$10 Cartoon Character Ukes at Walmart - get them today or take a chance this weekend

UkeCan1

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OOPS - I WAS WRONG ... IN-STORE SALE IS THURSDAY 6PM THROUGH FRIDAY ONLY!!!!!
And [URL="http://www.walmart.com/ip/Disney-Doc-McStuffins-Mini-Guitar/37424556"]looks like all day Thursday and Friday [/URL][URL="http://www.walmart.com/ip/Disney-Doc-McStuffins-Mini-Guitar/37424556"]online[/URL] - free store pickup (AFTER the rush - yay!
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So, I have no idea yet whether these are any good at all, but thought some of you might like to know about this right away, because it's a Black Friday (really Thursday) weekend-only special - Thursday 6pm through Sunday.


I happened to skim through the Black Friday / Black Weekend circulars in my mailbox this morning ... I don't usually do this, really! I stay away. (Or shop online. :))

But ... I happened to notice that Wal-Mart has a special this weekend on a "Disney Character Guitar" for only $10. Despite the label "guitar", which is also on the box, it's quite clearly a cute little plastic soprano ukulele.

The sale starts tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, at 6pm (US only, presumably ... the rest of the world doesn't have Black Friday, surely, do you?) ... which happens to be exactly when my family (and yours, perhaps) is sitting down to dinner.

So, I thought ... why not run out this morning before the snow and pick one up at the regular price? I can always come back at some quiet time like Sunday morning and either get the price discount or return them, depending on how they work out between now and then. (I did confirm with a store employee that both are possible, who also recommended the quietest time to return to the store is 7 to 10am Saturday or Sunday.)

So I did it ... I picked up two! The ad shows three different characters, including Snow White, which was the one I hoped to get. The actual store had only Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse. I picked up two (because, why not?) adorable hot pink Minnie Mouse ukes that say "Happy to Be Me!" on them. I love the look of them ... I hope they turn out to be playable and able to hold tune, because they will be so much fun to play and make videos with.

I did try them out in the store. I forgot to bring a tuner, so I could tune the strings relative to each other, but I have no idea whether I was in remotely the right key. They did not hold tune long enough to get through a song, but that's pretty typical for a brand new never-tuned never-played uke, right? I'll tune them both up this morning and keep them tuned up through Sunday, and by then I should know whether I want to 1) keep both and return for the price discount, 2) keep one and return one, or 3) return both.

(Or maybe 4), return and buy out the store of whatever they have left by then. Or some other store with other cool designs. Or all the local stores. :))

They were pretty easy to play ... the strings are pretty "soft" (at least in the key I tuned them to :)), the action felt nice and easy. They play pretty quietly. They sounded as reasonable as I could expect from a brand new beginner uke. I have found that most beginner ukes benefit greatly from a string transplant ... I like the $5 Martin M600 fluorocarbons, which can be picked up at local music stores. So if I keep them, I'll probably do that eventually.

The regular price is only $19.97, so pretty inexpensive anyway, and probably available any time ... or at least, when they come back in stock after Black Friday weekend. There's also an actual kid's guitar for I think about $40.

I was inspired to buy them by a fellow Seasonista (birdseyeviewofmyukulele) who has recently acquired a plastic cartoon-character uke in the UK and loves it. Hers sounds great, so I figured these were worth a shot. I'll keep you posted.
 
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I have two of these First Act Minnie/Mickey ukuleles - they are calling them "guitars" on the box - and they are not half bad. My grandkids love them. They do hold a tune, but had to play around with it to get tuned. I changed out the Minnie strings for a set of soprano Aquilas and kept the original strings on the Mickey. I keep the Minnie in my car and rotate it with my yellow Aloha First Act Discovery with slightly better tuners. I wrote about these on the plastic ukulele threads that were prevalent this summer on the forum. I have pics of the yellow one in my profile.
 
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Sounds good Wendy.

Black Friday is making an appearance over here, even though we don't do Thanksgiving. Think Amazon kicked it off a few years ago and it's a week-long thing over here.

I don't get paid till Friday but when I do I'll be keeping an eye out for some uke deals, just in case. Planning on putting any Christmas/Birthday money (they're only like a week apart which works well) I get towards a new uke anyway, so I can sort of justify it that way.

There's a Marvel Avengers uke on Amazon over here I really want but it's like 30 quid which just isn't worth it for the novelty. :(
 
I merged the threads to one and deleted your last entry. No reason for double posts.
 
Laura, thanks so much for the positive review ... it's good to know there's hope for these cute things. Right now they are at the going-out-of-tune-before-I-finish-tuning them stage. Do you remember how long it took for them to settle? New strings on my Flea have never been anywhere near this stretchy! Also, did the Aquila strings make them louder? They are awfully quiet. I'll have to go check out that plastic uke thread.

Ryan, I was wondering about that ... since Black Friday has recently taken over the entire long weekend and then some ... and the internet ... I wondered whether it might have started invading local stores in other countries as well. Do you have the Walmart chain or Target or other deep-discount-type store chains over there? Maybe you can get a deal too. :)

Kanaka, sorry about cross-posting in the Seasons of the Ukulele area. I do want my fellow Seasonistas to see this, since many of us have been inspired by one member's recent Seasons videos featuring a really great-sounding (and looking!) cartoon uke. I thought if others there, like me, had been influenced by hers to want one too, they would want to know about this one and the current sale. Many of us in the Seasons (I am one) rarely venture outside that area into the rest of the forum, and would be bound to miss this post.

Would it maybe be okay to post a thread there that just lets them know there is a sale and points back to this thread?

Oh ... for me, it still shows up in the listing ... as "moved" to here. Is everyone seeing that, and will that stay there, because that's certainly good enough!
 
Laura, thanks so much for the positive review ... it's good to know there's hope for these cute things. Right now they are at the going-out-of-tune-before-I-finish-tuning them stage. Do you remember how long it took for them to settle? New strings on my Flea have never been anywhere near this stretchy! Also, did the Aquila strings make them louder? They are awfully quiet. I'll have to go check out that plastic uke thread.

Ryan, I was wondering about that ... since Black Friday has recently taken over the entire long weekend and then some ... and the internet ... I wondered whether it might have started invading local stores in other countries as well. Do you have the Walmart chain or Target or other deep-discount-type store chains over there? Maybe you can get a deal too. :)

Kanaka, sorry about cross-posting in the Seasons of the Ukulele area. I do want my fellow Seasonistas to see this, since many of us have been inspired by one member's recent Seasons videos featuring a really great-sounding (and looking!) cartoon uke. I thought if others there, like me, had been influenced by hers to want one too, they would want to know about this one and the current sale. Many of us in the Seasons (I am one) rarely venture outside that area into the rest of the forum, and would be bound to miss this post.

Would it maybe be okay to post a thread there that just lets them know there is a sale and points back to this thread?

Oh ... for me, it still shows up in the listing ... as "moved" to here. Is everyone seeing that, and will that stay there, because that's certainly good enough!

Closest thing I can think of in terms of high street store with as much variety (although no clothes) is Argos. I suppose supermarkets are getting similar to that now but no ukes as yet. Can certainly think of a couple of similar chains in Australia though.

That 'moved' thread will stay on the seasons forum, yeah.
 
howz the fret wear? I notice these use a zero fret with string guides and it looks like maybe a removable saddle. For 10usd looks very tempting for kicking around, especially if the plastic is durable and the intonation is decent. Strings are probably just throwaway.
 
BNolsen - the plastic looks pretty solid to me. And they are starting to finally hold tune a bit, so later today I'll play it some more and probably make a video. Yeah, zero fret with string guides. Which hold the lower strings pretty firmly, but the high string (A string if tuned GCEA) has all kinds of wiggle room, and on one of the ukes that string is "plinking" a bit - I can't quite tell why.

The strings seem quite decent, actually. Clear strings. Way better than the cheap off-white nylon ones on most beginner ukes I've seen. I might well end up doing what Laura's done, and restring just one for comparison. At least for a start. I was planning to give one away, possibly ... but I am already starting to get attached to them both. Which seems rather silly, since they're the same. This is how it starts, I guess, right? :)

Ryan ... these were in the toy section at Walmart ... so maybe look in a toy store? That might be a good potential source for cheap-but-hopefully-playable plastic ukes in any country, I dunno.
 
Hm . . . you said really quiet. Quiet enough not to disturb anyone? Hm . . .$16 (retail) vs $110 for a Peanut. Might be worth a try. I don't need gret sound on it - just good enough to practice on quietly . . .
 
Having an electrified solid body is pretty nice though. I bought a used eleuke pineapple that had been sitting for months at the local GC and worked over the setup. I couldn't quite get the saddle low enough for good intonation (for me). I probably should have tried a string change at the very last. It was gone less than a week after I returned it to the store.

You can ebay a peanut for ~100usd shipped, I even see one for just over 80usd right now.
 
Having an electrified solid body is pretty nice though. I bought a used eleuke pineapple that had been sitting for months at the local GC and worked over the setup. I couldn't quite get the saddle low enough for good intonation (for me). I probably should have tried a string change at the very last. It was gone less than a week after I returned it to the store.

You can ebay a peanut for ~100usd shipped, I even see one for just over 80usd right now.

Yep, I've seen them on ebay, but I am not putting my bank info on PayPal so that won't work . . .
 
You lost me at Wal-mart and plastic uke....

Is TJ Maxx any better? I got the yellow Aloha one from there for $15, and the pink and blue Disney ones for $17 at Walmart - not as good as the Black Friday price, but after working in retail I have vowed never to set foot in a store the day after Thanksgiving.

As many threads here attest, plastic ukes have their advantages. They are nice travel ukes. I would never take my Opio out on the choppy waters of Lake Erie (pictured) , nor would I give my Opio to my toddler grandkids to play in the backseat.

The strings took about a week to settle. It is a nice thin uke with geared tuners. I usually have one in the car for the occasional ukulele playing urge.
 

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Is TJ Maxx any better? I got the yellow Aloha one from there for $15, and the pink and blue Disney ones for $17 at Walmart - not as good as the Black Friday price, but after working in retail I have vowed never to set foot in a store the day after Thanksgiving.

As many threads here attest, plastic ukes have their advantages. They are nice travel ukes. I would never take my Opio out on the choppy waters of Lake Erie (pictured) , nor would I give my Opio to my toddler grandkids to play in the backseat.

The strings took about a week to settle. It is a nice thin uke with geared tuners. I usually have one in the car for the occasional ukulele playing urge.

do you see any fret wear on yours ?
 
UkeMania ... depends how close you are to the people you are trying not to disturb. :) (And how hard you play - you have heaps of control over how loud you make any uke sound.) If you are in a separate room, I doubt they'd even hear you at all. When I first got my (much louder) Flea, I was able to play in my room at night without disturbing sleeping people in other rooms, just by playing really softly. These days I make videos in a separate room (with no door!) while others sleep (playing and singing as loud as I need to), and they've all said they don't hear me or it isn't a problem. On this uke, I should think you could play it just as softly as you wish, so yeah ... might be good for that. But playing softly on any uke can work too, in my experience.

Laura - just to be clear for anyone considering getting the Wal-Mart deal - it runs all weekend - starting tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day, Thursday) at 6pm through store closing Sunday. I was told by a store employee the store would probably be pretty quiet Saturday and Sunday morning before 10am - they open at 7. But they could well be sold out by then ... so I opted to buy them at the regular price ($19.97) today. If I decide to keep them, I'll go back Saturday or Sunday morning nice and early and get the sale price. No way do I wish to brave the Black Friday store scene either! This was my way around it.

Chefuke - haha, I missed that.

Wal-Mart + Black Friday deal = $10. So, that's why Wal-Mart. Laura (and apparently others) says it's a decent uke ... and you can't beat that price!

Plastic - what she said - outdoors, keep in the car, take places. It's also very small and light, so easy to carry around - much smaller and lighter than my soprano Flea, which is pretty portable already. It's 20" x 6.5" x 1.5" (51cm x 16cm x 3.5cm to those in the civilized world). Seems pretty solid and indestructible - it's much thicker plastic than the Flea body. It's a play-anywhere uke. If it sounds decent, I'm going to be a happy uker.

Oh, plus it is hot pink and completely adorable - has Minnie in sunglasses and says "Happy to be ME!" in big letters. The tuner knobs are pink plastic hair bows. It's a really fun uke. It's going to look great in videos ... if it sounds good enough to play in them. It was the cartoon uke aspect of it that drew me to it in the first place. A fellow Seasonista in the UK has recently acquired a quite decent-sounding and really fun-looking cartoon uke and has been having a heap of fun making videos with it ... I wanted in on that. :)
 
Welcome to UAS. It starts with the cheaper ukuleles at least it did for me then you move up as you go along. You started with a flea so you have a good standard to judge by. The shoulders look a bit thin on the body design the aesthetics are off to me but for $10 if you have to go shopping that day anyway.

With the magic of overdubbing it could be a cute ukulele in videos even if we never really hear it at all.

~Ink~meister~
 
Well, I ordered mine online because my store won't carry it (plus there is NO WAY I will be in any store this weekend!). $16.09 plus shipping. Will arrive on Tuesday. Even if it isn't much I am not out much and I can always give it to one of my second graders as a reward.

If it works, it will allow me to take it to seminary on the weekends and play in my room without bothering the person on the other side of the thin walls. :)
 
UkeMania - cool! I hope you'll come back and let us know what you think. Did you get it from Walmart.com, or somewhere else online? I didn't see them on Walmart.com, but I didn't look real hard. Which design did you get? Mickey or Minnie ... or did you indeed find there are other characters available?

By the way, there was no crowd at all at the store today, and I was told by a store employee that Saturday and Sunday morning should be quiet ... I plan to go back early for my discount. But yeah, anything under $20 is surely a good enough deal.

The strings are settling in nicely already ... I've been tuning them up and up and up all day. Soon I will make you a video! (No way am I overdubbing it - way too much trouble. My Tiki Flea is plenty cute for videos and sounds great. If this one sounds good enough for videos, I'll make some, and if not, I think it's destined at least to be a car / outdoor / camping / carry-along-everywhere kind of uke.)

Inkmeister AL, I rather like the esthetics of them ... I think they're adorable and eye-catching, which was what I wanted. I really liked the Snow White design in the ad, but I'm quite happy with the hot pink Minnie.

And you are so right about the UAS ... I'm tempted to go back tonight and buy out the store! Ten BUCKS!!!!! And the blizzard they promised us seems not to be happening so far. :)
 
Plastic ukes? I have no problem with that, we had a Flea for a while, it was just too hard to hold on to. Walmart? never shop there....I won't go in to that here, but you should see some of my rants on FB! LOL. I wouldn't buy a even Kamaka from them for half price!
But they sound cute. Any pics?
 
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