OYO Sportstoys Field Set Review

According to Santa Claus, there are only 97 more days to Christmas.  Kmart has already rolled out the first Christmas commercial this year, and it’s just the beginning.  It really does come sooner with each passing year.

OYO has recently added a new lineup of toys to their collection that I’m sure will be a big hit this holiday season – Field Sets.  Collectors began snarfing up OYO’s Field Sets this past summer during the All-Star Game in New York.  Now they offer four types of Field Sets for each MLB team – Starter Set, Infield Set, Outfield Set, and the Game Time Set.  If you’re looking to go all out, it’s best to go with the Game Time Set as it is the highest level, and consists of the other three sets in one.

The 157 piece Game Time Set contains the following:

• 136 OYO Building Blocks
• 10 OYO minifigures – 9 OYO team characters & 1 OYO Umpire (The umpire minifigures are exclusive to the Field Sets)
• 11 baseball accessories (9 gloves, 1 bat, and 1 ball)

Although the minifigures that come along with each Field Set don’t represent specific players, their facial expressions completely make up for it.  The faces on the Field Set minifigures are much more animated when compared to the actual player minifigures OYO sells separately.  You could always take the head of a Field Set minifigure and put it on the body of one of the player specific ones.  That’s one of the great things about OYO’s toys.  They’re interchangeable.  Not just with each other either, but with other building toys such as Lego.  So if you wanted to have two OYO teams playing against one another and during the game they get invaded by some Lego alien set, it’ll work.  Its limited only by what your imagination can come up with.

What would I like to see OYO do next?  They are currently working on blind packages that contain a few random minifigures.  I think this is a great idea, as the blind packaged collectible market has taken off.  But the figures inside need to have some type of chase factor.  Minifigures with variations would work.  How about randomly inserted redemptions for you to get your very own minifigure made?  I think they need to expand on the Field Set idea and move into stadiums, vendors, team buses/planes, fans could build.

OYO has really hit a niche market that I think Lego missed.  Anything that can connect you with what you love now to something you played with during your childhood is awesome.  If you think these things are popular now, wait until the Lego movie comes out next year.