Grandfather Clock MadL by Reet Neet (R3)

Tik tak tik tak tik tak.......here comes the Grandfather Clock from artist Reet Neet (R3). This wooden style seems to suit this artist extremely well!

Grandfather Clock, MadL 5 inch

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JC Rivera Rebel Ink and Salvation Ink customs

Jc Rivera is on fire! He made these great customs a Rebel Ink called "Pain" and a Salvation Ink called "Create".

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Stuart Witter's latest commission Dunnys

Here are the latest commission Dunnys from Stuart Witter.

Australian Stand Over Koala and Cop, Dunny 3 inch

Bolivian Alpaca Chemist and Jungle Patrol, Dunny 3 inch

Mickey, Dunny 3 inch

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Quality custom works from Artmymind

Artmymind are probably the hottest customizers at the moment. The demand for their customs is rising and as you guys can see, they are making customs with an enormous amount of detail. Here are some of their latest works.

Kuroi Ookami, Trikky 4 inch

 Chusa Ankoku, Munny 4 inch

 Higitsune, Trikky 4 inch

Shikko-sha, Dunny 3 inch

 Shikko-sha Subscribers, Dunny 3 inch

Shikko-sha Chase, Dunny 3 inch 

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Don P Kid Troll 7-inch Kidrobot Mascot

Don P recently finished another 7 inch Mascot called KidTroll. He writes:

This style is something new for me and i have to say that i might transform it to other platforms. It is all done by hand and i haven't used an airbrush.

When people are interested in buying this piece or on an other platform, than they can always hit me up otherwise it will end up in my own custom collection.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DonP.PatrickLippe
blog: http://donpcustoms.blogspot.com
shop: http://donp.bigcartel.com

Gallery1988's Crazy 4 Cult is coming to NEW YORK!

Gallery1988 is taking Crazy 4 Cult, their annual show with artwork inspired by classic cult movies, on the road and straight to the Big Apple! The subject of an international art coffee table book last year, this show has brought in thousands of patrons since its inception in 2006 and has been covered by hundreds of media outlets. And for the first time ever, Gallery1988 will be holding a show outside of California. Crazy 4 Cult NY will open in August 9th, with an opening reception from 6-9 PM, at 64 Gansevoort St. in the Meat Packing District. The show will stay up in this location through September 1st, and will feature over 200 artists!  (Gansevoort Street, by the way, is where NYC shop Yoyamart is. So you can see 2 great things on one tiny street!)
Tumblr: g1988.tumblr.com
Twitter: @galleries1988
 WWW.GALLERY1988.COM

Pris-zillA resin figure by Monster Kolor

 Just spotted in the first ever Monstor Kolor Newsletter: Pris-zillAthe first resin figure designed by Monster Kolor! This 2.5" tall figure is only $7.00 and you can purchase it from the Monster Kolor Store at the following link: Pris-zillA - Monster Kolor Store

To sign up for the Monster Kolor Newsletter, click here.

JFury's "JUJU TRIBE SERIES"

These guys from JFury are now available! Only 65 dollars each, a bargain for an excellent design like this. Grab them HERE!

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Custom news from JFury

One month we did not hear a thing from JFury. Finally we know why. He was in his dungeon sculting and painting all these great customs. Really love the diversity of all the used platforms. My personal favorite is the Mad JuJu 10 inch MadL, what is yours?

Mad JuJu MadL, 10 inch

 Chuckles, 3 inch Dunny

Clown voodoo doll, 3 inch Dunny

 Gooju jungle boy, 3 inch Dunny

 Droids for Dragatomi SDCC blindbox, 3 inch Android

 MF Doom, 7 inch Munny

Black and white, 4 inch Munny

Bub Giveaway, 4 inch Bub

JuJu totems, 5 inch orignal resin figures

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SNEAK PEEK: Scott Kinnebrew x Star Wars x Toy2R customs

Okay, I'm not sure what these are for, but Scott Kinnebrew teased us with this shot of two Star Wars-themed custom 8-inch Kit Kat Qees. Looks like Kabe from the Cantina on the left, and and Ewok (Logray??) on the right. Secondary or tertiary characters, to be sure, but honestly those are the ones that interest me the most. Bad ass. I guess we all have to wait and see if there will be more, or if there's some event or show happening that warranted two customs along the same theme... Scott likes to tease us, the bastard.

UNBOXING: The Big Bang & The Super Amazing Spectacular Collection by Dudebox

The other day I received an unexpected package from a new company: Dudebox, located in the U.K., sent me a care package. My immediate thought? Here's a company that GETS IT, finally. As a retailer, one area where the designer toy industry frequently comes up short is product samples. I really, really need to see, hold, touch, play with the new products before I can make an informed decision about what to buy. I'm a regular guy, with no outside funding. I work really hard to accrue every $500 or $1000 I spend on toys for the shop. Some of you have seen me mention that on Facebook... occasionally I mention a freelance gig. Yeah. I have to work just like the rest of you.

So, when a new company pops up, or a new product is put out on the market, it's hard for me to make a decision about it. Will it sell? Is it worth the price? Will the customer appreciate it? Who the hell knows! Often I'm looking at a .pdf sales sheet with illustrations of the products! Or no images at all.

So when the Dudebox care package arrived, I was very excited. The first thing I did was take the picture above. Then I posted it to Facebook. Immediately, I got hit with several inquiries: "OH are you getting those Mini Dudes? I wanna customize some!" That's a good sign for me.

What was in that package? First off, there was a high-quality, glossy and bound sales booklet with images and prices for all the Dudebox products (the green thing that everything's sitting on). There were several branded postcards, stickers, a DIY Mini Dude, one blind box from each of Dudebox's 2 mini figure series, and a stack of the ID card inserts that accompanies each figure:

But let's get down to brass tacks here: the main focus of Dudebox is, of course, the toys. And they're great.

I'll do a bit of a photo essay unboxing here: the first box I opened was from The Big Bang. Bright graphics all over the box, and the possible figures on the side with their ratios is a formula best employed by Kidrobot and Toy2R, and it works.

No news here, that's what we collectors are looking for. The artist roster for The Big Bang is as follows: Attaboy, Travis Price, Mark Gmehling, Bunka, Grapheart, Andreas Krapf, 2Much, Drunk Park, Dust & Sebastien Pie.

Upon opening the box, we get a foil baggie like a Dunny would be packed in, and a fold-out insert showing all the figures, listing the artists, talking about blind-box toys in general and Dudebox in particular.

Turns out I pulled the Andres Krapf figure, which is on the Dude platform. This one is listed as ?/?? so I'm not exactly sure if I pulled a super-rare figure, or just one with a mysterious unpublished ratio.

This figure has great color, a lollipop accessory and most importantly, SUPER CLEAN PAINT LINES. A little hard to see from my iPhone pics, but the edges of the paint were all even, sharp and printed clean. A great job. This little dweeb has a "Kick Me" sign taped to his back!

The Andrea Krapf figure from Dudebox's The Big Bang mini figure series

Next I moved on to the Super Amazing Spectacular Collection figure. The box employs the same tried-and-true layout as the Big Bang box: graphic front, descriptive back, and the figures in the series presented on the 2 sides.

Dudebox pulled together a somewhat overlapping artist roster for the Super Amazing series: Attaboy, The Yok, Jonny Wan, Mark Gmehling, Chauskoskis, Andreas Krapf, Suki Bamboo, Drunk Park, Travis Price & Junichi Tsuneoka.

The same delicious and easy-to-open foil packet holds the Super Amazing figure. Busting this one open, I uncovered a figure on a different platform: a figure by Jonny Wan on one of Dudebox's other platforms that sort of looks like a fox to me. Couldn't find a name for this shape but one thing I'd like to point out about both The Big Bang and The Super Amazing Spectacular Collection is that they both contain figures in 3 different Dudebox sculpts... this is a little different than Kidrobot's Dunny (all essentially the same sculpt) and Toy2R's 2.5" Qees (same bodies, different heads).

I really enjoy this and for me (not normally a big fan of collecting blind-box figures for my own collection) this extra added level of mystery really ramps up the excitement of opening a Dudebox blind box product.

Jonny Wan's figure is SUPER detailed. Like the Krampf figure from the Big Bang series, this one had crisp paint details, but a WAY more complex paint design. Coupled with the flag accessory, this one would really stand out in any collection.

Reminds me a little bit of Lunabee's work.

The Jonny Wan figure from The Super Amazing Spectacular Collection by Dudebox

Now, I know I don't do many reviews and unboxings on this blog. Mostly that's because I don't get product samples in the mail... so I am very pleased that Dudebox took the trouble to mail these to me. I realize that puts me in the precarious position of reviewing products which I later stand to make a profit upon, and that makes my reviews a little less trustworthy than those of a non-retailer... so I'll just say this: I really enjoy the Dudebox blind box mini figures. They are interesting to look at, well-made, expertly painted and present well. In addition, Dudebox is a European company, so they are tapping into a largely European artist base. This is a welcome change for Kidrobot's mostly American artist base, Medicom's mostly Japanese artist base and Toy2R's pan-Asian artist base. We just haven't seen production vinyl mini figures from many of Dudebox's artists, and that fact alone makes these two series a pleasure to explore. 

I'm expecting a large shipment of blank DIY Mini Dudes to arrive this week- that was the first product I ordered from them. So until those, and our next Dudebox shipment, arrives, go check out their fancy, clean website for more info and to buy these 2 series of mini figures. You'll like them.