With No Future Plans, Moose Toys Cancels Grossery Gang!

When pressed at Toy Fair 2019 in New York, late last February, about why there were no new releases teased for their Grossery Gang franchise this year, representatives had to break the news that there were no future plans for their gross-out food mini-figures.  For those who remember and collected Moose's Trash Pack, this is deja vu.

No toy line lasts forever, or even very long.  Classic Transformers and He-man only saw the majority of a decade before things were scrapped or moved around.  MUSCLE had even less time.  But there is something about this that stings.  I'm not sure if it's the second death of Trash Pack or a climate that should have treated the Gang better.

I spoke not too long ago about how mini-figures, especially those targeted at little girls were making serious bank and taking up whole shopping isles in big box stores.  It was glitter puppies, cutey babies, and pretty princesses galore, with one of the powerhouses being Moose's own Shopkins.  Shopkins, if you didn't know, are Grossery Gang if they took a shower and wore make-up, but Shopkins hit the scene between the death of Trash Pack and before the relaunch and rebranding of Grossery Gang.  Some would even speculate Shopkins roaring success paved the way for their disgusting cousins to come out of retirement, but apparently only for a short time.

Is the fad dying?  I certainly don't have sales figures or a demographic to rely on for information, but things still seem to be going smoothly, with the announcement of their brand name food Shopkins coming out sometime this year.  But I just don't know if little ladies are still into things like these anymore.  Moose Toys certainly has moved a lot of their focus into a different direction.

Oh well, such is life I suppose.  Moose Toys has very rarely hit a bulls-eye with keshi purists, but Trash Pack and Grossery Gang were awesome all the same.  It sucks mini-figures lost just a little shelf space so something else, but who knows what'll take it's place.  Only time will tell!

Kaiju Big Battel Kaikeshi Review + More!

Welcome back, everyone, to the U&R blog!  I am already back with some more rapid-fire reviews!  Holy smokes, I'm surprised too!  But don't get used to that becoming a catchphrase around here.  I have a long way to go to be rapid-fire around here, and I don't have it trademarked.  All the same, let's dive into things!

Kaiju Big Battel, the bastion of giant monster wrestling, has always had a place in my heart.  I think it was nearly fifteen years ago, since the first time I was pleasantly perplexed at the TV or computer screen.  It was Godzilla meets WWE, but it's gone a far beyond that now.  Today we look at one of their newer endeavors - Kaikeshi mini-figures!

Moving into Kinkeshi-inspired mini-figures is a play no one was surprised and everyone wanted.  There really couldn't have been a more natural fit.  Kaiju Big Battel had already incorporated so much Japanese culture into their wrestling shows, it sort of felt like it was only a matter of time.  After a successful Kickstarter last year, it had finally became a reality, and earlier this month a grabbed a view blind-boxes to see how everything turned out.


Upon removing them from their fast food apple pie box, I was immediately impressed.  Absolutely on-point, in almost every way.  Sculpted by George Gaspar, of former October Toys and now Double G Toys, the wrestling crew were handled and formed with mind-blowing accuracy and detail.  George kills it here, blasting the leather right off the ball, before bouncing it over the home-run fence.  My only regret is that I decided to dip my feet in first with just a few twists of the gachapon machine.  I should have gone deeper, as I even found a glow-in-the-dark chase in the lot.  And at five clams a pair, that's a hell of a deal. 


I was about to hand my debit card over to the good people at Kaiju Big Battel, but then I found through Instagram that Double G Toys has the complete set for sale in an exclusive purple.  I weep for my bank account.  Follow both links below, if you're looking for a purple set, a flesh set, or even dastardly, both.

http://www.kaiju.com/index.htm

https://doublegtoys.storenvy.com/

Gluppix the Arouser Mini-figure Review!

How's it going, everyone, and welcome back to the Unarticulated & Rubbery blog!  It's felt like forever since my last entry, maybe because it has been, and that's sucks.  I am sorry, but let's continue.

Can I express how amazing of a place Instagram is for keshi mini-figures right now?  I'm sure like all social media platforms, it'll run it's course, run itself into the ground, and stick around as a empty hollow husk of its former self far longer than it has any business, but right now, at this moment, it seems like the to-go place for the hottest and latest independent releases and news.  Every time I scroll through my feed, there always seems to be more and more mini-figures coming out from new and interesting faces.  Frankly, even if I had the free time I once had, it would still be a daunting task to cover it all, buy it all, and support it all, but if you're not already there, I suggest you pop over and give it your go.

But speaking of scrolling through the endless sea of Instagram's mini-figures, I did come across one piece that peaked my interest.  Canadian cartoonist, Scott Diggs, released a mini-figure called Gluppix the Arouser.  Coming up two inches or so, gooey, and brightly colored, Gluppix checks all the immediate boxes, so I figured he would a perfect fit for long-awaited return to the blog.

It, in a lot of way, reminded me of our friend Bukkake from Fint Toys, in that sort of dripping slime monster design, but it was smaller and not produced by the same cast of indie characters we've come to expect.  So maybe a cousin or a brother from another mother, I thought?  Maybe some compare and some contrast, as unfair as that may be, considering there really may be no relation whatsoever?

I received this pink goo-ball inside a bad with header, providing some humorous backstory and lore, as well as some extra fun art for when he's done hanging around the shelf.  It was all great and good, but let's get into what everyone wants to know.  How does the Arouser stack up?

Right out of the gate, the scale on this one is spot-on.  He mingles just fine with other classics.  Not too big, not too small, and his firmness is right there as well.  No god-awful paint applications.  Just a nice, basic, keshi mini-figure like a purist like me would appreciate.  However, my photo above won't really assist me with some of other criticisms.  There were some surface bubbles in the fingertips in my figure.  Largely I think that's not much of an issue, but where that one reaching arm is the single action-like appendage it has, it was a little disappointing.  Following that was the lack of definition in the sculpt.  Again, maybe it was just mine, but I really wanted the flowing drips, facial features, and the random trash items arranged around his body, to really pop out, but they were sort of too smooth for what I hoped.

But I'm not saying it was a complete flop.  I actually still very much liked the fig.  I would consider myself a fan now and keep my ear open for any new releases coming down the pipe.  A home-run out of the park?  No, but it's still worth the clams and the look-see if you're interested.  Follow the link below for more!

 https://scottdiggs.storenvy.com/

https://www.instagram.com/scottdiggs/?hl=en