Archive for the ‘Animals’ Category

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Tyrannosaurus Rexy

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

I was reluctantly in a McDonald’s restaurant the other morning ordering an Egg McMuffin for breakfast. (Don’t ask me why. It involves traveling to “in-the-middle-of-nowhere”, Georgia and being stuck with one or two options for food.) While waiting for my order, I casually strolled around the place when I noticed the familiar, plastic bubble filled with crappy Happy Meal toys based on some Hollywood blockbuster movie. The movie toys this time around were based on characters from “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithonsian.”

That’s when I saw this guy.

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Rexy - Happy Meal Toy - Night at the Museum

A dinosaur skeleton? I had to have him, but I sure as hell didn’t want to order a Happy Meal. I asked the cashier if there were any dinosaur skeleton toys left and if I could just buy it outright. She rummaged through a large pin of shrink-wrapped plastic, and it turns out, there were only two characters left – the T-Rex and some Octopus thing. What luck! Better yet, she said the toy would only cost me $1.07. Wow! Not bad.

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Rexy - Happy Meal Toy - Night at the Museum

If you’re familiar at all with the Museum movies, you’ll know that in the movie, after the museum closes, all of its exhibits come to life. Well, one of the exhibits is giant skeleton T-Rex that runs around like a super-hyper puppy fetching a bone for the museum’s security guard. So, this is a walking wind-up toy of Rexy, and I must say he looks pretty cool for a McDonald’s toy.

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Rexy - Happy Meal Toy - Night at the Museum

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Rexy - Happy Meal Toy - Night at the Museum

I’m actually surprised that I’m featuring a McDonald’s toy on the blog, but there are a few good reasons I’m writing about him.

1. He’s cool. (He’s a walking, windup dinosaur skeleton for crying outloud.)

2. He’s cheap. (Only $1.07 w/ tax.)

3. He’s at McDonald’s right now. (but I’m not sure how long.)

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Rexy card Rexy Card

Oh yeah, one last thing – the Rexy toy comes with a trading card. It contains bio info and trivia about the character. It’s nothing special to look at.

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Rexy - Happy Meal Toy - Night at the Museum

But the really, really, really, really lame thing is, in order for Rexy’s walking action to activate, you have to slip the card into his back to press a small trigger. What the hell kind of crap is that? Why not just let the toy walk on its own? If there needs to be a trigger, why not just let it be an on/off switch. If there needs to be some gimmick that wakes the dinosaur and allows it to move, why couldn’t it just be some cool extra piece like a bone or a little man to ride it or something? A playing card? Gimme a break.

Well, what do you expect for a dollar?

Posted in Animals, Monsters, TV and Movies, Wind-Ups | 15 Comments »

Kong King by Imperial Toy

Monday, January 12th, 2009

A gorilla.

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Gorilla toy by Imperial

People like gorillas, right?

No? Too scary?

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Gorilla toy by Imperial

Well, I like this gorilla. He just called to me. He looks more like a man in a suit than a true gorilla.

This big, black, angry primate is by Imperial Toy. I’m not sure what year this toy was released. Probably the 70s or 80s from the looks of him.

I have a feeling it’s supposed to be reminiscent of King Kong. See the resemblance?

King Kong

(Actually, this shot of King Kong reminds me of Danny Glover.)

I don’t see any marking giving rights to a movie studio or anything, so this is probably just a generic giant gorilla. I’ll call him “Kong King.” He’s supposed to fight some of those dinosaur toys Imperial made in the 80s.

You remember those dinosaurs? I actually had this dinosaur as a kid.

Dinosaur toy by Imperial
Dinosaur image courtesy of Cretaceous Central. Thanks!

I remember dropping those little green army men into his mouth, filling its hollow plastic torso with unlucky soldiers. (It was always hell to get the dinosaur to regurgitate them though.) I would even squeeze his mouth shut repeatedly to make the act of eating that much more convincing.

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Gorilla toy by Imperial

Kong King is plasticy, goofy-looking, has minimal paint applications and has very obvious construction seams. He has two points of articulation at the shoulders. The rest of him is just a hunk of hollow, flexible plastic.

Notice his smooth, polished bare ass…

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Gorilla toy by Imperial

… and what’s with coconut bra?

(See. I told you’d I’d post another York Show toy this week. I’ll try to do another.)

Buy King Kong toys on eBay!

Posted in Animals, Goofy | 13 Comments »

Dodo Bird Discovered

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

So, over the past several months, I’ve been posting random toys hoping to gather insight on what they are and where they come from. I’ve been successful in a lot of cases, but other times I ask the readers to speak up and help me out. While doing this, I’ve accidentally become the weirdo toy “expert.” I now have people coming to me asking about the origin of random toys they’ve found.

Well, one such toy is the topic of my entry today. This toy was actually provided to me by my buddy, John (who has had this thing for a while now), and he was really hoping to find out what it is.

I was a bit hesitant to feature it at first, but luckily, upon seeing the toy, I thought it was pretty freaky too (and now it’s all mine John! Sucker!! ;) ).

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Silly Safari - Jungle Game bird piece Silly Safari - Jungle Game bird piece

At first glance I thought, “What the hell is this thing?”

An ostrich?

A giraffe?

The bastard offspring of an interspecies love affair?

Silly Safari - Jungle Game bird piece

So what do we have? At first, it looks like a simple bobbing bird toy – Yellow body, green tail and… red eyes and neck? Uh-oh. Could be something freaky.

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Silly Safari - Jungle Game bird piece

A dangly tongue? Um, yeah. Kinda weird.

Ears? On a bird? Definitely weird.

An Adam’s Apple? What the hell.

All that accompanied with the freaky looking, rubbed-off paint job definitely makes this thing qualified to be here.

There is a clue on its tail feathers luckily: “1966 Deluxe Reading Corp. 7003-0415 1B1″. Apparently Deluxe Reading Corporation has gone through some name changes over the years, and they’re best known for making dolls and stuff… and even Johnny Lightning cars.

After some annoying research and matching the toy’s serial number to a Deluxe Reading Corp. catalog i found online, I discovered this guy is actually a game piece of some old board game called Silly Safari.

Silly Safari Jungle Game
Silly Safari game box photo courtesy of BoardGameGeek.com.

Silly Safari Jungle Game
Silly Safari game pieces photo courtesy of BoardGameGeek.com.

It looks like the paint on the bird piece might’ve been a custom job.

Man, I’d love to get my hands on that alligator. Anybody wanna give him up?

Posted in Animals, Bizarre, Used & Abused | 4 Comments »

Bite of the Green Monkey

Sunday, April 13th, 2008

He’s mean. He’s green. He’s like nothing you’ve ever seen.

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Weird, dingy green monkey toy

I found this nasty, old, green monkey recently, and I was immediately disturbed.

I hate to admit it, but the first thing that came to mind is that classic story where the AIDS virus was started by a bite from the infamous African “green monkey” (and some tellings of the story actually involve sex with the green monkey). It’s goofy I know, but if I ever had to pick a green AIDS monkey out of a police line up, this would be it.

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Weird, dingy green monkey toy

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Weird, dingy green monkey toy

And just how desperate are you as a scientist to get close to this thing (let alone sexually active)? There have got to be plenty of reasons to stay away from a green monkey:

1. He’s a monkey.

2. He’s green.

3. He’s pissed (probably because a scientist just made a pass at him).

4. He’s covered in blood (maybe the aftermath of the infamous bite?).

5. He’s got chunks of flesh missing, and it looks like his skull is coming through his face (maybe we’ve got it all wrong. It could be a zombie monkey… and he was actually approached by a witch doctor).

There are no markings on this nappy monkey toy, but there is a small sticker on its foot which reads, “Hand Painted – Artmark – Hong Kong.”

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Weird, dingy green monkey toy

Hand-painted? Are you kidding? So, arbitrary red splotches and white highlights on his face called for hand-painting? Well, at least it gave jobs to out-of-work artists (but most likely it’s the handywork of small asian children).

The monkey is just a hollow, plastic sculpt covered with flocking… giving him that fuzzy, nappy feel. It has a broken loop or hook or something on its head, which makes me think it is a window-hanger or something.

I sure as hell hope this thing isn’t a Christmas tree ornament.

Posted in Animals, Antique, Bizarre, Used & Abused | 10 Comments »

Capt. Dingus Dog (as Laika)

Sunday, January 6th, 2008

This Blow Up Dolls mini-figure is a depiction of Capt. Dingus Dog as Laika (the Russian dog which was the first living creature from Earth to enter orbit). The astronaut concept is pretty clever, but it is its quirky, beautifully drawn, highly-stylized design that made me fall in love with it. It is visually reminiscent of the collection of prints created by The Little Friends of Printmaking (in fact that dog’s face was taken directly from one of their posters).

Captn. Dingus Dog (as Laika)
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Friends of Printmaking's Dingus Dog - Series 2 Blow Up Dolls by Jamungo

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Friends of Printmaking's Dingus Dog - Series 2 Blow Up Dolls by Jamungo

So, I’m sure some of you already know about Jamungo’s Blow Up Dolls. These little toys have the classic, cartoony bomb for a head with a fuse and a matchstick (get it? Blow up Dolls?). They’re another in a long line of collectible designer vinyl toys.

I’ve always liked the 3D design of the Blow Up Dolls, but I was never compelled to buy them, because the 2D artwork provided by each figure’s designer never really impressed me. It wasn’t until I found out about the new Series 2 and its inclusion of one of my favorite poster design teams, The Little Friends of Printmaking, that I absolutely had to buy one.

As with most of the other “collectible” vinyl toys, the Blow Up Dolls are blind-boxed, so you really don’t know what you’re gonna get. This is a real challenge. Especially if you’re like me, and you only want a specific figure. Luckily, LFOPM made it easier for me. I bought this directly from their webstore.

The Little Friends of Printmaking are a husband-and-wife silkscreening team based in Milwaukee. They have been creating gorgeous poster art since 2003. Here’s a look at some of the posters they’ve done (notice the dog drawing they used for the Dingus Dog toy).

Friends of Printmaking Prints

Posted in Animals, Cute, Designer Vinyl | 1 Comment »

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