Two New Glow in the Dark Releases from Toy Art Gallery

    Does it ever amaze you when you look back in history at some of the stupid things we used to do?  For instance, having x-ray machines in shoe stores to measure the size of your feet, or filling our homes with asbestos insulation.  In Northern New Jersey there used to be a watch company that would use a special glow in the dark paint to enhance the numbers on the dials.  The female workers would continuously put the ends of their brushes in their mouths in an effort to sharpen the bristles into points. When they started becoming increasingly ill it was determined that the radium used to make the paint glow wasn't the best thing in the world to ingest.  

   Now I don't know what they use these days to create the coveted glow in the dark effect, but I can be pretty sure that it's not going to give you radiation poisoning.  But it does make you wonder what future generations will look back at and think was completely stupid that we do now.  Hmmmmmmm.

    No time to worry about such silly things though, cause there are toys to be had!  Like the giant sized Modzilla from Ron English, or the nearly as huge Totim from Tim Clarke.  Both will glow like a beacon of freedom on your darkest night and can be had starting today at noon pacific from Toy Art Gallery.  

Just In Time for Valentine's Day: Peter Kato's "Eye Heart Bunnies"

    Valentine's Day is a weird holiday.  It's timing is so close to Christmas that most of us are still broke and trying to scrounge up extra cash wherever we can, but we still feel like we have to remind that special someone that we love them.  Usually Sharon and I pick somewhere to go rather than exchanging gifts, and the best Valentine's Day we ever had was when we went to see monster trucks and I almost got into a fight with a drunk hillbilly with unruly kids.  The kids were literally jumping in their seats and landing in my lap so of course I said something about it.  Then he got mouthy and decided he wasn't gonna take anyone telling him how his little spawn should be dropped of at the SPCA, and he stood up, egged on by the countless beers he had downed throughout the event.  What he had in alcoholic courage he lacked in physical stature, as he weighed all of 120 lbs.  See, he wasn't one of those scary rednecks that look like they were raised on chicken feed and human growth hormone, but instead one of the tiny ones with the curled under baseball hat brim and the sewer rat face.  He looked me up and down, realized that he could comfortably move his family into one of my shoes, and sobered up faster than anyone I've ever seen.  It helped at the time that my hair and beard were extremely long and I looked like I may have just gotten paroled.

    Those are the stories that love are made of my friends.  But if there aren't any monster truck rallies or professional wrestling matches to take your sweetheart to this year, may I present to you an amazing alternative.  Peter Kato has whipped up a batch of these special Eye Heart Bunnies just in time for the big day.  You can choose from pink or blue and they are $25 each (each color is limited to 12 pieces).  He's also making available some of his adorable Sleeptime Bunnies for just $12 each (limited to 20 pieces).  Snag em this Thursday, February 5th at 8pm eastern time only at http://peterkatoshop.com/.

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Baby Molezilla Lottery from Plaseebo

    Plaseebo isn't really known for doing cute stuff, but Baby Molezilla looks rather huggable.  Well, aside from his Charles Manson eyes and sharp pointy teeth.  Maybe you should admire his cuteness from a distance, as he may be as inclined to dig through your entrails as he is your vegetable garden.  

    Only 5 of these little resin dudes exist and if you want to be one of the lucky few who get to add him to their collection then you're gonna have to enter a lottery.  You have from now until Monday, February 9th to enter by emailing bob@plaseebo.net for the chance to purchase one of these hand made figures.  Each one is $250 and ready to dig it's way into your heart via your chest cavity.  

    

Mutant Vinyl Hardcore's "Wasteland Warrior" Berserker Lottery

     I feel that whenever I look at a Mutant Vinyl Hardcore toy there should automatically be some brutal music playing in the background cause these toys get me hyped up and ready to fight!  So we're gonna make this happen right now by you clicking on this video while you read:

   Much better right?  Now let's talk about the Wasteland Warrior Berserker.  This dude looks like something that epic tales would have been written about to scare Viking kids into not being wussies, lest they be dragged away to his troll cave and nibbled on for eternity.  Who wants that to happen?  Plus, and maybe even worse, he would totally make out with your mom in front of you after having ripped off your arms and legs, leaving you with that image to ponder until the end of time.  This dude is no joke!  Think about that next time you wanna skip sword fighting practice to go hang out with your loser friends.  

    If you want one as a trophy to decorate your mead hall you're gonna have to enter a lottery for the chance to buy one. All the info you need on that can be found at http://www.mutantvinylhardcore.com/.  May the toy gods smile upon you.  

Li'l Gotham Keshi Style Mini Figures from Kotobukiya

    

     Check out these little dudes.  The residents of Li'l Gotham have gotten a keshi style makeover from the folks at Kotobukiya.  Each one comes in 6 different colors and they will be sold blind in little bags that will contain 2 figures.  And at less than 2 inches tall they are very tempting to shove into your nose, but I wouldn't do that unless you have really good health insurance with a low deductible, because it can be a very expensive and humiliating lesson to learn.  Not that I would know from personal experience, but I've heard stories.  Expect to see these soon wherever you prefer to buy your toys.  

Funko Launches Exclusive Marvel Subscription Program

    I like the idea of these subscription services where you get mailed a surprise box of goodness, because I like getting mail.  Well, I like getting mail when it's not bills or those irritating newspaper supplements telling me what I missed in the newspaper this week which I didn't actually miss because I have the internet and anything that's of any importance is located where?  ON THE INTERNET!  Now when toys arrive in the mail I am super excited.  So I tried one of those things where you pay x amount of dollars and they send you a box with stuff in it, but I only did it because I wanted a specific figure.  The rest of the stuff in the box I gave away because I wasn't interested.  None of it, beyond the toy I wanted, catered to my specific interests.  I get the fact that the idea is "hey you're into nerdy stuff, well here's a pile of nerdy stuff for you" but that's a pretty broad way to look at things.  Let me now show you a subscription service that is getting it right.

     Funko and Marvel have announced the creation of Collector Corps, a focused box of stuff you'll be excited to own.  Each box is $25 and will be mailed out every 2 months.  The first one focuses on exclusive products from the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron film, including this 6 inch Hulkbuster Pop! Vinyl:

    If you sign up for their Founder's Program, which is a year long commitment, you get a swanky 8 inch tall statue on the anniversary of the first box shipment:

    Sign up by visiting https://www.collectorcorps.com/.

Kidrobot Clarifies It's Position on Customizing vs. Bootlegging

    By now most of you have probably read Kidrobot's newest blog post where they have defined how they feel about people customizing a toy they bought versus manufacturing their own versions of their property.  Basically if you bought a toy and decided you had a bang up idea for your own creation, you can paint, sculpt, cut holes in, let your cat chew on, set on fire, or anything else weird you can think of to make it unique and call it your own.  Now on the other hand, if you decide that the Dunny would make the perfect shape for you to cast up 100 of in resin, or wax, or monkey spit and sell as your own art, then there's gonna be a problem.  Cause that's called copyright infringement.  The same reason all those rappers get sued when they don't get permission to just rewrite a few words of a song and release it as their own.  And Kidrobot is being pretty nice about it too, just asking you to contact them first so they can decide whether to give you the required permission or not.  Most companies would just send you the standard cease and desist letter which may or may not be delivered by a heavy-set Italian guy carrying a crow bar (I'm from New Jersey, our courier systems are a little different).  Are people gonna be butt hurt about this?  Of course, cause there's the internet, which beyond cat pictures and e-commerce is really only good for complaining.  But look at it this way: it's not only protecting the existing work of artists but it's forcing other people to be more creative, which is far from a bad thing.  Push your own boundaries while respecting those that are defined by the law.  

You can read their entire post by clicking here.