August 24, 2019

The Curious Case of Street Sharks MUSCLE!

courtesy of @lazzytom on Instagram
Hello and welcome back, everyone, to the U&R blog!  Gee-jolly-damn, it's been a while, as it always seems to be, but raising you're own little one with his own toy tastes keeps me out of the loop everything not monster trucks and dinosaurs.  The occasional Street Shark catches my rare attention though, which is the topic of today.

It was a dark and stormy night or a completely ordinary summer afternoon, whichever sets the mood better for you, and the usual suspect of interesting instances, Instagram, lies in my hand, cycling through a roll of pictures at a breakneck pace.  Hell, with a single flick, I'll let it roll until the sun burns out or I see something without paint application, whichever comes first.  Then like some grotesque emperor, drunk off wine and beef, I press the most slightest thumbprint against the screen at the first sight of something remotely entertaining.  My patience is tested to the limit, but not really.  In all actuality, I stumble my thumb across what I assume was the release of Street Shark MUSCLE.  What a cool surprise, thought, while I sat a bit dumbfounded that I completely missed every announcement of this.  A shoulder shrug later and I'm looking for the details on where to buy.  Was it Super7 ?  Are they sold on their website perhaps or am I looking at some rare set released in limited supply from a convention?  Maybe Kickstarter rewards are finally reaching mailboxes.  Nope, none of that.  Despite Super7 really being the front-runner of keshi production nowadays, with dozes and dozens of sets from multiple franchises, all of which look identical to these Street Shark sets, this was not their work.

Ok, so who do I write this check out to then?

Ebay, apparently!

The blisters have the Mattel logo on the packing, as well as stamped on the figures, so it was actual for-reals Mattel MUSCLE product, but its world-wide summer blockbuster release found fans rushing to the toy isles of discount overstock stores.  I suppose with the death of Toys R Us, where does one have a store release outside the big blue store or the big red one?  But a slightly improved dollar store seems to be a rather strange pick for your premiere.  And you can imagine what this did to the secondary market.  For those who didn't have one of these particular stores in their town or perhaps weren't even randomly stocked with Street Shark MUSCLE in the ones they had, they no longer had an alternative webstore to empty their bank accounts on.  It's like the wild, wild, west had returned.  You know, back in the day, without computers and the Internet, where kids did their chores and went to bed, and didn't spend all day with their Hoola Hoops and skateboards.  But just as these ultra rare three pack sets were selling for a hundo' a-pop, that bubble a-pop, finding these same sets reasonably sold around a reasonable retail price. What even happened?

The quick answer to that currently is that no one knows for sure.  The sexier answer, however, is that smarter people than I have speculation why this happened.

EricNilla, independent keshi artist, member of the LittleRubberGuys forum, and unparalleled knower and collector of all things keshi, reached out to the founder of Super7 and this was his response.

From Brian Flynn of Super7:

"I don't know exactly, but I have theory based on conversations had with employees when we made the WWE MUSCLE. We talked about making Food Fighters into MUSCLE, and they had some scaled down figures that felt like MUSCLE figures. My guess is that much like us reviving MUSCLE, they tried to take a Mattel property and remake it in MUSCLE, as a test to see how people would react. Shortly thereafter, a management change happened, and the WWE project was essentially scrapped even though the figures were made, probably like the Street Sharks. Then they had inventory with no plan on how to sell it, since it was an old management project. So, you are seeing people slowly buy off the inventory from Mattel as big chains in test buys, which is what is happening now. Just a theory though."

Brian doesn't work for Mattel but his company Super7 has worked with Mattel, or at least, their licencing department for their MUSCLE products, so I have good feeling that, although what he is guessing happened isn't confirmed, things could have very well happened like this or similarly.  Business is strange and all, but liquidating assets is something companies do all the time.  A preliminary wave of keshi minifigures could have very well fallen victim to that.  One management team could have seen potential in keshi minifigures, and wanted to try their hand at what Super7 has been doing well for a few years now.  Then a following team has their eyes focused in a different direction and trashes their previous work to make space for their ideas.  If this was the case or something like it, Street Sharks MUSCLE is lucky to have made it out alive in any form, even in such a strange circumstance as this one.  Clearance rack be damned, they made it.  Although, I guess the same can't be said about future Mattel keshi products.

Who knows where they are or even if they are still being stocked, but the next time you're kicking a can down a discount store isle, duck into the toy isle, maybe you'll get lucky.  If not, there's always someone on Ebay, hoping their set still rakes them in three figures in clams.

Also, as a final-final note, check out Eric Nilla's work and website at the link below.  He's to thank for getting or sharing what little knowledge we have on this strange situation, and the plug is the least I can do for the wholesale copy-paste of his forum post.  Thank you, I'm sorry!

https://ericnilla.storenvy.com/

March 31, 2019

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!

March 16, 2019

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/

March 12, 2019

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

January 1, 2019

Happy New Year From The U&R Team!

Hey, everyone!  Just a quick update today, as it's now the first of the year, just to wish everyone a happy New Years and I'm really looking forward to what 2019 brings!  Looking back at 2018, it was a largely absent year on the blog, but with the overhaul and redesign, I'm excited to post more regularly with news, reviews, and wacko opinion pieces.

Until then, enjoy this picture of my little toy reviewer enjoying the latest pink variant of the Robo Toy Fest mini-figure we snagged earlier.

Thank you for dropping by and I'll see you soon with more!