Toys & Dolls: Blade (Puppet Master) Plush Doll

"He'll kill you with cuteness"

Full Moon Direct very kindly gifted us one of their Blade (Puppet Master) plush dolls for review, but I should point out that this didn't influence my opinion of the toy in any way. 

Blade is the leader of the puppets in the Puppet Master films and one of only 3 characters that appear in every movie in the series. In the films, he's a little creepier and looks more like this:

The doll arrived inside a sturdy cardboard box, packaged in plastic; no other packaging was necessary for a soft toy. I also feel the need to mention that even though Full Moon Direct are located in the US, the shipping time to the UK was only 5 days, which is pretty fast!

The adorable over-sized plush is a creepy-cute version of Blade and all of the character's distinctive features are included, from his white hair to his knife and hook hands. He stands at 12 inches tall, wears a trench coat, trousers, and shoes made of felt and a wide-brimmed hat made of rigid hat felt. The coat and trousers can be removed, if you really feel the need to undress him, but the hat is sewn into place so that it doesn't fall off of his head.

The quality of the doll is great; the materials used are durable and the stitching is well-finished. The only somewhat negative point about him is the hair. It's stitched to his head at the sides, but still looks like hair due to the fake fur fabric used. However, at the base of his head it is left unattached, which means that the edge of the fabric is unfinished and so tiny clumps of fur occasionally fall out along the bottom. That is only very occasionally though, and doesn't detract from the look or durability of the doll.

Overall, Blade is a well-made and unusual plush doll that I would recommend to fans of the Puppet Master franchise or lovers of the "spooky cute" genre. 

↓You can purchase your very own Blade plush doll, for $24.95, from Full Moon Direct below↓

"Blade" Plush Buddy

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Toys: PLASEEBO AUTOPSY Night Gamer

"Plaseebo is pleased to offer the AUTOPSY Night Gamer edition by Jeremi Rimel of Miscreation. Jeremi did a killer job ( no pun intended ) on this AUTOPSY custom edition, re-sculpting the Night Gamers in his signature mortuary slice and stitch technique and hand painting them in two different "on the slab" color schemes.  

The Ultra Limited Edition of five pieces, 2 green and 3 faded rose, will be available from the Plaseebo web store on Friday February 22nd.

$200. each plus shipping. "

Toys & Art: Eyezon Tank at Double Punch

The Eyezon Tank is a vinyl and resin custom with glass eyes and a switched colour changing LED unit that illuminates the eyes.  It will be displayed at the Kaiju Eyezon 5th Anniversary show, along with various other pieces, at the Double Punch Store & Gallery. The gallery is located in the North Beach district of San Francisco, California.

Each Eyezon Tank is signed and dated by Bob Conge of Plaseebo, and will be at Double Punch from November 3rd - December 2012.

12th: Toys & Figures - Sam (Trick 'r Treat) 15" Vinyl

The rules of Halloween:

• Wear a costume
• Hand out treats
• Never blow out a Jack o' lantern
• Always check your candy

If you break the rules and this little horror comes knocking on your door, don't say I didn't warn you!

For those of you that haven't seen Michael Dougherty's dark comedy horror film Trick 'r Treat, the above photos are of a 15" vinyl figure (by Sideshow Collectibles) of a character called Sam, who appears in it. Trick r' Treat consists of 4 separate stories, all happening on Halloween night in the same town, with Sam tying the plots together by showing up in each one. I won't go into detail about the movie in this entry, as it's all about Sam today, but if you want to see the trailer you can watch it below, or on the official website. I actually think the trailer doesn't do it justice, but oh well...

Anyway, back to Sam...I actually got him before the film was released (on DVD...it was never given a general theatrical release at the cinema and only shown at film festivals / events before that) for around £35 and, although I had heard of the film, I hadn't seen it at the time and bought him because I thought he was creepy, amazing and weird, haha. (I have subsequently seen Trick 'r Treat and thought it was a great movie, but truthfully, that wasn't my reason at the time). 

Without the burlap sack on his head

His pumpkin-esque head is incredibly detailed with its wrinkles, stitches, veins and gory eyes and, to give him a more "realistic" look, Sideshow also applied gloss to the gory / shiny parts and matt to the rest. 

Sam comes with his ominous burlap sack (pictured above) and razor sharp lollipop, which I didn't photograph of, but if you're interested it's made of transparent orange plastic, has a stripy orange and black stick, and looks like this:

I absolutely love this figure and, even if I had hated the film, I still wouldn't regret buying him!

This post is part of The Countdown to Halloween

More picture behind the cut below↓

10th: Toys - Skull Daddy

I bought this strangely adorable little fellow, dressed like a teddy bear skeleton, from Closet Child (a second hand / vintage store chain in Japan) in Shinjuku in 2009. A brand called Skull Daddy made him, along with a rabbit version, which I don't have. There were also pink versions of both designs, but I don't think Skull Daddy make either of them anymore, unfortunately.

As well as being a toy, he's a fashion accessory of sorts, as there's a clip on his back that can be attached easily to a bag or parasol handle. He's a little too large to be attached to anything else.

His cute bear guise can be removed - or rather the hood can be pulled down - to reveal his true skull with a mohawk form. Even after the transformation he's about as scary as The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I am very fond of him regardless of that. (I like TNBC too though).

The title of this post is Skull Daddy, simply because I don't remember what his individual name was, only the brand. If anyone happens to know it, tell me!

This post is part of The Countdown to Halloween    
More photos behind the cut below↓

Fashion & Toys: Sugar Skulls Keychain

Sugar Skulls keychain in purple

This pretty little face was given to me for my birthday last week! It's a Sugar Skulls keyring (purple), which has carved / engraved patterns all over it, including a longhorn-type skull on its forehead and flowers on the side. 

Longhorn on forehead

Flower on the left side

The height of the skull part is approximately 2 inches / 5cm and it's fairly heavy for a keyring! I like that about it though.

Back of skull

The only place I've been able to find them online is on The Works webshop, although they don't have the keychain version, only the clips. There are four kinds available: purple, black, yellow, and cream, each featuring a different design / pattern. The purple type is exactly the same as this one, apart from having a clip, but it's much closer to the colour in the photos in this post, rather than the bright pink colour in the webshop.

You can find all four variants stocked at The Works via the links below:

• Purple version
• Black version
• Yellow version
• Cream version

Toys & Dolls: Living Dead Dolls Figurines - Pumpkin

A few days ago, I received an unexpected parcel and inside was this little axe-murderer - Living Dead Dolls Figurine, Pumpkin! (Madame Luciel had bought him for me and sent him as a surprise - thank you!)

Each 2 inch high figure featured in the Living Dead Dolls Figurines collection comes individually packaged and is randomised. The likelihood of getting each one is detailed on the back of the box and that means that there's a 20% chance of getting Pumpkin randomly. I don't usually like it when companies randomly select which figure you get, but on this occasion it made no difference, as I like all of them equally. 

There is, as usual, a very small chance that your box will contain a rare, third version of Eggzorcist. Even though I do like Eggzorcist, there's only so many versions of her a person can have before they start looking the same. However, since I got Pumpkin on this occasion, that wasn't an issue.

Pumpkin comes in 3 parts: the main figure, an axe and two pumpkins that are joined together. The axe fits snugly and easily into his hands and the pumpkins can be placed anywhere around him, as there is no specific slot for them. The dolls that Mezco have released of Pumpkin in the past have all included machetes as his weapon (correct me if I'm wrong, I only have Pumpkin and one variant), so it was a fun change to have him with an axe this time. 

His pose - with one leg out to the side - is a little strange, but it does suggest that he's just about to chop something up, which is probably the point!

Even though it's quite a small figure, it's solid and sturdy, the details are intricate and, along with his oversized head and features, this helps to give Pumpkin a creepy, cute and crazy aesthetic. For example, the blood spatter on the axe and the black lines that draw out the teeth of his deranged smile. 

Overall, Pumpkin is an adorable little maniac and anyone who likes Living Dead Dolls, spooky cute things, or Halloween (as I do) will probably appreciate him a lot!

Toys: Tarantula Tower by Le Toy Van

Whilst in a shop earlier this year I took the above photo of some kind of 'spider castle'. It turns out that it's actually called 'Tarantula Tower' and is made by a company called Le Toy Van. It seems like a pretty fun toy. I mean, who wouldn't want their own six-wheeled attack tower - decorated with spiders and bats - complete with catapults manned by skeletons? Exactly.

May Monster Madness: Plaseebo at Monster Mayhem

First of all, apologies for our blog link not working earlier today. It's all fixed and fine now :) Anyway, that out of the way, time for some monsters!

Fittingly enough, FOE Store & Gallery in Western Massachusetts are holding an exhibition called 'Monster Mayhem' soon, which features the work of figure makers / customisers from all over the world, all with the terrifically terrifying theme of monsters! Here's what the FOE website has to say about the event:

Monster Mayhem

May 11 - June 3, Opening May 11, 6-9pm 

For the 2nd year monsters from across the US and as far away as Japan descend on the town of Northampton and wreak havoc.   

This year’s roster includes work from:

Brian Mahony, Bob Conge/Plaseebo, Monster Worship, James Groman, Koji Harmon, Elegab, Miles Nielsen, Michael Nordstrom, Ricky Wilson/Velocitron, Martin Ontiveros, Bob Eggleton, Michael Skattum, Eric Talbot, Joe Merrill/Splurrt, Dennis Hamann/Shirahama, Steven Erst, Mark Nagata, Paul Kaiju, Stephen Blickenstaff, Mark Masztal, and Michael Bracco/Spaghetti Kiss

"Braineniac" vinyl with LED unit by Plaseebo

Even if you can make the Monster Mayhem event, the FOE Store & Gallery alone sounds like an intriguing place to visit, with items including: "subculture art, designer toys, kaiju and kawaii. Whether it’s custom-painted monsters or tiny cute things, FOE is curated to inspire". Not only that, but they try to bring creators together for both domestic and international projects / collaborations, so who knows what you might find there!

Take a sneak peak at some more of the monsters contributed to the show by Bob Conge of Plaseebo, after the cut below!

This post is part of the May Monster Madness blog hop!

Art & Toys: Plaseebo Night Gamer TRON Series

Night Gamer TRON Series

Bob Conge/Plaseebo's new customs, the 'Night Gamer TRON Series', will will debut at the New York Comic Con 2011. The first 5 NGT figures will be available for purchase in the Cult Yard at the Tenacious Toys booth No. 876. Each of the 5 Night Gamer TRON Series 7" vinyl figures is a unique hand paint using metallic colors with glass eyes and dual motion-actvated color changing LED units that create an effect inspired by TRON. Show price of $150.

Bob Conge will also be doing a group signing along with Mike "NEMO" Mendez and Rob "OsirisOrion" Ingellis, at 3PM on Saturday October 15th, at the Tenacious Toy Booth #876. They'll all have some other goodies as well, so make sure you go and see them!

Art & Toys: Rotten Rainbow Zombicorns by Abomination Nursery

Rotten Rainbow Zombicorns

These zombie unicorns are new custom horror toys from the ever-creative Abomination Nursery. If you could never quite decide whether to be a pretty princess or a little horror fiend, these are definitely for you!

With their pointy uni-horns, zombicorns would make for pretty deadly zombies, don't you think?

Art & Toys: Bob Conge / Plaseebo - Brain Rider

'Brain Rider'

Bob Conge / Plaseebo will be showing the above, one of a kind, 'Brain Rider' custom at the Toy Art Gallery's “Brain Evolution” Custom Group Show. Conge's custom displays his distinctive figure-painting style and is a combination of the Jumping Brain and a version of Plaseebo's much loved Skulloctopus. The exhibit features interpretations of Emilio Garcia's 'Jumping Brain' figures submitted by artists from around the globe. Other contributors include  Daniel Goffin, Itokin Park, Tokyo Plastic, Nebulon 5 and many more! 

The 'Brain Rider' backstory

"Toy Art Gallery is proud to present Emilio Garcia’s “Brain Evolution” Jumping Brain Custom Group Show. Emilio’s signature creation has enraptured collectors since it’s debut, and this show truly captures the evolution of the Jumping Brain as it explodes across a huge array of forms and mediums. “Brain Evolution” features exclusively produced 6” resin Jumping Brains customized by a huge selection of artists from around the world."

'Brain Evolution' will run from 7pm - 11pm on September 16th and continue until October 10th, 2011 at Hollywood's Toy Art Gallery.

Toys & Art: Plaseebo, Monster Invitational Group Show

Plaseebo / Bob Conge will be exhibiting some new mash up customs at the 'Monster Invitational' group show at the FOE gallery in Northampton, MA. The work of many other creative monster makers will also be featured at the event, which runs from July 8th - July 22nd, 2011.

Here's a sneak peek at one of Plaseebo's contributions, 'Night Gamer Kaiju':

Thank you to Bob Conge for the images.