Steel Age Joker from 3A

    This image of The Joker would sell me instantly on any movie he was in.  I have no idea how they could contort a real life human being's face like this, but it would be worth it.  Just think: if the design was this amazing you know the story line couldn't suck.  It would be impossible.  Impossible, I say!

    There isn't an ounce of sanity left in this dude's grin and that's what makes him interesting.  3A does a great job of taking something very familiar to us all and presenting them in a way that feels fresh, and Steel Age Joker is no exception.  Featuring fabric clothing and led lights in his already creepy eyes, this should have any Bat-fan drooling all over their comic books.  Which for the sake of market value are hopefully in protective sleeves to preventing water damage.

    Available beginning October 4th at http://www.bambalandstore.com, for $240 (which includes world wide shipping).

NYCC Exclusive Zack Ryder WWE Pop Vinyl from Funko

    New York Comic Con is right around the corner and you're looking at the best exclusive to be offered the entire weekend.  Professional wrestler, toy collector, and all around Hype Bro Zack Ryder is finally getting the Pop Vinyl treatment.  Is this bigger than his ladder match win for the Intercontinental title at Wrestlemania?  I'm sure it ranks up there, though when he won that match I cried with happiness a little bit inside my body.  It's a skill I've picked up during my many years of extreme manliness.  

    Funko has a lottery system for anyone attending the convention that you have to enter on line and you can bet I'm gonna try to get one of these.  I'm gonna put him on my desk and he's going to inspire me to keep working hard.  Not verbally of course, unless the one I get happens to be haunted for some weird reason.  Like someone fell into the vat of plastic just as they were making these figures and his soul is trapped in mine.  This just took a dark turn.  

    Oh, and the Hype Bros deserve to be tag team champions in case anyone is reading this that has the power to make that happen and is easily persuaded by my lack of argument.  

La Maudite Resin Figure from Naomi Knaff

    For me, Naomi Knaff is at the top of the resin game.  Her work is 100% original, surreal as it gets, and never dull to look at.  Calling them "figures" is a bit misleading I suppose, as each one is a bizarre little work of art.  Her latest release, La Maudite, perfectly captures all those attributes.  Standing at 6 inches tall, each figure is hand cast and painted by their creator.  The first three of these one-off sculptures will be available tonight (Sunday, September 10) at 6pm est, while two more will be available next month at New York Comic Con.  Pick one up at http://www.naomiknaff.com for $70 plus shipping.

Marbled Vinyl Tauro from Splurrt x Lulubell Toy Bodega

     I've been thinking about building a labyrinth as one of those mid life crisis type things.  Originally I wanted to build a Viking ship on my lawn and it would attract the media and maybe garner me some mild internet celebrity (until some starlet's phone with saucy pictures gets hacked).  I thought it could be pretty inspirational as well as being a serious code violation.  But then I was thinking that no one has built a good labyrinth in ages.  Corn mazes in no way count because anyone can just walk through the damn corn to escape.  And there's nothing epic waiting for you if you make your way out of one, other than a hay ride and the in ability to re-wear your itchy clothes before washing them.  That is the opposite of feeling like you achieved something great.

    Every great labyrinth needs a great monster and Tauro fits the bill perfectly.  Though he may be only 10 inches of sweet plastic he does aspire to greatness and I'd be willing to hire him once construction is completed.  This mighty beast from Splurrt will be available this Saturday, September 9, at noon pacific time for $135 plus shipping.  He is a mixture of brown, white, and gold glitter vinyl and is exclusive to Lulubell Toys.  Snag one at https://www.lulubelltoys.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.

Blank Green Serpentoid from Michael Skattum x Gums Productions

    This is precisely why you don't go digging up ancient graves.  You think you're going to unlock the mystery of how a long past culture lived.  That with each shovel full of dirt you're inches closer to a  mostly boring special on the History Channel (American Ripper was a letdown and after reading an article describing the exhumation of H. H. Holmes from a person who was there, a complete farce.  Here's the link for anyone that watched the finale.).  Instead, you just create a pathway to freedom for some dude like this, who will then infect human kind with his snake juice and turn us all into reptilian slave people.  Thanks a lot, bub.

    Michael Skattum and Gums Productions are back at their crazy figure shenanigans with the debut of Serpentoid!  This 8 inch tall figure features two points of articulation located right at those ape-like fore limbs and is scarier than anything Brendan Frasier faced in those Mummy movies.  You can get one right now for $65 (which includes world wide shipping) by checking out http://www.michaelskattum.com.  

     

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.