[Etc.] Jones Soda - Dread Apple

Dread Apple was the second of 3 bottled Halloween flavors released by Jones Soda in 2008 (and again in 2009). While I thought we hit the jackpot last year with 7 different Halloween flavors, we are paying for it this year, which has been bereft of anything new in the holiday department.



PACKAGING

Same as Monster Mojito, reviewed here. The label is an orange and black inversion of the usual Jones design. While I normally find pet costumes demeaning to the animal, I have a certain apprehension of large, flat-faced cats. They remind me of furry Jabba-the-Hutts. So it's cute.. like a troll wearing a party hat.

FIRST WHIFF

Again, not much of a smell.

APPEARANCE

A particularly deep shade of pink with ample carbonation. "Dread Apple" suggested to me that the actual flavor is 'red apple,' but maybe it's supposed to be a candy apple flavor. Per the principle of Wolfman's razor, the more Halloween-ish explanation is likely the correct one, so I call it candy apple soda. Next.



FIRST SIP

Mmm. I must confess to having a lasting affinity for apple-flavored candies and drinks, so my enjoyment of this sweet apple soda comes as no surprise. The added carbonation (in comparison to Monster Mojito) really perks the drink up.

FINISHING THE GLASS

The only thing to spoil the carbonated apple flavor is the truckload of sugar in each bottle. I am left feeling the need to immediately brush my teeth.

OVERALL

It's a sweet apple soda, so if that's your thing you'll probably like it. I did not try the last flavor, Blood Orange, but I don't like orange soda- aside from actual blood in the soda, I doubt there was much else to see there. Of the bottled Halloween Jones Sodas, Dread Apple is my top pick. See what I did there? Pick. Like picking apples. Oranges can be picked as well. It's still a good pun.

The sale... FROM HELL.

Happy Halloween to all you folks out in blogger-land. Never really did the trick-or-treating thing as a kid (lived in the boonies and didn't trust our neighbors), but I still have a taste for the holiday nonetheless. These days this taste is indulged primarily through reruns of Roseanne Halloween specials and the opportunity to buy cheap candy from the supermarket. And Halloween blog posts. Still have those.

And I guess I really missed my chance with the Skull Head Butt stuff... that would have been perfect for Halloween. Nonetheless, the second spookiest toy in my menagerie: EXOHEAD's RFSO Galtan!


You should have flipped me when you had the chance!
Back the OLDEN DAYS when there was no Zollmen and EXOHEAD was just EXOHEAD, the mini-size Galtan [ガルタン] sculpt was an object of much desire. I know it is hard to believe now when you can barely get rid of these at retail. A well-known board member on the Skullbrain.org forums managed to broker a deal with EXO allowing a domestic sale of painted glow-in-the-dark (GID) Galtans under the "RFSO" label (hence this being commonly called the RFSO Galtan). I'd tell you what RFSO means, but it contains a dirty word (not the F).

Thirteen pieces were allocated for U.S. sales, with a handful more sold in Japan. Each was packaged in a beautifully airbrushed and tied folding-box (which sadly did not come with mine). An even smaller number of unpainted GID versions were distributed to Real Friends Only.

Of course these sold out in flash and people whined, threads were locked, etc. And then people that did get them started to re-sell. Ha! I bought this one (from the Japan allotment) way after the fact, and let me tell you that it sat untouched for a LONG WHILE.



Asstar.
Galtan is originally a patchi-kaiju design taken from a vintage trading card. It is an amalgamation of Baltan and Antlar, with a big, fat skull head planted on top. This mini figure captures the crude and distorted feel of patchi-kaiju perfectly; although it is only articulated at the waist, there is sort of an implied movement in its posture. The colors on the RFSO version are sprayed over GID vinyl and tastefully restrained, much like M1Go glow vinyls. Burnt, creamy orange and metallic light blue match well with the off-white vinyl, and perhaps unintentionally correspond to the color palette of pd+MM-111 RUSS (the last Man Machine toy from EXO). While I think many were drawn to this piece because of its rarity, it is still a very strong composition in its own right.

Alright, time for a Halloween afternoon nap. More weirdness later.

[RealxHead / リアルヘッド] Chaos Family

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[Etc.] Jones Soda - Monster Mojito

Bringing back a tradition begun on my old blog, I'm planning to throw a few drink reviews up on RxM! Mostly because they are easier to write than toy articles.



So here we have the 2008 Jones Soda Halloween offering, Monster Mojito. Yes, you read that correctly, 2008. In a misguided attempt at historical preservation, I saved one of each Halloween soda that I bought last year. Unbeknownst to me at the time, Jones would re-release the same flavors this year (seasonal flavors were usually unique to the year of production) in the exact same packaging. Lazy bums! While this does steal some of the historic thunder of my review, it does increase its relevance to the percentage of the public that does not collect novelty drinks.

I use a categorical evaluation system, which compares beverages based on their performance in 5 areas: (1) packaging, (2) initial smell ("First Whiff"), (3) appearance, (4) initial taste ("First Sip"), and (5) drinkability ("Finishing the Glass"). In other words, if you can't chug down the entire putrid glass, it loses points. Or maybe gains points, depending on my mood.

PACKAGING

Usual Jones schtick. Funny photo in b/w. I guess they use semi-Halloweenish photos.

FIRST WHIFF

Doesn't really have much of a smell.

APPEARANCE

Milky white liquid. It looks kind of tasty.

FIRST SIP

It tastes like a lightly carbonated mojito. So I assume, because I don't actually drink mojitos. If I were to imagine an alcoholic drink with mint leaves crushed in it, this is how it would taste in my imagination. The carbonation seems sort of flat- probably because it is over a year old. I am underwhelmed.

FINISHING THE GLASS

Easily done, as the flavoring is very light. It really tastes like nothing more than Sprite with a hint of mint. I think my tap water is more monstrous than this soda- more minerals at any rate.

OVERALL

The scariest thing about Monster Mojito is the sense that you are sampling the drink of hipsters everywhere. While it is a legitimately limited flavor (only sold in the Halloween assortment), mojito does not have a strong Halloween association for me and the soda flavor itself is pretty weak. I would not buy this one again.

Show me you care, Jones Soda, and appease my lust for revolting drink flavors this holiday season. WIN BACK MY LOVE.

2 Months of Max Toy!

I normally try to avoid the event and release postings these days, but I'm so excited to hear about these 2 events that I can't help myself.


First, beginning on November 12th, there will be a Max Toy Exhibition at the Kaiju Blue gallery in the Marui One Shopping Mall in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. There will be custom toys, including customs of Kaiju Tripus by notable Japanese toymakers and artists, as well as artwork and t-shirts for sale. As a special exclusive for this event, Mark Nagata has painted, numbered and signed a run of 8 Kaiju Eyezon toys (the one in the photo?). An unpainted pink Neo-Eyezon, the newest collaboration between Max Toy and Dream Rocket, will also be available.


Second, December 12th will be the opening reception for Kaiju Invade San Francisco / Beikokuten, taking place at the Double Punch gallery (in SF). Along with Max Toy, this show will feature work by Dream Rocket (yay!), Sunguts and Matt Walker (aka, Dead Presidents). Artists will be in attendance, meaning that you actually have a chance to meet Mr. Yajima (Dream Rocket) and Mr. Ichimiya (Sunguts) WITHOUT buying a plane ticket to Japan. No other details available at this time, but you know, I'm sure there will be toys for sale... There usually are.

Oh, but the reason that I am excited is that I will actually be in Japan during the opening of the Kaiju Blue show, and back in the Bay Area for the Double Punch show. Crossing my fingers that I can actually make it to both!

All information and images found via Max Toy blog (http://www.maxtoyco.com/brain_content.htm). I hope Mark doesn't mind me re-posting them here.

[Yonezawa Toys / 米澤玩具] Sebirah

Yonezawa Toys is a company perhaps best known for their tin and mechanical toys from the 1960s (see Doc Atomic's blog, Attic of Astounding Artifacts for many excellent examples of Yonezawa's work during these years). Less known, except to the devoted, is their brief undertaking in vinyl toys in the early 70s. I am not as familiar with Yonezawa's history as I should be, but most of the materials that I have seen place their vinyl production during this time period. These non-mechanical toys included both licensed toys (from such properties as Red Baron and Totsugeki! Human) and original (non-licensed) kaiju. Yonezawa's original kaiju from this era have enjoyed a recent resurgence in popularity, in particular as many new vinyl companies have made toys inspired by these original designs. Yonezawa would also combine mechanical know-how with these original vinyl creations to produce a series of walking and sparking vinyls. Although mechanical vinyls are largely overlooked by collectors, I find them to be a fascinating combination of toy 'technologies' of the day.

Want a bird's eye shot? Pfft, pervert.

Sebirah (above) is one such toy from Yonezawa. An original design, it is classified as a 'friction kaiju' due to the set of wheels on its belly that allow it to roll along. The large plastic plate on which the vinyl shell is mounted gives this toy a very unique look- almost like a carved statuette. If you look closely, there are limbs sculpted into the sides of the toy. I love the basic design of the character, which resembles a chameleon crossed with a nudibranch; there is really nothing else like it.

I only wish that I knew more about these toys. They turn up so infrequently (or there may just be very low interest) that the information out there is very limited. It was really only by accident that I found this one. I don't even know if it was sold loose, bagged or in boxes (mechanical vinyls were typically sold in boxes, much like tin toys)- at any rate, I have never seen an example of a box for the friction toys. Presumably the name "Sebirah" is given on the box, as it does not appear to be written on the plastic base. Much like other producers of non-licensed vinyls, Yonezawa has left behind many unanswered questions for the inquisitive collector.