Now that the LOST season finale has come and gone, search trends show a renewed interest in last year’s LOST Kubricks. Since I can’t tell you who is occupying Locke’s body (or if/when there will ever be a BrautKubrick), here instead is a preview of the upcoming Where The Wild Things Are Kubricks. In anticipation of [...]
Continue reading...Monday, March 23, 2009
Now over a decade since the beginning of the designer toy movement, Kubricks, Qees and Dunnys seem like distant cousins from the toys that sparked the scene. They have become a category all their own: they are blind box toys. Blind box toys are sold with their contents enshrouded in secrecy. The risk-factor of buying the unknown is mitigated by the potential reward of getting something rare. You don’t know what you’re going to get, and that is, ostensibly, all packaged into the fun of the experience. Depending who you ask, blind boxing is a “marketing strategy” or a “fun experience.” Depending who you are, it is either one or possibly both. The segments of this story include: toy companies, toy fans, toy stores, toy artists and toy bloggers. Let’s begin at the beginning, with the toy companies. Part 1: Toy Companies.
Continue reading...Friday, February 20, 2009
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With the newest Terminator’s movie’s imminent approach, whether I give a damn or not, so comes the merchandising. While the forthcoming Playmates toys seem to be completely forgettable, we can at least squeeze one bit of awesome from this whole experience : the 400% Terminator Be@rbrick. And, of course, the unearthing of the bastarditude of [...]
Continue reading...Friday, February 20, 2009
For reasons unknown, Boba Fett is something of a cult favorite Star Wars character. Perhaps it’s his screaming death as he plummets accidentally into a space anus, or perhaps it’s that goofy dragon he rides in the Holiday Special cartoon, or maybe it’s the absolutely amazing MC Chris rap song, but the Warsies gots the [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, February 4, 2009
In the next couple months, the Watchmen franchise will extend across many continents and platforms. Medicom Toy Co. is an early adopter with a set of six Kubrick figures currently available to the Japanese market. The set includes: The Comedian, Nite Owl II, Ozymandias, Dr. Manhattan, Rorschach and Silk Spectre II. Could this be the [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, January 15, 2009
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLni8Zl6TeM] In the latest mashup of politics and pop culture, Devo gets down with Obama on the dance floor. Only, it’s actually QeeVo, Mark Mothersbaugh’s Qee for Toy2R and the Barack Obama action figure by Jailbreak Toys. The pairing is in good company: all manner of designer plastic toys. While watching the video, I spotted a [...]
Continue reading...Monday, September 15, 2008
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This was new to me, but can be found (low stock though) at most of the online toy retailers. Rotofugi has it for $80 and says: “Everything from cute to sinister and lots of stuff in-between fill this nice little retrospective design book looking back on the last decade of Devilrobots design. The real attraction [...]
Continue reading...Monday, September 8, 2008
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There are certain things you can assume about the female gender. They like puppies. They can’t say no to chocolate. And they love Hello Kitty. I can say this ‘cos I’m a girl. If a boy wrote that I’d say “oh you sexist pig…”, but hey, girls just love all things Sanrio. It’s just in [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, September 2, 2008
This out-of-print GI Joe Kubrick set has popped up on a few online toy retailers recently. The complete set features the Action Man in four outfits: Action Soldier, Action Pilot, Action Marine and Action Sailor. The rarer figures of the original Kubrick set were GI Nurse and African American Action Soldier. Bug Vinyl in the [...]
Continue reading...Monday, August 25, 2008
LOST has many secrets, but no longer included in the mysteries of the TV island are the identities of the LOST Kubrick chase toys… Click to see which members of the Oceanic Six have made the Kubrick Nine. You might be surprised...
Continue reading...Friday, August 8, 2008
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Kids need bells and whistles these days. Actually, kids would scoff at bells and whistles (and yo-yos and Atari and..) these days. But for those of us born in the 1970s, we didn’t need a hyper-articulated $300 Bertie the Pipebomb to make us happy; we had Legos. It’s now been 30 years since Lego launched its [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, August 5, 2008
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Yesterday at the Wonder Festival in Japan, Medicom Toys released three hundred of the limited edition 400% Dark Knight Why So Serious Joker Be@rbrick. The rest of the eight hundred produced (that’s five hundred for those of you not good at math) will be available soon for online orders. Already these bad boys are up [...]
Continue reading...Friday, June 27, 2008
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Thanks to spies good folks like “naughtyguy9394″ on Hong Kong forums like Uwants, we can all have a look at the Medicom Toy Exhibition 2008. While there were many Kubricks and Be@rbricks to ogle, as a child of the ’80s, I was naturally drawn to the retrobricks: Ghostbusters and Care Bears. Now Ghostbusters and [...]
Continue reading...Friday, June 20, 2008
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Today’s mail brought tidings of rare Star Wars Kubricks from Tokyo to Taiwan. First up is this Medicom Toy Exhibit ‘08 Spirit of Yoda exclusive. Select industry ballers were invited to a VIP reception preceding tomorrow’s Exhibition. The invitations doubled as a voucher for the not-for-sale Spirit of Yoda Kubrick (above). You can see [...]
Continue reading...Friday, June 13, 2008
Medicom Toy’s annual exhibition for 2008 begins in just over a week. The event will feature several new and exclusive Be@rbricks and Kubricks. These pieces include: six Star Wars Kubricks in vintage-style packaging (1000 pieces: 9,450 Yen/ $87 USD) a Racer X and Mach 5 Speed Racer Be@rbrick set (800 pieces: 1,890 Yen/ $47 USD) an Indiana [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Each finale of LOST is always bittersweet: it gives you some answers, but it leaves you with more questions. For last month’s season 4 closer, the biggie is what badness occurred on the island after The Oceanic 6 left, prompting the ever-faithful John Locke (aka Jeremy Bentham) to end up back on U.S. shores in [...]
Continue reading...Friday, June 6, 2008
In space no one can hear you scream – for this super-sized Kubrick Alien figure! Four times larger than the original Alien xenomorph figure included in the previously released Alien Kubrick Set at San Diego Comic Con, this Alien 400% figure measures approximately 11” tall and is packaged in a five-panel deluxe 4 -color window [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, May 20, 2008
I’m not really a fan of Kubricks or Bearbricks, but I love film-related toys. I’m excited about Medicom’s Indiana Jones Kubrick and Golden Idol Be@rbrick. YesAsia.com is accepting pre-orders with an expected release date of June 30. You can also pre-order the 2 piece set at Forbidden Planet. For the last few days, I’ve had the [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, May 13, 2008
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Medicom has come out with the ultimate in Star Wars geek merch. The Blue Stars trooper comes out this month as a Kubrick. If you responded with silent shock or tears of joy, then you already know what this means. To everyone else, the Blue Stars Trooper was an odd Turkish bootleg based [...]
Continue reading...Monday, May 12, 2008
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It’s about damn time. When I found out about the Darth Maul with Sith speeder Kubrick about six months ago, I thought it would never come out, yet here it is! Although Phantom Menace was one of the worst/most disappointing movies ever, it did give way to one of the coolest (if not [...]
Continue reading...Monday, May 12, 2008
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKr7O4J61LA] JetSet Graffiti has cut together a montage of early KAWS bus stop ‘alterations’ that was shot over 10 years ago in 1997 in New York and Tokyo. The video shows a very young KAWS doing what he does best and includes a brief interview. Music by Danny Steele composed for the Popaganda movie (watch [...]
Continue reading...Saturday, May 10, 2008
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Futura Laboratories, the exclusive clothing and lifestyle label by Futura 2000, has released summer items, including the Pointman shirt, World Thought Police shirt and some mesh caps. Futura is an internationally acclaimed graffiti artist who has produced his own line of figures as well as Kubricks and Be@rbricks. While the primary focus of the [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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The Kubrick crew at MediCom continue to cue up some pretty sweet stylings for their Be@rbricks. This time, to honor the 30th anniversary of the King’s death (yeah, he died in August 1977, and these are coming to us in Spring of 2008, not totally adding up but whatever…) they’ve given the the Be@rbrick [...]
Continue reading...Sunday, April 27, 2008
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Technically, Johnny Depp is an ex-pat, but he’s still considered one of America’s leading men. Depending on your preference for wacky vs. wacked out, you can purchase his Willie Wonka 400% Kubrick for $99 now or pre-order his Sweeney Todd 100% Kubrick.2-pack for about $25USD from select online retailers. Where’s my Helena Bonham Carter Kubrick?? Similarly, [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, April 24, 2008
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As Sunny just posted, Set B of the Sex Pistols Kubricks dropped today. And unless the fuzz have buffed it, this week there’s a brand new OBEY Johnny Rotten along with imagery by French graf artist, Blek Le Rat. Peep it if you’re near Sunset and Guitar Center and let us know if it’s still [...]
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Friday, May 15, 2009
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