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.