Very glad it’s happening, in any case!

(1) “—but if Andy had checked the net, he’d have discovered that Jessie, Bullseye and Woody himself are very rare, very collectible, very valuable toys.”

Not necessarily. You can do searches for “Optimus Prime”, discover exactly who he is, and read thousands of words about his history on Wikipedia without ever discovering that rare Optimus Prime figures can be worth hundreds of dollars.

(2) “But Woody is at least fifty years old. ‘Woody’s Round-Up’, the TV series that spawned him, we know from Toy Story 2 ran from 1941-42 and 1946-57. If Andy was six in 1995, the year of the first movie, and had owned Woody from birth, that’s still a minimum of 32 years unaccounted for. What was Woody doing in that time? ”

In Toy Story 2 Andy’s mom says that Woody is an old family toy. This explains why he’s not too concerned about the attic: He’s probably been there before, and then been handed down to another member of the family.

It’s certainly possible that he has no memory of this. But it’s equally likely that it never comes up because it simply never comes up.

(3) “there’s very little that links the three together in terms of plot or development or themes”

I would strongly disagree. The three movies represent an essentially complete exploration of the relationship between kids and toys. There’s a strong thematic core to the Toy Story movies.

It’s why I’m suspicious of Toy Story 4. I mean, it’s clearly going to be made. No media corporation in the universe is going to pass up those kinds of profits. But I’m suspicious because it doesn’t seem to me that there’s any new toy-related territory for the film to explore.

We usually go round the track 3 times to find the winner.

This also makes for a very good drinking game! Have a sip every time you crash, and a quaff each time you pass the start/finish line.