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/