Resin Ornament Sets Featuring Argonaut Resins, The Jelly Empire, and Laura Alvarez

    I guess you could be lame and buy some Honey Boo Boo or Duck Dynasty Christmas ornaments from Wal Mart to fill your tree this year, or you could buy something much cooler and that won't make your family question your ability to feed yourself.  

     Argonaut Resins has created these holiday ornament sets in collaboration with The Jelly Empire and Laura Alvarez just in the nick of time to save your Christmas decorating blunders.  Each set comes with three sparkly handcrafted ornaments and will be available for sale starting tomorrow, December 12th, at noon eastern time.  Pick up a set or two at http://argonautresins.bigcartel.com/.

   

Whiskers of the Undead from Aesop Rock x Kidrobot

    I'll be the first to admit, I had never heard the music of Aesop Rock before.  Truthfully, I haven't really paid much attention to any rap after Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog in the early 90's.  That was back when rap would teach you about the crazy things that were going on beyond the perfectly manicured lawns and lemonade stands of suburbia.  It was an entire side of life I didn't know about and I found it fascinating.  My most influential musical times happened during the height of metal bands like Metallica and Slayer and then the whole grunge thing came along and I was really into that because it echoed my feelings as a teenager.  Rap music at the time was really similar when you think about it, it was just from a different cultural point of view.  The angst and alienation was all there, only it's manner of expression was different.  Now it seems like most of what passes as "popular" hip hop is only focused on how much material wealth the singer has or about how they're the best at what they do.   This self-aggrandizing is perfect for the generation that grew up with selfies and statues updates about what they're eating for lunch, but it is lost on me.

   I decided if I was gonna post about this toy I should know a little about the guy behind it, so I did a tad bit of internet research.  I listened to a few songs on iTunes, read a little bit about him on Wikipedia, and I was pretty impressed.  He seems like a thoughtful artist, someone who is not only a clever wordsmith but has the ideals behind those words to make his work compelling.  And he apparently likes cats, which is a big plus in my book.  So now let's bring it back around and talk about the feline specimen you see above.  

    Aesop Rock and Kidrobot are set to release this "Whiskers of the Undead" figure tomorrow and to say it is a striking piece would be to sell it far too short.  Artist Galen McKamy's hard work really shows and is beyond what you'd expect outside of their Black series of toys.  

   Now, something this intense doesn't come cheap, and at $250 it may grind your Christmas shopping to a halt, but that's why credit cards were invented.  Undead kitties need love too, ya know.   

Peter Kato is Gonna Make Christmas Even Cuter With His Latest Releases

    I don't know how people manage to live in those parts of the world that stay dark for months at a time, because the weather here has been depressing.  Though it's far from being as black as midnight out, everything is just covered in a shade of grey that makes you want to stay in bed till well after lunch time.  We desperately need something to brighten up our lives when the outside world refuses to, and that's where Peter Kato comes in with his festive resin creations.  

    There's bunnies everywhere!!!!!  There's sleeping bunnies, and polka dot bunnies, and even bunnies for your Christmas tree.  

  

    Ok, I know you just squealed with excitement, so let me give you all the pertinent details.  Everything you see above goes on sale tomorrow, December 11th, at 8pm eastern time only from http://peterkatoshop.com/.  These always sell out fast, so be ready to get down to business if you want one.  

     Now if you are of keen eye you might have noticed something that looks completely different/no rabbit like.  That is the work of Kevin Nam, who approached Peter about doing an internship with him.  Having no prior experience, Peter taught him as much as he could then challenged him to make his own toy.  The result is Big Top, which actually spins and has three separate hands that each represent either rock paper or scissors, so you can play against a friend or your most competitive cat.  They come in a few different colors and will be $30 each.  

Badleg Krampus from Goodleg Toys

    You know what my favorite reality show is on tv?  If you guessed on of those "Real Housewives" shows you can punch yourself in the eye for me.  The correct answer is "Beyond Scared Straight" where they send seemingly tough little brats to a real prison and make them cry.  The best is when they kids don't even need a convicted murderer yelling in their faces about how much fun cuddle time is, but when they start hysterically sobbing just by putting on the jumpsuit.  And they're always the kids that are like "I'm in a gang yo, I'll kill anyone if they don't know how bad I am" and they stand all of five feet tall and maybe weigh 80 pounds.  It is hilarious when they go from "I'm the baddest mofo you've ever seen, I'm gonna run this prison" to "where's my momma, I need my momma."  It's way funnier than Two and a Half Men ever was.  

   Watching little thugs have an emotional breakdown is one of my favorite past times, but don't you wish we would adopt some preemptive measures in the United States to maybe curb their behavior before having to send them off to a day of jail food and orange jumpsuits?  Enter Krampus.  It's high time we adopted this Christmas devil as part of our own holiday celebrations.  A rumored decedent of Loki, ol Krampus isn't into trickery as much as he is into stuffing bad kids into a bag and wailing on them with a stick.  And we could make a reality show about it and laugh as they scream and cry when the goat man shows up at their house.  That's must see tv.

    Goodleg Toys are offering up a preorder right now of their version of St. Nicholas's more fun counterpart.  Go right now to http://goodlegtoys.storenvy.com/ and ensure you have a secret weapon to make your little ones eat their vegetables and clean their room without complaint.  

Help Make Stegoforest Rider and Mossy Kappa Real Toys!!!

     I'm totally detecting a theme today.  If you guess what it is I won't smack you across the lips. You may or may not know Jesse Narens from his previous toy, the pictured Stegoforest, which in my opinion is pretty dang brilliant.  Well, some time has passed since that release and now it's time to make some more friggin toys, and stuff.  Help Jesse raise the funds he needs to make his newest creations a reality by supporting his Indie Go Go campaign.  Doesn't Indie Go Go sound like a hipster strip club?  Anyway, he's launched a campaign to get his new Mossy Kappa and Stegoforest Rider figures made in uber amazing Japanese vinyl, which if you didn't know, is like the platinum of plastics.  Follow this link, buy some col stuff, and help bring these to life.  Oh, and even if he doesn't get the entire amount funded, he's gonna cover the rest of the cash and everyone is still gonna get their toys.  

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.  

Huffington Post asks "Are Art Toys Over?"

    Read The Huffington Post's original article here, and then proceed to my rant below.  

    Ok, now first I must apologize for wasting those few minutes of your life to read that.  Apparently a major journalistic site finds it completely acceptable to determine whether something that many people love is dead or not in such a boring little blip of an article.  The writer just decided to herself "hey, I wonder if like, Kidrobot and art toys are a thing anymore" asked two people what they thought, and concluded "oh, I guess so, kinda."  How do you start with a headline that obviously deserves a great deal of attention/research/forethought, and create something that could be rivaled by most 15 year old's Facebook posts about how their parents suck for not letting them go to the Lady Gaga concert?  

   Am I just a tad biased because I happen to be a collector?  Of course, let's not kid ourselves here.  But I'm also angry because someone actually got paid to write that article.  I toil away on this wee little website day after day just for the satisfaction of knowing people are reading this and hopefully enjoying it.  I've never made a dime doing it and I resent that someone could write something so boring and cash a check for it.  And she called us all hipsters, which is further proof that the writer really has no idea what she's talking about, and should probably stick to writing such compelling articles as "The Easiest, Most DIY Bacon" or "Packing for Baby's First Roadtrip."  Isn't that who you want to determine whether your favorite hobby is destined for the same fate as Beanie Babies?  

    She asked people's opinions about what she had to say, so why not bombard her with how you feel at this link.