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Court of the Dead

Nov 8, 2011

Geek-centric DENIATH.COM Relaunches Membership-Only Pop Culture Flash Sale Site

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New Deals Commence on November 14th, 2011

SEATTLE, WA (November 8, 2011) - After a brief hiatus, Deniath (deniath.com), a members-only flash sale site for pop-culture and geek collectibles and merchandise has relaunched, announcing new brand partnerships, a big promotional sweepstakes and a revamped blog.


Launched in December 2010, Deniath is a members-only site, offering 72-hour deals on a variety of geek products and services including toys, event deals, board games, video-game related products, comics, and other pop-culture collectibles. CEO and Co-Founder, Wade Sugiyama explains, “We intend to produce the ultimate geek experience by feeding member’s geek obsessions and helping them discover new ones. We believe that our exclusive, 3-day deals are merely the first step in that process.”


Access to Deniath and their 72-hour deals is free, however, it’s only available to Deniath members.   Sugiyama added, “And while membership is exclusive, it isn't designed to keep fans and geeks excluded.  There are a number of ways to become a Deniath member. The quickest and easiest way is to be invited by an existing member. If you can’t find a current member, invite requests are also available on the site, which can take a few days.”


On November 14th, 2011 at 9am PST, Deniath deals will commence and members will be able to start their geek holiday shopping. After previously successful partnerships with Funko, ZipZip, and artists Stephen Silver and David Colman, Deniath’s Fall lineup includes exciting new partnerships with companies like Kotobukiya, Big Bad Toy Store, and artist Imps and Monsters. “We are extremely excited about the brands that we’ve partnered with, and we can’t wait for our members to see the deals we have in store for them.”


Starting today, as part of the relaunch, Deniath has partnered with Newsarama.com, the #1 Comic News Source, to host a sweepstakes offering an enormous assortment of prizes. "Newsarama has their hands on the pulse on the comic book community and we're extremely enthusiastic about collectively organizing a sweepstakes of this size and magnitude."


The Deniath Blog has also been revamped, providing interviews, news, and more geek content for all customers. "The blog is an integral piece of the Deniath experience,” added Sugiyama, "and we hope our members enjoy the additional content and deeper look into what Deniath is all about.”


"Deniath will continue to evolve," according to Sugiyama, "with our hopes being that not only will we offer an exciting, new shopping experience specifically tailored for the geek community, but also that we will bring like-minded fans together in a community where they can share their obsessions. November 14th can’t come soon enough!"

Rampage Toys Original Ugliness & Army of Brightnesss Ugly Unicorns

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"Original Ugliness" Ugly Unicorn by Rampage Toys
Word from Jon Malmstedt comes to us from far away: he has fallen into a regular routine of releases now that he is living in Japan and making hjis own vinyl toys! Here's his two latest message regarding his next two Ugly Unicorn releases:

Hey Toy People!

Time for another UGLY UNICORN release update!  This time around it's pieces that I painted up for Design Festa in Tokyo on November 12th and 13th (this coming weekend).  I'll be in booth I-300 with Datadub (Don) and Refreshment Aya - both will be selling other AWESOME sofubi toys!  I did 2 runs for the event (one micro, and one slightly larger), and I plan on having quite a few other items (will update the Flickr later this week).  Anything leftover after the event will be available to my Ugly Unicorn Mailing list first (joined by e-mailing me), and any left from that will go in the shop.

Anyway, here are the two runs!

1) "Original Ugliness" micro-run:  The Ugly Unicorn takes his original form!  Mixed parts (yellow and white vinyl) with lots of rub/spray action.  Who needs original sin, when you've got original ugliness?!?!? Micro Run of 5 pieces, outfitted with some of the original header cards (from the blank vinyl pre-order).


2) "Army of Brightness" Ugly Unicorns!  8+ layers of spray/masking, and some super work-intensive screen printed header cards are what you get with each of these figures.  Largest Ugly Unicorn run yet - 10 pieces!


"Army of Brightness" Ugly Unicorn by Rampage Toys

Nov 5, 2011

Spotlight on: WWRp Heavy Bramble Gravedigger by ThreeA

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From the ThreeA Wiki:

World War Robot is a graphic novel illustrated by artist Ashley Wood and written by both Ashley Wood and TP Louise. The picture book combines an unconventional use of pairing painted images and essays to tell small parts of a larger story. The prose include excerpts from various diaries, journals and transcripts based around the humans involved in a fictional war in the 1980-1990s known as the Great War

The Great War takes place between multiple different factions; the most obvious are the Martians, humans who have left Earth and settled on Mars seeking refuge, and the Terrans those who remain on Earth and seek to subdue the Martians to their fanatic religious ideals with violent means. Both sides utilize warbots in their ongoing conflict. Most of these are manufactured by Darwin Rothchild, but there has also been mention of Hobson and Dolch, a competitor of Rothchild (Corporation). Further factions within the war include N.O.M. and M.O.D.. Due to the storytelling format that Ashley Wood and TP Louise have closen, many plot details are left open to the imagination of fans as the story and universe is explored in greater depth with each book release. 

WWR format figures are 1/6th scale toys of the various bots and humans of the WWR Universe, while their smaller WWRp counterparts are half that size at 1/12th scale. 



The above story (text and links) is taken from the ThreeA Wiki, which is a great resource for the newbie that wants to learn more about the universe that Ashley Wood has created. If you'd like a more hand-on introduction, we highly recommend that you pick up a WWRp-sized ThreeA figure like the Heavy Brambles we currently have up for preorder. The WWRp-sized toys are quite affordable, priced between $45 and $65 each. At about 7 inches tall, all of them feature a mind-boggling level of technical detail. There are so many points of articulation that it's nearly impossible to count them all. The weathered paint technology is more detailed than that of almost any other toy manufacturer. 

The figure pictured here is the Gravedigger colorway of the WWRp Heavy Bramble. You can preorder one from us here. All the figures have backstories and interesting things painted on their weapons and bodies... Gravedigger has "text on his right forearm and on his Aunty Jack 4 Way RPD weapon [that] reads: 'Counting bodies like sheep' and [it's] a quote from the song 'Pet' by the American band A Perfect Circle.

We also have several other colorways up for preorder, so go to our ThreeA page to check them all out! There are about 8 "retailer" colorways of the Heavy Bramble available: 5 main colorways available to all retailers, and regional exclusives that are only available to retailers in that region. I believe the 3 regions are USA, Europe and Asia. There is a distinct difference between the normal ThreeA toys offered directly to consumers, and the ones sold to retailers: ThreeA will offer certain colorways or figures to the collectors and others to retailers, which keeps the act of collecting pretty interesting. You can't buy all the ThreeA figures from any one source.

We'll cover the other 5 Heavy Brambles we're getting in subsequent blog posts.


Nov 4, 2011

Hugh Rose custom Bearbrick and Coarse Toys Jaws

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Hugh Rose shares with us images of this beautiful custom Bearbrick he executed for the Icons show at The Hang Gang in Leeds, UK. Hugh exhibited alongside JPK, Sourbones, Matt Lunartik JOnes, Mimic, Robotboy, Squink!, Map Map, A Little Stranger, Drilone, and many more. Definitely a killer show. Here's a slideshow from their Flickr:






Hugh's latest custom is this Coarse Toys Jaws figure, which seems to be a favorite platform for world-class toy customizers:
If you want to learn more about Hugh Rose, check the following links:

DKE Toys presents: "Skin Deep" by Scott Wilkowski

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Skin Deep

Artist Scott Wilkowski Infects 6 Designer Toys

Saturday, November 5, 2011   10am - 5pm

Designer Con
Pasadena Convention Center, 300 East Green Street  
Pasadena, CA 91101

Scott Wilkowski has been busy putting skulls, skeletons and creepy creatures inside favorite designer toys. For Skin Deep, he infects Buff Monster's "Buff Monster", Luke Chueh's "Possessed", Frank Kozik's "Labbit", October Toys "Gwin", Suckadelic's "Sucklord" and Scott Tolleson's "Otis & Otto".

The show will premiere November 5th at the 2011 Designer Con, an art and design convention that smashes together collectible toys and designer apparel with urban, underground and pop art.  www.designercon.com

Scott Wilkowski, Buff Monster, Luke Chueh, George and Ayleen Gaspar of October Toys, The Sucklord and Scott Tolleson will all be attendance at Designer Con. Frank Kozik TBD. There will be a photo opportunity and signing at 3pm at the DKE Toys booth with all attending artists. *Artists subject to availability.
Each of the six hand-cast resin editions will be limited to 25 pieces of two different colors each (50 total of each style). Due to the labor-intensive process of hand making each piece, only 10 of each colorway will be available for purchase at Designer Con.

Prices are as follows:
$50 - October Toys Gwin
$50 - Scott Tolleson's Otis & Otto
$100 - Suckadelic's Sucklord carded figure
$100 - Buff Monster's Buff Monster 3"
$150 - Frank Kozik's Labbit 5" by Kid Robot
$300 - Luke Chueh's Possessed by Munky King
 
Following the debut, Skin Deep will travel to Lulubell Toy Bodega in Mesa, Arizona  www.lulubelltoys.com (December 9th - December 30th) and then to Screaming Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon  www.screamingskygallery.com (February 23rd - March 25th).

Skin Deep is presented by DKE Toys. Dov and Sarah Jo have produced several art shows together including: The Vader Project, Spoonful of Star Wars, STUFFED: a plush food show and The Custom Yoka Show.

Show info and photos:  www.skindeepartshow.com 
Scott Wilkowski: Scott Wilkowski is a Wisconsin-based artist and sculptor. He perfected the process he used to produce Skin Deep for The Custom Yoka Show, which premiered at Designer Con in 2009. His piece was the first to sell and was so popular it became a special edition with new pieces showing and selling out at each of the seven stops on The Custom Yoka Show US gallery tour. The pieces he created as a collaboration with designer toy creator JAMUNGO for San Diego Comic-Con in 2010 and 2011 were also instant sell-outs. Scott works as a professional sculptor and has done sculpting work for Sideshow Collectibles, McFarlane Toys, Disney and Sanrio.  www.scottwilkowski.com

DKE Toys: Dov Kelemer & Sarah Jo Marks are Curators of Skin Deep and Founders of DKE Toys, one of the largest designer vinyl and art-toy distribution companies in the world, exclusively representing over 250 companies, artists and designers.  www.dketoys.com 

Nov 3, 2011

2011 MF TOYS SHOW: Cash & Carry Opening Party, Brooklyn, Nov 12th

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All new hand-made art toys... Just in time for the Holiday Season!!

Every year, MF Gallery selects the best Art Toys for the annual "MF Toys Show". Because of their love of toys, curators Martina and Frank Russo have been putting together this show since 2003- long before Designer Toys were in the mainstream.

The MF Toys Show focuses on toys that are 100% hand made by artists, not painted vinyl or customized toys. These toys are made of materials such as cast resin, clay, fabric, animal bones, paper, wood and more.

Most of the toys are priced between $10 and $100, and are perfectly affordable holiday gifts.... Here's your opportunity to stick it to the big corporations by supporting a local shop and buying cool gifts for your family and friends!

All of the pieces in this show are one-of-a-kind originals, making them very sought after collectibles. Some of the artists are toy makers, others were asked to create a toy especially for this show. Artists include: Drew Maillard, Esther Vershoor, Moses Jaen, Bianca Panzram, Christine Benjamin, Max Reinhart, Jade Perez, Carisa Swenson, John Weisgerber, Sheri Debow, Scott Garrett, Jacqui Gallant, Peggy Wauters, Jaz Harold, Nicole Johnson, Nate Groppe, Junker Jane, Kamila Mlynarcz, Greg Maillard, Sigal Inbar, Heather Gargon, MF Toys and more!

The 2011 MF Toys Show will open on Saturday November 12th. Many of the artists will be attending the opening party from 7 to 10pm. The party will be a "Cash & Carry" event. Buyers will be able to take their toys home with them that very same night!

The toys are also available for viewing and purchasing online here.

The 2011 MF Toys Show will be open by appointment until December 18. Contact Martina or Frank by phone (at: 917-446-8681) or email (at: info@MFgallery.net) to make an appointment to see the show.

MF Gallery is located at 213 Bond Street, between Butler and Baltic Streets in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn, NY. Take the A or G to Hoyt/ Schermerhorn, the F or G to Bergen, or the R to Union.

For more information, to request high resolution images or to set up interviews, please contact Martina Secondo Russo at info@MFgallery.net or (917) 446-8681.
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