Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody!

I'm not going to lie, 2012 sucked.  I am not at all sad to see that year put out to pasture.  Here's hoping 2013 proves to be a lucky 13 for everyone!

Last Toy Of The Year (2012)

Every year I keep track of the first and last figures I get.  I don't know why I do it, but it's fun to go back and see what I was doing toy-wise over the years (I also keep track of first and last movies and TV shows watched, food eaten, and video games played - just for fun).  I get a lot of new figures throughout each year, but the first and last spots always have that extra little distinction, and I'm nothing if not one for tradition and needless celebrations.

Prizes In The Shrubbery (And Elsewhere)

I was reading a recent post on Toys And Tomfoolery, and I was fascinated by Alexx's "mystery car".  It was a toy car that he found up on a shelf in his apartment that had obviously been there for some time.  That got me thinking about some of the random toys (and toy parts) that I've found over the years, and I decided to share two of the stranger ones.

Egad!

Duuuuuuude

Time to get back to business!  After a short break between Savage Mondo Blitzers spotlights, it's time to get cracking with these babies again.

THE DUDES OF DISASTER

For some reason this team always seemed a little more random than the others to me.  I'm not sure why that is.  The Chunk Blowers have a baby, a dinosaur, a rock star, and a wrestler with big hands.  The Scars and Spikes Gang has a gorilla, a robot, an eyeball-headed freak, and a baseball player.  Randomness is kinda the name of the game here, so I don't know what sets these guys apart for me.  I mean, a soldier, a cyborg, some conjoined twins, and a... critter?... don't seem nearly as mismatched as some of the others.  Maybe like everything else with this line, it's just the feeling they give me.  They just feel more random.

A Rad Surprise!

We started Christmas shopping today, and I ended up spending as much money on myself as I did on anyone else.  It's not my fault!  It's the same thing each year!  They start bringing out all the cool new stuff and expect me to only buy for other people.  It's just not fair (and not meant to be).  I made a nice haul today, finding the new Hobbit Lego sets (I got Escape From The Mirkwood Spiders), the last two Walking Dead Minimates (series 1) sets that I was looking for, and even a wicked metallic-purple dragon, among other things.  But as usual, the best things are the ones that take you completely by surprise.  In this case, THESE guys (although the dragon was pretty surprising):

Gettin' Wound Up

I don't know if these next toys have anything more than passing similarities with each other, but they deserve to share the spotlight.

Yeeeeeaaaah!  Some more eyeballs to show off here at The Plastic Eyeball!  These nearly eyedentical twins were acquired separately over the course of (I don't know how many) years.  They're just your basic wind-up toys that hop across the floor when wound up and let go.  And they glow in the dark!  The more transparent of the two was the first one I got, way back when from a place I can't remember.  The less transparent one was a gift from my friend Alexx at Toys and Tomfoolery.  He sent me a bunch of random eyeball-themed toys, and this one is different enough from my first one that I kept them both.  I love the weirdness of them, so the more the merrier.  Plus, two eyes are just natural.

Here Come The Canadians!

I'm taking a little break from my Savage Mondo Blitzers spotlights to shake things up.  Just a bit.  Every now and then I like to pop into a dollar store and see what cheap wonders they have to be found.  And sometimes nothing beats a nice army man toy.  I usually get my army men by cashing in tickets won at arcades on vacation, but today I decided to grab a few bags just for fun.

I knew going in that I was looking for some army men, but I didn't expect to find any local boys!  I suppose it makes sense selling Canadian army men in Canada, but they still surprised me!  These guys are from the Combat Force "line" (or Forde de Combat if any of them are French Canadiens).  I found two teams - the red squad and blue squad.  Blue's not exactly a traditional Canadian color, but let's not get picky with dollar store stuff.

Let's Crunch Some Skulls!

In my last Savage Mondo Blitzers post (The Mondo Of The Mondo), I said that only the Scars and Spikes Gang and the Dudes of Disaster got to have two characters represented in the card art.  Well, that's true, but The Skull Crunchers actually have three members in the card art.  That's only one character short of the whole team.  And it makes sense (as far as my storyline for Mondo Blitzers is concerned), because they're my main villains.

THE SKULL CRUNCHERS

The Mondo Of The Mondo

It's Mondo time again!

Back in my Butt Kickers post I talked about how my brother and I got our first Savage Mondo Blitzers toys in a goodie bag from our other brothers birthday party.  He got Secret Weapon from the Butt Kickers and Lug Nut from the Scars and Spikes Gang.  My original two were also from Scars and Spikes:  Kiss My Bat and Aping Wound.  Now no matter which figures I like most in terms of looks, this team will always be THE Savage Mondo Blitzers as far as I'm concerned.  But the best looking figure's here too.

SCARS AND SPIKES GANG

It should be obvious by now that one of the main themes in my Mondo Blitzers spotlights is to give a backstory to a line that doesn't have one.  Of course everyone's entitled to their own, but in my story I picture the mutant and alien freaks of the Mondo Blitzers universe using Earth as their battleground.  I actually tried to write a Mondo Blitzers story a few years ago.  Back then I was making the Scars and Spikes Gang my heroes, just because they're the original cool.  My storyline now has the Concrete Breakfast Gang as the heroes, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let these guys fall by the wayside.  Maybe they can join up with the CBG early in the story.  There's room for eight heroes!

These Chunks Were Made For Blowing

Wait...  What?...

I think I'm going to run out of funny titles for these posts before I run out of stuff to stay about Savage Mondo Blitzers.

For example:

THE CHUNK BLOWERS

In my last post, I talked about how I got my first Mondo Blitzers as a kid.  Well, would you believe that there was a time not long before I got my first Mondo Blitzers where I ACTUALLY TRIED TO TALK MY MOM OUT OF BUYING SAVAGE MONDO BLITZERS FOR US!?  Apparently as I kid I didn't deem them appropriate for kids.  I pointed out that there were characters named Loaded Diaper, Barf Bucket, Bad Fart, Snot Shot, etc.  How milquetoast is that!?  Somehow my mom saw through my temporary insanity and got us some Mondo Blitzers anyway, and I've loved them ever since.

These Locos Kick Your Butt...

I saw Short Circuit a few times as a kid, and that's still one of the only references I can remember.

Moving on...

THE BUTT KICKERS

In my last post covering the Concrete Breakfast Gang, I talked about how there was no real story to tie the Savage Mondo Blitzers line together.  You just have to make up your own, which is fine with me.  I also mentioned how some teams just felt like good guys to me, while others just felt like bad guys.  The Butt Kickers feel like bad guys.  Snot Shot and Gun Runner don't really have that "hero look" (although Snot Shot does have a certain Toxic Crusaders thing going on).  Cleat Meat is the only one that doesn't scream villain to me, but just like Barf Bucket is a good guy because the rest of his team is, I guess Cleat Meat is a villain because he's one of the Butt Kickers.

Concrete For Breakfast? Mondo!

Ah, the early 90's!  Never was there a better time to be a scummy, slime-covered mutant (or a fan of similarly gross toys).  Back then, if it was weird, wild and neon, I wanted it.

Some things never change.

The Savage Mondo Blitzers are awesome.  If I had to choose, Mondo Blitzers would be on my list of top 10 all-time favorite toys.  They're the weird toys that got me into weird toys.  The Ninja Turtles had their freaks, but there's just something about the Mondo Blitzers.  These are like the mutant hybrid of TMNT and Hot Wheels.  They just have this attitude.  With names like Barf Bucket, Loaded Diaper, Bad Fart, etc., these are rude dudes.  And there's a TON of 'em!  In fact, there's so many that I'm going to cover the line in a series of posts, just so I can get around to everybody.  I'll be doing them a team at a time, so every character gets his moment in the spotlight.

Might as well start off with some breakfast.  It IS the most important meal of the day, after all.

New Setup

Movin' on up!

Another month since my last post?  What does it take to get me to talk about toys?  Turns out, the way I take photos makes a big difference.  Up until this point, I've been using an incredibly low-tech setup for taking the pics I use in my toy spotlights.  Check it out.

Oooooooooold schoooooool!

The Rare Improving Flaw

As I get older, I find I'm becoming much more picky with my figures.  When I was a kid I could go into a store and grab a toy I liked and be happy and that was it.  Now I put a lot of time into scrutinizing faces (I look over the entire figure as best I can, but it's the faces I'm really picky about), making sure that the eyes aren't crossed, there's no paint flaws on the hair or noses or whatever.  If a figure is supposed to have pupil-less eyes and there's a bit of paint missing in the eye, it looks like the figure has a pupil in one eye and not the other.  And I dwell on these things!  My toys don't have to be 110% perfect, but some flaws, especially on the face (which draws the attention), just bug me to no end.  If a flaw is noticeable enough, in can make a figure pretty much useless to me.

These kinds of flaws are out there.  They're not even that hard to find, but thankfully I'm usually able to find a figure I'm happy with (well, except for the new Ninja Turtles line, but that's not the point here).  What's less common is coming across a flaw that actually improves the look of the figure.  For someone  like me (who's starting to border on perfectionist), an improving flaw is almost unheard of.  But it does happen.

Case in point, check this guy out:

Scarier Little Uglier Guys

One thing I love about travelling is finding all the stuff you can't find at home.  The very first day I was in Florida we stopped by a Target and I found the Coffin pack for S.L.U.G. Zombies Series 2.  Now I've completed the set!

Finishing off Series 2

It kinda bugs me, but you can only get certain Zombies in the Coffin multipacks and other ones only in the 3-packs.  Which means unless you plan things carefully you'll probably end up with doubles.  Luckily my niece and nephew like zombies too, so I unloaded the extras on them.

Novelty Flying Monster

It's been two weeks without so much as a peep from me, but there's a good reason:  I was on vacation.  Yep, we headed down to Florida for a fortnight and I brought back a nice sized haul of goodies that I'll be covering over the next little while.  I'll start with something nice and simple to get the vacation loot spotlights going.

Give Me Vinyl: Ultraman

I love Japanese toys.  I'll keep coming back to them time and again in my blog, but to get things started I want to look at my favorite kind of Japanese toy: The vinyl figure.

Ultraman Mebius in his simple (and easy to open) package.

Not Your Babushka's Nesting Dolls

Never mind what the box says.  These aren't nesting dolls, they're nesting figures!

I'm always on the lookout for toys that are a little different from all the others.  Something that stands out.  I first found these at HMV around Christmas last year.  It would be months before I caved and picked some up, but they were always in the back of my mind.  Sure they were unique and they looked cool, but what was I going to do with them?

The Man In Black

And now for a post that's a bit different.  It may even be a little unnecessary, but I'm okay with that.  One thing I want to avoid with this blog is spotlighting single figures (when possible).  I'd rather talk about an entire line, a subgroup, even a group of toys from various lines that share a similar theme, than talk about one individual figure (especially from a giant toy line).

BUT

I also wanted to spotlight a figure that will probably show up in every spotlight that I do.

Pronti... Attenti... Via!

It's been a while since I've posted anything.  Can't let myself fall behind...

ANYWAY!

Every toy collector knows that the toy hunt is just as much fun as finding the toys you're looking for.  It's hard to beat a nice bit of anticipation, and you never know what new stuff you may discover while looking for the other stuff.  That can be true with online toy hunts as well.  A while back I learned that Italy is more than just the homeland of pizza; they also have their own toy world going on over there and they have a lot of cool toy lines that we just don't have here in North America.  And if I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, I love the weird.  Often time the weird is also pretty gross.  There's one company called Skifidol that does weird and gross better than most.  In fact I think that's all they do.

One of their lines is called Skificars.

Dragons from SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

Sometimes you'll find the strangest things in the most unexpected places.

A few weeks ago when I decided to finally buckle down and start a blog, I went to various craft stores looks for things to make a studio or set for taking pictures.  While strolling somewhat aimlessly up and down the aisles on one craft store, I came across the Alien Force line (not to be confused with Ben 10: Alien Force) in a section for discounted items.  On one hand they looked like your average dollar store type figures.  On the other hand half of the Alien Force line is made up of Dragons.  DRAGONS!    Now I'm sure it amounts to nothing more than some small company selling a cheap toy line with little-to-no thought behind characters or storyline.  I'm sure they just had some dragon molds and added them to the Alien Force line without really thinking about it.  But I thought about it, and the idea of freaky alien space dragons just seemed instantly cool to me!

OMFG! Series 3 - Submitted

Well, I've officially submitted some designs for OMFG! series 3.  I used some characters I'm hoping to one day build my own toy line around, but since that's such a slow going process I figured this could be a good way to get my foot in the door and see how people respond to the characters.  If responses are high enough I may enter the others as well, but until then keep these guys in mind when it comes time to vote!  :)

Zamorian Explorer

Alien

Alien Warrior

Be sure to check this page out to see all of the entries as they're posted.  And remember, Aug. 31 is the deadline!

Teeny Weenie Squinkies Zinkies

And now for some of the smallest figures I've ever seen!

I like Squinkies.  I remember trying to avoid them for a while, because it's a line of random little weirdo characters and I new I'd want a bunch if I cracked.  Well, I cracked.  And while Squinkies are fun enough, I think these new Squinkies Zinkies are pretty great.  I mean, how often do you come across an entire army of cool-looking toys these days, all on a simple blister card?  With these guys you get a whopping 36 figures, a pull-back action vehicle, a base/container, a magnifier to see your troops up close, and even a set of tweezers to hold your troops for magnifying inspection!

OMFG Series 2 on Kickstarter!

OMFG (Outlandish Mini Figure Guys) series 2 is live on Kickstarter!  Every toy collector dreams of making their own toys, and this is a great way to start!  I supported Series 1 way back when, and I've made my pledge for Series 2.  Take part and help keep this great line going.  It really is for toy fans by toy fans.

OMFG Series 2 on Kickstarter

Design submissions for Series 3 have started as well.  Don't miss your chance to get one of your designs chosen to be made into figure-form!

OMFG Series 3 design submissions

For those who haven't heard of this project, it's the brainchild of George Gaspar over at October Toys.  The idea is that members of the October Toys forums submit character designs, then the members vote on which designs they like.  The top 5 designs are tallied up and are then sculpted by able members from the forums into prototypes.  After that the project goes to Kickstarter where you and I can choose to make pledges to fund the manufacturing of the figures.  Pledging different amounts gets you different things, but most options will get you a set of figures to add to your collection!

Series 1 is already said and done, and I own a few sets in different colors, so I can vouch that this project is the real deal.  I want to encourage anyone who likes weird little toys or enjoys being part of something exciting to join in.  It really is an awesome project!

Canada Day, Eh! 2012

HAPPY CANADA DAY to all my fellow Canadians and Canadian-minded friends!

Scary Little Ugly Guys

Zombies sure seem to be in this year, which is fine with me 'cause I'm into 'em!  I've been following The Walking Dead in both book and TV form since their respective beginnings, but that doesn't mean I'm against some humor with my zombies as well.  I also love toy lines like M.U.S.C.L.E. and Monster In My Pocket, so it was only natural that Jakks Pacific's S.L.U.G. Zombies would appeal to me right from the get-go.  In fact, ever since I first saw their pictures revealed way back when, I've been chomping at the brain to get my hands on them.

Oh, What Could Have Been!

WARRIORS OF THE ZODIAC

I've never been one who needs articulation to complete a figure.  It's great when it's there, but a figure with less articulation (or none at all) is still not without it's charm.  Certain statue-esque toys have been called "stand-there-and-look-good-figures" instead of "action figures" by some, and the vast majority of figures by McFarlane Toys fall into that category.  Thoughts on articulation aside, I'm not really one for displaying my figures, so I usually stay from McFarlane's stuff.  But when Warriors of the Zodiac came out back in 2008 I was pretty excited.  Here was a line of good looking toys that should have a nice, limited number of characters (12) that wouldn't distract too much from my other more regular lines.  A complete set would be great for displaying.  There wasn't even a movie, comic, or TV show tie-in to bog them down; they were all basically blank slates as far as backstory went, and I could feel free to let my imagination do what it does best.  The figures would be released in waves of four, so I wouldn't even need to spend a lot of time hunting them down.  I could get them when they came out and then wait patiently till the next four were released, and after three releases my collection would be complete. So when I finally did see the first four figures in the toy aisle, I grabbed them right away.

Battle Morphing Orbs

Here it is, the very first toy spotlight for The Plastic Eyeball:  Morbs!

The Plastic Eyeball Opens!

IT’S BLOG TIME!

Hello everybody, and welcome to The Plastic Eyeball.  I’ve been wanting for a while now to have a place where I can share my thoughts on all things toy related.  My goal is to keep this shindig going for as long as I have have things to say about toys - which should be endless.  I plan on going over all the vast and various toys that interest me in one way or another, and hopefully cover some lesser-known lines that you can discover for the first time. 

Why am I calling my blog The Plastic Eyeball?  Honestly, I just tried to come up with something unique and it popped into my head.   I could say that I chose it because I love figures with eyeballs for heads (more on that below), or I have an eye for all things toy (and most toys are plastic), and that would be true.  But in the end I thought it was weird and unique and just went with it.