"Slinky here is as loyal as any dog could be." Slinky Dog is a character featured in the Toy Story franchise, depicted as a stylized plastic dachshund with a slinky connecting the two halves of his body. Despite his simple construction, it has been difficult for manufacturers to depict him with proper accuracy.
The design seen in Toy Story, though advertised in the modern-age as the "Original Slinky Dog toy", is an original Pixar creation which merely takes inspiration from the original James Industries design. In description, they are both dachshund toys with Slinky springs between them, but the physical appearance of the Toy Story Slinky is much more cartoonish and, according to Betty James, then-head of James Industries, "The earlier Slinky Dog wasn’t nearly as cute as this one!"
Appearance[]
Slinky Dog is an ABS plastic dog (approximately 7 inches high at the head) with a compressed helical spring attached at both ends. In the films, he has thick leather ears (complete with visible wear throughout all four films, indicating him to be older than the majority of Andy's other primary toys) attached at his head and legs that are articulated at the hips and the feet through pinned joints. Small black wheels are also embedded within Slinky's feet - indicative of his original function as a pull toy - although these inexplicably do not influence his mobility and traction on solid surfaces while alive.
It is likely at one point Slinky featured a string tied to his collar, as all real life versions of the toy do. The reason for this is so that a child can pull the string and the dog will seem to walk forward, pulled by the child, the wheels on it's feet, and propelled by the Slinky all at once.
In toy mode, Slink appears to have a lazy, resting face with his upper eyelids closed.
Toys[]
There has really only been one consistent design of Slink over the years, though it has been reissued and modified many times. Starting in 1995, James Industries released an updated toy based on the character from the movie in Toy Story themed packaging. This version is identifiable by his upwards-facing gaze. This toy begins the trend of having the string embedded in his forehead, so that his head stays upright while being pulled along.
For Toy Story 2, the toy was updated slightly with a new, arguably more film-accurate headsculpt that depicted his eyes facing forwards, although the toy's ears were conversely modified to only feature a leather facade on their outward-facing side, reducing their accuracy. This retains the string in the forehead and it is this version of the toy that was released most commonly up until and after the release of Toy Story 3.
For Toy Story 4, the toy finally received a major update, finally placing the string on his collar, while still maintaining the ability for the toy to stay upright while being pulled. This is due to a change in the sculpt on the front legs, which maintains the balance of the toy much better under forward momentum (and extends Slink's limbs to a more movie-accurate length). His expression has also been altered to appear slightly thinner, but is not necessarily more accurate to the toy-mode expression of the character.
All versions of the toy feature felt ears instead of leather, and non-articulated legs (often noticeably shorter than their film counterparts), making them all slightly inaccurate, though movable legs would interfere with the main feature of the toy.