[One-Shot] Chibulls and Bits.

I'm hitting a point where I have more toys coming in than I have time to write comprehensive pictorial reviews of each one. So rather than let these little gems languish unseen in my old display cabinet, I'm starting the first of (I hope) many quick posts called "One-shots."

1. Secret Base Carnival Victory paint Skull Bee (Cocobat Joe homage).


I think I have maybe 6 Secret Base toys, but there is only one that I would never trade away. The first Carnival Victory paint Skull Bee was among the earliest SB toys released, and painted in a fairly complex scheme to match the Medicom Cocobat Joe figure. Incidentally- or maybe intentionally- this scheme also looks somewhat like the original Kamen Rider uniforms. The Cocobat Bee is a beautiful piece with rich, dark sprays. If only all SB toys could be like this, eh?

2. Cool Zone Kid Octopus.


Kid Octopus is the second character in the "Cool Zone" series of toys produced by Ichibanboshi, released at the 2007 Summer Wonderfestival. The vinyl is a bit harder than I'd typically prefer, but the sculpt has a great simplistic retro feel, and the tentacles even have sucker detail.

3. Bwana Spoons x Gargamel Killers.


"Sleeping Killer" is the first collaborative figure conceived by artist Bwana Spoons and sculpted and produced by Gargamel. It's a bit bigger than the typical Japanese mini-figure, and has been released in several colorways- including an extremely limited set of 7 Killers cast in colored GID vinyl that was sold at 2007 SDCC. In this photo, we have the original Pacific Northwest Tiger Salamander Killer, Milk Chocolate Killer (handpainted by Bwana!), and the unpainted clear Pink Killer from the "Killer Dragons from the West" show at Gargamel's Thrash-Out store. To be honest, the first Killer (Tiger Salamander) is still my favorite of all of the releases.

4. M1Go Chibull Seijin (GID).


I fell in love with Chibull Seijin after seeing it featured in David Horvath's Super7 artwork. And it glows in the dark. No more words. Look at the picture.

5. Charactics King Walder Mini-Figure set.


Charactics released a full-color set of the King Walder characters at a Wonderfestival over a year ago, and it has been nearly impossible to find (along with those elusive clear glittery Invader minis). However, they did us all a favor (well, all except those owners of the original sets) by releasing another full color set of the King Walder minis at the 2007 Summer Wonderfestival. But this time, they cast them in clear vinyl and stuffed them with little organ inserts. Joy! Thank goodness Charactics waited to do this until I was finally around to buy them.

Shutterbug

Got myself a crispy new sheet of white posterboard today from Ben Franklin Crafts. Perfect for taking pics of translucent vinyl.

I also bought a big bag of GID beads to fill up some of my clear figures. Then I spent the better part of 2 hours sorting them into separate Ziploc bags based on color. Ah, the horrors of OCD.

Anyway, here's some shots of my latest pick-ups: Eriagun (a collaboration between Gargamel and Bwana Spoons) and Ekitai Ningen Pop Soda (a collaboration between RealxHead and Pop Soda).



The lighting's a little funky on the white board. I need to get my camera settings figured out.

[News] HxHxH [the second]

HYPE: RealxHead has teamed up with HK toy shop, oldbalance, to bring you the oldbalance Chaosman as one of the first new figures of the year. A rumor that the figure was limited to a run of 10 was quickly put to rest, but that didn't stop the price from skyrocketing- or the allegations from flying...

HOT!: Bwana Spoons, the technicolor toymaker, has buddied up with Japanese vinyl icon, Gargamel, to create an original figure to be released at the end of the month. Killer the whalegator has only been shown in bits and pieces, and I'm dying to see the whole thing. Bwana's collaborative pieces with Gargamel sculpts have been nothing but incredible up until now- between the Stroyers and the Bwanabakos- and this one looks to be, well, Killer (huh huh huh). Come on Bwana, make us a clear blue with white spray! Or maybe a Hawaii spray. Hmmm... the possibilities.

HUH?: One of my fave stores, Bigbadtoystore.com, has recently announced a heretofore unknown Japan-exclusive box set of Beast Wars figures. All that we know is that it will only be up for order at a "trade show," and will contain Optimus Primal, Megatron, Waspinator, Cheetor, Blackarachnia, Dinobot... and Archadis and Cohrada?? Only catch is that preorders HAVE to be in by this Thursday, so that they can order the proper number of sets- and no one knows what they look like yet. Oh, and it's 225 leaves of green. Did I mention that the figures are reportedly all new molds?