Argh!!
There’s been an update to the Apple Devil & Friends entry.
New crummy photos! Minimal, new info! What more could you ask for? Check it out!
Archive for March, 2009
Back from the Underworld
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009Multi-Colored Monster Head Skeletons (or Apple Devil and Friends)
Sunday, March 29th, 2009Rejoice!
Another strange collection of unidentifiable toys! I really, really need your help with this one.
It all started with this guy.
Apple Devil
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Isn’t he the best thing since weirdo sliced bread?
A fellow toy-collecting buddy of mine, Duane, found him at a flea market a few years back. He actually used to drag this toy around to various comic shows with the Wide Awake Press crew as our table mascot (I’m not sure if it helped sell more comics).
I’m telling you, for me, it was love (and envy) at first site. Duane nicknamed him Apple Devil. I now officially had a name for my new crush.
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The name is surprisingly appropriate. The guy’s got a plump, round, red head w/ green eyebrows and horns. He definitely shares some visual cues of an apple.
Just look at him. A screwed up pink skeleton body with a full-on, bright-red devil head with blatantly inaccurate, skeletal anatomy.
That’s what makes him so great!
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It’s been years and years, and Duane reminds me of Apple Devil every chance he gets (since I’m Mr. Toy Blog and everything). Do you know what it feels like to have one of your best friends and fellow toy collectors just dangle this unfathomably, rare jewel in front of you?
(It’s not that bad actually. I mean, c’mon. It’s just a toy for Christ’s sake. Waitaminit! Now that I think about it. I did the same thing when I found the Nightmare Warriors at a toy show we attended together. Ha! Serves me right I guess.)
Well, that all leads me to this little story. Just recently, I posted a link to my blog on LittleRubberGuys.com just to get some feedback from some other fellow toy fanatics. One friendly member, who goes by the name THEGODBEAST, contacted me and actually sent me some pics of weird toys in his collection.
He had some pretty cool stuff. I was just scrolling through the pics… analyzing every toy, making sure I wasn’t missing anything, but I couldn’t believe what I saw next.
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I was sitting at my desk staring at a photo of not one but two – TWO more little skeleton guys with monster heads! And not only that, but they were totally unlike the Apple Devil (other than the fact that they had monster heads on skeleton bodies). So, I’m guessing there was a series of these toys? Various monster heads on skeleton bodies?
These two guys were blue and green, while the Apple Devil was red/pink. It kind of completes the RBG color profile (sorry… lame designer reference).
Surprisingly, THEGODBEAST was more than willing to sell these figures to me. Unfortunately, he had no more information about what these are or how they came to be.
So, here you are. Check out these beauties.
Blue Goat Devil
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Here we have the blue devil guy. He seems a little more goat-like. Check out his horns and ears. He’s cool and all, but he’s not as cartoony as the pink guy.
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And another detail worth noting is the non-matching blue plastic of his torso and appendages. Now that’s quality!
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Now this guy is just nasty. The realistic tongue hanging out of his mouth just creeps me out.
Snake Face
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And lastly we have this guy, who breaks the pattern of the devil head on a skeleton body. This appears to be a snake-head man.
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His head looks like a large snake head that’s swallowed the head of another scaly monster. It’s kind of weird.
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The face on this guy is a lot more generic and nondescript. Not nearly as much character/personality in the face sculpt as the previous two figures.
What the hell are these things? I’m gonna see them in my comedic nightmares.
I recently contacted Duane about my miraculous find, and he surprised me with a very grand gesture. He actually decided to let me have Apple Devil. Duane decided Apple Devil’s better off in my home where he’ll have more of a purpose.
Of course I couldn’t just take Apple Devil without some sort of toy compensation…
… so I decided to give Duane the three remaining Gross Out Gang figures he needed to complete the set (don’t worry. They were doubles). I’m now the proud owner of Apple Devil, and Duane gets to play with Nose Ark, Egg Brain and Wired Wilma.
A happy ending for all. Thanks Duane 
…or is it? The toys have no markings whatsoever. Maybe they just miraculously came through some portal opened by members of the occult. Can these be some unsuspecting tools of the devil? Hope not. I’m going to try my best not to worship them. I guess I’ve accidentally created a shrine full of false idols for all you Weirdo Toys readers out there to worship. Sorry about that. If you feel a bit too unnerved by the presence of these plastic demons, you can always call on Lil’ Jesus to save the day.
I’m not sure how many devil heads there are, how many colors there are or what. There are absolutely no markings to reveal the year they were made or company that produced them. You think they’re bootlegs or some forgotten 80s toyline? If anyone knows anything, please let me know.
INFO UPDATE
Success! I’ve discovered what these skeleton guys are.With a bit of laborious web-detective work I was lead to an old topic on the Action Figure Archive forums.
It appears that these figures are from an old 80s toyline called Underworld Warriors. As I anticipated, they are a series of generic multi-colored bodies with unique heads. I’m not sure how many are in the set or who made these toys. In my attempt to read these low-res pics, all I can make out is “Made in Hong Kong” along with some other truly inspiring bullet points:
• Moving Arms & Legs
• Twisting Head
• Complete with Shield & WeaponWow! Their arms, legs AND head move? It’s almost like they’re an action figures or something. It is cool to know they came with a shield and weapon though. That’s just more stuff to search for I guess.
Lastly, look at that horrendous packaging. A sloppy logo and a very, very crummy drawing of a skeleton guy climbing out of a coffin… and he’s wearing a cloak. Makes him look like Little Skeletal Riding Hood. I wonder if any of the characters in this line are actually depictions of that guy.
Oh, and thanks, Patrick, for the informative email. I wish I’d received your message before spending the research time myself… but at least I found these crummy eBay pics
If anyone out there has these toys, please, please contact me. I’ll definitely take them off your hands.
INFO UPDATE AGAIN!
Yes! Thanks to Clambo at Clam’s Toy Box, I have a better quality image of the Underworld Warriors card. Apparently the back of the card is just blank cardboard. Classic.
I noticed I misquoted the bullet points on the package. Every “&” is actually just an “N.”
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Robot Fondles Boobs
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009I’m sure some of you have seen this article at Gizmodo.
Apparently, there’s been a sighting in Japan of one of those classic claw machines filled with a pile of squishy, novelty breasts. Pretty unique… and weird. Thought I’d share.
I guess they’re just perverted stress relievers (or sexual frustration enhancers). The only bad thing is, once you win one from the claw machine, you’ll have to spend another however-many-dollars to get a second one. What good are toy boobs if not in pairs?
Now that I think about it, I recently saw some of these for sale at a flea market I recently attended. I just kind of dismissed them. I probably should’ve given away free Boob-balls instead of free Madballs.
Snatch Attack Spidertron
Thursday, March 12th, 2009So, here we have Snack-Attack Spider-Tron (that’s what you get when you cross snacks with Spiderman and Tron obviously).
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I found these pics by searching “Weird Spiderman” and “Weird Tron.“
Waitaminit. It’s Snatch Attack Spidertron. My mistake.
I found this guy at the York Toy Show too. Funny thing is, I’d never seen this toy before in my life, but for some reason, at this show, I saw at least 4 or 5 of him at various vendors’ tables. I guess old Power Rangers toys are more common up north or something. (I was just guessing it was a Power Rangers toy. It sure looks and acts like one.)
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As I’ve mentioned every time I’ve posted one of these MMPR monsters, I’m not a fan of the show at all, but I’m willing to admit, the villain toys are pretty cool/freaky/goofy.
This guy really grabbed my attention, because he’s a cool-looking, semi-realistic depiction of a spider in action figure form. It’s as if whoever made this figure heard the term “Spider-man” and took it literally. Look at him. He’s a a bulbous, furry, humanoid spider man, with eight hinged, red-spike-tipped arms/legs and a creepy, fangy, spidery face.
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And nothing complements nappy, brown fur and red spikes like that big, green and yellow protective shell.
Not only that, but he comes equipped with “spider-hug action!” There’s a trigger on his back that, when pulled, controls the top six arms to flex and grab at whatever unlucky teen in a vibrant-colored jumpsuit gets in his way.
As I mentioned previously, I didn’t know what this toy was, but a quick glance at his feet soon revealed that I was on the right path. His markings read ©94 Bandai, which basically meant he was a Power Ranger (or Beetle Borg) toy. So, a few minutes on Google, and voila! I had the culprit’s identity. I soon discovered his name was Spidertron (actually, too be more specific, it’s “Snatch-Attack Spidertron,” but you already knew that). With a name like that, it sounds like he should be a robot or something.
Spidertron pic courtesy of Megazord.net. Thanks!
Looks like the toy originally came with a big web shield doohickey.
According to sharetv.org, in his introductory episode, “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” (Aired Oct. 12, 1993) – “Rita switches out a Forrest Spirit Statue from Angel Grove park and replaces it with her own- one which holds her latest Spidertron monster inside. He puts a sleeping spell on the entire town of Angel Grove, putting everyone but Zack under a deep sleep, leaving him to face Spidertron alone.”
A sleeping spell? Lame. He should’ve just covered the town in spider webs. Better yet, he should’ve wrapped up the Power Rangers and sucked their blood dry.
Weirdo Google Searches
Sunday, March 8th, 2009As you may know, a lot of folks who have websites track their stats, visitors, etc. using Google Analytics. I do the same. I’ve been using it since I started the blog.
Google Analytics really does present a lot of info – stuff like where my visitors are from, what pages they looked at and for how long. A really interesting and even comedic feature for me is the Traffic Sources: Keywords category. It lists what terms were searched in Google that brought individuals to my site. Most searches are what you might expect – stuff like “Madballs,” “Zombie Toy,” “Bootleg Toys,” etc.
Well, mixed in the bunch are totally off-the-wall surprises that I’ve been sharing on Twitter. Due to some fan reactions, I thought maybe I’d let you all in on it too. So, I’m gonna try something goofy on the blog and share a top-10 list of weirdo Google searches. Not sure if it’ll be monthly or weekly or what. Maybe I’ll just do it as funny things come up.
Here are the Top 10 weird search terms from March 1-7, 2009:
10. “battlestar galactica nude”
9. ” just another happy meal”
8. “this guy is like the terminator”
7. ” why are people scared of the abominable snowman”
6. “scary toys no fur gallery”
5. “ugly balls”
4. “big toys in ass”
3. “ass lips”
2. “claymation of clown smelling finger from ass”
(looks like Weirdo Toys gets a lot of ‘ass’)
… and my favorite….
1. “am i weird because i collect toys”
Yeah, I know #2 is pretty disturbing, but you have to admit, #1 is pretty funny.
You know what would be great? Some kind of screwed up scavenger hunt where the readers of the blog have to find toys that relate to these search terms. Or maybe a custom-toy contest. Man that would be freaky and hilarious.