characterdesign

Artslam, San Antonio’s bimonthly party featuring live art and live music – a perfect combination, is celebrating its Six Year anniversary with their ‘666 Maximus Erectus’ show (1.28) featuring a trio of special guest artists including Alex Pardee, Skinner and L’Amour Supreme, 30 local artists and six live bands. If...

Ok so a certain AWOL blogger is slowly recovering from the agony of missing the Fat Cap drop @ KRLA, thanks to the great photos the ‘bot posted to flickr. Series artists Sket and kaNO (sup D!) were on hand to meet/greet peeps and to sketch and doodle in books...

The newest custom Tuttz Mini from Emily Bee goes by the name of ‘Love‘. Designed by Argonaut Resins, this is Emily's first shot at a Tuttz Mini (these are 4.5" in height). The ‘Love’ custom will be available for purchase on Sunday, January 28th 2012 at 3:00PM EST at emilybee.bigcartel.com.

Plush Labbit fans - or collectors of the bovine variety - will be happy to see that Kidrobot will be releasing this Cow Labbit. From Frank Kozik, this Cow Labbit has a fairly fashionable mustache...and a not so fashionable behind.

So...for you folks who are into Mustached Cow Labbits...these will go on-sale beginning February 9th 2012. Oh! And they'll be available in 7-inch ($17.95) and 14-inch ($39.95) varieties.

We Kill You has set out to release their new mini figure, dubbed Vishnu Paramata. This 3” resin mini figure is based on The Boss figure from 2009. ‘The Mystical Timezone’ Edition is limited to 20 pieces and is cast in orange resin, with blue and purple sprays and handpainted...

Mimoco has announced the first in a brand-new series of MIMOBOT flash drives honoring iconic figures in history. From "The Legends of MIMOBOT Series", Mimoco present the Albert Einstein MIMOBOT.

The pop-off Einstein MIMOBOT's cap reveals the lighter side of the Nobel Prize winning scientist... the "Albert" side. Each piece comes with pre-loaded with Einstein-themed wallpapers, icons, and avatars. Currently available in sizes from 2GB to 64GB, the Einstein MIMOBOT runs between $22.95 and $119.95.

MonsterWorship has just recovered from SuperFestival 58, which means they will be unleashing some left over goodies from the show! Available TODAY at 7PM EST, they will be dropping the Exclusive SuperFest 58 Grape colorways of Kusogon ($35), Altar Beast ($35), Altar Beast One-Off Rub (2 Available - $50), Greasebat...

Erick Scarecrow has passed along the above teaser image of what appears to be a Tomenosuke Exclusive piece. We - like you - are looking forward to what the entire package looks like.

Background

Recently, Kidrobot released a blindbox series of 3-inch tall vinyl toys based on their namesake – the Kidrobot. Named 'Bots, the series consists of eleven different figure designs in various attire. Some of the figures might look familiar, some might look completely new. For this review, I pulled the Boxer 'Bot.

The Facts



Kidrobot 'Bots Mini Series Manufacturer: Kidrobot Material: Rotocast Vinyl Dimensions: 3” tall Points of Articulation: 5 (neck, shoulders and wrists) Designs: 11 designs Pricing: $9.95 per blindbox

Packaging

The 'Bots Mini Figure Series is packaged in blind box fashion. The exterior of the box features illustrations of all eleven possible designs, along with pull ratios. Inside, the figure is sealed in a metallic bag. There's also a foldout booklet that gives you a better look at those 'Bots illustrations.

Our Opinion

Kidrobot has been releasing vinyl versions of their namesake character for years now. This 3” tall mini 'Bots line pulls a number of the designs from Kidrobot's popular 8” tall Kidrobot vinyls into a smaller (more affordable) blind box format.

As far as the packaging, it would have been helpful if Kidrobot gave collectors the names of the different characters. In the product description, they talk about KidGangster and KidPunk...but you can't find any names on the box or insert.

Sculpting-wise, it's pretty much on par with the larger 8” Kidrobot figures. You have a hollow rotocast vinyl body and head. While it's only noticeable on the back, you can see the rotocast plug on the 'Bots' head. But it pretty much resembles a shrunken down 8" Kidrobot.

The paint ops are above average for a figure of this size. There's a lot of pad printing on this particular piece (tattoo, tear on shirt, shirt sleeves, boxing glove, and band-aid). That gives it a nice, quality look. And even the other painted sections, there's not much noticeable slop.

As far as pricing, I feel like $9.95 is pushing it a little for this particular blind box figure. It's specifically because this is one of the few 'Bots designs that doesn't include accessories. There are some real decked out designs in this series that can warrant that price tag...it's just that this one can't.

You can pick one up at the following:

Fugitive Toys: $9.95 each ($197.95 for a case)

LYSOL has been working on a new way of presenting one of his familiar characters. The Slime Gread is a resin made-to-order piece. You can choose from a few different colors for the Gread and Slime.

Pre-orders will begin on Tuesday January 31st 2012 at Noon EST. These will be priced at $20.00 each.

Ron English has introduced Fat Tony - A Ton of Tiger with a Short Shelf Life. This 100% nutrition-free vinyl toy stands in at 9" tall and features articulated arms. I'm sure his neck is stuck in place due to several layers of fat. Look for these to retail around $60.00.

For wholesale inquiries, contact DKE Toys.

KAWSONE will drop the recently revealed KAWS:Partners piece on Friday, January 27th @ 9 AM PST. The first KAWS ‘toy’ drop of 2012 features a likeness of the artist and his signature Companion character in a pose and ‘metallic’ treatment mimicking or paying homage to the iconic statue of Walt...

Toy2R has announced that this April (2012) will see the release of two Voltaire 5-inch Mini Qee Bunees. From the Deady...and Friends series, we'll see Deady Bunee and Sleezter Bunee Qees hit shelves. And yes...I do believe Sleezter is dressed up like the "gimp".

Don Kratzer (Fig-lab) has revealed a project that has been in the works for some time now. The Finger Five will consist of five finger puppets from five excellent designers. Paul Kaiju, Suckadelic, MonstreHero, Onell Design and L'amour Supreme will all be represented. Much better than those creepy monster finger puppets we used to have as kids. (No word yet on release date, size, etc)

Here are the release details for the Galaxxor 009. This 5.5" tall resin figure was sculpted by Ben Spencer, and hand-cast in blacklight-reactive, chromed aluminum Airsoft pellet infused crystal clear resin by The Godbeast. The figure, limited to only 5 pre-order pieces, will come packaged in a traditional bag with header card art by Steve Seeley.

Galaxxor 009 will be available in a limited number of pre-orders on Friday January 27th 2012 at Noon CDT. The figures will be available to purchase exclusively from The Galaxxor Online Store for $125.00 each. Look for these to ship about a month after the pre-order date.

Take a look at the Paint Test shot of Jeff Lamm’s upcoming Spike Wad figure with Unbox Industries. Jeff has also noted that this colorway will also be produced! It’s great to see that this figure is finally on it’s way and it’s looking great! Also take a look after...

Kuso Vinyl has been steadily posting photos of figures from their upcoming Spiki Chisaai Thundercraps Series by Rotobox and Mai Hiro. So far we’ve got Evil Lion-Oh, Siberian Tigrowl, and now the female fatal feline, Cheatarah. Are Panthro and Wilykit and Wilykat in the works? Let’s wait and find out!

We last spoke of Ron English’s ‘Fat Tony’ figure HERE, but we just wanted to give you a nice update featuring a full 360 of this fine feline figure. ‘Fat Tony’ stands 9” tall and features articulation in both arms, which will retail $60. Be sure to ask your local...

RT @eddermezzano: Pictoplasma focus - Interview with Joshua Ben Longo - we make money not art http://t.co/Wugx9Go4 #newsculpture #contem ...

Word on the street is that DYZPLASTIC's ANDROID Series 3 figures will begin hitting shelves in Q2 2012. This go-round features designs from Google, Andrew Bell, Gary Ham, Huck Gee, KaNO, MAD, KRONK, Kelly Denato, Scott Tolleson and Sket One. This will be the only full series to be released this year (I'm guessing we might see other artist collaborations...just not a series of this magnitude).

Wholesale inquiries, contact DKE Toys.