ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

Scrolling through the pictures on this page is my birthday gift in reverse to you via Artoyz on this Wednesday afternoon. Now that folks are starting to associate me as head of the blind-box lynchmob and an open box crusader, I’ll remind you that on February 25th I said, I’d buy Artoyz Elements Alpha Series blind, deaf or mute-boxed. That said, I am extremely happy to report how these toys are going to be released. Officially, yes, they are blind-boxed. But Artoyz’ Yann-Claude told ToyCyte that in a display box consisting of 25 figures, you will be guaranteed 19-20 uniques. The series has 20 standard figures (of which 2 are rare) and 2 unannounced chase figures. Therefore, if you buy a case, you will get at least one of all the figures in the series, except the rare one which you will have to hunt down on eBay or trade for on this thread at Kidrobot.

Each case will have 5-6 duplicates, but you will get no more than two of the same figure in a case. So just to be clear for those of us who are better with pictures and words than numbers: If you buy one figure, you will be buying blind. If you buy a case of figures, you will get one of every figure in the series except one. In lieu of that one, you will get a handful of doubles. There will never be a case that has fewer than 19 out of 20 uniques or more than 6 doubles. Regarding doubles, there will never be more than 2 of a single figure, so no worrying about getting octuplets like Nadya Suleman. (I got a sneak peek of the case layout, and I thought I’d never say this, but I’m quite happy with one of the particular figures that are doubled up, so that’s a big hint for anyone who regularly reads ToyCyte!)  Yann-Claude assures me that the case layouts will be made public following their official reveals of the rest of the figures. Speaking of which, they just unveiled a 3D figure by GREGOS. I wonder if glasses are included in the box…

I’m really happy with the way Artoyz decided to distribute this series. They agreed that it’s unfair to expect collectors to buy multiple cases of toys to assemble an entire series. Said Yann-Claude: “We want to avoid that and we want our customer to get the whole series without pushing too hard.” The figures will drop at the Artoyz shop on March 14th for about $9.90 USD each. If you buy through Artoyz, Artoyz Head Michael tells us you’ll get 25 pieces for the price of 21. Shipping to the US might neutralize that discount, but patient folks can wait for US distribution through DKE. It might be a bit of time as the boat hasn’t left for DKE as of the time of this post. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for these. Viva la France!

So far, from top to bottom, here are the designs by SKWAK, Steph Cop, RUN, Pulco Mayo, Koralie, KOA, Grems, Flying Fortress, Jon Burgerman, ARTIZARNAL, Superdeux, NYNO, MIST, iLK, YOKAIKAI, Nathan Jurevicius, GREGOS (in 3D!) and Supakitch. If you look back through our other posts on the Artoyz Elements Alpha Series, you might get a clue as to who those rare figures could be…