom dollar; that they don't even bother reading the message boards anymore, and I'd be surprised if they were still in business within a few years; and I doubt I'm going to spend ANY money on them this year", etc etc. blah blah blah. Just a harsh unfiltered temper tantrum.

I got an email back from Mez himself that day. "I thought we didn't care about what the fans wanted?"

Yeah. He read every word of what I said. Never have I felt so small in my life. He was cool enough about it to send me the samples regardless, but I'm fairly certain the package had anthrax in it. But he didn't have to. He could've just told me to eff off--which I kind of almost wish he would have. Him being nice about it actually made me feel worse.

So, we know for a fact that Mattel has an online prescence. I wouldn't want to say anything too negative myself to anger the "hand that feeds", for lack of a better term. Plus, as Jason said, I've seen him critique things. Maybe it's just not in his nature to be overtly negative or pessimistic. I don't view that as a bad thing. I actually enjoy people who can put a positive spin on a negative situation. That's all I view it as.

And ya know, to be frank, I'd rather have someone be happy and enthusiastic about what we're all here for than some of the other reviews I see. I hate Youtube reviews in general, but the "Hey....here's this figure.........it's okay, I guess.." type reviews bug the crap out of me.

Eh. My two cents.

I think "reviewing" is the wrong term for what Pixel Dan does. He pretty much goes through the features of the toy and calls them out. He doesn't really give any good or bad opinions but calls it out when something in the toy is good or if something is not working right. I believe the pauses are to allow people to look at the images of the toy before he proceeds to his next point. He has a very jolly demeanor about how he talks and I can see how some people can find that creepy or turn them off. Then again, that's better than listening to someone who is morose the whole time. I'd take Pixel Dan over Ben Stein any day. Also, he is really like that in person so it's not like he's putting on an act.

If you want a review, check Michael Crawford's page. If you want a promo video on a Mattel product, watch Pixel Dan

I'm still not seeing how that makes him creepy, though....

I dunno. I thought there was some hidden story about him that I didn't know...like he was an Iraqi torture specialist or something (though Sayid proved that some of them have hearts of gold).

But since it looks like a bunch of fanboy pissing, I guess I'm going to file this away under the "DILLIGAF" tab.

I think he's alright, I like his reviews. Sure he seems like a huge fanboy but so what. I look forward to seeing his reviews and he is pretty detailed with certian things and prepares you for something if its going to be weird (like the wings on Sorceress or Tallstars joints). To each their own I guess

The "creepy" thing is a bit much, but yeah, he does come across as a shill and I often just don't find his reviews to be particularly informative. The aforementioned game show voice and pace of speech is annoying-- I really don't understand why he speaks as if he's speaking to elderly special ed kids. On the positive side, his videos look more professional than just about any other youtube reviewer out there.

This is true, I'll give him that. Sheesh...I mean, I get being super excited to share your extensive toy knowledge with a world that's not asking for it...but please learn to use your damn camera. Is that really so much to ask? For your video not to be blurry half the time while you go, "Uh, it's blurry, let me try to get it to focus...". I'd be too embarrassed to put anything like out for public consumption.

I admit I checked out his vids when Thundercats were coming out, but haven't looked back since. He seemed to have constructive things to say about them, but then he did this Batgirl review, in which the figure had a VERY warped leg, yet he said nothing, going on about what a great figure it was, as if he hadn't noticed what was plain to everyone with eyes. That goes beyond what other softball reviewers who get free toys from Matty usually do (and I don't think this particular Legacy figure was a freebie.) If you are that much of a blind loyalist, I can't respect your reviews. Does not mean he's a bad person or deserves harassment, but his reviews aren't something I can enjoy.

And for the people who will respond by saying I'm just a negative nancy who hates anything positive, I enjoy Noisy's reviews whether he's picking on something or gushing about Bucky Cap. Because I know if had been a bad figure he would have said so.

I can name a couple of instances where I disagreed with Dan for being too harsh in his reviews. He was unhappy with Panthor for not being flocked but I think that would've ruined the figure. He also unfavorably compared the sculpt of Classics Leech with Staction Leech and I much prefer the former.

Even though I don't share his specific tastes, I don't think I'm that different from him. It's not like he glosses over stuff like the problems with the Sorceress' wings. He just doesn't seem to get impassioned the way I think people want him to be. In that way I'm like Dan. I'm as disappointed as anyone else. I just can't muster that kind of outrage over a toy, even one I wanted to like. Of course I don't produce toy reviews.

Sure but he's really overestimating how long it takes to look at a toy. I guess it's not as bad as a lot of videos where the first several minutes is just the camera staring at an unopened package.

I listen to Roast Gooble Dinner in which Dan is a host and he seems like he has all that energy all the time. Keep in mind that he is a amatuer pro wrestler so hamming it up for the crowd is engrained in his public persona.

I found this thread by searching "does Pixel Dan ever make negative reviews?" and then thought about it, would he go to the trouble of making a review for a figure he didn't like in the first place? Whether it's a basic review or a MOTUC (I'm 95% sure his favorite line and more details to the review) it takes him a couple hours to film, edit etc. I wouldn't take the time to review a figure I didn't like if I'm not getting paid for it as a job or something. Maybe if I did one toy line that I buy on my own and buy all anyway (I am a HUGE G.I. Joe fan) but that's it. BTW, I hate it when any reviewer rates a figure based on an obvious one off production error, something that happens in manufactured products in all industries. I would guess any figure he hasn't reviewed (in a line he reviews regularly) he probably doesn't like.

And yes, I wouldn't deny that it's hard to review a product you're given to for free to review and it's fairly obvious that they would stop sending you figures if they continually received negative reviews. IDK, damned if you do on that one...

IDK Dan btw, I've really only listened to everyone of his he-man.org podcast. I think he is the premiere toy reviewer (him and Crawford) and if G4 ever had a toy show, would find him to review. He has a cult following. Sorry, just bored at work...

As a former Toy Reviewer, I can tell you that 90% of what I see today lacks the depth of what used to be done "back in the day".

This includes poor quality pictures/videos, lack of depth in the photos, youtube segments that spend 99% of the time focusing on packaging and an overall lack of honesty. By this, I mean there is usually an opinion driven by the satisfaction of the reviewer that loves that character or a reviewer that is going to make gold out of garbage to satisfy his supply source. There most certainly is a difference between a review and a recap.

Whether it was Leonardotdragon working Deadpool into his GI Joe reviews, Paul Nomad taking multiple pictures of every aspect of every figure or myself shooting crazy skits using wrestling figures, we tried to provide as much honesty, information and depth in our reviews and that was before the youtube craze.

I don't follow many reviews anymore but I will say that I enjoy the quality and honesty that Noisy and Vault bring to the table at itsalltrue.net . They are the closest thing to old school reviews, which is probably why I like and respect their work as I do.

I can't watch his reviews. He sounds over-enthusiastic and dis-ingenuis. It borders on shrieking like the reporters form ET, Insider Edition, Access….etc. Who talk a lot in shrieking tones, but said really nothing. Yes there is a creepy vibe. Being enthusiastic and positive is good. But he's over the top flamboyant.

The madness continues...
Pixel Dan kicks off new website with exclusive Mosquitor reveal