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The Tin Queen’s friends have come to save her from a misguided uprising. Discover the finale to this three-part story with ‘Heartless’ Alpha!

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Model Changes:

• New tin body with bronze filigree detailing
• Funnel hat
• Beautiful face, red hair & red bow paint job
• Axe with red blade & missing heart

Read Part One: The Theft of the Wizard’s Brew
Read Part Two: The True Conspiracy

Part Three: Melting Day

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The lion and the scarecrow followed a line of marching minions, each carrying a bowl of ice cream, to the tin castle’s tin courtyard. Tin flowers bloomed all around a tin fountain from which steaming coffee bubbled. At the top of the fountain stood the Tin Queen of the West.

“Look! It is our old friend, and the fountain of wizard’s brew, just like you promised,” said the lion, feeling relieved for the first time in days.

“Oui,” said the scarecrow. “It is Melting Day, when everyone in the West celebrates the melting of the Wicked Witch by eating ice cream melted with coff… wizard’s brew. But what is this?”

The crowd stopped abruptly, minions knocking into one another, as three powerful magicians blocked the fountain.

“When the witch ruled the West, minions had a purpose!” cried one magician.
The startled minions clutched their little bowls with both hands, looking to their queen whose painted tin face showed, as always, no expression. Her voice rang out: “My darling minions-uns-uns, the Wicked Witch created you to fight. Now you are free to serve your own purpose.”

Another magician sneered. “Without the witch, you have no enemies. Without enemies, you fight one another!”

The minions squabbled over whether to believe the magicians or the queen. Handfuls of ice cream flew as the argument intensified.

“Naughty minions. How quickly you forget your bondage under the rule of the Wicked Witch!” called the queen, but the magicians countered.

“Minions deserve a great leader!” yelled the malicious magician. “You must embrace the principles that made the West great.”

“Build a fire!” cried another magician. “Melt the Tin Queen!”

The minions cheered and built a roaring fire in the tin courtyard. “Melt! Melt! Melt!” cried the minions as one. The queen gripped her axe atop the fountain, tears flooding down her tin face.

“Why does she do nothing?” cried the lion.

“Now that she has a heart, the tin queen has too much compassion to fight the magicians,” sighed the scarecrow.“

“If only I could reach the fountain, I could drink up some courage,” whined the lion, “but the magicians have it surrounded.”

“Oh well,” shrugged the scarecrow. “I suppose the tin queen must be melted.”
The queen flicked away her tears: clink clink clink, then opened a compartment in her chest. From inside of herself she removed the sawdust-stuffed silk heart that she had received from the wizard. In horror, her friends watched as she dropped her heart into the fire and took up her axe.

“Target: magician one-un-un,” said the queen, and leaped down upon the closest of the magicians.

“Let us help her,” said the scarecrow, taking up his scythe.

Bolts of magic light flew, zapping the queen as she cried out in electric pain.

“I can’t do it,” whimpered the lion. “My heart is beating too fast.”

“Do it for our friend, who has no heart,” said the scarecrow in a gentle way.

The lion’s lip curled up, his teeth bared, and he leaped into the crowd. With a wry smile, the scarecrow followed, careful to avoid sparks. The lion’s commanding roar terrified the minions away and his axe split one surprised magician in two. The scarecrow’s vials exploded, turning a second magician into a poof of black ash. Glinting in the morning sun, the tin queen’s axe whooshed through the third magician. All watched in horror as his head landed in a bed of tin roses.

There was a short silence, then the minions leaped in the air. “Hooray!” they cried, triumphant, for they were a simpleminded lot. They went about extinguishing the fire and collecting up their discarded ice cream bowls while the three monarchs reunited.

“Thank you-oo-oo,” said the tin queen, “but as long as the minions are not given a purpose, they will be swayed by anyone.”

“Then a purpose you shall give them,” said the scarecrow, who had always been the cleverest of them.

Now, people come from the North and South and East to watch the Annual Minion Water Balloon Tournament. The Tin Queen rules with compassion, the Forest King with courage, and the Scarecrow King with intelligence, all of their lands at peace.

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