Vote for Universe of Violence in the Designer Toy Awards!

Over the past year I've been really impressed with a lot of the indie toy lines being unleashed into the world. There's so much creativity out there, and it's really exciting that fellow fans of classic mini figure lines like MUSCLE and Monster in My Pocket are keeping awesome new mini figures for sale even if they're rarely seen from mainstream toy companies these days. Probably the line I've been most impressed with is Universe of Violence from IroNilla Productions, a.k.a. Eric Nilla and Jimmy Rommel. They started the line last year and this year have been tearing it up by releasing a great new sculpt every single month. That's why I was happy to see UoV nominated for "Best Mini Series" in the 2013 Designer Toy Awards!

I voted for them as soon as I saw it, and I plan to vote again as many times as possible (you can vote every 24 hours). If you're also a fan of what Jimmy and Eric do, be sure to click here, find Universe of Violence at the bottom of the page, and vote! Then vote again. And again. And keep voting.

ALSO, Jimmy has been nominated on his own in a separate category, "Best Break-Through Artist"! In addition to his part in UoV, Jimmy has created a bunch more cool stuff like Gorewad Monsters, HORDE and the brand new Micro Bastards, all of which you can find more about on his blog. So vote for Ironhaus Productions in that category here! 

Here are some more pics of Jimmy and Eric's creations for more proof of why they deserve your votes:

Putrid peaches

Here's my latest "toys by color" group shot. I'm running out of colors! 

Toy lines in this photo: Nintendo Super Mario keshi, OMFG, Lucky Yuckies, HACK: OtherWorld Aliens, Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toys, Villgust, ZOMBIE, Cosmix, Kinnikuman bootleg, Gorewad Monsters, Weird Ball Wrestlers, Ultimate MUSCLE.

For more of these types of photos, check out my "toys by color" set on Flickr.

Braindead Zombies

WHAT: The zombie craze continues. These guys are new figures I found the other day at the dollar store that, like S.L.U.G. Zombies, Z.O.M.B.I.E. and Zombie Planet, take advantage of the current popularity of zombies in toy form. They are a bit taller than S.L.U.G.s and glow in the dark. Unfortunately, they also have the "put them in water and then grow" gimmick, which would be fine except that means they're made out of that funky, totally not durable grow material. That's why I got a set to open and a set to keep sealed (totally worth doing at only $1 each). I actually really like the looks of these things. The sculpts are fun and that glow green color of their skin is pretty cool. My favorite zombie is the guy in the middle with the huge head and mouth. He just looks so demented.

WHEN: I bought them in May 2013.

WHERE: Found at Dollar Tree, a chain of North American discount stores.

WHO: Alley Oop, LLC/Inspirefly Toys, LLC. They are shown as one of the products at inspireflytoys.com.

Little Weirdos on Instagram!

Because I felt I needed to join yet another social network (ha ha), you can now follow Little Weirdos on Instagram! People kept asking me, "Are you on Instagram?" I kept responding, "No." But now I can say "yes," so please find and follow me here under the handle @little_weirdos7 (Froggacuda up there really wants you to). I will be posting different stuff there than I do here and on Flickr. Also let me know what your handles are so I can follow you.

And to recap, here's all the places you can keep up with Little Weirdos in addition to here now:

Twitter
Flickr
Instagram

Mystical Warriors of the Ring

Goliath & Ulric, before & after color change

WHAT: Mystical Warriors of the Ring is a new indie toy line from Fantastic Plastic Toys that was first teased in late 2012 and debuted for sale this past weekend at C2E2 in Chicago. It's sort of a fusion of M.U.S.C.L.E. and Battle Beasts, featuring 2" anthropomorphized animal wrestler figures. The first release in the line includes two wrestlers--the wolf, Ulric Wolfrom, and the crocodile, Goliath--as well as a wrestling ring and a few other goodies. While attending C2E2 I was lucky enough to pick up one of the first sets sold. I wasn't completely sure if I wanted to dive into yet another toy line when I saw photos online, but after having a set in person I have to say I'm officially sold!

The figures themselves are very, very cool. Goliath in particular is a gorgeous, eye-catching sculpt. He's a real brute (Ulric looks somewhat diminutive in comparison--it's hard to think he'd stand a chance in the ring). I can see people getting into the line based on this figure alone. Ulric is very nicely done too, but a hulk of a character like Goliath is naturally going to steal the spotlight. The package says the figures are made of "high quality UV resistant urethane," which gives them the feel of a hard, rather lightweight (but not cheap) plastic. Personally, I always prefer mini figures done in a more flexible plastic or rubber, but I don't really mind the material of these guys. I'm just not going to try to find out how easily they'd break, because it seems like it might not take too much.

A few different versions of the sets were offered at C2E2, each featuring different figure colors: one with metallic green and purple, one with metallic gold and one with thermal color change (dark green to yellow-green and purple to blue). I opted for the thermal set and am really happy with my choice. The color change feature works very well when you put the figures in hot water and definitely adds an extra element of fun. They are also translucent once changed, and even in their standard form there's a very slight translucent quality to the material which I love.

Creepy Crawlers!

My hoard o' 1990s Creepy Crawlers

Recently, while going through old stuff, I found a large container filled with all of the Creepy Crawlers toys I made as a kid. I can still remember the huge deal it was getting the version of the oven made by ToyMax on my 10th birthday, and spending hours upon hours concocting different colors with the "Plasti-Goop" and creating little rubber creatures with it (I really did have friends as a child, I swear). I was always into collecting the kind of stuff this blog focuses on, so I loved being able to create these kinds of things myself. I'm glad I hoarded my Creepy Crawlers creations all these years, because some of them are pretty damn cool! I recently began photographing the various kinds on their own. I've got a long way to go until I get through all the different kinds included in that box pictured above, but let's take a look at a few different ones for now.

First up is a standard Creepy Crawlers creature--the scorpion! Judging by how many of these guys I've got, I think I made it my mission as a kid to create as many scorpions as possible. I think it was part of the basic starter creature mold, which I'm pretty sure came packed with the oven itself. Maybe not the most exciting Creepy Crawlers creature, but a classic.

These next guys are something not so typical as far as Creepy Crawlers go. They're larger "Create a Creature" monsters, from molds which I believe came out later on in the ToyMax run. The idea is that the molds included different parts of the monsters and you could mix and match. The problem was that you needed a special "Super Oven" to accommodate the molds, so I think I had to beg permission to make the two shown below in our household toaster oven (which is probably why I only made two of them).

I don't really know what the below things are supposed to be, or what the name of the mold set they came from was. I guess just some sort of monster bugs. I like them, though. The cool thing about Creepy Crawlers is that you could create all different kinds of creatures, from realistic ones to totally bizarre made up ones.

Neclos Fortress: New website / figure archive!

Are you a fan of the awesome Japanese keshi line Neclos/Necros Fortress? Or do you think you might want to become one?

Then go check out a new Neclos website I put together at NeclosFortress.com!

I've been big into collecting these toys for a while now and thought there needed to be more information on them out there, so I began working on this site a few months ago. It includes an archive of its over 300 figures and cards, background info on the line, a photo gallery, and even a Neclos-specific forum.

I hope fellow Neclos fans find it useful and enjoy looking around!