Rambling! Did Shopkins Start An Epic Minifigure Trend?

Welcome back, everyone, to U&R, and sit back first the first bit of high-octane rambling since the rebranding.  Today I'm tackling and proposing something a bit adjacent, but still semi-related, to keshi minifigures.  It's Walmart, some of the biggest minifigure brands out there, and a demographic you'd wouldn't suspect - roll out!

Since I've been publishing entries to this blog, I've been talking about a resurgence of keshi minifigure production and collecting.  It's what captured my interest from just nostalgia of an old 80's toy line to a present day hobby, if not obsession.  I've used this phrase with, I admit, some ignorance.  I remember classic minifigures from the 80's and 90's, but fell off the wagon of little rubber things, until a few years ago, where I learned that a community had formed to collect, trade, and share info for a number of years prior.  Maybe in that gap, between the 90's and what I presumed to be the resurgence, there was other activity.  If there was, that certainly makes the comeback not that significant, but instead, interesting that it never fully left.  This complete history is something I lack, but maybe should pull together for a future article.

I bring this all up, because although it was a term I had used in the past, correctly or not, about keshi minifigures, it stands in awe of a tidal wave from multiple minifigure toy lines.  It's something I never would have guessed, but very happy and intrigued is happening.

Shopkins has only been around since 2014, but the concept has been in production a lot longer.  Manufacturer, Moose Toys, has built their company on retired successes like Trash Pack and Fistful of Power, but have evolved their brands and toy lines through the years.  We've seen the Trash Pack turn into the Grossery Gang.  We've seen the their homage to Kinnikuman with Mutant Mania come and go.  And we've seen their model of selling blind bags of gross and weird minifigures, re-imaged for girls and those with less interest in the stinkier things in life.  That is Shopkins, and like no other toy line previously produced, Moose Toys struck gold with it.

Shopkins' success could be attributed to many different factors, like those circle graphs that show a perfect storm of sales in the center for these little cookie characters.  Maybe little girls truly enjoy minifigures than boys?  I'm not sure that's completely true, but the Japanese kawaii culture of tiny cute things could have some influence across the pond.  I feel it's themes of cuter and happier food characters and fashion cast a wider net than booger figures do.  A broader appeal creates more sales over a larger crowd of children and parents, and overall, this is only amazing news.  So much so other companies are taking notice and producing their own collectible minifigures, altering the formula slightly to hope for a slight edge over competition.

I've recently visited Walmart and took these two pictures, although I could have taken a few more, just to show off the scale of this avalanche.  Not every display is of a minifigure line, but I only wish keshi had quantities like this on shelves.

Granted, I'll say this - most of these brands don't have me that interested in collecting a master set.  They fall victim to the same song and dance of Moose Toys.  They are slight smaller than the scale I prefer.  They have paint applications, if not absolutely doused in paint.  Some are made of a softer rubber that I'm really not much a fan of, that makes you wonder why I ever liked Trash Pack, but the gross theme was always interesting to me.

Although I may never dive into any of these, I think it's absolutely awesome this generation of young ones are getting into minifigures, even if it's not particularly the 80's stuff that I love.  It gets them into collecting the sets, wondering what else is out there, and possibly searching the history books for the classics.  It's not all spun with this selfish root to keshi either, but interest towards the future, wondering what this new wave of interest will cause in the future-adults looking back to capture their favorite toys they collected as kids.

We speak of Kinkeshi as if it should be on Mount Rushmore.  I feel Shopkins, in time, will receive the same.

Boo! Ironhaus Pro Releases Trick or Treat Gorewads!

Welcome, everyone, to the first official update under the Unarticulated & Rubbery name.  I'm really excited to get back into this, and hopefully more often than I have been this last year and so.

There's always something about the fall time of year that always brings keshi minifigures back to the front of my mind, and it's hard not to wonder if that mystery something is candy and strange, spooky, party favors.  When you're talking about independent artists with a mutant, horror-theme, to their product, Ironhaus has to be at the top of that list, so it's with no surprise they are quick to release some new Gorewad Monsters just in time to get your spookiness on.

Appropriately named Trick or Treat Gorewads, this new set has a mixture of new, old, and weaponized sugar, just to cover all your Halloween necessities.  Including three brand new Gorewad characters, the set also includes a few previously retired miniatures from their Larvapocalypse line and your mandatory ration of candy, rounding off treat portion of the sets namesake.

So where's the trick?  Aside from the criminally low production quantities, I'm not really sure there is one.  Within my collection of keshi minifigures lines a good bunch of Gorewads, so I've always been satisfied and impressed across the board on detail, design, and materials used.  If you're a fan of Grossery Gang and things like that, but have a couple gripes about this or that, I find Gorewads makes up where they miss, aside from the scarcity.  This puts interested collectors counting down to the exact moment releases like these drop, with trigger-happy mouse buttons, but none of that is all that out of the ordinary anymore.

However, as of the time I am writing this, they were release a couple days ago with a few sets still available, so the sad story of snoozing the exact moment of the drop and missing out on some figs eludes us this time, thankfully!  But how much longer?  I don't know, but as Halloween approaches just around corner, these guys will all be terrorizing the public long before the first skeleton knocks on your door for chocolate.  To avoid missing out, click on the link below!

https://ironhauspro.bigcartel.com/

Rebranding Announcement and Rambling!

Oh no!  What is even happening?!?!?!

Hello former-Keshi Droppers, welcome back to the blog!  As I am sure everyone will notice, things look a bit different around here, none of which will come to any surprise to some of you, but hopefully its nothing too too shocking for everyone else.  It's certainly something that's been in the works for a while now, and now seemed like a great time to do it.

I started this blog a few years ago, thanks because of a move.  I was stuck with my girlfriend in the upstairs guestroom of her mother's place, with space at a premium to say the least.  I had found a vending machine at a local grocery store offering tiny plastic wrestlers, and because they were both very cheap and very small, they stood beside me along the desk during the do-nothing nights at the in-laws surfing the web.  It's around then I found the designer toy scene and the resurgence of  what I would learn to be keshi minifigures.  A year or so later, I would start this blog, just as a private place to jot down my thoughts and opinions, where I thought they were a bit too fringe and stupid to share on a public forum.  It didn't take long to find my private place to be pretty public too, but in time, I accepted it and enjoy sharing this space with everyone that drops by.

I bring this up because I am amidst another move.  How annoying!  But that's the life you live until you buy your own house and lay down the roots, I suppose.  A spider can dream.  The situation has definitely changed, with Spider Baby joining us for this new adventure, but my thoughts are brought back to the small, the unarticulated, and the rubbery once again.

So why not turn the page now, right?  I think, or rather hope, I remembered bringing this up once to twice before in previous posts, hopefully more than a passing mention, but if I know my mind, I'm sure it swirled around my head enough that it convinced me it reached my keyboard.  I apologize if it never did.  Regardless, here is my reasoning, if it's required.  The name Keshi Drop or The Keshi Drop is dumb and barely makes no sense, even if you're in the know of the keshi collecting scene.  It's largely inspired by the moment something becomes available like a new album or toy, which cool kids call drops.  After learning these minifigures I really enjoy were once made from a Japanese eraser material called keshigomu or keshi for sort, for some otherworldly reason those two interesting words joined together, sounded neat at the time, and I ran with it for a few years.  I've never been called out on it either.  No one has ever said that the name was dumb and made no sense.  Bizarre, but that goes to show how nice and accepting people are in this toy collecting community.

The new name, 'Unarticulated & Rubbery', is a mouthful, but perfect to my sensibilities at this moment.  Everyone that clicks on knows what they are getting into from the very second the page loads up.  No barfing spider.  No crazy colors.  Stripped down and easy to get into for anyone, new or old, to whatever the hell we do here.

Also, I want to make this mention as well.  As perfect as 'Unarticulated & Rubbery' is, it is not mine.  I was going through my Instagram feed, as one does, and a picture of the recently reviewed Imaginext Muscle Men caught my eye.  "I didn’t expect to like these, but I love them - unarticulated and rubbery!"  I agreed with the caption, but the last bit stuck with me, and stuck with me, until I knew I had to reach out and ask for permission to rip him the hell off.  So, thank you, General Veers with University of Muscle, for lending me your charming phrase for this new phase and rebranding of my blog.  Please find his website's link below and show some support!

On top of that, I also want to thank my friend Jim who re-imagined some stills I had sent him of some Kinnikuman figures.  Again, with the rebranding, I didn't want to muddy up any imagery, so MUSCLE and Kinniuman was most definitely going to be at the top of the page this time, and he did a stellar job bringing all that to life.  He's a promising artist that would love to do stuff like this full-time, so please visit his site as well and give him love!

Alright, everyone, I think that's it for this time.  I don't think the site has fully changed over to it's new-new look quite yet, but it's certainly different enough now to let everyone know what's happening.  That will happen eventually with some new posts, but in the meanwhile thank you for popping in for this announcement.

http://uofmuscle.com/

https://www.deviantart.com/epicsaveroom