Playing with your toys has never been this epic.
During World War II, a young boy is kidnapped by the Boogeyman and held hostage in the Dark, the Boogeyman's domain. A handful of brave toys venture into the Dark in order to save him. However, they need to fight hordes of bitter, vengeful, discarded toys who have every intention of serving the Boogeyman and no intention on letting the boy go. And apparently, the Dark turns everything into the Darker and Edgier version of itself, including our heroes.
It's pretty much The Book of Lost Things meets Toy Story.
The Stuff of Legend is an independent comic book series that was published in 2009. The next volume of the series is expected to hit shelves in spring 2010.
Disney is planning a film adaptation, of which will mix CGI and live-action.
This series also provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Done to the Brave when he attacks the Jester after Jester comes to rescue the Princess. The Jester instinctively stabs him, but clearly is regretful. And not just because the Princess lashes out at him.
- Anyone Can Die: The Colonel. In the first issue, no less!
- Action Girl: the Princess and Rebecca.
- All Love Is Unrequited: The Jester and Quackers have serious crushes on the Princess and Rose respectively. Neither one has reciprocated.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The clay monsters, at least as far as the General is concerned.
- Amazon Brigade: The Doll Kingdom, complete with a Does Not Like Men attitude.
- Ax-Crazy: Homer and the Laughing Ghost, the latter especially. Also what the Boogeyman is at heart.
- The Berserker: Jester
- Badass Native: The Princess and her "people".
- Big Bad: The Boogeyman, with his stealing the boy being what prompts his toys to go into the Dark World in the first place. He was the Boys imaginary friend before he was abandoned and decided to steal the boy to force him to play with him forever.
- Breaking the Fellowship: What happens to the boy's toys at the end of Book 2
- Cain and Abel: The Jester and the Laughing Ghost.
- Cats Are Mean: Anya is a sadistic Smug Snake with serious Fantastic Racism towards all non-Animal toys, even ones who aren't doing anything to her.
- Colonel Badass: The Colonel.
- Cool Mask: The Jester's mask. Unfortunately, it gets broken in half after the Dark Jester fires a cannon at his "brother".
- The Corrupter: The Boogeyman was this to the General and Homer, and is trying to be one to Percy as well.
- Dark Is Evil: The Boogeyman, being a creature with control and command over shadows and living in a place called "The Dark".
- Deadly Hug: How Percy meets his end, before his evil ressurection.
- Death Equals Redemption: For the General, who before his death admits that he's glad the boy's toys escaped and says that he should have never left them.
- Dirty Coward: Percy. He stands aside and let's the Boogeyman slay the Colonel rather than risking himself, spies and manipulated the group for the Dark, fears his destruction at the Boys hands(as a piggy bank)more than the Boys fate, stops the Jester when he has the Boogeyman dead to rights and begs the Boogeyman to erase his memories of his betrayal. The Boogeyman snaps his neck during a Deadly Hug.
- Dual Wielding: The Jester does this with hand-axes.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Boogeyman. The clay monsters are also seen as this in-universe by the General.
- Expy:
- The Boogeyman is kind of evocative of Emperor Palpatine, being a pure evil Big Bad who looks like a creepy old man in a Black Cloak, is Faux Affably Evil, and an unrepentant sadist and manipulator.
- The Laughing Ghost is one of the The Joker
- Evil Counterpart / Shadow Archetype:
- The Laughing Ghost to his "brother".
- The General could also be seen as one to the Colonel, as both are military-type toys that have each spent time as the Boy's favorite. But while the Colonel has Undying Loyalty to the boy, the General was corrupted by the Boogeyman.
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Executive Meddling: Initially the story was set in the modern day, but an editor suggested that the toys be more "classic." - Face–Heel Turn: The General used to be one the boy's favorite toys but after being lost and forgotten, threw his lot in with the Boogeyman.
- Fantastic Racism: The "Animal" toys in the dark have nothing but contempt for non-animal toys, and when our heroes go into "The Jungle", the animal toys hunt them for sport.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Boogeyman seems genuinely polite and friendly in spite of his villainy, but its frequently shown to just be a facade, and he shows his true nature readily enough.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The Mayor of Hopscotch initially, but he gets better eventually.
- Four-Star Badass: The General.
- Freudian Excuse:
- Anya is the way she is because the Boogeyman's forces took her lover from her. The boogeyman's forces' persecution of the animals is also the reason for their own Fantastic Racism towards the boy's toys.
- Also the reason Max let the Boogeyman into the boy's room in the first place was to get rid of the dog that was stealing his place as the boy's favorite.
- The Good King: Vlad, the original king of the beasts.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Homer's savagely beating the General to death is not shown in full. We only hear the sounds of his bat striking the General's head
- Half the Man He Used to Be: How the Colonel dies
- She Who Fights Monsters: Anya's hatred of the Boogeyman's forces for taking her lover from her, while understandable, has consumed her to such a degree that she now takes outright sadistic pleasure in hunting humanoid toys for sport. Even ones who aren't even affiliated with the Boogeyman like the boy's toys.
- The Heart: Harmony.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: The General was planning to defect from the Boogeyman's forces after the toys retreat into the Jungle, but is beaten to death by Homer before he has a chance.
- Heel–Face Turn / Took a Level in Kindness: The Mayor of Hopscotch after being shown both trust and kindness by the Jester. When given a chance to take control of Hopscotch once more using the same book of rules he once used to manipulate them, he refuses and promises the people that he will regain their trust.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Mostly played straight with the exception of Max, who hates the dog. We later learn that this hated and jealousy caused him to let the Boogeyman into the boy's room in the first place.
- Ice Queen:
- The Princess, but Jester's been working hard to try and get her to defrost.
- Same with Rose and her relationship with Quackers.
- Also Rebecca to an extent by way of being an Iron Lady.
- Insufferable Genius: Percy, and he only gets worse as the story progresses
- Iron Lady: Rebecca.
- Ironic Name: The original king of the Beasts was a good king but was named Vlad.
- It's All About Me: Percy is typically incredibly self-centered, often worries only about himself, and frequently makes clear his belief that the Boy's Toys should abandon their mission and save themselves.
- Jerkass: Percy, Homer, Anya and Artic.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Max.
- Kick the Dog: The Princess' cruel and callous reception to the Jester who had come so far to reunite with her out of his love for her. Possibly a case of Break His Heart to Save Him though.
- Killed Off for Real: The Colonel, the Serpent, the General, and the Laughing Ghost. Subverted with The Jester.
- Knight in Shining Armor: What the General used to be before joining the Boogeyman. The Jester also qualifies mostly based on his chivalrous attitude towards the Princess.
- Love Makes You Evil: Anya's all-consuming hatred of non-animal toys is because the Boogeyman's forces took her lover from her.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: A number of the toys lost in the dark turn out this way, including the General and the Laughing Ghost.
- This is also the Boogeyman's backstory. Originally the Boys imaginary friend, the Boy abandoned him at his father's urging, who believed he was too old for him. In the Dark, the Imaginary Friend became the Boogeyman, desperate to regain his old companion and continue their games.
- Manipulative Bastard: The Boogeyman.
- The Mole: Percy becomes one to the Boogeyman, though its ambiguous whether or not he's still one.
- Monster Clown: The Laughing Ghost in spades.
- Mood-Swinger: The Boogeyman, which only makes him all the more creepy.
- Neck Snap: Delivered to Percy, courtesy of the Boogeyman. He's ressurected to be an evil servant though
- Never My Fault: Percy.
- Nice Guy: Monty the Cymbal-Monkey is by far one of the nicest toys in the entire story.
- Not Quite Dead: The Jester, despite having a cannon fired at him by the Dark Jester, is revealed to still be alive in Book 4
- Posthumous Character: Vlad, the original King of the Beasts, was killed by the General years ago.
- Proud Warrior Race Girl: The Princess. To her annoyance none of the male humanoid characters seem to pick up on this with the exception of the Colonel.
- Quirky Town: Hopscotch.
- Separated at Birth: Sort of. The Jester and the Laughing Ghost joined the Boy's family at the same time, packaged as a pair. But the Laughing Ghost was broken and stuffed into the closet, causing him to become lost in the Dark World.
- Serious Business: Thieves are this to the Boogeyman, being something of a Berserk Button.
- Shout-Out: The original king of the beasts was a lion. A Lion King. He even dies like Mufasa.
- Shown Their Work: Artist Charles Paul Wilson III
researched toy designs from the 1940s and earlier. - Smug Snake: Anya and initially the Mayor of Hopscotch. The Serpent King of the Beasts is a literal example.
- Snakes Are Evil: The Serpent king of the beasts, though some of the animals were happy under his reign due to sharing his Fantastic Racism views.
- The Strategist: The General.
- Sword and Gun: The Laughing Ghost's preferred weapons.
- Talkative Loon: The Laughing Ghost.
- Team Pet: Scout, who stays the same beagle puppy even in the Dark.
- Took a Level in Badass: Harmony's becoming less and less of a frail damsel the longer the toys are in the Dark World.
- Took a Level in Jerkass:
- Percy, Percy, Percy...
- Also the Princess in "A Jester's Tale"
- This Is Unforgivable!: When its revealed that Max let the Boogeyman into the boy's room to get rid of the dog, the other toys have this reaction.
- Tragic Keepsake: The Colonel's musket becomes this to the other toys after he's Killed Off for Real
- We Can Rule Together: The Boogeyman offers Percy the chance to never be broken (Percy is a piggy bank).
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Percy, the forgotten toys in the Dark, and to an extent the rest of the cast.
- 0% Approval Rating: Subverted with the Serpent King of the Beasts. While he was evil, Anya says that not all of the beasts were unhappy under his reign.
