Taylored Curiosities Presents the Worry Beans

     My digestive system is as battle ravaged as the Middle East.  A big part of it is genetics, but there's got to be a mental factor too cause I worry about everything all the time.  I worry about life, death, money, my wife, my cats, my toys, my job, my car, tv, basically anything you can think of.  I worry whether we'll get tickets to Comic Con next year, whether we'll ever be able to do a lot of traveling, whether all of our kittens are living productive and happy lives.  I'm worrying thinking about all the worrying I do. I think I'm gonna be sick.

    Trying not to wreck my nerves is a full time job in itself, one in which the pay sucks and I wish I could quite and take up oil painting or something.  Taylored Curiosities wants us all to let go a little and let the Worry Beans guide us onto the ever elusive path of serenity.   A path that allows you to keep more of your hair and not be concerned where the restroom is at all times.  Right now in her shop you can get a set of these little dudes in varying colors that are ready to bring peace to that over active mind of yours.  Stop worrying about that growth on your arm and visit http://www.tayloredcuriosities.bigcartel.com/.

Hook The Enforcer Figure from Troma x Goodleg Toys

    World War II would have been a lot less eventful is the Nazis had actually taken up surfing.  They had a lot of hobbies, but none of them really on the "healthy" side.  Have you ever met an angry surfer?  I haven't.  They're all just too busy "shredding the gnar", or whatever it is that they get so excited about.  Honestly, I can't understand a thing they're saying, but my point is they keep themselves busy enough with their silly sayings and their skin cancer that they don't have time to think about trying to take over the world.  Which is why I am proposing a new division of the United States military that will focus on introducing new things for angry groups of folks to occupy themselves with.  I'm calling it the Arts and Crafts Brigade, but that's just a working title, and they will be in charge of setting up hobbies for militant groups that are giving us issues.  We're gonna start in the Middle East, where thousands of Bedazzlers and bags of sequins will be air dropped on enemy bases.  Once our foes start embellishing everything they own in semi-precious stones, they'll be too busy being fabulous to even worry about all that murder and mayhem nonsense.  Maybe we can teach North Korea the benefits and excitement that await them in the world of inline skating.  The possibilities are endless.  You can go ahead and mail me my Nobel Peace Prize.  

    Ok, so surfing really didn't do the trick in keeping calm the hooligans in Troma's Surf Nazis Must Die.  Or did it?  I'm not going to tell you and spoil the film. I'm not that kind of jerk.  I'm the kind of jerk that will tell you about the sweet action figures from Goodleg Toys featuring characters from this classic that I'm sure by now is archived in the Library of Congress.  Hook the Enforcer comes in two versions, the regular which you see above, and the Shark Edition, which you can see here:

    There are 30 of the regular and just 5 of the chase version, so get your hind parts over to http://goodlegtoys.tumblr.com/ and get one before they're gone.  

Mintyfresh Exclusive Poker Monkey from Joe Ledbetter x Munky King

    I really need to get jobs for my cats.  I bring home the applications, but they never get filled out.  Grump Cat has a job and Lil Bub has a job, so I don't see why my cats can't get on the internet and start earning me some cash.  All they wanna do is sit around all day, occasionally practice their black magic that a neighbor got them into, and watch Wendy Williams reruns.  

   This monkey has a job.  Or at least he's dressed like he does.  I assume if he wants to keep playing poker he better have some source of income.  He can't be winning that much if that bird is gonna tell everyone the cards he's holding.  The last time we saw this simian from Joe Ledbetter he was merely drinking a cup of coffee, though now it looks like he's fallen into a much more dangerous vice.  God only knows where his troubles will progress from here, maybe Munky King will make an "Opium Den" version next.  Who's to say, but I do know that this guy is an exclusive to Mintyfresh and will be unleashed upon the world Monday, October 20th at 7pm Amsterdam time through http://www.mintyfresh.eu/.

Toy Art Gallery's Halloween Show Opens Tomorrow

    What holiday other than Halloween can you celebrate with custom toys?  I mean, you could do Thanksgiving or Christmas I guess, but I don't think the results would be as cool.  And now that Halloween is rapidly getting pushed out of stores in favor of everyone's favorite gift giving holiday, the time to celebrate is now.  

    Tomorrow marks the opening of Toy Art Gallery's Halloween Show featuring all of your favorite artists.  Unless your favorite artist is Monet, or Picasso, in which case you will be disappointed.  Check out a couple of the pieces from the show below and if you're in the Los Angeles area go see em all in person beginning at 7pm tomorrow night.  

Seen at New York Comic Con: Weta Workshop

    It can be hard to grab attention at New York Comic Con.  There's so much to do and see that even if you don't have an issue with your attention span, you can find yourself quite overwhelmed by the whole experience.  So if you're an exhibitor, how do you cut through all of the visual noise and make sure people notice your products?  To start, it's not the worst idea in the world to put the life-size head of the most famous dragon in literature right on top of your booth. 

    Weta Workshop was not only responsible for bringing the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies to life, but they also make some amazing products from the films that you can own.  Granted, they aren't cheap, but you'll never own anything as high quality or breathtaking.  I could have spent the entire convention sitting in this booth a nerding out on all things Middle Earth.  Check out more pictures at www.facebook.com/TheToyViking.  

Seen at New York Comic Con: The Jelly Empire and Argonaut Resins

    I hope you're sitting down right now, cause I'm about to overwhelm you with cuteness.  If you're reading this I don't know what else you could be doing but sitting.  Unless you have one of those harnesses like Bob Dylan has for his harmonica and you're wearing your internet device around your neck.  In that case you might wanna stop whatever activity you are doing and sit down for a moment so you don't pass out and hit your head.  

    What's cuter than little robots that go on adventures and egyptian cats?  Don't say your kids, cause we know that most of the time you wanna beat them with a shoe.  No trip to New York Comic Con can be considered complete without visiting The Jelly Empire and Argonaut Resins.  They teamed up again this year to offer tons of resin made goodness.  Check out their respective sites in case anything remained from after the show.  

Seen at New York Comic Con: Tenacious Toys

    What's this?  Is it a picture of the elusive yeti?  The Loch Ness Monster?  No, it is you humble narrator, looking quite studious in the midst of conversation about some toy or another.  This rare image was snapped by Benny Kline of Tenacious Toys and thankfully I wasn't doing anything embarrassing at the time.  Though I was caught with my man purse, which comes in handy when you're trying to get rid of money like it's covered in ebola.  You gotta put all those toys somewhere.

    Each year Benny takes the time to put together a giant collective booth of artists and companies that is kinda like it's own sustainable village.  They have their own fire department, sanitation system, and currency.  Ok, not really, but if they get any bigger the post office is gonna force them to get their own zip code.  Not that I'm complaining because you can never have too much stuff to look at.  

    My favorite thing at the booth was Bigshot Toywork's Four Horsies of the 'Pocalypse line.  I'm a little biased though, because I did support the Kickstarter for Maddie and have one of those coming my way any day now.  After getting to hold it I'm even happier to have supported its creation, because it is an amazing looking toy.  I already have a spot in my display case reserved for its arrival.  

    Take a gander at some photos I took and check out www.tenacioustoys.com for anything they might have left over from the convention.  Many more photos can be found at www.facebook.com/TheToyViking.

    Things got weird after the second Death Star blew up.