Fleurs Noires by NooN x K. Olin Tribu

    I want this pretty badly.  I know I say that a lot, but this time I really really mean it.  This beautifully decorated porcelain skull is the work of French artist Noon and K. Olin Tribu.  Each skull was hand decorated, so all 50 pieces are completely unique.  They release today at http://www.artandtoys.com/ for $330 with free shipping.  

   Usually I have something funny to say about everything but not today, as my mind is busy thinking how awesome this would look in one of my cabinets.  

Turn Your Kid's Art into 3D Sculptures with Crayon Creatures

    My grandparents never threw much away, so when I was a wee lad I liked to crawl around in their attic and see what I could find.  Well I managed to find some ancient issues of Cracked Magazine that my uncle had collected and one of them had a feature that explored what kid's drawings would look like if they were real objects.  At the time it was hilarious because they built these weird, lopsided rockets, and 3 legged horses.  But now that I'm older and a bit more sentimental, the fact that a company has come along that can actually do this is pretty amazing.

    Crayon Creatures uses the latest in 3D printing technology to bring the craziness of a child's imagination to life in the form of unique figurines.  You can see more of what they do at http://crayoncreatures.com/ and even upload some art and make your own.  It costs about $130 in US currency for the figure and about $20 to ship it anywhere in the world.  

Pierced: Shades of Grey by Parra x Kidrobot

    This looks like the sort of thing a swinger couple would have sitting in their living room to let you know that they're kinda freaky.  If you were to go to someone's house and you spotted this on a shelf, don't sit on the furniture.  God only knows what has happened there and you'd probably have to burn your pants just to make you feel better about whatever contamination you were exposed to.

    If you're into this you can buy one on January 31st from Kidrobot.  But just know that a statue of weird bird people in various stages of undress sends a distinct message to your guests and if you see them cringe you have only yourself to blame.  Out of politeness they probably won't burn their clothes in your house (plus they'd have to get naked and that's what you freaks want) but just know that you ruined that outfit.

Fonzo Loves New York Custom Show Tonight at myplasticheart

    What are you doing tonight?  If you live in the New York area you better not be sitting at home, watching Netflix and crying into a tub of Ben and Jerry's.  Cause myplasticheart is having a custom show featuring Fonzo, the cute little vinyl dog from Freak Store.  Tons of artists customized these guys to make him look all spiffy and you can go and see them in person and even purchase one if you've got that kinda cash laying around.  Here is the list of artists that made custom toys:

64Colors, ArtMymind, Andrew Bell, Ardabus Rubber, Aya Kakeda, Alisa Ross, Beast Brothers, Bonethrower, Burundanga Design, Chuckboy, Camila D´Errico, Charles Rodriguez, Dave Pressler, DoubleParlour, Fuller Designs, Gary Ham, Greg Mike, Grimsheep, Gabriel Carpio, Brandt Peters, Kathie Olivas, Hydro74, Ian Ziobrowski, Jeff Lamm, Jermaine Rogers, Jeremiah Ketner, Kano, Martin Hsu, Nakanari, Rsin, Scribe, Southerndrawl, Scott Tolleson, Thomas Han

Custom Toy of the Week Take 2: KidKratos from Commandante

    Normally, I'm not a fan of the Kidrobot mascot toys.  The only one I own is the Viking one made by The Beast Brothers, and that is for obvious reasons.  If I'm going to buy a toy from them I'd much rather get a new Dunny, whose likeness can really be transformed by the artist working on it.  Plus they feels like less of an advertisement in my home than a company logo in 3D form.   

    This, however, is stunning.  Commandante has taken the mascot and transformed him into Kratos from the God of War video game franchise.  I'm a bit biased because they are my favorite games, but the workmanship is outstanding on this figure.  You may now continue to gaze in wonderment.

The Goblin Army from DuBose Art

     You never know what you're going to stumble upon when you're bored and playing around on the internet.  Sometimes you see things that you wish could be removed from your brain and burned on the front lawn.  Other times you discover someone making cool toys that you had never heard of before.  These Goblins were made by DuBose Art and will be up for sale tomorrow at 4pm CST.  There will be 3 of them available in this unpainted green and 4 more that will be painted in various colors like you see below.  The detail is insane and really pops when they've been painted. These are some of the best resin figures I've seen in awhile.  

Here's a better picture of what they look like, though these are a different color than the ones that will be available. 

Scott Tolleson x Erick Scarecrow Papa Sama Akuma

    This is an overload of cuteness.  Seriously, my head may explode and my wife will come home to find bits of my skull and brain strewn about the room.  She's gonna be mad because this is the room where we keep our best stuff since one of our cats has an issue with eating everything in sight.  We lock our shoes in here every night so he doesn't eat the laces.  Just about anything we think he may decide to inject we keep stored in here, so a lot will get damaged if my head does in fact explode.  I'm gonna walk away for a few minutes just to let things calm down.

    Ok, crisis averted.  Scott Tolleson and Erick Scarecrow have joined forces to create this unholy demon of adorableness.  This is Papa Sama Akuma, all decked out in his little argyle sweater and his little tooth sticking out.  Only 17 of these hand painted resin figures will be available tomorrow at http://esctoy.limitedrun.com/ so get up early if you want one.  I'm going to go and watch a snuff film now to counteract the cuteness.  

Jason Chalker x Outsmart Originals Tee Shirt

    Boba Fett is such a mysterious character.  We know he likes money, and get a kick out of turning people into fancy wall hangings.  But who new he was also into hot rod culture?  Outsmart Originals continues their popular line of toy artist t-shirts with this one from Jason Chalker.  He gives everyone's favorite bounty hunter the Rat Fink treatment on this limited edition tee and as a bonus, everyone who buys one will be entered for a chance to win the original art used to make the shirt!

Bait Exclusive Strife and Sire from Nathan Hamill

    Nathan Hamill is barely giving us time to recover from holiday spending before dropping this on us.  I forgive him though, because anger just leads to indigestion and who needs that.  This is the "Fire and Ice" edition of his Strife and Sire figures and they are an exclusive to BAIT (which is a store in California  in case you were wondering).  Only 100 of these dudes were made in this color scheme and you can get one on the 19th when Nathan will be there signing them from 5-7pm.  Each one comes with the mini print seen below, so now you can finally get rid of that Bob Marley poster and hang some real art on the wall.  

Elvis Flash Drives from Mimobot

    While visiting my family in Virginia a few years back, my wife and I stopped at a junk store that looked promising.  We looked around the store, finding nothing of real interest, until we made our way to the very back.  And there on the wall was housed the largest collection of velvet Elvis paintings I had ever seen in my life.  It was a fuzzy documentation of his entire career.  I had to have them all, so I literally ran to the clerk with credit card in hand and asked how much they would be.  Then she said something that has haunted my sleep to this day.

"Those aren't for sale."

    But they're in a store, a store where you sell goods to people such as myself so they can decorate their houses in ways that would bring shame to their parents.  No matter what I said she wouldn't budge.  So I burned the store down with her in it.  Just kidding, I was moody for a bit then I forgot about it.  Now the pain has returned.

    You wanna know the next best thing to a velvet Elvis?  An Elvis Mimobot!  The King is ready to remember all your important stuff, like how to make fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.  Plus you get neat stuff for your computer to fancy it up, so you can finally get rid of that unicorn wallpaper you keep "forgetting" to change.   They're available now!

Custom Toy of the Week: Jon-Paul Kaiser

    Jon-Paul Kaiser could have his own weekly column here.  Everything that he makes is amazing and deserves ample recognition, but I would have to quite my job just to keep up with it all.  

    This guy was made using a 3 inch Dunny and a very teeny tiny teddy bear zipper pull.  This was based on the "Lone Wolf and Cub" story of an executioner who was falsely accused of killing the leader of a Japanese clan.  He then finds his own family (all except his newborn son) slaughtered as revenge.  Well, he's not just gonna stand for that, so he has some revenge of his own to bring to fruition.  This is quite the creative interpretation of the tale in 3d form.  

Help Mighty Jaxx Grow

    Anyone that begins a creative endeavor wants nothing more than for it to reach as many people as possible.  Whether you're writing a book or making a toy, you have to find a way to reach whomever your core audience is and then hope that it branches out from there.  Mighty Jaxx have released some pretty ambitious and very creative toys in the small amount of time they have been a company and now they need your help to allow them to get bigger and dominate the world!!!  Or something.

    They've started a Kickstarer-like campaign on their website to help raise money to move to a larger facility.  By backing them in various amounts you get various rewards; from t-shirts and stickers to toys and even a trip to visit them in Asia.  

    Starting at $55 you can get that maniacal Hug the Killer figure you see up there.  I don't feel alice would have sought the help of a caterpillar such as that, but he would look good on your toy shelf.  

    For $200 you could snag yourself one of these glow-in-the-dark Bad Apple figures.  Only 30 of these will ever be made and they're exclusive to this fundraiser.  

    I really like these guys, especially since their toys lean much more towards art than something you would have played with in your sand box as a kid.  This Snow White figure is one of the most amazing things I've seen in quite awhile and I could picture this being part of a museum's collection.  Help these guys out by going to http://mightyjaxx.com/.

Toy Giants Show at Toy Art Gallery

    When I first started collecting designer toys I limited myself to small, inexpensive blind box releases.  As the years have passed my threshold for spending money on figures I've wanted has grown.  First I would buy something for $20, then I felt more comfortable spending $40.  Now just about everything I want comes close to the $100 mark and beyond, which is not something that excites my credit rating.  But the more money you spend the bigger the figures get, which is a huge bonus.  Just when I thought my toys couldn't possibly take up anymore room in the house, Toy Art Gallery went crazy and created these.

    Starting January 12th you can visit them in Los Angeles for their Toy Giants show featuring lifesize figures made out of fiber glass.  These things are huge and I want them all pretty badly.  They'll have work from Paul Kaiju, David Flores, Nathan Hamill, and a bunch of other artists.  These guys will set you back a few grand if you wanted to bring one home, hence the reason I don't have one.  I have not quite hit that comfort level of spending.

Full Reveal of Kronk's Hot Date Pin Up Girl

    Well here it is.  After showing you teaser pictures of this new toy from Kronk you can finally see it in all it's glory.  This demonic pin up girl was made in collaboration with musicians Two Steps From Hell and is limited to 500 pieces.  She stands 8 inches tall and will retail for $69.99 when finally released.  

Domo x DC Comics Figures from Funko

    Can Funko do wrong?  I mean, if they sat down and were like "look, lets release something really crappy, like Sanford and Son toys" could they even suck if they tried?  By the way, if anyone with any authority on making these things is listening, I would buy Sanford and Son action figures.  

    But seriously, they're pairing up one of the world's most recognizable icons in Domo, with some of the world's most well known super heroes from DC Comics, and then turning them into their already ridiculously popular Pop! Vinyl style figures.  It's genius.  Look for these guys this February .

    But did they stop there?  No, the genius kept on coming.  They also are releasing blind boxed mini figures next month too!  These feature a few extra characters and a couple rare ones that will have completists on eBay selling their souls to own.  

D.E.A.T.H. Figure Sets from Edge of Doom

    I think just about everyone in the world is making their own interpretations of the classic M.U.S.C.L.E. men figures.  I went over to my in laws house for Christmas and there, at the kitchen table, were a pile of little plastic dudes getting their heads sawed off and replaced with those of plastic dinosaurs.  Ok, that didn't happen, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.  

    While there may be a lot of people making these dudes now, these have to be some of my favorites.  Edge of Doom, who I'm sure is really named Steve or something, has made Darth Vader and Stormtrooper wrasslin men and is selling them for cheap.  $10 will get you a 3 pack of Stormtroopers in either white, green, or pink.  $13 will get you a Darth Vader and two Stormtroopers.   It's the best deal of the year thus far.  Order yours at http://edgeofdoom.bigcartel.com/.

Follow Us On Instagram

    I understand many people are pissed at Instagram and their new terms of service (which they did update by the way).  But let's be realistic; no one is going to take the pictures of you eating at Olive Garden and put them on a billboard in Times Square.  Frankly, I wish Pepsi would use a picture of my cats in one of their ads.  I would frame it right above their litter boxes and put an extra copy on the fridge.  Other products I would like to endorse include Goldfish, Cheez-Itz, Harley-Davidson, Dr. Marten's, Colt 45, Smith and Wesson, the Russian Space Program, grunge rock, any brand of flannel shirts as long as they're nice and not too thin, and Target.  The ball is in your court advertising execs.

   If you still like Instagram as much as I do you can follow us there.  Our username is TheToyViking and last time I checked there was only one of us, which is good cause lawyers are expensive.   I also guarantee that I took all pictures while in my underwear. Yes, even the ones in public.

Sideshow Collectibles x DC Comics 6th Scale Figures

    I normally wouldn't write about something in which I can't give you a release date, because it drives me insane to not include all of the pertinent details.  But I can't control what a company wants us to know, I can only present what they will allow me.  Which, in this case, are these 5 pictures of Sideshow Collectibles upcoming 6th scale DC Comics figures.  So what do we know about them?  Well, they're all wearing actual sewn clothing.  That's kinda nifty.  And we know that the pose they put Catwoman in makes her look like she has the mother of all child bearing hips and a T-Rex arm.   Not a good look.  Other than that they're really detailed and will most likely be priced like a months rent on a one bedroom apartment in the midwest.  Now is the time to return that Snuggie you got for Christmas.  

Old Timey Stingy Jack from Brandt Peters

    This guy will kill you in your sleep.  There is no doubt in my mind that he is filled with bad intentions.  Evidently this picture was taken after he cleaned himself up from some crazy murder spree, hence the lack of DNA evidence.  See, those  Insane Clown Posse morons think that they're frightening (which they are, because every time I see one of their equally stupid fans I know exactly where my tax dollars are going and it scares me that we don't just put them to sleep) but this is legitimate horror film level spooky.

    His name is Stingy Jack (stingy because he likes to hoard the souls of children all for himself?) and he is the creation of Brandt Peters.  Don't for a minute think that I don't like this guy, because his creepiness is was makes him appealing.  This guy will be available for preorder January 4th for those of you lucky enough to attend Mr. Peter's art show at Stranger Factory.  For the rest of us, we have to wait until later in the month to get a crack at this guy.  

Dr. Who Vinyl Figures

    I may be the last human being on Earth that hasn't watched an episode of Dr. Who.  But then again I don't know one dude who is actually into the show.  Every girl in the world is into it, but none of my guy friends watch it, so I assume it isn't for me.  Maybe I'll give it a try one day just to see what all the fuss is about.  Maybe I won't though.  I'm kinda fickle like that, plus every episode of The X-Files in on Netflix, so I don't know how much free time I see in my near future.

    For those of you that are obsessed with this show, I present to you these vinyl toys.  They are blind boxed and feature 14 different figures.  They retail for $9.99 and I'm sure if you want them you are already scouring the internet to hunt them down.  I'll leave you to your work.  

Cosmic Rose Vampire DX from Super7

    It's a Super7 Super Secret Surprise Release for New Years Party Extravaganza Toy Thingy.  The Rose Vampire is lookin all sparkly for 2013 and is gonna have a hard time explaining to his wife why he came home covered in glitter.  He better have been making arts and crafts with disadvantaged youth and not hanging out with girls trying to work their way through college.  This is an episode of Maury Povich waiting to happen.

    Supposedly this guy is available now, but the link isn't working on the Super7 website.  When you are able to snag one it will set you back $65 and you may get one sporting a red cape, or you may get one looking like a gentleman in a black cape.  That's the luck of the draw my friends.

Flight Dunny by kaNO and Kidrobot

    This guy looks like those weird sneakers that people line up to buy in the mall at 6 in the morning. Those shoes look ridiculous to me, but as a toy I'm cool with it. He even has a bit of a Transformers vibe to him, which helps me forget about his resemblance to Air Jordans.

    This 3 inch Dunny was made by kaNO and Kidrobot. Everybody is speculating that there will be 3 different color schemes based on the picture, but I don't think anything has been confirmed. What is true though is that 3000 of these guys were made, will sell for $14.95 each, and will be released on January 17th. That will give you plenty of time to file for bankruptcy from Christmas shopping and start your financial situation over. That's probably not true but good luck on that.