The Bensons

The Bensons are the reformed secondary antagonists of the Disney•Pixar film, Toy Story 4.

Role in the film
They are a group of ventriloquist dummies who lives at the Second Chance Antiques. They're leaded by a dummy who wears a red bow tie. They also serve the talking doll Gabby Gabby. The first dummy is seen for the first time go for a walk with Gabby in her stroller while Woody and Forky were looking for Bo Peep in the store. Then, Woody meets Gabby and Benson and when the doll sees that Woody has a vocal box, she doesn't hesitate to take them with her. But during the walk in the stroller, Woody scents the danger when several puppets surround them and decides to flee with Forky. Gabby Gabby then sends her dummies chase them and they manage to capture Forky. We see the Bensons later on a large shelf watching the store by turning their heads. While Woody with the help of Bo, Giggle McDimples, Ducky and Bunny, Duke Caboom and Billy, Goat, and Gruff are trying to recover Forky, the dummies surprise them and Woody nearly got his voice box stolen. The group fails their mission and after a fight with his friends, Woody decides to return to find Forky alone. He then confronts Gabby Gabby and she convinces him to give her his voice box in exchange for Forky. Gabby, happy to have a new voice box, keeps his word and makes Forky go to Woody. Forky then greets Gabby Gabby and Benson and points out that he scares him. However, when Harmony, the girl Gabby dreamed of playing so much, did not like her, the doll loses hope and tells Woody (who came back to comfort her) that it was over for her. With Bo, Woody manages to convince her to be with Bonnie. Everyone then leaves the Antique shop and the first Benson gives the stroller a boost before entering it. However, the latter stumbles against a fairground barrier and falls to the ground. A lady then runs to it, thinking that a baby was there, and falls face to face with Benson which makes her grow a cry of horror. The Bensons then are not seen again and it is unknown if the Benson in the stroller was brought back to the antique store.

Development
"The dummies are, by far, some of the creepiest characters we’ve ever created. Our animators really leaned into the truth in materials for how our ventriloquist dummies move. Dummies’ bodies are soft with no structure, so our dummies’ arms just dangle and their legs bend backwards. Throw in their fixed expressions with their wide eyes and big hinged jaws and they’re nightmare material—in the best way possible."

- Producer Mark Nielsen on the Bensons' creation

Trivia

 * It's possible that the reason for which the Bensons can't talk is because they are ventriloquist dummies and thus can only talk if a ventriloquist uses them to speak "through" them, aside that there are other toys in the Toy Story universe which can't talk despite not being ventriloquist dummies.
 * Though not being able to talk, they are able to make sounds.
 * The idea of a ventriloquist dummy character was inspired by the original concept of Woody, who was originally designed to be a dummy.
 * They resemble Slappy the Dummy from the Goosebumps franchise, specifically the movie version of the character.
 * They are by far the most scary characters in the film, or even four films.