Toy Haul: Scott Wilkowski Micro Mail-Away Minifigure!

Usually, I try to have Toy Hauls reserved for big mail bag openings, but today I think this is a special exception.

A little while ago, I suggested everyone to consider participating in Scott Wilkowski's mail-away offer, and today I got my crazy red ape minifigure.

This little guy is pretty damn rocking.  He's almost entirely red, but there are tiny blue swirls in there too, most of which the picture doesn't show very well.  In fact, if you look at the original offer picture, he looks a lot like the one being held.

Now that I have one, of course, I gotta' have more.  There is a lot of hot variants, maybe some not even pictured, but I gotta' give it a shot to get either the neon pink or neon green.

What did you get?  Let me know in the comments below!  If you haven't done it yet, get on it already and send away for one!

www.scottwilkowski.com

Keshi Drop's 100th Post! Thank You!

It's crazy to imagine it was only last fall since I started this website, but we are already up to 100 poorly-written, uneducated, ramblings about keshi minifigures!  And for those still okay about beating that dead horse, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon!

I do have to take this time to reflect and give thanks, as much as that's sort of cliche.  When I first started this, I barely knew anything about keshi figures outside what I already did as a kid, when I first owned them.  Actually, 100 posts later, and I still don't think I got anywhere closer to knowing everything, but it's been a fun ride full of unexpected thrills all the same.

My only reason starting the blog to begin with, at first, was just to have my own little space in the world to rant and ramble about stuff I just felt wouldn't be suitable for toy forums.  There was a lot of stuff I had thoughts of, not all positive, and I didn't feel entirely qualified to share them openly.  I opened this blog as a way to jot them all down, ironically, with the intention of no one ever finding it.

That's where you came in.  With every view, comment, and email, I learned my radical opinions weren't all that insane, and my private posts were being read by more and more people as the days passed.  I am eternally grateful for the success you've given my accidental blog thus far.  I'm not sure what the correct number of clicks or views are for normal blogs, but for mine, I think it's astronomical and I have everyone to thank, from reading it all, or just stopping by once.  It doesn't matter.  I'm just glad you stopped by and gave it a shot.

Over the past 100 posts, you've given me crazy new things to experience that I never would have imagined starting up, most of which, I admit, were pretty scary.  I would be lying if I said I didn't go to my girlfriend multiple times, shouting in a panic about something that's happened here, behind the scenes.  Whether I saw a giant spike in readers one day or was being showcased on another website as some keshi guru, I was on the other side of this screen holding it together as poorly as I could manage.

Of course, without a doubt, the highlight of the past 100 posts here was being able to interview Mark Vasquez of the Mystical Warriors of the Ring and being able to have one of the coolest reads from one of the coolest dudes.  Let's be honest, I did 5% of that article, if that.  Mark did the rest and it still stands as the most popular piece on this website to this very day, and I have him to thank for that.  I came harshly against MWOTR's Evolution prototypes, even spent the majority of a week writing post after post pegging the new Goliath figure, condemning it for how far it's strayed away from what I thought made MWOTR so awesome.  Not only did Mark give me the interview when he should have told me to get lost, he changed my mind on what could arguably be a contender for the most anticipated, if not best, independent keshi release this year.  I don't have to tell you how much of a success Goliath was.  He sold out within hours, and Mark, maybe out of spite, but hey, who could blame him, gave me a front row seat to it all, humble pie buffet and everything!

It's been a crazy awesome 100 posts so far, and I look forward to write hundreds more.  There's more I want to do here to make things a bit more professional-looking and to take it to that next step. Again, I want to thank my friends, family, and everyone who I've worked with or just stopped by for a quick read.  I couldn't have done any of this without you.  Maybe it's dumb to bring it up, even if 100 posts isn't a big milestone for most places, but it means a lot to me.  Thanks again!

-SpiderEarth

Own Your Very Own Bearrito!

As you may remember, October Toys did their voting for their OMFG Series 5 line up on their Kickstarter page.  The winners were announced last January, and although a lot of great designs were chosen, the humble Bearrito did not do favorably in those crucial swing states and lost a spot on the list.

Stuff like that doesn't keep a good bear down, even if he has the expiration of a burrito.  Instead, Bleeding Edges and Diehm Studios went forth and produced the woolly minifigure all the same!

So right now, off their web store, you can adopt your very own flesh tone Bearrito!  I enjoy the design and I appreciate independent artists getting out there and doing their thing.

Check out the link below to get your very own and many other cool things from Diehm Studios!

http://diehmstudios.storenvy.com/products

SpiderEarth's Tips For Safe Keshi Trading!

Man, it's been a slow few days for news or happenings, but you know, just as I say that, something big will explode, but even still this topic has been something I've wanted to cover for some time now and today is a good time to do it.

I do a lot of minifigure trading on forums with other forum members.  Aside from purchasing them webstores and auctions sites, trading on forums is a great way to expand your collection and get those rare ones to complete the set.  Honestly, you find better deals and bargains trading on forums too, but for a trade-off:  risk.  Here are tips I keep in mind when I'm trading figures with forum members.

(Be honest and realistic)
Your experiences trading starts with you.  You're going to be the common denominator in all your trading, so be an honest, upfront, communicative forum member to people you're trading with, but also understand there is risk involved in trading.  You can lie, cheat, and steal, but it only works so many times and you only get so much out of it.  There are billions of other ways to get what you want than being banned on a forum.  Be a good, drama-free, forum member.  If you can't make it to the post office today to send away a package, be upfront and say so.  Chances are, the person you are trading with will be more upset about the silence than the tardiness.

(Look at reputation)
Most, if not all, trading forums have some sort of record of successful trades for their members.  It could be points called any number of things like feedback or reputation or whatever.  It's important to look at these scores when deciding to trade with someone, because it'll give you a good idea if they are trustworthy or not.  If you are the new member in, understand some members might not trade with you right away until you get some positive numbers under your belt.  It might be slow, but maybe not.  Just be honest and trustworthy yourself and things work their way out well.

(Lean towards suspicion)
Be careful with brand spanking new members and members leaving the hobby, liquidating giant lots of their collection.  Much like the saying says 'if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is'.  Active members are very protective of their feedback points.  It's essentially their lifeblood in trading, so be a little curious of deals from members in stages of their hobby where they might not care about feedback that much.  But of course, understand that's just adding extra risk to the transaction.  If it's still a great deal you have to try to get, just make sure you're in the right head space.

(Keep it secure)
Unless you are 100% comfortable with the forum member you're trading with, you'll want to protect your money and goods as best as you can.

Firstly, if you're buying something from a forum member, use PayPal, and use the 'Goods and Services' option.  PayPal is a great electronic service that allows you to send and receive money for little service cost.  If you're sending money, compensate the service cost on your end.  For example, if you're sending $40 to a forum member, but PayPal wants $1.50, send $41.50, that way it'll be the full amount for the person you're trading with. The 'Goods and Services' option will protect you if you need your money back.  Go through the second of trouble and make sure you're protected.

Money aside, if you're just trading goods, always get Tracking from the post office.   It's generally a dollar or so, and if need be, insist the person you're trading with to get it as well.  Heck, even pay for it for them, if it comes to that point.  It's very cheap and essential.  If things go wrong, and let's face it, it's the post office, something is bound to go wrong, you don't want to be held to blame for it.  Cover your butt with Tracking, that way you, the person you're trading with, forum moderators, and virtually anyone else can see, by running the tracking number, you've done all you could to get the package in their direction.  You don't want negative feedback points for something the post office did, and without Tracking, you can't prove it.

Okay, so I hope that helps a little bit.  I know there must be a ton I've left off, so maybe a part two will come down the pipe in the future.

Transformers Tiny Titans Series 3 Leaks!

I don't have to tell you how legendary Transformers are in toy collecting, in general.  They've even forgone their transforming nature from time to time and did keshi figures, with Decoys being the most popular and collected.

I have to say, though, these Tiny Titans mini-figures for their Robots In Disguise cartoon series, have always caught my eye.  So, with the new bit of news floating about, there isn't really a better time to talk about them.

Tiny Titans are small, inarticulate, plastic mini-figures of characters from the cartoon series.  They are sold in blind bag form, for what I can gather, only a couple bucks a piece, so the price is certainly right.  What catches some collectors, and what has me on the fence, is, of course, the paint.  Keshi purists despise paint applications on a mini-figure probably more than anything else, but from what I can tell, there is actually, aside from Optimus Prime, only small paint applications.  So, that being that, has me interested.

I've had my eye on them, but never really pulled the trigger on them before, but with third set of mini-figures, it looks like they are releasing a Shockwave, who has always been a favorite of mine.  I think what I'll do is purchase the Shockwave I want in auction, check it out in person, and see if it's something I could continue to collect.  That way, I'm not buying a ton of blind bag toys I don't particularly want just to get the one awesome Decepticon.

What do you guys think?  Think they are far too removed from traditional keshi to collect?  Voice your opinions below!

New MWOTR Evolution: Goliath Colorway!

For those uninitiated, the guys at Mystical Warriors of the Ring released their first super-sized minifigure last January to much success.  Just as I warn in just about every drop, the first variant sold out quickly, the same day in fact, leaving a lot of collector's without a shiny green alligator.

But announced today, both off their website and their Instagram, Goliath is back and ready to rumble for round two, and this time, he's more sicker and twisted, with that ink black heart.

Well, maybe not that far, but this new metallic black colorway is very awesome indeed, especially if you have the other figures in the toy line metallic black as well, like the ones pictured.

Goliath's first release shocked a lot of people, but not me.  Despite the early criticism I gave it, I had a strong feeling this guy would fly out of the MWOTR webstore, and he did just that, maybe even faster than I expected.   I'm glad to see this variant allows collectors who missed the first drop to finally get in on some gator goodness, but like before, you have to be on point or else you're going to be watching this one sell out on you too.

Collectors were more than impressed with the metallic green colorway, which means there is a good possibility those same customers will be back for the new variant.  I know I will be, so people who missed the metallic green need to be extra aggressive, even to the minute, when the release day comes around.

The exact time and day for the drop is slated for sometime next month, April, with also a showing at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, so I'll post more exact info when I have it.  It certainly sounds though, if you want it before anyone else, the MWOTR booth at C2E2 might be the place to be.  If you're not around the Chicago area or not travelling to attend the convention, follow the links below for your share in a virtual blitzkrieg when this guy is released next month.

http://mystwarriors.com/blog/

http://mystwarriors.com/shop.htm

New Rise Of The Beasts Update!

The LittleRubberGuys team have been working diligently on all their new characters coming to the Rise of the Beasts line.  Despite the fact they are putting out twice as many amazing minifigures than the first wave, progress looks to be going really well.

Released on their Instagram account, these photos give a great inside look to see how well these cool guys are coming along, but keep in mind, these are still in prototype stages.



One thing to note here is that the ant character has had some serious work done to him.  In it's initial stages, it had longer, thinner, antennae, but it seems the team had to complications with that.  I like the bulkier look they have now, however I feel that a large ant abdomen and/or an extra set of arms would have really made the ant character stand out as this sort of exotic insect warrior.

The lizard character has been seeing some work too.  His tail has been fine tuned and worked into having Glyos pegging.

But there's also a couple other characters to look forward to seeing as well, like the lion character and the gorilla character, not to mention, this wave of minifigures will also see our first parts of weaponry.

For more information, follow LittleRubberGuys on Instagram for all the hottest information, and check out the link below for all the rest of your Rise of the Beasts goodness.

http://littlerubberguys.storenvy.com/

Scott Wilkowski Micro Mail-Away!

I admit, as much as I would enjoy be the first on a topic or even provide early drop news for readers, sometimes I'm just not anywhere that good.  It's hard, but a fun challenge, one I don't take extremely serious.

Today is different though!  Today I have a drop that is open for readers until the hot sweltering days of mid-summer.

Scott Wilkowski is throwing it back old-school.  You should already know him from his amazing see-through resin figures with his own skeletal sculpture inside, but he does all kinds of amazing work outside that too.  Right now, he's doing a classic send-away program, just like you'd see in the back of a comic book or cereal box.  Send him some greenbacks in the mail and expect a goodie sometime later.

This is not just radical, but a pretty good deal as well.  I can't resist the opportunity to do a mail-away like this, even with the thoughts of my parents saying I shouldn't send cash through the mail.  I mean, sure, I could write a check, but that's too safe.  Nope, I'm shoveling driveways and doing chores until I score that ten spot and shoving every last crinkled bill in an envelope, just for old times sake!

PayPal is an ingenious system, and makes hobbying a thousand times easier and safer.  99% of the time I swear by it, but this certainly falls in the one percent, and I suggest everyone gives it some consideration too.

Like I said before, this is also a gnarly deal.  Ten bucks, an envelope, and a stamp gets you a minifigure of this King Kong looking character, possibly handmade and hand-poured by the artist himself, with no shipping charge.  As you can see from the picture, there are many colors available and who knows what you'll find in your mailbox, but that's all part of the excitement too.  Even if you're a hardcore collector, you can't imagine there are too many around of each variant.

The link below is for Scott's website, so please check out what other fine work he has, and after that, go in on the mail-away.  It'll be fun and I'd love to see what everyone gets.

www.scottwilkowski.com

Cure Ukkari-man Keshi Prize Drop!

Japanese toy and graphic designer, Cure, held something of a raffle or a contest late last year.  Like the one pictured here on the side, they sold monster sticker packs to their customers, with each sticker pack essentially putting your name in the drawing.

A drawing for what you ask?  I'll give you one guess.

Leaked on their Instagram just recently, it seems like the prizes of the lottery have been made and are ready to be sent to their winners.

I gotta' say, these guys look ridiculously good.  I'm not sure if this is their first go at keshi or they had outside help, but either way, all around thumbs up from me.  The only thumbs down, of course, being how insanely rare these must be.

I'm not sure how many are going out to winners, but I'd have to guess it's not truck loads.  Cure generally does sofubi vinyl, not keshi.  This is likely a cool little treat to go along with the release of their Ukkari-man stickers and not much more.  If I had to guess these guys are going to be nearly impossible to find without coughing up a pretty penny, but you never know, one could sneak into a keshi lot auction somewhere and you could get a great deal.  That's why it's always worth the look.

I wish I had known about this when the stickers and contest was released, I would have loved to try to score one of these awesome guys.  I'll certainly keep my eye out for them as they travel to their new homes, and I suggest the same to you too.  Check out the link below for all kinds of awesome Cure stuff!

http://www.cure-toys.com/

MIMP 2016 Prototype Leak and Auction?!

Mondays are a bummer, or so cartoon cats would have you believe, but it certainly softens the blow when enormous news hits the social media outlets and causes a storm in discussion and interest.  But let me step back and change that.  It's potential enormous news, because the details of which is a bit strange.

As if I was lucky enough to plan it just a few days ago, news about the rumored Monsters In My Pocket minifigure line rocketed to the hottest topic today.  Dubbed with the nickname MIMP 2016 by collectors now, although it was originally planned to be a lot earlier than that, these images found themselves on a French Ebay auction, claiming to be resin prototypes of the rumored series.

But the question remains.  Is this the real deal or a hoax done by someone looking to make a quick buck at the expense of the keshi community.

If you're a talented artist, in all honesty, it's not a hard thing to hoax.  However, looking at the sketches, 3D models, and resin prototypes, you'd be surprised an artist or a team of artists would waste this much effort and talent on a few Ebay auctions to dupe collectors.

If a studio out there had the ability to produce something to the level of Monster In My Pocket, making a competing product will pay ten-fold what dishonest auctions could possibly bank.  Plus, the community isn't very large.  You can't imagine you can go to the well with fake prototypes too many times, before you're without an audience for all that talent and ability.  That is why, despite the decent chance I'm wrong, I think these guys are 100% legit.

As real as I believe these are, how did they ever find themselves on auction?  And why now when the series hasn't officially launched already?  I had to take a double-check and look over some extra details.

Evolution, the marketing and design company behind the new series, or at least as we knew it, has three offices:  China, South Africa, and their head office in California.  The auction was listed under the French version of Ebay, so it makes me think they outsourced some heavy-lifting to another studio, maybe even a French one that was only commissioned for this set.

Even with all these assumptions, it's hard to think this can exist without legal strangeness, but I'm a larger law novice than I am a keshi novice, so I can't say that much.  Let's just take a look at the figures, as if they are a look into the future, and see if there's anything worth looking forward to.

There's a lot to look over for sure, from the chunky centaur character to the nimble goblin, but there are some common threads from the bunch we can guess will be in the final product.

Firstly, it looks like they will be painted, if not fully, than in a metallic rare variation, however that just might be the sort of resin used for the prototypes.

Secondly, the ogre character's 3D model was rendered with a base.  In  my previous post about the rumored set, I guessed the new franchise would take inspiration from NFC video game toys like Skylanders, Amiibo, and Disney Infinity.  Although he's the only one given one, they obviously gave it some thought, which is suspicious, and the base certainly wouldn't be part of the figure's mold, which is why it's nowhere else.

Lastly, but quickly, the figures look too large to be considered anything related to keshi, but at least at first-glance, perfect size to hang out with your Skylanders and Amiibos.

If this really is what we can expect the new Monster In My Pocket will become, I'm excited for it, but much in the way I described in my previous post about it.  These weren't designed with me in mind, but that's completely OK.  I had the chance to grow up with some really amazing MIMP minifigures, and if I am lucky, this set will be really successful and bring knowledge of those old-school amazing toys to the kids of today.  Maybe some will even want to collect them.

OTMFG March Colorway Drop!

Convention season is in full-swing, but that doesn't mean all the good stuff is there.

Dropping tomorrow at noon Pacific time, the cool kids at October Toys have a couple hot color variants to round out your expanding collection.

The beloved Mini Gwin gets to have his orange version, while the impressive Zombie Pheyden gets a variant called tarred.  I imagine, like others before it, this is a heat-sensitive color change variant between a flesh tone and the new black.  Pretty neat indeed.

I have a ton of OTMFG minifigures, and I've been following them pretty closely since I've returned to this toy thing a year plus back.  I enjoy them very much, but although I like these two, I wish they had more of a spring theme to then that usually went along with the monthly releases from October Toys.

Like many other minifigure drops, if you nap on the release time, you might wake up to find them all sold out.  So make sure you find yourself at the October Toys website, so you don't miss out.  The link is right below.

www.octobertoys.com

Purist Ramblings: Why I Think the Rumored New MIMP Series Will Suck So Good!

If this is your very first time on this blog, and this blog is somehow your first outlet for keshi minifigure stuff, that's so totally weird, and let me shoot a rundown out of a rocket for you.

Monster In My Pocket, or MIMP because typing is hard, was arguably the most popular keshi-style minifigure toy line in America in the early '90s.  I could make a case that this was mainly because of MUSCLE/Kinnikuman's worldwide popularity yet subject marketing in America.  MUSCLE was pretty damn cool, and I certainly love it now, but I remember thinking, as a child, how damn strange they were.  I connected much more with the classic Universal Monsters and the sickly bright colors of the figures that were being portrayed in MIMP by Matchbox just a little while later.  Many others will have stories of their MUSCLES and MIMPs in their childhood, and that's why it's such an important franchise to collect and enjoy.

MIMP found itself back on store shelves in the early 2000's, but to mixed fanfare.  They were fully painted and hard to come across, so anyone outside the most hardcore of collectors passed over them, and since the failure of that launch they have virtually laid dormant, with only whispers here and there of a comeback.

Evolution, a marketing and development company, is currently working on a new Monster In My Pocket project, with aims for a new cartoon series, video game, and toy line.  Whether Evolution will ever release anything is something up for debate, seeing how they have missed multiple projected times thus far, bringing the project into the years-late category.  Nothing may come out of them, although I wish the otherwise, but let's imagine, right now, in this current toy landscape what would a marketing firm do with Monster In My Pocket in 2015.  I think the answer is already flying off store shelves.  Or rather, game store shelves.

If you had a brand that you had to make a cartoon series, video game, and toy line mix into a successful franchise, you would be hard pressed not to look at the Skylander template.  In fact, I used that term only because I believe that's the first game to have a successful figure like, but since then, Disney Infinity and Nintendo Amiibo have seen monumental sales as well.  And looking at what demographics each franchise is aimed at, MIMP could easily step in and turn a buck if the rest of the components were decent as well.

But the question is, would we, the keshi community, like the new Skylander-inspired series?  I would say no.  No way in hell, and for a couple reasons.  All these new video game toy lines use NFC technology, which requires close proximity of a chip in the figure and the reader in the game console for it to work.  All of these toy lines have done this with giant plastic bases for the figure to stand on.  I mean, sure, the figures look nice, but it's a hollow husk and the real meat of the product is a tiny brain in the plastic base.  Bases like these are an eye sore of the kesi purist, not to mention the paint that will be dripped on every centimeter of these figures.

If I had to guess, if it done like this, it won't take to the keshi collectors very well at all, but it's not all that bad.  Let's be frank, only the craziest, and coolest, toy designers are looking to please the keshi purist, and from a business standpoint, you can't blame them.  There just isn't a lot of us.  Even the greatest Kickstarter projects or anticipated keshi release can only produce a thousand or so of us nerds.  With us alone, the new MIMP wouldn't last, but that's ok.

I don't have crazy expectations for a big budget toy line to fit my crazy criteria.  In fact, you see Trash Pack gets every pass in my book when I know I shouldn't.  Maybe this has something to do with it.  If it's not independently produced by real independent creative minds, I reach out, settle, and give them the pass, because maybe, just maybe, with enough interest and luck, it'll bring more people into the keshi community.

My thought is that if a five-inch painted figure of a Monster In My Pocket sells out of a Gamestop, it wasn't because of the old 1990's version we love.  However, we can hope they take that figure home and enjoy that new product enough to put Monster In My Pocket in a search engine when they are done playing, to see what else there is around.  If the product is well-received enough, you'd have to imagine some of them will find the keshi community and join up.  And in a perfect world, when enough people have joined, big budget toy manufacturers will notice us more and aim more toys at us.  More traditional keshi will be made.

So that's my crazy guess into a future that may not actually come the slightest of showing, but I am willing to watch and see Evolution, for the lack of a better term, sacrifice whats left of MIMP for the betterment of the keshi community.  It's the best we can do in 2015.

JoJo's Bizarre Keshi Adventure!

Probably by today's standards, I wouldn't really be called much of an anime fan.  I still watch it from time to time, but nothing like I had in the past.  Back in the day, as some may agree, anime was a rarity of a sort and getting it was often tricky.  Now, you can trip over websites begging you to watch their free streams of 24 hour anime, but that's not to say it's a bad thing.  It's just a long way from where it was with Akira, Dragon Ball Z, Gundam, Evangelion, and all that.

I still keep up from time to time, but with only so many hours in the day, and only so many hobbies to dedicate time to, I have to be a bit more picky on what to watch.  Not to make this an anime review so much, but one of the series I have actually been getting into and really enjoying is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, so you must guess the sort of curiosity and excitement I've had when I've see pictures of a gorgeous Japanese vending machine keshi line find themselves all over social media.  So much so I think I'm going to flood this post with like six pictures or something!  That much!

I'll be honest, so please anyone that has more information about this set than I do, please comment below, I don't know much about this set yet.  It appears by the copyright information in the photos, they are done in some regard by Bandai, but I have no idea if they outsourced any studio for the actual sculpts.  I would love to find out more on this, because I find these miniatures really amazing and capture that over-the-top wildness and style the anime has.

What's notable about this set, up front, are two things.  One is that the set is rather large, which is a pleasant surprise.  I am unaware of a previous line to traditionally build up to a large set like this, but the anime has been around for quite some time now.  The second thing is it's combination of clear plastics and traditional keshi plastics that seem to really make this series stand out.

I'm really excited to see these guys find their way to the States, but from what I've read from a couple auctions, they seem to be coming single-file in gumball capsules.  If this is true, it's going to be difficult seeing these guys travel in complete sets, but who knows.  I'll certainly love to get whatever I can, if not the full set.  They need a real review for sure.

MWOTR Prototypes At KCPCC!

If you're in the Kansas City area next weekend for the convention, the 13th, 14th, and 15th to be exact, of course you could to the same old routine and get your pictures taken by all your favorite sci-fi actors or whoever, but that's boring!  Plus, none of them make sweet miniatures!  So, instead, go see Mark and the rest of the Mystical Warriors of the Ring crew at their booth.  There actually might even be a surprise for those in store, going to the Kansas City Planet Comincon.

For sale there will be a good assortment of hand-cast resin prototypes of one of the new characters being worked on for a future MWOTR release.  They are in various color ways and sizes, like the picture on the left shows.  This is to assure the crew can see how it works in a few different sizes, as well as variants, and fix anything that may come up so the final release is as close to perfect as it can be.

These guys are virtually one-of-a-kind, so collectors of these awesome wrestlers need to chase these down while they are still around.  For more information check out the links below!

http://planetcomicon.com/
http://mystwarriors.com/blog/

It Came From a Vending Machine: Los Tremendos Luchadores!

So this, believe or not, was something I've wanted to do for a while.  I found these guys at a local supermarket and dumped as many quarters as I could, but as much as I enjoyed these cheap goobers,  I had lost them all during a move.  Or at least I thought I did.

Yeah, you heard me right, I really like these Los Tremendos Luchadores guys.  Sure, they are awful-looking, super tiny, and painted by a wild ape, but there is just something inherently special to me about finding micro wrestlers in vending machines.

I know I do my "It Came From a Vending Machine" posts to pick fun at the strange oddities inside these things, but I wonder if I owe this set for getting me back into collecting keshi, at least subconsciously.

You see, I was in the middle of a move.  All my things were packed up, and we were crammed in the back guest room of the parent's old place until our new place was ready for us.  Sure, actually playing with toys at this point is something I probably wouldn't feel inspired to do, but I love the stimulus of having them nearby and on display.  Yet, everything I had at that time was in boxes, and the old person decor wasn't really doing it for me.  However, after a random grocery run, I had a few ugly wrestlers in my possession for really no reason, and they filled a void.

Not did they just fill a void, I was reminded of the MUSCLES I had, or more likely the bootleg MUSCLES I had, and the Monster In My Pocket figures I begged to pick up at a department store.  Maybe I never considered running out and collecting the Los Tremendos set, but I think they caused me to put MUSCLE in a search engine some summer afternoon later.  And today, just rustling through some old bags, I find the most tremendous of strange vending machine wrestlers I thought I lost.

So thank you, Los Tremendos Luchadores.  You're alright in my book.

Gargamel X Eric Nilla Micro Kaiju News!

If you're a Japanese vinyl collector, or Sofubi if you're in the know, you know all about Gargamel.

Gargamel is one of the more popular companies out there for your nostalgic fix of old-school Japanese kaiju figures.  You know the type:  hollow, semi-soft plastic, with maybe only waist movement.  If you haven't seen authentic sofubi, you have likely seen bargain bin knockoffs at the dollar store, trying to pass off as the real thing.  Emphasis on trying.

Traditional sofubi figures are rather larger, at least compared to keshi, but Gargamel has released micro versions of the figures they fans love.  They were shrunk down to what appeared to be three inches of kaiju awesomeness, and I imagine this perked the ears and interest of the keshi community.  Ditch the vinyl, we must have said.  Rubber is better.  And who better to do it than American independent keshi artist Eric Nilla?

It didn't go like that, I'm sure, but however it went, I'm glad it ended all the same with these amazing looking guys.  Gargamel makes some really amazing kaiju characters, but the sofubi format is just not for more.  I love Godzilla like everyone else, but I never was lucky enough to get too many large monster toys growing up, nor do I have the budget now for some limited-run throwbacks.  I did however drop many coins for knockoff MUSCLES and other strange wrestlers and monsters.  This sort of project looks like that perfect bridge between both worlds, and Eric's resume and work is quickly turning him into the top guy in America for keshi minifigures.

For more information, check out the links below!

http://gargamel.jp/

http://ericnilla.blogspot.com/

http://ericnilla.storenvy.com/

B.Done X Eric Nilla Chameleon Drop!

I'm not sure if it's safe for me to call it a trend, but if it is, I totally support this trend!  Oh sure, independent artists and toy makers get to make all sorts of awesome figures, but we've seen a couple here and there get released from the unlikeliest of places.  I've covered keshi news on comedians, but I haven't done one on a hip-hop artist yet, so let's get on it!

It's called Chameleon, and it's a collaborative piece between hip-hop artist B. Done and keshi artist Eric Nilla, packaged as a solo figure with a random hip-hop accessory, like a boom box or headphones.

This neat little dude was released bright and early today at the Oak City Comic Convention in Durham North Carolina.  It was released as a convention exclusive, but if any parts survive, you'll likely find them in their respective web-stores.  But act really quick!

I get a bit of nostalgia from cross promotional stuff like this.  I reminds me, in some weird way, of collecting bottle caps, cereal box tops, or what have you, to send away for that radical toy.  Sure, it's not anything really close to that, but I like the reemergence of keshi figures getting back into things other than just toy shelves.  If this sort of stuff is anything indicative of the future, it's going to be a great ride.

For more info, check out the links below!

https://www.facebook.com/B.DoneArtist
http://www.bdoneartist.com/
http://ericnilla.storenvy.com/