Huge 40% Off One Day Sale Happening Now at Tenacious Toys

   You know what makes me happy when I'm stressed out?  New toys, of course!!!  What did you think I was gonna say, ya weirdos?  The times are indeed uncertain and we all could use a distraction right now, so for today only (Friday, April 3) Tenacious Toys is offering 40% off a huge selection of toys on their website.  And we're talking about good stuff too, I know cause I looked.  If saving a ton of money wasn't enough of an incentive to invest in your happiness,  you also have the ability to score a free 8 inch Gorilla figure designed by James Groman.  To get one you just have to spend $110 after the discount if you live in the United States and $200 after the discount if you live anywhere else in the world.  Why you're still reading this is beyond me, so click this link and start shopping.  Don't  forget to use the code FRIDAY40 so you get your deal. 

Behemoth Metal Sloth Kickstarter from James Groman x Xpanded Universe

    Life would be so much easier if you knew every decision you made was the right one. That every horse you bet on was a guaranteed sure thing. You could make a killing on the stock market, make a second killing through sports wagering, and only surround yourself with people you knew would never judge you so harshly when you shared your unabashed love for Lady Gaga because you thought you were good enough friends that they could respect your quirky musical detour without thinking you've somehow completely changed as a person and have been living a lie your entire life and "what else don't they know about you, Chris, maybe you're a communist vegan anti-vaxxer with a dolphin tattoo on your ankle." Ugh.

    I'll tell you what is an absolute, certifiable, guaranteed, sure thing, and that is the Behemoth Metal Sloth from James Groman and Xpanded Universe. It's a sure thing because right now they're running  a Kickstarter campaign to fund its creation and it's already surpassed its goal, ensuring that it will indeed be produced. This sucker is 13 inches of hell raising fury that is more metal than your mom's boyfriend who swears he was "this close" to having his band open for Judas Priest in '88 if it wasn't for his drummer's bogus arrest for not paying child support.

    You can check out the campaign at this link and start clearing some space on your shelf for when this bad boy shows up at your door.  

Tenacious Toys Exclusives for New York Comic Con

     Booth number 780 is the place to be during this year's New York Comic Con.  You can actually just forget about every booth but the one run by Tenacious Toys because they will have everything you need in order to have a good time.  I may be a little biased because that's where you can find my Permafrost Edition Nordic Lucky Cat.  It's 4 inches tall, made of solid blue and white marbled resin, and limited to only 10 hand numbered pieces.  And at only $40 each you'll still have plenty of money to take your significant other out to dinner and explain to them how you are now part of the great heathen army and we sail at dawn to raid England.  How many other toys can claim to make your life more exciting just by owning it?  I'm gonna go ahead and say none.

   Of course that's not all that Tenacious Toys will have available for your collecting need.  I put most of them here for convenient perusal.  All the info you can possibly need is in the photos to help you gear up for this year's convention.  

     

The Deadly Spawn Vinyl Figure Kickstarter from Justin Ishmael

    No, this is not one of the parasites from the next season of Monsters Inside Me, though if a doctor were to ever find something like this growing within someone I hope he has the presence of mine to put them down.  Tapeworms are horrifying enough, especially when they decide they need some air fresher than that of your inner colon and venture forth from your backside.  There's nothing out here for you little buddy, so you just stay inside where I can be blissfully unaware of your presence.  Editors note: I do not actually have a tapeworm.

   While this may look like the result of eating undercooked pork, it is actually the star of the cult classic horror film The Deadly Spawn.  Justin Ishmael decided to bring him to frightening life by turning him into an officially licensed vinyl toy, which is now on Kickstarter to raise money for production.  As of this writing he has received 83% of his goal in just under two days, so I think it's safe to say this nine inch tall monstrosity and his larvae are well on their way to becoming reality.  Both of these figures were sculpted by toy industry legend James Groman, who you may know from such famous lines as Madballs or his own crazy Kaiju figures that defy logic in size and detail.  Check out the link here to get in on this campaign and score these figures in their various iterations.

Flesh Edition Fossil Pods from James Groman x Toy Art Gallery

    Flesh colored vinyl always reminds me of those Sphinx cats that are like little bald people.  I went in a pet store once and they had one of them that I think was the assistant manager and I had never actually pet one before so I was curious how it would feel.  I go over to her (it was a her because she had her nails painted pink) and she leapt up on my shoulder and started nuzzling my face.  She felt like she had peach fuzz all over, so hairless is pretty misleading and should be changed to "shaved yesterday" when describing them.  Also, she only had one eye, which has no bearing on how fuzzy she was, but I'd like you to have the completest picture of this kitty while you're reading this on the toilet or wherever you may happen to be.  Let's be real though, you're totally on the toilet.

    These Fossil Pods from James Groman and Toy Art Gallery are cute yet ferocious dinosaur/insect mashups and for only $60 you get an instant collection in one shot.  This set of five will be available today, October 13th, at noon pacific time from www.toyartgallery.com.

Horror and Sci-Fi Madballs from James Groman x Kidrobot

    This one is going in the "straight outta nowhere" file as Best Buy stores around the country have released these horror and sci-fi themed Madballs from Kidrobot.  These foam balls are so much like the originals that they even got the creator of Madballs, James Groman, to design these (along with the fine folks at Bigshot Toyworks).  There's six different ones to choose from if you're one of those people that has impulse control and can somehow resist buying all of them.  If you are, I don't understand your life.

   On a side note, I am all about Best Buy carrying more stuff like this.  I've got one of their credit cards for whenever our appliances die, as our microwave did not so long ago.  The one I wanted didn't get me to the no interest financing deal, so I had to add to my sale.  I ended up buying iTunes gift cards, but I could have gotten something like this instead.  Now if car dealers would carry other stuff that I could trade my 2002 Mustang towards, I'd be in business.  Like a hot dog stand.  Or one of those sky diving simulators.  Or an in ground pool for my basement.

The Debut of Fossil Pods from James Groman x Toy Art Gallery

   Good thing I kept my eclipse glasses because these things are so yellow they make my retinas nervous.  You certainly won't be able to miss the debut of James Groman's dinosaur meets insect mini figures known as Fossil Pods, and I certainly wouldn't want to.  I've been looking forward to these since Toy Art Gallery started posting teasers.  I'm a sucker for weird animal evolution (who isn't when you think about it) and these look mighty killer.

    You can get you hands on these toys that would have blown Darwin's mind when they go on sale today, September 1, at noon pacific time.  Get the entire set of five for a mere $60.  I know you got paid today, so you've got it.  Yeah, you could pay bills I guess, but just remember there's an active volcano sitting beneath Yellowstone National Park that is way past due for a monumental, wipeout half of the United States-size explosion.  Buy the toys.

Get em at www.toyartgallery.com.

The Debut of James Groman's Brachiosaurus from Toy Art Gallery

    If zombie dinosaurs roamed the Earth, would they have still been around until we invented ways to kill them?  This is the pressing question of our times, or at least this very moment as we gaze upon the debut of this Brachiosaurus from James Groman x Toy Art Gallery.  Of course, it is possible that the zombie dinosaurs would have wiped us out before we had the chance to realize that you have to hit them in their pea sized brains for it to be effective.  Now I'm freaking out about zombies evolving to have tiny heads thus making them nearly immortal.  I need to start going to bed earlier.

    Cast in a beautiful red vinyl, this eight inch tall lizard features five points of articulation, which would be just enough to not be able to do a damn thing about a giant meteor.  Available starting today (Friday, August 18) at noon pacific time, he can be yours for $125 only from www.toyartgallery.com. 

Rotten Rexx and Diceratops GID Garage Kits from James Groman x Lulubell Toys

    So your career as the dude who glues dinosaur skeletons back together for the Smithsonian hasn't taken off quite as you've expected.  Whose career really pans out the way you dreamed it in first grade anyway?  If it did there'd be a whole lot of really weird and probably unnecessary jobs out there.  There would be so many ninjas that most would find themselves unemployed.  And "Han Solo" sounds like a fun job, until you realize that being a fictional space smuggler won't keep you current on your child support parents.  But for the dinosaur bone dudes, I've got a solution to your depression.

    From no until June 30th at 5pm pacific time, you can preorder these amazing glow in the dark garage kits from Lulubell Toys.  These dino pals are the creation of James Groman and come completely unassembled just waiting to be put together by you.  It's not too hard as long as you have a hair dryer and some anger issues to work through.  You can get a complete kit for $235 each plus shipping and you can get a different head for $65.  Mix em around to suit your mood or mount one on the wall like some twisted prehistoric trophy hunter.  Put those diy skills to the test at www.lulubelltoys.com.

Meat Marbled Brain Bug Boogie Man from Cure X James Groman

   No I actually did not hit my head right before typing out the title of this figure, even though it would be safe to assume traumatic brain injury if you heard someone say it out loud.  Let's regroup.

   I had a dream once (like a sleeping dream not some great revelation of hope for mankind) that crab people that looked very similar to this stormed the shores of countries around the world and were laying waste to the human population.  My family and I were holding up in some random country house and they finally advanced upon us with their sea weapons and filthy attitudes.  All I had was a broadsword, because evidently I am not terribly practical in such apocalyptic situations.  I totally went for it though and was turning them into fodder for the crows when my damn alarm went off to get up for work.  I actually contemplated being late so I could see how the battle was going to go, but my love of capitalism ultimately won out.  I'd like to think my face at least made it onto a coin after I slaughtered them like a Red Lobster employee.

    No need to thank me from saving your hides from these things, cause I'm totally humble and all the praise would make me uncomfortable.  Build an army of your own and rescue humanity from impending doom.  Cure and James Groman created this figure, and Lulubell Toys are making them available to us all starting on the first day of the new year.  You will have a three day window to order as many of them as you want as long as you're willing to shell out the $200 each.  Get em at www.lulubelltoys.com.

Six Inch Vinyl Madballs from Kidrobot

    For those of you that don't know, I sometimes have posts pop up over on Kidrobot's blog.  Not being one to repeat myself, I do write completely different stuff for there and here, even for the same toy, so sometimes I get confused about what I have and haven't shared.  So even though I posted last week at blog.kidrobot.com about these killer vinyl Madballs it totally escaped me to do so here.  Allow me to rectify that now.

    You wanna know what makes these things special besides the fact that they're huge and come with little display stands and that owning them will make you the envy of everyone you know?  They were worked on by original Madballs creator James Groman.  That's right, suckas, the man behind the yuckiest toys ever was involved in these gems from Kidrobot.  Available in two different styles, including the awesome interpretation of the Kidrobot mascot, each six inch figure retails for $49.99 and they're both available right now.  Treat yourself.

Radioactive B.C. Blasters from James Groman x Toy Art Gallery

   I saw a news story online that said someone found a dinosaur tail in a chunk of amber but I didn't read the article because everything on the Internet is a lie.  Facebook is full of fake news and celebrities are always fake dying and blah blah blah.  I'm not about to tell everyone I know how much closer we are to getting a real Jurassic Park and then looking like a crazy person when it gets debunked.  It probably doesn't help that I'm reading a book about forgery, so I am on a distrust everything kick right now.

    These look real, though who can really say.  The only way to know for sure is to order these B.C. Blasters from James Groman direct from Toy Art Gallery and find out for yourself.  Sold individually for $40 or as a set of 5 for $160, they go on sale today (Friday December 9th) at noon pacific time at www.toyartgallery.com.

    

Rotten Rex "Meat Marbled" Version from James Groman x Lulubell Toys

    I shouldn't be writing about this toy because it is making me hungry and I still have to go grocery shopping today.  Now I'm just gonna skip everything else I would have bought and go straight for the meat aisle and load my basket up with steak.  My wife makes this amazing steak with onion soup mix that will make you smack your grandma it's so good.  Don't try and sue me after you smack her either, cause I will lawyer up so fast you'll wish I didn't lawyer up so fast.

   You can own the only dinosaur I'ver ever thought might taste good during a two week open preorder happening right now through Lulubell Toys.  This monstrosity from James Groman stands 15 inches tall and doesn't look like he would take too kindly to any T-Rex arm jokes.  $250 will guarantee you one by visiting http://www.lulubelltoys.com.  

First Look: Kidrobot's Upcoming Madballs Collection

   Madballs are back, suckas!  Well, almost, cause they don't come out until the end of the year, but anyone who was at New York Comic Con got to see Kidrobot's upcoming release of this classic series.  Utilizing the original designs from toy wizard James Groman (who I was told designed the Kidrobot mascot version you see above) these are faithful to the originals while offering up some different incarnations for modern collectors. 

    Of course the well remembered foam versions will be available so you can throw them at each other without significant risk of injury to people and property, or so you can easily replace the one you used to have that was ingested by your childhood dog.  

    The mascot and Horn Head will be available as larger sized vinyl figures, complete with stands so they're easy to display without you having to rearrange your current setup.  The other cool thing about them is they sit kind of high so you'll have plenty of room to surround them with:

    The Madball mini series figures!  There's a whole bunch of these to collect and they will be sold blind boxed style.  All of them looked amazing and brought back memories of seeing them in Toys R Us and desperately wanting every one of them because of how gross and weird they were.  Not much has changed since then I suppose. 

     See more pictures of these and other stuff from Comic Con by visiting www.facebook.com/TheToyViking.  

"Purple Heart" BC Blasters from James Groman x Toy Art Gallery

    I'm thinking that if the dinosaurs had been packing heat like this that they'd still be running the show to this day.  They'd go to museums and look at human skeletons, talking about how their superior fire power wiped us from the face of the earth.  Thank God for us their little pea brains weren't big enough to actually invent anything like gunpowder, or nuclear weaponry.  We will happily rid ourselves from the earth thank you very much lizard face.  

    James Groman's reptiles of mass destruction have returned in this limited "Purple Heart" edition.  Toy Art Gallery will begin offering these dudes on Friday, March 11th at noon pacific time.  Get one for $35 or the whole squad for $140.  These will only be available from www.toyartgallery.com.

Rancid Raptor Blind Bags from James Groman x Lulubell Toy Bodega

    Did you see the trailer for the new Jurassic Park movie?  No, me neither, because a trailer for some indie space film called Star Wars came out and made me forget that other movies exist.  To say I'm excited for another Star Wars film is like saying Stephen Hawking is ok at math.  I'm so excited that I think I ruptured something, metaphorically of course.  I metaphorically ruptured all of my major organs with the excitement I could not contain.  Sadly, my health insurance doesn't cover things that can't be viewed on a CT Scan, so I might metaphorically die.  Metaphorically.

    But dinosaurs are still cool in my book, especially these little dudes from James Groman.  They're called Rancid Raptors, which makes them sound like bad mamma jammas, and they're available right this second from Lulubell Toy Bodega.  They're sold blind bagged, so you may get the standard army green version, or one of the random mixed in colors you see above those.  

Ultimate Color Version Rotten Rexx Preorder from James Groman x Lulubell Toy Bodega

    The way our world is today you have to be prepared for anything.  For instance, what would you do if you're sitting peacefully on your couch, trying to watch Naked and Afraid, and a group of murderous clowns kick in your front door?  I know what I would do, because my entire house is filled with objects that while not only decorative, could also crack a grown man's skull.  In the bedroom my wife has a concrete Virgin Mary statue that will have you seeing Holy Ghosts as she smacks you upside your head with it, and our living room is littered with curiosities that could easily fit into a plastic bag labeled as "Exhibit Number One".  Form + function = a nightmare for any punk that comes and tries to take your stuff.  

    James Groman's Rotten Rexx would make a suitable anti-burglar weapon/object of wonder for any household.  This beast stands 15 inches tall and is one of the most massive hunks of plastic I've ever seen.  You grab this sucker with two hands, start swinging, and you're spreading the pain like mono at summer camp.  Heck, they might just take one look at him, decide that you have to be a looney tune for owning it, and take off running.  This dude is completely sick looking all painted up like this.  You could probably stare at it for a month straight and not catch every detail.  And I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking "Alright Chris, I love this undead prehistoric bro, but I can't possibly afford anything so amazing on my budget."  But you can sucka, because this hand painted monstrosity is only $200.  $200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    There are crappy mass produced toys that cost way more than that and I dare say you couldn't even scratch a would-be attacker with them.  

    The preorder window is open now through Lulubell Toy Bodega and will remain open for three weeks to give you plenty of time to scrounge up the funds you need.  Make it happen at http://lulubelltoys.com/.

Brain Bug Boogie Man from Cure x James Groman x Lulubell Toy Bodega

    I love a good descriptive title.  Brain Bug Boogie Man doesn't really leave a lot of room for interpretation does it?  Every component is there, as you can clearly see.  And the picture itself has all the info you need as a consumer to make a wise purchasing decision.  Go on, take a moment to peruse it, I'll wait.

    Oh, but wait.  The picture doesn't tell you where to buy it from.  See, I'm not completely expendable.  Though you could have Googled the name and found it easily on your own, I'm glad you stuck around here and waited for me to tell you.  That's why we're such good friends.  

http://www.lulubelltoys.com/

Rotten Rexx Custom Contest from Lulubell Toy Bodega

    You know how annoying hipsters are?  They always have to be into things that are outdated, like when you see them in public using a typewriter instead of a laptop.  Well, how many of those fancy jerks have dinosaur taxidermy?  Now you can beat them at their own game with Rotten Rex!  "Oh, that's a nice deer head you have on your wall I guess, if you're into contemporary animals.  I only collect animals that have been extinct for a butt ton of years."  Out hipster that, hipster!


    Rotten Rexx was created by James Groman who you all know even if you don't know you know.  He does some crazy work that's been featured in his work with Hasbro, Star Wars, Godzilla, and much much more.  You can get this head and paper plaque that is perfect for mounting above your fire place right now from Lulubell Toy Bodega.  They're also running a customization contest, where now through October 1st you can upload your painted Rexx head to Instagram and have the chance to turn your vision into an actual production version of this toy.  Pretty neat.  A full version of Rotten Rexx complete with a body will be available at this year's New York Comic Con.