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.
At first glance, the Skificars come across as a cheap knockoff of Pixar's Cars characters. And maybe they are. While the Cars toys may be more detailed and are much easier to find, the Skificars are oozing with personality. Some of them literally.
Vandam
These are fairly simple toy cars. They all have a basic pull-back action so you can send them zipping across your kitchen floor (that's what I do with them any way). Their paint is pretty cheaply done, with some areas that look obviously sprayed, and glops or rubs here and there. Fortunately their soft rubbery plastic bodies make it easy enough to scratch away a lot of the paint issues. As I said above, they're not overly detailed, but the details they have are the ones that count. Each one has more character and personality to them than probably 90% of the Cars line. And from Max Taxi's spraying snot to Vandam's bulging brain, they've got enough weird to keep me well satisfied.
Max Taxi
There are twelve Skificars to collect overall, but it's looking like my set will be staying at five for the foreseeable future. When I came across these guys on eBay.it there were only one or two sellers offering them. They weren't overly expensive, and all the cars were being offered, but I've noticed that the uniquely Italian toys on eBay.it are only around for a few months before they disappear completely. I guess the sellers offer stuff for a while and then move on to something new. So if you take your time to build a collection, your time might run out before you're done. There's only two or three that I'm kicking myself for missing out on, but I'm still happy enough with the set I've got.
Skull Furios
Skificars may not be the weirdest toys that Skifidol offers, and I know they're not the grossest, but they are pretty unique and I'm fairly confident that they won't be found in stores over here. And I'm always interested in things outside of the mainstream. Even if they're somewhat similar to the mainstream.
Riki Truck
Na Kabrio
The Skificars do have some details underneath, which is a nice touch that is sometimes absent on generally more detailed toy cars. At least on a lot of other pull-backs that I've seen.
Max Taxi and Snot Rod
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