More Goodness from alto for ToyCon UK

    I did terrible in geometry class the first time I took it in high school.  By then I had already discovered that grunge music was my calling and I was gonna be the next Nirvana.  What the hell did I need to know about acute angles and such when I was gonna be on tour playing songs that teenagers would listen to just to piss off their parents?  So I failed.  I failed hard.  Not only at geometry, but my music career never got off the ground, pretty much because I have crippling anxiety that prevents me from stepping foot on a stage, let alone playing guitar or singing in front of someone.  But I still think about it sometimes, that I'm not too too old to write some angsty anthems.  However I never think about geometry, or the fact that it took me two times to pass it.  

    alto was much better at the weird math than I was, because he makes his living making cool geometrical objects.  I love the Wired editions of his Evil Origami and Skelevex toys.  Stripping these down to a complex frame work makes them interesting to look at in completely different ways.   You can buy these right now from his Shapeways store by going to http://www.shapeways.com/designer/alto.  

    

   

    They will also be at ToyCon UK tomorrow for those of you in attendance.  He will also be involved in Fugi.me's Power 5 series, in which 5 different artists created 5 resin pieces in 5 different colors.  This little one inch tall guy is his offering to the series:

    And be the first to see in person his collaboration with RunDMB entitled "Project X".  This thing is massive and crazy looking and I'm sure you'll be able to learn much more about how to buy one very soon.

Heavy Metal Wookie from I Break Toys/Lisa Rae Hansen at ToyCon UK

   When Wookies aren't ripping your arms off and beating you to death with them for defeating them at space chess, they like to form bands and tour around the galaxy.  And they only play metal that would melt the skin right off your face.  You won't necessarily find this bit of information in any of those Star Wars books, but I've never lied to you before.  Except that one time about that thing.  

   Lisa Rae Hansen/I Break Toys/international woman of amazing art toys fame, has outdone herself with these Heavy Metal Wookies.  Each color is limited to 10 pieces, with 5 of them being available at ToyCon UK tomorrow and the other 5 going online shortly after at http://ibreaktoys.storenvy.com/.  She'll have a bunch of other cool stuff at her booth if you're lucky enough to be going to the convention, so stop by, say hi, and buy lots of toys.  

Artransmitte Exclusives for ToyCon UK

    You know what I always say: "The best hippie, is a dead hippie."  Actually, I've never said that, because hippies were long extinct before I was born.  I guess hipsters are sort of the same though, because they both have that natural, unwashed look.  Who cares about that nonsense though, cause these Dead Hippies from Patrick Wong are pretty awesome.  These little dudes are exclusives to Artransmitte's booth at ToyCon Uk tomorrow.  Only 30 exist and are sold blind with a 1/6 chance of getting a mint green chase.  

    Even more limited are these Wrong Mask 3 Dunnys from DrilOne.  Only 10 of these guys doing their best raven cosplay were made and were inspired by the artist's visit to the Tower of London and the raw-meat eating ravens that hang around the place.  Maybe they are the souls of the dead who were executed there.  Or maybe they're just hungry birds who love a free meal.  

Any leftovers from the con will be made available at http://www.artransmitte.com/.  

Ultrus Aqua Bog from Frank Kozik Releases Today

    Aqua Man is lame.  What the hell kinda super power is being able to talk to fish?  I don't want to talk to most people, so I don't know what a fish could say that would be that interesting.  I guess it would be mildly convenient if you could talk a shark out of eating you, but being that I don't ever go in the ocean that would be a waste.  Maybe you'd be mildly entertaining at parties if their happens to be an aquarium around and the fish tells you about all the weird stuff your friend does when he thinks no one is looking.  Now I'm starting to sell myself on this fish talking thing.  

  

   If Aqua Man looked like this more people would take him seriously.  In fact, if you wear pants made out of human skulls, its pretty much guaranteed that you're the baddest dude around.  Frank Kozik painted up 13 of these figures from Skinner and will be releasing them today (Thursday, April 10th) at noon Pacific time.  $200 will get you one of these hand painted critters that you can form your own Justice League around.  

www.frankkozik.net

Crypt Creepers from We Become Monsters Are Available Now!

    According to We Become Monsters, this here Crypt Creeper is meant to keep your crypt clean.  See, this is why science infuriates me.  Instead of bioengineering something like this for use in our houses, they're to busy making fat burning pills and putting lipstick on monkeys.  Do you know how much money you could make if you could create something like this that just roamed around all day eating dust and pooping it out in a trash can?  I would buy 100 right now, cause I suck at cleaning.  I could put a few in the cat's bathroom to eat their stray bits of litter.  Maybe stick a few in the tub drain so it never gets clogged.  Forget cloning sheep, this is where a good mad scientist could really make his mark.  

    While your house will still be dirty no matter how many of these you buy, they're still fun/kinda creepy to look at.  And if you use the power of your imagination you can pretend that they're eating whatever that weird sludge is in your kitchen sink.  This is a limited edition of 25 in a random assortment of colors and they're available right now from http://webecomemonsters.storenvy.com/.  

    

Springtime Takoshi from Yakimon x Toy Art Gallery

    I'll admit it:  I'm a sucker for a good reality tv show.  Mostly I like the ones that are some sort of competition because I'm always hoping that at the end no one will win because the producers will be disgusted by how horrible all of the people are.  Seriously, it's like they're collecting names for the national douche bag registry when they cast for these things.  There's so many that my wife and I can never remember their proper names, so we just make up ones that are more fitting.  Tough Love, a show about people who can't find success in the dating word, becomes "Unlovables" and we hope that maybe a fire will break out in the house that that can't be tamed.  Are You the One, a dumb show about  idiots trying to figure out who their perfect matches were, became "Sticky House" for the careless amount of coupling that went on.  I could go on and on, but it would be embarrassing to let you know how much of this junk I've actually seen.

    If I were in charge of naming toys, Yakimon's Takoshi would be renamed "Super Hyper Squid Face".  I just think it would be more fun to explain what it is to your friends if that's what it was called.  Regardless of his moniker, you can buy one this Friday at noon Pacific time when they go on sale from Toy Art Gallery.  

R.I.P. The Ultimate Warrior

    I've always loved professional wrestling.  Though there have been times when my interest fluctuated, I've always come back to this unique form of entertainment.  My grandfather got me into it and we spent a lot of time in front of the television, predicting who would win and arguing with the screen when things didn't go the way we thought they should.  Of course we knew it was scripted, but it felt so easy to suspend disbelief for those few hours a week.  My grandfather passed away last October and shortly after my wife and I started watching the WWE again with more interest.  It felt like being a kid again and sitting in his living room.  He took me to my first ever live event when I was five and I can remember being ringside and being awestruck at these larger than life characters who were more famous to me than anyone else in the world could possibly be.  

   One of my favorite wrestlers of all time was The Ultimate Warrior.  I spent a large part of my youth reading about him in magazines and glued to the television anytime WWE was aired.  He was something beyond human, like an evolution of man that had somehow skipped the rest of us.  Just a few days ago he made his return to television as part of Wrestlemania and later on RAW after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.  And then he was gone.  The timing of his death is probably more shocking than his actual passing, as the years of punishing one's body usually doesn't usually lead to a healthy retirement.  But he got to thank everyone that grew up watching him, and we in turn got to thank him through the emotional responses he received this week.  If it had been a movie no one would have ever believed it could have ended that perfectly.  But real life will always be much stranger than anything we could ever conjure in our imaginations.  And another piece of my childhood, of many of our childhoods, is gone now forever.