Oh My Effin Gosh

You know? I never really understood that "F word" thing, there are a lot of words that start with an F, like Frank, or Fantasize, or Felony, of Factory, or Fabulous, or Fetish, or Forbidden, or Fixation and of course, Fuck.

So I could write

Eff often Effied about committing a Eff in the Eff he worked 'cause he had an Eff Eff about all those Eff things. But this Eff will eventually Eff him in the ass.

See? a lot of Eff and only one Fuck.

(Of course you can still read the sentence like this: Fuck often fucked about committing a fuck in the fuck he worked 'cause he had a fuck fuck about all those fuck things. But this fuck will eventually fuck him in the ass. So, I guess we're even).

Sorry about that, let's do this now:

The OMFG (Outlandish Mini Figure Guys)! I'm so happy about these I can't even begin to tell you. And the whole toy world is as amazed and happy with these as I am, and that gives even more joy.

The idea for these figures started on the October Toys / Toy Break forum, an awesome corner of the Internet I have the pleasure to be a part of. George Gaspar there had the idea to produce through Kickstarter a series of M.U.S.C.L.E. like mini figures designed and sculpted by the incredibly creative forum members. Artist, that, unlike myself, have actual talent.

The best five were voted and the Kickstarter page set up. It was a huge success.

I followed the process very closely, I submitted ideas, gave feedback on other peoples ideas, got feedback on mine, watched a thread with all time favorites and late minute submissions, voted and contributed. And I wasn't the only one.

As Daniel AKA TurboPistola AKA the guy that designed the great OMFG logo wrote, these truly are "for the people and by the people".

And now to individual characters. I will also tell you a secret I renamed all of the characters.

The Stroll was a last minute submission, and since everyone loves Spanky Stokes he got a ton of votes. The fact that he was sculpted by George Gaspar himself is not a small matter either.

(He also has a great hairless ass! I'm not trying to say anything by that, but you all know how many votes a hairless ass will get you in a popularity contest...)

I call him "Buttclops".

Since the beginning everyone in the forum knew that one of the figures designed by (my personal friend, thank you very much) Charles Marsh (Monsterforge) was going to make it. He's an amazing artist and an awesome guy. And when he came up with Multiskull we all knew there were only four spots left in series 1.

If you don't have a set (what the Hell are you waiting for? Go get one) you can't really tell how tiny the skulls actually are. I'm trying to paint one of these and I have no idea how Charles could sculpt anything like this.

I call him "Skull Reunion" (get it?)

The Crawdad Kid is another example of amazing sculpting skills, the detail on this figure is breath taking.

                                                                       So is that face.

Daniel Yu, the guy from Singapore that did this must have a really really really steady pulse. The claws alone are a work of art.

I call him "Captain Lobster"

King Castor by Dominic Campisi (Also known as The Evil Earwig... Hey Dom, someday you'll have to explain this nick name, mine is easy, my name is Tom and I'm a freak... Yours... I don't know). Anyway, King Castor is so much fun it's actually the only one I'd like to see in other scale. I want a big King Castor, one that opens and is a figure and also a playset, with trap doors and a lava pit or something.

Oh, and a working steam engine in the back. And arm canons that actually fire little rubber balls with springs. Don't tell you don't want that, 'cause I don't believe you.

I call him "King Castle", is not very imaginative, but that's how I thought it was called in that original thread, and the name just got stuck on my head.

Finally, the Phantom Shithouse, I know there's a PC name for it/he/whatever but fuck it, if I can say "fuck" I can say "shit". Many reviewers said "I can only imagine what those arms and legs are made of", well I don't need to imagine, I know, they are made of shit, human shit probably, since animals don't use the Out(Shit)house.

It was designed by Kyle Thye and sculpted by Ralph Niese and is, in a word, Shitabulous!

I don't have an alternate name for the Phantom Shithouse. But I would pay real money, from my pocket to produce a Scooby Doo episode with this guy as the villain. Velma would say "Jinkies, it's Old Man Shithouse" and Scooby would say "Row Ran Ritrouse?" and Fred would say "He was scaring people with foul smells to make a parking lot in the old abandon amusement park" and he would be all like "and I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids, and your dog and now I'll smell like shit forever".

Whew! This was a long post... I need a Scooby Snack.

Until next time!

Thunder Crap, but in a good way

Hey guys, so, this is the schedule I'll try to keep up from now on: One video blog and one post every week. Starting this week. Fingers crossed, toes crossed and... Well, the rest too.

I'll also start posting pics of the figures I videoblog about.

Boba Fett: Booty Hunter (SDCC Haul II)

Hi boys and girls, it's me, Uncle Freak after almost two weeks of shooting a TV series I finally return to the blogosphere to talk about toys and to talk about what I got in San Diego. It's a good thing that I never claimed to reveal or even keep a posting schedule, but I'll never leave you my friends.

I'll stay with you like Boba Fett on Han Solo's trail, even if the world becomes a prequel of itself I'll still be with you. Only that it's not going to be me, it's probably going to be the guy they cloned to get me. Or something.

Why are you still listening to me? We need to talk about toys.

One of the weirdest things I got in the con was a limited vinyl figure of Boba Fett holding a BoomBox. It really doesn't have a name: This is the card that came with the figure.



But screw this, I like my figures to have names, so I named him Roger. But then on a whim I changed his name to Boombox Fett. I think it suits him better.



It was done by an artist called Motorbot for a T-Shirt company, I'm pretty sure about it. But that's one of the greatest things about Comic Con, I just saw this one day and bought it, mainly because it looks cool, maybe because it's silly, might be because I have a soft spot for John Cusack (or was it Joan Cusack?) but mostly because it's Boba Fett holding a Boombox.



Boombox Fett was limited to 20 pieces, if you want to see some of the amazing toys Motorbot has done, check his Flickr.

I won't have to take unexpected trips for a while, so I think I'll be able to keep posting regularly. But if you ever miss me, just remember that moment in Say Anything when Boba Fett holds the Boombox up and the Imperial march starts playing. It always makes me smile.

Stay tuned!

What's up, Duke? (SDCC Haul I)

And now some trivia you may not know about me: I am a David Bowie fan, I have all his albums, I've seen Labyrinth a couple million times and I even own a copy of The man who fell to Earth, the movie that started one of Bowie's many eras, the one where he was called the Thin White Duke.

(So, if you were wondering, the Duke in the title is Bowie and not John Wayne or Jo, or Luke and certainly not Daisy)

What does this have to do with San Diego Comic Con? Well, what if you could have a way to unite your obsession with toys, your enthusiasm for cuddly animals and your passion for the one and only Ziggy Stardust? Now, that would be cool, right?

Artist Jermaine Rogers gave me that when he did a print called Aleppin Sane that was later turned into a toy by a company called Plastic City.

The result was this awesome, huge (and incredibly light) vinyl piece:



For references regarding the size of this bust, you can check last post, for accuracy regarding the cover of David Bowie's album Aladdin Sane you can check this pic:



The bust is of course not articulated, the sculpt and colors are incredible simple and very effective. The fur is very nicely done. As I said before, since it's a piece of hollow vinyl the bust is super light despite it's massive size.



It now has a place of honor in one of my DVD shelves in my living room.

And the best part? One in ten boxes had a very limited signed and numbered print in it. And guess who got one?

"Me", the right answer was "Me" (no, not you). Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries before I could snap a pic of the print. But it is there, I'll post a pic when I show you more stuff I got in the Con.

There's more to come.

Stay tuned!

All hail our new Robot Overlords

According to my calculations (based on solid empirical facts) Skynet gained consciousness a couple of days ago and yesterday launched a devastating nuclear attack...

So for you poor helpless survivors I'll start a series of posts so you can recognize and praise our new Robot Overlords.

Like this one:



This is Mecha Sad Bear by artist Luke Chueh, done for the series called Kaiju for Grown Ups. That series, started by the Japan based company called Wonderwall, got several artists to create (or recreate) Kaiju monsters.

My good friend Reis actually owns the Woodlands Monster and the Mothman reimagined by David Horvath, creator of Uglydolls.

Luke Chueh is one of the most interesting artists out there. His take on a terrible reality using mostly bears and bunnies is incredibly disturbing and at the same time quite funny.

This is one of my favorite pieces done by Luke:



It's called "Soundtrack to my life". I just love it. I'd love to have several of his prints to frame on my house.

Anyway, Mecha Sad Bear was released in 2008. Is 6" and has five points of (very limited) articulation. There are six colorways, the silver version that I have (because is the one that makes more sense to me) was limited to 200 pieces. But you can also find it in gold, black, clear, glow in the dark and, if I'm not mistaken, orange.

I'm starting to build a small collection of toys by Luke Chueh and Mecha Sad Bear is one of my favorites so far.

He also gave me an idea, a stop motion animation show like celebrity death match but with all the giant monsters from popular culture...



It's genius! Don't you think Skynet?

What?

OK, OK, I'll shut up now.

Until next time.

Dunny by artist: Clark R.

Sometimes you come across a custom so good you just need to have it. Most of the custom dunnys I have were made by friends or other people I know. In this case, I didn't knew the artist, I just saw a post about him on Spanky Stokes' blog and I immediately contacted this so called "Clark R."

The name of the custom was Day Dreamer Dunny.



Clark was super cool and told me he was going to do a run of 20 of the DDD (Day Dreamer Dunny) but that they were not ready yet. I liked the box the dunny came in, but I liked this even more:



I like that he took the time to write something in the box for me. I try to do it when I mail something too (not always, I'm afraid, but I try to do it as much as possible), because what we are doing here is not only buying or selling or trading is also getting to know people that share your passion, and I dig that.

But let's get to the toy, what caught my attention that badly?

Here it is:



This is a 3" dunny. Is painted white (is very shinny too), and inside his clear head there's some incredible micro-sculpting. I tried to take better pics of it, but it was really difficult 'cause they turned either too dark or the light was reflected on the plastic. Here's the best one.



You can still tell how awesome it is. The details and colors on the little landscape are great. Is one of those pieces that just makes you smile when you are working sixteen hours a day with just two thoughts: "I really want to be outside right now" and "man, that shotgun wasn't THAT expensive".

On those days, this dunny makes you forget that shotgun. That's how good it is.

Until next time.

Aesthetics vs. Backstory, my two cents - Part I

Lately in several blogs, forums and online shows (such as Toybreak) popped the question about the preference of getting a toy with a story behind it or just getting a toy that looks cool. It is a very interesting question and I thought I'd chip in for the debate. With some toy examples.

I buy toys for three main reasons:

1) The Geek Factor. The toys are 3D representations of characters I love from comics or cartoons or movies. With these toys I mix my love for toys and my love for pop culture in one single item.

2) The Nostalgia Factor. I also buy vintage or homages to vintage toy lines (such as Masters of the Universe Classics) because they were the toys I had or wanted when I was a kid.

3) The Art Factor. As I grew older as a collector and started to get into the art toy world, I discovered that there are some amazing artists and designers that create new things that I enjoy.

As a critic (if you didn't know this, I am a film critic) is really hard for me to say that I like something just because I like it. There are some figures I find appealing based only on how they look.

For example:



This is the Barkin' Gun (Mono edition) from my friend and great designer Abell (who also was kind enough to design a new header for this blog!). The Barkin' Gun is, as you can see, a dog/gun hybrid molded in resin with no articulation.

Why do I like it? First of all it's got a rather cartoony look, the rounded shape of the "head" and the lines of the design are incredibly well done. I am attracted to most things that are done with that cartoony aesthetic (especially Jessica Rabbit, if you know what I mean).



This figure is super limited (only two exist in this colorway) and even if that's not the reason I wanted the Barkin' Gun, knowing it's that special makes it better every time I see it.

The figure is really heavy and it's design is very simple. Still, as I said before, you don't need to do something complicated as log as it is original and a Dog/Gun figure is something I would have never imagined.

Plus it came with a bunch of extra goodies, and that is awesome...



Stickers, buttons and an authenticity card (in case you are trying to sell a bootleg Dog/Gun resin figure, you can tell this is the real deal). I guess I could make up a story for this, after all, we kids of the 80s got our fair share of weird toys (and I'm counting He-man and Ninja Turtles alone), but the point is I got this not because of what I knew about it, but because of what it looks like.

And although I'm always gonna prefer toys that have a story behind them, I like this.

Why? Because of all the things I said before... And just because I like it, too.



Until next time.

The sum of his parts

If you read this blog often...

(And you should totally do, since it's been said that reading this blog improves your general health, lowers the price of gas, makes food taste better and increases your chances to get lucky with a stranger in a bar *results may vary from reader to reader*).

As I was saying, if you read this blog often you'll remember some awesome resin figures designed by the German multimedia artist Hauke Scheer. The mind of Hauke, a very scary place I'm sure, was able to create a Urinal personal hygiene robot, a hairless genetically altered werewolf from another dimension with grenades in his nipples and a Squid warrior from the depths of the ocean. And guess what, he's just warming up.

Hauke sent me his latest work a little guy I like to call (actually... He likes to call) Bionic Bjoern:



A little background on the character from Hauke himself: "In 2065 a weapons company started to create cyborg soldier clones based on the DNA of an ancient Viking berserker warrior. Called "Bionic Bjoerns" by the public these warrior soon became the military product of its time".

Man, and you thought "Hairless genetically altered werewolf from another dimension" was a complicated origin story... This little piece of information makes the figure more appealing, it gives a certain sense of, you'll excuse the word, realism.

OK, so the story is awesome, but let's talk about the figure itself.



Two things that come to mind when you first see Bionic Bjoern.

First, the figure is 7 inches and it's not articulated (most resin pieces aren't) so this may be more like a statue or a (dare I say it?) staction.

The second thing that strikes you is the incredible level of detail the sculpt had. There's not a part of this figure that doesn't have a little mechanical detail, except the flesh, but even there you have scars and probably the creepiest thing about Bjoern, a tube coming out of his belly button... The writer in me (and by that I mean the guy I pay to write clever stuff for me in order to look like an intellectual) suggests that the tube can be a genetic design, a way to keep feeding or fueling Bjoern like an unborn baby through the belly button so he doesn't need to drink or eat. That would make him a very efficient warrior. Also, it's Gross.

The figure comes in three parts: The main body, the Gatling gun arm as a separate piece you have to attach and a really heavy base that doesn't really need 'cause like of the rest of Hauke's figures, he stands perfectly on his own.



The paint apps are very good, since this run is limited to 50 pieces, I guess the QC was pretty strict. One thing to note is that some parts, especially the arm you have to attach have very thin parts that you may break. Hauke told me this and I was sweating like a pig when I put it together. Luckily, since I'm a fairly clumsy guy, the figure is sturdy, but I would recommend being careful.

This is the first "human" figure we get from Hauke and the face is an interesting point to debate. For starters I thought a cloned berserker warrior would have been more angry. But Bjoern looks calm, with an almost dead expression (even a little sad). I think that works well for the "mass produced soldier without feelings" aspect of his story.

That reminded me of the movie Soldier with Kurt Russell:



OK, OK, so the movie is pretty bad, but the concept is cool. Plus, in that movie Argentina had Moons. MOONS! And that makes it OK in my book.

The only thing I would say to Hauke is that he gave us four awesome figures from four different lines and stories. I think he can't stop his mind and is always chasing after the next project, the next idea, the next figure. I'd love to see more characters from these series before going into the next. And I'm only saying this, because I know he designed a toilet robot to go with the urinal robot and if he doesn't make that one I'm gonna go to Germany and force him to do it.

And since I don't want this post to sound like a threat (but it totally is), here's a comic starring Bjoern:



Until next time.

I told you they were coming, dammit, I told you!

But did you listen? No! You just stood there with your Internet porn and your pop corn and your Porky's soundtrack and now it's too late!

Too late I tell you!



Because Kawaiiju wave 2 (Sneak Attack wave) are now gone. They were limited to 10 unique sculpts and designs by Charles "Monsterforge" Marsh (I've talked about him before, and I'll talk about him soon too). This wave was so limited that a strict policy of only one figure per person was applied. I was one of the very lucky ten. The figures came with an original Art Card and were placed inside a blind bag, so what did I get you may ask... Well, see and find out, just like I did!



First the art card... then the toy. His name is Skwachu, and he attacks with Tornado Fist Smash. That's how much I know...



And here's the man... ehm... Monster himself. I really like Skwachu, but he was not my favorite of the set (I'm telling you this, to avoid sounding too sweet, after all, I have a rep to keep). And that's the thing with blind bags, you can control what you get, and I get that idea, it hits me with the same nostalgia as MOTU stuff. I always loved to collect cards as a kid, so this is kinda like that.

Of course I like Skwachu, because every monster Charles manages to pull out of his... Ehm... His imagination is amazing. Plus, I already have two animal/reptile Kawaiiju and a robot Kawaiiju and a giant Kawaiiju so, getting a more mineral/elemental Kawaiiju (he looks like a living mountain in the art card) is awesome.

Here's a pic of the happy family (and a few guys that were just hanging there...)



This great little thing is also the first toy I got this year, and that's how you can tell is going to be a good one.

I know I don't update this blog as much as I should, but the end of the year was pretty chaotic. But I will start this new year of Freak Studios showing some of the best presents I got in 2010, I hope you enjoy, there's still plenty of toys out there.

Hope you started great too!

Until next time.

Dunny by artist: Zukaty

Bad news everyone: I caved in and started to buy another line. Like Action League before this and MOTUC before that and Super Hero Squad before that and Futurama before that and JLU before that and TMNT before I even knew I was collecting toys. OK, OK, considering my personal history, I can't really say this is "news", but it certainly is "bad"...

I just got sucked in another money-wasting-nerve-wrecking-blind-boxed toy line: Dunnys

It all started with George Gaspar's Skull Dunny and continued with other random figures until I decided to start getting them in a more build-a-collection way. I don't pretend to be a completist, that is impossible, there are millions and millions of Dunnys out there. What I'll do is try to get Dunnys done by specific artists (both official and custom). I'll try to be a completist with the regular ones: I.E. every dunny by Doktor A or Frank Kozik.

But today I'll show an awesome custom created by UK based artist Paulo a.k.a. Zukaty. Some time ago, he decided to recreate the (almost) complete Dunny 2010 series. Here's the result:



All of these are great, but since the beginning of his quest (posted in the October Toys Forum), the one I really wanted was the Poison Dunny. And guess what?



After sending him a mail, I got what I wanted!



It looks great, and it is just a fun concept. The sculpted parts look good and he was able to be very accurate with the paint in a very small scale. It's a simple design but incredibly effective, proof that you don't need to be over complicated as long as you can create something truly original. Zukaty did.



When I saw it, the "Final Condiment" line made me laugh out loud, that's because the original Dunny used to create this one is the Ketchup (or Sket-chup) Dunny by Sket-One.



There's also a Sweet Relish Dunny, a Mustard Dunny and a Mayo Dunny (And no, I'm not joking here people). But it doesn't end here, you see, Paulo didn't just send me the Dunny, he went the distance and included a mini canvas original painting.



Why did he do this if I only wanted the Dunny? Because he's an awesome guy, that's why.

Zukaty is selling the rest of his creations here. Check them out before they are gone!

I'll start posting more Dunnys soon, but first I have some superhero toys, more customs and a ton of MOTUC posts to go. Busy busy busy.

Until next time.

Dunny by Artist: George Gaspar

There are a few problems for Argentinean collectors that want to get in the world of art/designer toys:

1) There are very few places that carry designer lines from, lets say, Kid Robot, I can only think of one or two places and even they have very limited (and usually very old) options.
2) The blind boxes, one of the usual ways to get these toys, are not blind at all, in fact, all the stores will open the boxes and charge according to the rarity of the piece. Yeap, that sucks!
3) Since designer toys are rare, they are expensive, consider I can pay for a smorking labbit what someone in the U.S. would pay for a Masters of the Universe Classics figure (you don't even want to know what a MOTUC costs!).
4) Most stores will only get one case of figures so the possibilities of completing a set are very close to a negative number (oh, I also should warn you that I really suck at math...)

So, for these and some other reasons I never, until some time ago, owned a Dunny. But that changed when George Gaspar (of Toybreak fame) asked me if I would be interested in one of his awesome custom Skull Dunny(s) in exchange for some bootleg crap I had.

Lets see... Awesome custom in one hand... Bootleg crap in the other... I may suck at math, but even I knew the obvious answer... I said yes!



So basically, George took the Rainy London Dunny from the Ye Olde English Dunny line (designed by Triclops) and erased the rain drops, popped the head open, inserted the skull he sculpted and that's about it. It may sound simple, but with only those changes he turned this:



Into this:



Of course, the true skill of George can be seen in the skull, the sculpt is incredible, very detailed and fitting perfectly in the clear head. George is also a cool guy that left Triclops' name under the skull Dunny's foot. I agree with that, you should give credit when credit is due. But, the only mistake George made was not signing his own name in the other foot. After all, two very creative people were needed in order to help this little monster come to life.



I'm extremely happy with my first Dunny, because is freaky, and cool and I know is special. For now, until things change, If I want a Dunny I'll stick to trade or buy the great customs of the awesome people I meet online every day.

Until next time.

(Or... If I see a really cool one somewhere and I can't control myself. Along with math I was also never very good at controlling myself...)