Attack of the Mini Monsters!

I love monsters. I really do. And I always have. So, it's often very difficult for me to pass up a bucket full of miniature monsters without digging through to make sure I have found one of each different creepoid before plunking down the moola to take the miniature horrors home.

These diminutive dreadfuls were found in one of those "Educational Toy Stores" (you know the kind; lots of Playmobil and science fair kits), on one of my trips, but for the life of me, I can't exactly remember which trip, since it was so long ago. I had originally picked these guys up when I was designing a boardgame called "Monster Planet", which I never did get around to finishing, so they've sat in a box for over a year now.

Time for them to be seen, I say.

These figures (which may be some sort of Japanese Godzilla-type monsters, I'm not sure) are really, really, tiny. Only about the size of a D&D Miniature, and each one could use a nickel for a stand. I think this is why I love these little guys so much; they seem to pack so much black and green menace (with those piercing crimson eyes!) into such a tiny package.

Like I said, I have no idea what the origin of these creatures may be, so I decided to give them all names. Let's meet them...

Above is Sphinctor. If his tentacles don't get you, his gas-spewing orifices will!

Next, we have The Noggin - the brains of the operation. His intelligence is matched only by his penchant for evil deeds.

This is Bubbles. He's a hugger.

The Pincher makes sure that no one is safe from his welt-raising ouchies. Don't think he's scary? Have you ever imagined being pinched to death? Yeah... it takes a loooooooong time.

Oh no! It's Roboticus Rex! Part machine! Part Monster! He's a slow mover, but beware his crushing grip!

This one is called Earz. Don't... make... a... sound.

Blur-face! So named because the picture I took turned out crappy! Oh, the horror!

And finally, we wrap things up with The Smoocher. He may seem like a lover, but he's really... A KILLER!

So, that's it for this week's rather silly post. I'll try to take things more seriously next week. or maybe I won't. It's my blog and I can do what I want with it.

Thanks for reading!

Are You a Winner?

This is just a quick message to the 9 lucky souls who chimed in the other day for the Hot Wheels give-away I hosted. I was trying to find an easy way to get everyone's mailing addresses, but the easiest way (for me) is to just email me.

The winners are:

• Super-Duper Toy Box (Batmobile)
• PLANET BIERWAGEN (Time Machine)
• Jerbeh (Time Machine)
• Malcom (Time Machine)
• Mr. Kuffel (Time Machine)
• Kaizar (Time Machine)
• jboypacman (Batmobile)
• DERF (Batmobile)
• Tom Freak (Batmobile)

If you guys could send me your addresses to: ackshunphigyer [at] yahoo [dot] com, I'll send those out asap! I'll probably mail them off Monday (or sooner if I get everyone's address quickly).

I know that I probably have the addresses for a few of you (being fellow toy traders already), but please send it to me anyway, just to make sure.

Congrats to you all! I'll be keeping my eye out for the next give-away!

Lego Minifig of the Week! #23

Random Toy Pic #27

Bonus Post! World War Hulk vs. Captain America!

Picked up a couple figures this weekend; Marvel Universe World War Hulk and Super Combat Captain America and I've got to say that these are two of the best damn action figures I have bought in a long time! I staged a little battle royale in front of my $2.00 clearanced Prince of Persia Alamut Gate and took some pics. Enjoy!

I'll be posting full reviews soon on my About.com Action Figures site!

Batman Bootlegs & Knockoffs Grand Finale!

To wrap up my impromptu Bootlegs and Knockoffs Week, with special thanks to Fabio for sending me such killer Bat toys from below the equator, I thought we'd wrap it all up nicely with a look at the slew of Batman toys that came along with our previously posted Removable Mask Iron Man and Not Darth Vader Space Defender.

Fabio knows how much I love Batman and really hooked me up this time, with a great collection of Bat-oddities.

The first one is a true marvel of Knockoff ingenuity and craftsmanship...

One of the odder aspects of this Bat-figure is the fact that he is barefoot, or rather, he's wearing boots with toes molded on them, not sure which. This is the first sign that the makers took the body of whatever mold they already had, cast it in black, swapped the head and added a cape. BAM! Instant Batman!

In fact, if you look closely at the chest, there appears to be what looks surprisingly similar to the Thundercats symbol, making me wonder, what with the exposed toes, that this figure mold was originally used for some knockoff Lion-O. Hmmmm...

Next up we have one of those small, spring-armed figures from the the marketing blitz surrounding the release of Batman Begins. This one is the Scarecrow. I already have a Batman one of these (which I cherish) but have no idea where they come from. Were they some sort of fast food premium outside of the US? And next to him we see a classic Animated Series Batman figure that definitely did not roll off the assembly line at Mattel.

You can see by the sloppy paint applications of the Bat-symbol and the oddly pouting bottom lip on his face that the bootleggers did their best to copy the original figure, but missed the mark by a mile, which is great for a bootleg lover like me!

And finally, we come to the most instantly beloved of this entire haul. Below are a series of Bat-figures, each about 2" tall, that Fabio explained were his as a kid, and he generously passed them on to me. It's rare when I come across a Batman figure I haven't seen at least a picture of before, so imagine my surprise when I pulled these diminutive treasures out of the box.

There's a certain old-school fly-by-night vibe about them that I just adore, with Robins red trunks and Batman's flesh-colored eye-holes and utter lack of Bat-symbol, earning them an instant place of honor on the Bat-shelf.

But the figures of the Dynamic Duo weren't enough! Fabio also sent along a dastardly trio of Gotham's nastiest ne'er-do-wells; the Riddler, the Penguin and the Joker!

Please Fabio, tell us more about these awesome little figures! Were they premiums? Were they in a set? I must know more!

So, that wraps up Bootlegs and Knockoffs Week are on the blog and we'll get back to our regularly schedules blogging on Monday. Once again, thanks to Fabio for sending such great toys! You all are far too kind to me. :)

Lego Minifig of the Week! #22

Random Toy Pic #26

Knock Off Iron Man (with removable mask) from Fabio.

Video Blog #26

Not Quite Dukes of Hazzard Toys...

So, no, today's spotlight collectibles are not technically "toys" but they are a major part of my collection, brought me the same amount of joy as a chaild and nicely wrap up "Dukes of Hazzard" week here on the blog.

I'm talking about my vintage Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox, thermos and digital watch!

I scored this lunchbox and thermos as a set at the last Emerald City Comic Con. The guy wanted $50, I talked him down to $40 and to be honest, he was probably thrilled to have found the one Dukes fan in the entire convention, at least according to the look of relief on his face. 

It's in almost pristine condition, having fared far better than the very same one that accompanied me on my many adventures throughout the 3rd grade. In fact, in the world of grade school lunch rooms, the lunchbox you carried said a lot about you and often weighed heavily on how popular you were. Needless to say, my Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox spoke volumes about my character, thus declaring to my fellow students that I possessed a strong appreciation for fast cars, a certain disregard for the law and women in very short shorts.

One of may favorite aspects about this lunchbox, and most lunchboxes of this era, is the series of exciting action shots on all sides. Above we see the General Lee defying gravity once again over a pair of crumpled Hazzrd County Deputy's patrol cars. Actually, the patrol cars above are labeled "POLICE", but we all know that Hazzard County was "protected" by an elected Sheriff and his deputies, never mentioning if the main town had their own city police force, which I assume they didn't.

Here we see the General Lee's famous ability to come flying down from the sky and causing be-striped muscle cars to flip over in a ball of flames. Wait... what? I see that this artist was the type of fellow to just run with things.

My favorite shot is the brilliant panel above showing Cooter and Boss Hogg running away from a side-wheely-ing General Lee. Maybe they're afraid that they'll burst into flames like the muscle car. Actually, Cooter doesn't look all that concerned.

And finally, rounding out the collection is this priceless little gem. I received a watch identical to this one for Christmas of 1981, which, if memory serves, wasn't very water resistant, proven so when I jumped into the local community pool the following Summer with it still on. Still, despite it not working, I wore the waterlogged blank-faced watch on my wrist for pretty much the rest of the Summer until my Mom finally made me take it off.

So, that ends Dukes of Hazzard week! Ya'll come back now, y'hear?

Lego Minifig of the Week! #21

Payback Stormtrooper for Chunky B!

Next up in my series of art pieces designed to payback some of the kickass fellow bloggers that have sent me cool stuff in the mail is this Stormtrooper piece for Chunky B of Eclectorama fame. I tried to include some of the more famous Stormtrooper moments, like getting taken out by a rock thrown by an Ewok.

Enjoy, Chunky B! I'll be mailing your signed print soon!

Random Toy Pic #25

"The Dixie Chargers" from Midgetoy. One of the more blatant Dukes of Hazzard knock-offs from the early '80s. The "General Lee" car has the number 89 on the side, you know, so folks didn't get confused.

Lego Minifig of the Week! #20

Lego Minifig of the Week! #19

Another Hiatus...

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be off to San Diego for a couple of weeks again for work, so the ol' toy blog will be taking a long nap. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Lego Minifig of the Week! #18

Random Toy Pic #24

Kids' Rock-n-Roll T-shirts!

Here's a couple of t-shirt designs I did a while back. I really tried to break out of the usual style that my former employers produced, and unfortunately, that earned them a spot in concept limbo, never to be produced. Whatever, I still thought they were cool.

Food Frights!

Another idea for a line that I came up with at my old job was a series of t-shirts with accompanying toys that were sort of what you'd get if plastic toy food had babies with a bunch of Madballs. This was our "gross out" line that we ended up calling "Food Fright".

Sadly, the idea was so great that they immediately took it away from me and gave it to another guy!

Oh well... Here's the logo that I came up with that was eventually used as the hangtag for the shirts...

And here are my original concepts for the toys, which would have been the same kind of squishy foam that the old Madballs were made of, which is quite perfect for throwing at other people. (click the images to view monster sized)

Lego Landspeeder!

From yet another awesome toy care package from a fellow toy blogger, this time the mighty Chunky B of Eclectorama fame, comes this classic Lego Landspeeder from the first series of Star Wars Lego sets (back when the figures were all still yellow).

I missed out on this entire series when it first came out (back in 1999), so I'm pretty friggin stoked to finally get my greedy mitts on this set! I know it's kind of old, and probably worth a bit of moola, but I don't care. I just had to crack this baby open and put it together!

Since my real love for Lego centers around the minifigs over the actual building pieces (which was the other way around for me as a kid), I can't help but find this little Luke and Ben Kenobi simply adorable! Although, this Obi-wan actually looks more like a gray-haired George Lucas.

The Landspeeder itself is a gem! 

And now I can finally re-enact famous silver screen moments from A New Hope such as this scene when Ben tells these Stormtroopers to bugger off. (I don't actually have any Stormtrooper minifigs or a C3PO, so I had to improvise.)

So, thanks Chunky B! Now I can have really, really, really tiny lightsaber duels! Pzzzhheeeooowww! Vwhhhoooommm! Ptch-OW! Vwhooom! Vwhoom!