Bwana's New Trick or Treat Steven the Bat at Super 7!!!

Bwana and Super 7 are about to drop a sick new Glow in the Dark Steven the Bat on Halloween!!! Check it out, he comes complete with a little ghost costume for Trick or Treating later in the evening!! This is the second full production Steven the Bat produced by Portland Artiste Bwana Spoons, CEO of Grass Hut Corporation. The first green Fig Belly Steven the Bat was rolled out for San Diego Comic Con this past July and I was lucky enough not only to snag one, but also get Bwana to sign it! He made him two headed! Very cool! There is supposed to be two more versions to come out including "Purple Nights" and the hard rocking "Black Metal" bats. hopefully they will, but sources close to Bwana say maybe not...This would be too bad as I would like to complete the quartet of bats, but just getting my grubby hands on this new GID version will satiate my vampiric desires for now...

Looks to go pretty quick on Halloween at Super7!!

Shocker EU Releases Exclusive Balzac Toys on Halloween!!

More exclusive toys on Halloween!! Shocker EU will be offering up very limited quantities of two really bitchin Balzac toys. The first is a translucent Skull Man figure with blood splatter and a new pimp daddy cane accessory. They will also have a very, very limited release of the new red Skullbat shown here. Both will be released on Halloween.

Secret Base X Artoyz Halloween Collaboration!!

Man, Secret Base is getting jiggy with everyone on Halloween! They have their own set, they have the set with Super 7 and now we see a collaboration with Artoyz!! Whose next? SB likes to get busy with multiple suitors it appears. That's good and bad for collectors. With the current releases and a lot more on the horizon before year end, i'm having to choose a bit more carefully what i'm gonna spend my endz on. Also competing for the same $$$ would be Japanese mecha, wife, mortgage, food, electricity, shoes for my daughter, etc, etc.



What I do like about this Artoyz set is the colors and details. I'm a sucker for clear vinyl and this set has an interesting blood orange shade to it. I'm digging the gold Obake body and the gold dust on the Black Skullbee Gi. Also notice that underneath the Skullbee head, it looks like a mini ghost head popping up from the neck. Awesome details!! Great photography as well! I'm really digging this set!

Looks like it's gonna be released on Halloween on the Artoyz website:
Skullbee is limited to 100 pieces at 55 Euros
Obake Ghost is limited to 100 pieces at 45 Euros
100 Euros for the set.

Secret Base Clear Orange Halloween Set!!!

Contrary to my earlier report a few weeks ago, the clear orange Secret Base set comprised of the Pumpkin Head and Obake are not part of Super 7's Halloween Secret Base extravaganza. I really was hoping that Super 7 and Secret Base were going to be doing all six figures in this clear orange, but oh, well! Secret Base just released this set in a cool candy jar just in time for Halloween! All yummy clear orange vinyl that reminds me of orange Gummi Bears! Sold out in Japan, sold out at Super 7. Act fast and you might still get them at Span of Sunset. Extra cool pictures from LivingDead who gets all the rad shit first cause he's stationed in Japan!

NEON Martian Exclusive Skuttle from Touma and OneUp!!!

While cruising Vinylpulse the other day, I jumped when I saw this SICK Touma Skuttle from OneUp with an exclusive Blue and Yellow colorway from UK retailer NEON Martian



From NEON Martian:

We are pleased to confirm that the Neon Martian EXCLUSIVE Touma Skuttle is approved and due early to mid November 2006 !

There will only be 88 of this colourway produced, 55 (1-55) available at www.neonmartian.com. The other 33 at One-Up Japan for the Asian market. Each Skuttle will have a numbered card confirming the production number.

Due to the limited number that will be made, we are opening this cool figure up for preorder now. Upon receipt of stock your Neon Martian Touma Skuttle will be dispatched. The earlier you order the lower the issue number you will receive..

The picture is the approved colourway, although there may be slight variation on the finished figure.

Skuttle measures approx 6" in height and will come new in bag packaging.

With only 55 available from NEON Martian, I jumped at the chance to pre-order this guy. It's a bit unusual to have any kind of design printed on the shell because where else would Touma do those really cool sketches that you wait in line for hours to get? Skuttles are cool. I definitely like them the best out of Touma's characters. The Goon (looks like a Dragon) is my second favorite design but I wish Touma would make him in a translucent vinyl.

If you're interested to see more Skuttle colorways, check out this dope collection from Jacranky from the KR board. Nice assortment! These little buggers can get very expensive on the after market. I've seen some colors go for over $300!!! Now sell them to me (cheap)!

The Only Two Cool Sket Bots

I'm a big fan of Sket One so when I saw pics of his Sket-Bots which just released recently, I was searching the designs for something I liked. I like the little accessories such as the toy ducks on a line, magic wands and what not, but there really wasn't any figures in the set that I had to have. So it was some relief that I found one of two designs that are cool on My Plastic Heart which is one of the online sites that opens the boxes and sells the actual figure so you can choose. I really don't know why anyone sells blind boxes. I hate those things. I mean I know why. I just think it's lame. The grey devil guy was sold out, but I did get this orange guy with the flames. I didn't see these guys before because these two are the "Secret" hidden figures in each set. Check out the rest of the set and let me know what you think.

Live Action Metal Gear Solid Movie Trailer!!!

Don't get too excited MGS fans! This trailer was made by MGS fans from Taiwan and it's pretty damn good. There's cosplay and then there's a decent trailer clearly made by someone with some video editing skillz. Worth the 4 minutes of your life...especially if at work.

Super 7 x Secret Base: "Ghoul's Night Out" Skull Bee 2of5

This Saturday, were all showing up for the Super 7 x Secret Base "Ghouls Night Out" Figure #2 in the exclusive Halloween set. This week features the signature Glow in the Dark and Orange Skullbee. I have to say that while i'm not into the sculp, I am compelled to purchase this figure and all the others to complete the set. Nothing would try me more crazy than to by pass a figure and then have the bonus figure something I really, really want!

Pics from last Saturday's release of Frankenghost:





Shibby, Rhinomilk and Brian clearl excited about their new Frankenghost!!



Dave busting out the crowd-pleasing smile with his new Frankenghost but still wondering where the mini zag version is.

Secret Base Masked Ranger: Green Barbarian

The latest from Secret Base in their acclaimed Masked Ranger series kinda slipped by un-noticed for the most part. Partly because of the furvor on the limited Silver Mantis which I am still trying to get, partly because there a lot of toys being put out right now and partly because you can readily get it still at Super 7 and ToyTokyo. Having said this, long time collectors of Secret Base say it's one of the best figures to come out this year. While not a huge Barbarian fan, I do like the clear green vinyl; not too dark and has a nice minty hue to it. Since most of us are putting together the entire set, it could have looked like a green pile of poo and we still would have bought it. BTW, did you know that Kozik makes toys in the shape of poo? I believe next up is the last figure in this series and will be a yellow Pumpkin Head. Looking forward to it!

toybot studios Toy Vacation!!! Part II: We Are All Mad Show!!!

It took me 6 1/2 hours to drive down to LA from San Francisco. Since I went to Super 7 in the morning, we didn't get to LA until really about 7pm. I had to eat dinner with my parents and then boogie to the show which began at 8pm, but I didn't get there until around 9pm.







The "We Are All Mad" Show was held on Melrose Avenue at the hip Gallery 1988. The show featured Alice in Wonderland artwork and custom Cheshire Cats by a wide variety of the household and not so household toy designers. The Designer vinyl crowd are an interesting mix of nerdy toy geeks, wannabe artists and some real artists using vinyl as their latest canvas. Although I did my best to look like a hip, grungy, artist type, I probably merely came off as an un-shaven, smelly geek with a camera and a baseball cap. They were passing around the price sheet and I noticed many of the pieces were listed for $125 which I thought was really reasonable given they are one-off customs. As I was about to go up to the cash register and pay for the custom Ledbetter Cheshire Cat, I overheard that these were the starting prices for the online auction later that week. ohhhhhhhhhh, that makes more sense... as I put my wallet away and took the Ledbetter cat from underneath my arm amid stares and burly security bouncers closing in...



Dr. Bao and Cameron Tiede hanging out looking artsy...standing next to these guys, I might look hip...







Ledbetter cat before I took it up to the register....