Wow. Over the weekend, I discovered this awesome music video (thanks Brad) for Zombie Zombie’s “Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free” song. I don’t know a thing about the band, but I’m in love with this video.
Stop motion vintage G.I. Joe… in the antarctic… fighting zombies.
What’s not to love?
This is a perfectly executed homage to John Carpenter’s “The Thing.”
I’m thinking this music video may be better than the latest G.I. Joe movie.
Thanks for watching.
“OMFG” is right! Outlandish Mini Figure Guys!
The community at October Toys are always up to something, and this time, it’s an awesome little set of mini figures – a throwback to the old M.U.S.C.L.E. figures from the 80s.
This first series includes Multiskull, Crawdad Kid, Phantom Outhouse, King Castor and Stroll.
These new figures perfectly capture the quirkiness and fun of that old line, and I really can’t wait to get my hands on these. If you’d like to learn more and help make these figures become a reality (which you really should), you can help fund the project at Kickstarter.com. I’m actually a backer on this project. I’m not only happy to contribute, but I’m psyched to get my hands on these little guys.
Share the toy love, and give these guys a shot! And be sure to drop by October Toys and say “hi.”
Now that I’m a dad, I know I need to be on the lookout for cool toys for my son. Thing is, at such a young age, he can’t play with bootleg He-man figures and stuff like that. I don’t see that much baby “weirdo” stuff out there.
That is until I found these.
Let me introduce you to Franken Toys – an Etsy shop full of repurposed toys designed by artist (and mad scientist), Rachel Peters.
To quote the site:
Franken Toys are a growing collection of rescued toys which have been dismembered only to be re-membered as a new piece of art. Every repurposed toy has been hand sewn and many have been intricately embroidered.
Adopt your favorite Franken Toy today. Each Franken is one of a kind.
I really love these. This is a twist on customized toys I haven’t seen yet. Such a simple and refreshing contrast to the designer vinyl scene. It’s genius I tell you.
What appeals to me so much is the fact that these aren’t not just random, strange creatures… these are freaky mash-ups of characters we all know and love. This makes them that much more striking… and charming.
Who wants a Kermit doll if you could have a freaky, double-reverse-head Kermit with removable body parts?
What better way to “spruce up” some old, forgotten dolls than by dismembering them and reattaching their body parts – creating half-breeds only seen in your children’s nightmares?
When you drop by her store, be sure not to miss the other weirdos Rachel has already sold.
Now a stop at any Goodwill in America could get you some great fodder for the next Franken Toy. I wonder if Rachel takes requests.
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but my dad has a healthy interest in my toy hobby, and yet again, he’s uncovered a gem for us all.
Sometime last year, he surprised me with an entire case of “Creepy Freaks” by WizKids (I think it was my birthday or something. I don’t recall.)
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Apparently, he got the toys fairly cheap off eBay.
I’d never heard of them, but the name alone intrigued me. I had no idea what to expect once I opened the box.
So this is what I found – Twenty four blind-boxed booster packs for “the Gross Out 3D Trading Game.” (I think I kind of recognize this packaging, but I’m not quite sure. Maybe I passed by them in a Toys R Us or something.)
I opened up my first box (after painfully cutting through a thick plastic clamshell) and found two miniature figurines inside. Not bad, but actually these weren’t toys as much as they were game pieces for a kids game.
Crap.
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They appeared to work like HeroClix or something at first glance. I don’t have any rules for the game (and honestly don’t care to look it up. Ha!), but it looks like each character has various powers and strengths which are used when you twist the character around on his/her square base.
Along with the Creepy Freaks game pieces come circular portrait stickers and character illustration stickers with a comic strip on the back.
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This is really starting to feel like a poorly executed modern Garbage Pail Kids.
Now, lets’ get to what’s important here: the weird character game pieces. After opening all 24 boxes, I had 48 Creepy Freaks in my possession. It seems like each character has an alternate name and paint job. Meet Sour Milk and Curdles.
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Again, it kind of reminds me of Garbage Pail Kids with the the alternative naming and all. I like it.
Secondly. I didn’t want a bunch of game pieces lying around. I seriously hoped I could break the figures off their game bases.
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As luck would have it, it is possible. I started breaking the game bases off every figure with brute force until my thumbs couldn’t take it anymore. A couple pairs of pliers did the trick just fine… and it didn’t involve nearly as much pain.
Okay… enough with all the BS. Let’s got to the most important part – the characters!
What I’m showing you here are some of my favorites from the collection I have. I’m not showing them all because I don’t like them all… and I honestly didn’t feel like shooting a hundred photos. Ha!
Sour Milk
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This guy is awesome. Probably my favorite of the bunch. I love the simple, maniacal milk carton w/ the little kid trapped inside trying to escape. Such a great spoof of the old missing children ads on milk cartons. Are those missing kids ads around anymore? Are milk cartons?
Drippy the Pusman
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This guy’s pretty nasty. He’s obviously a spoof of Frosty the Snowman… only he’s oozing with puss. Nasty, nasty stuff.
Skelehomie
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Skelehomie surprised me a little bit. Having anything with the word “homie” seems risky in this era of über-sensitivity and politically correct toys. And to top it off, the guy’s sipping on a brewski. I like it.
Anklebiter
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Ankebiter’s cute. He’s just a little demon or vampire baby. “Hell-on-wheels” so to speak.
Monster Under the Bed
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This guys is an icon. Every kid knows the monster under the bed. Well, now we’re finally getting a good look at him. Too bad there’s no little kid in the bed peeing himself.
Bo Oger
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This guys kind a fun and funky. Just a cyclops ogre with a major runny nose. I don’t even mind the “Bo Oger/booger” pun. Good fun.
Vampappy
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Ha! This is an awesome, awesome character design. The old’ grandpa vampire with vampire dentures. He’s rolling along in his wheel chair. It actually looks like he could be Anklebiter years from now… but vampires don’t age, right? I guess this guy was bitten at the old folks home.
Jar Head
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Jar head’s kinda cool. A bit unexpected. He’s reminiscent of the cliche, disembodied brain of a super-genius in a jar. Why don’t we ever see disembodied dumbass brains in jars… unless you count “Abby Normal.”
Socket
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This guy is awesome enough as a skeleton super hero, but the fact that he’s using a slingshot to launch his own skull at someone… that’s pretty cool.
T.E.D.D.Y.
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He is the ultimate franken-bear. Looks like a teddy bear brought to life by scrounging together some parts of long-deceased stuffed animals. Such a great, creepy twist on such a staple of childhood cuteness and innocence.
Sox
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Man. I’ve never seen an undead zombie cat. He looks great. and I can’t get over the awesome gag of his rising from a litter box grave So puurfect (couldn’t resist).
John
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Hey, the name says it all. He’s a john. Question is, “Sit or squat… or run for your life?” I’ll let you answer that one.
Overall, I love the character designs. They are actually a lot of fun and pretty clever. I’m happy to add these cool, weird figurines to my collection.
Saddest part is the Creepy Freaks are gone. These suckers came out in 2003. I probably saw them at some point, but paid no attention to them at the time. I guess kids did the same. I think the naming, packaging, etc. may have had something to do with that.
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The logo for one is pretty lame – a nondescript sans-serif type face with a devilish smiley face. It’s pretty tame and generic for a game that’s based around cool, gross creatures. Take that logo, and put it over a dark box with texture all over. and what do ya get? An indiscernible mess.
No way you could read that package on the shelves. plus, there’ so much texture and shadows and glows and stuff, you can’t ever tell what you’re looking at.
I think the figurines are great, but the awkward, comic-book style illustrations and unfunny comic strips seems to just throw too much in the mix. Maybe it wasn’t “too much,” but when it’s not all presented well, it just comes across as an incohesive mess.
Am i being too critical? Ha!
One last thing. I wonder if the cartoony, gross character trend is reserved for a generation of 80s kids. Do kids nowadays like this stuff? If so, I have hope 
Well, it’s hard to believe, but I actually have a bunch of new info about that mysterious windup, musical demon lumberjack I was so excited about (and desperate for) weeks ago.
I’m not sure if you recall, but in that video, we saw a freaky, distorting, rubber face placed on an animatronic, musical lumberjack-type of character (I’m calling him a lumberjack because he’s wielding an axe and he’s wearing boots and overalls).
The thing was so bizarre, I could’ve sworn it was “homemade.” I kind of recognized the look of the rubbery-face and figured it was a finger puppet placed on some weird holiday toy or something.
That lead to my search and discovery of this generic set of rubber-faced finger puppets.
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Jackpot! Not only did I get some weird-looking little finger puppets, but it appears that the demon-looking character from the video is in the bunch.
Okay, now that I’ve acquired the rubber faces, all I needed is the strange lumberjack toy.
Well, thanks to the help of some of you readers and a little bit of detective work, I discovered that this toy is called “Magic Monster.” Once I’d acquired that information, it would only be a matter of time before the toy gods sent this Magic Monster my way.
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Luckily for me, when the monster reared its ugly face, it came fully-functioning and complete with its original box. (Thanks toy gods!)
It’s not a lumberjack toy at all. It is, in fact, simply a nonsensical, axe-wielding monster that sways back-and-forth to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Who’d have thunk it?
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Not only that, but I also discovered the face on the original toy isn’t the one in the video, so I was correct in assuming the video was a “custom” job. I never expected this face to be on the toy.
Wow? That’s one ugly son of a bitch.
And just as I thought – the “head” of the toy actually has a few protruding pegs which stretch the removable, rubbery face stretch, bringing it to life.
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Here’s a full figure view for ya. I kinda feel that they cheaped it with the head sculpt. I know there were probably some technical limitations, but the round helmet dome thing just isn’t cutting it.
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And as you may have guessed, the animatronic head perfectly accommodates the “finger holes” of the various face puppets.
This is too perfect.
Do you know what this means? I can bring each face to life, giving the freaky axe maniac multiple personalities.
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We’ve got the demon-looking guy.
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The angry, mustached man, who actually looks like an axe murder (or angry lumberjack).
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The crazy old man (or is that Michael Berryman)
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And here we have the creepy child molester. (This guy’s probably scarier than the original monster.)
You think they look cool as stills? Wait ’til you see ‘em in action.
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I’ve gotta warn ya though. The music in these videos will get on your nerves. “When the Saints Go Marching In” plays loudly from a speaker in his feet. Not only that, but you have the obnoxious internal mechanism of the toy continuously grinding while the song is playing . It’s basically every parents’ nightmare.
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Also notice the axe has a light in it and glows red. Scaaary.
I noticed my monster toy’s axe is facing forward and not sideways as featured on the box and even in that other video. Hm.
So, which one is your favorite? I think I like the mustached guy best. He just looks right in those clothes… plus his mouth full of teeth really makes his head movements more pronounced and lifelike. Now all I need is some more cool rubbery finger puppets. Any thoughts on where to find them?
After seeing this toy and these puppets. it begs the question: Which came first? Were the faces/puppets made for automated toys like Magic Monster, or was the toy made to accommodate the finger puppets that were already being produced?
The finger puppets don’t have much as far as markings go. All I can see is “® 986012 Made in China.”
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Here’s all the info taken from the Magic Monster box:
(Check out that front panel. They’ve totally masked out the big dome head behind the monster’s face. Bull. The toy looks so much better with just the floating face. And did you notice the “©1985 Justen?” Weird, huh?)
Actually, there is one other question this toy makes me ask: What the hell?