Mezco

I enjoy collectibles that span very diverse genres of collecting which might never otherwise encounter each other. These opposing themes tend to battle, alienate a few die hards in either field, and eventually, come to rest as a completely unique amalgamation of these two things. This is what I see in Mezco’s Living Dead Dolls, and this is undoubtedly the strange perversion that my sister, and subsequently, my niece, have been collecting for around eleven years.

Take a relatively innocent doll and severely distort it into some horrific theme, and there you have a Living Dead Doll. There are hardly any morbid themes that you’re left wanting for, should you find yourself collecting these Dolls, from the subtleties of Edgar Allen Poe or a sexy vampiress, to the intellectual strangeness of a set based on the seven deadly sins, to things that are just sliced-up zombies and monsters, or clowns who have had their faces half torn off – because a half-face is a little scarier than no face at all, and Mezco knows this. If you doubt me, I invite you to take the the electric hedge trimmer into the lawn and find out. The variety of these Dolls is always staggering.

Even if we’re just talking about secondary market value, different LDDs and their variants sell for many hundreds of dollars on the secondary market (and can usually be purchased at retail for not much more than $20 each), and with many different sets and individual dolls sold as retailer exclusives, making them a challenge to obtain, LDD collectors seem to relish the hunt.

Living Dead Dolls : Series 18

Of course, because of these morose themes, Mezco is making a special show of their Living Dead Dolls around Halloween this year (and last). Collectors’ Quest has the special privilege of bringing you the very first images and details about the rare variants from Living Dead Dolls Series 18, and I do believe that you’re going to dig them – even if it’s just on a thematic or aesthetic level.

Series 18 consists of five different characters decked out in classic Halloween costumes, very similar to those things we might have worn as kids ourselves. We have the skeleton Calavera, the harlequin Jingles (my personal favorite), the ghoul Gabriella in the charmingly hokey plastic costume, the witch Ember, and the vampiress Ingrid – a respectable collection of trick or treaters if ever there was one. Not only is this an awesome theme to display, but they’ll look exceptionally great with last year’s costumed sets of LDD, which also come with their own pumpkin-shaped treat buckets. They all include functional Halloween masks – under which their faces reflect an alternate version of what their costume depicts. Which is creepola. The skeleton has a beautiful Dia De Los Muertos face pattern, which the witch has a torn face, and the harlequin, well… bizarre, spidery lines aplenty.

Here’s where the extra dose of awesome comes in : this year’s set, just like last year’s set, will have a set of five variants. These variants will be completely decked out in a black and orange color scheme. While this is probably my favorite color combination, it also matches the set from last Halloween, making for an ever-growing, themed display – though Mezco makes no promises of the theme continuing next year. If you’re into either of these sets, act quick, because this series is completely sold out from the manufacturer, and quickly selling out from retailers everywhere.

This year will also see a scaled down version of LDD Set 16, which was last year’s Halloween set, complete with fabric costumes and full accouterments. Around Christmas, there will be a miniature Christmas Carol-themed set featuring the three Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, as well as Jacob Marley – all an excellent entryway into the collection. These will come with ornaments that are ready to hang on your holiday tree and probably make your grandma uncomfortable.

To top off the Halloween releases, Mezco has partially relented to repeated requests for a LDD-themed poster of some kind and released a huge, high-grade vinyl banner featuring the most recent Halloween characters. This was limited to a scant 200 pieces, and of course, almost completely sold out.

Come February, we’ll also see the release of the ‘Twisted Love’ set, featuring new characters Rose and Violet, based on the poetic verse :

“Roses are red, Violets are blue…a single soul, slashed in two.”

…which is wonderfully progressive in its own right, and certain to raise a few eyebrows. There’s rarely a holiday that Mezco ignores, and I eagerly await the inevitable Arbor Day ‘dryad chick’ or ‘dude who is being turned into a tree against his will’ (complete with axe), which I hope will happen sooner than later.

I’d also like to apologize to Arbor Day for being the butt of all of my ‘lame holiday’ jokes. Clearly, that honor goes to Boxing Day.

So, keep an eye out for these and all future Mezco awesomeness. I always enjoy seeing what the next series of Living Dead Dolls will bring.

I can’t say that I’ve ever had an intense desire to go to San Diego Comic Con.

I mean, NYCC was a stroke of genius, placed during the cooler months, significantly cutting down on the omnipresent geek-funk that tends to accumulate in these spaces, no matter how well ventilated – but San Diego in the summer seems to only spell a complete and devastating olfactory nuclear air strike. I don’t do well in crowds, even if it means a brief and pathetic glimpse down the costume of the chick dressed like Black Cat.

So, I’m at home in New York, and while I can’t purchase the many, many exclusive items that are now being sold to the itchy masses present at SDCC, my legions of Facebook, Twitter and blogophile friends make me feel like I’m actually there. The economy has made me cut back on my own collecting, as I’m sure that it has for many people, but there are a good handful of things which I’ll still unquestionably buy. Usually, these things have ‘robot’ or ‘Batman’ in the title. Here are a handful of collectible revelations that have come forth from SDCC and which are currently ganging up on my wallet before they senselessly beat it into a coma.

First off, I’m in love with the announcement that DC Direct has made regarding the continuation of their Batman Black & White statue line, after diverging into statues of Batman’s villains recently. I’ve collected all of the Batman statues, because they epitomize exactly why I love Batman by showcasing the many artists who’ve drawn and defined Batman, from Bob Kane to Bruce Timm and beyond. The newest addition to the collection will be a Batman by Frank Quitely, stoic and serious as the man’s artwork. The only other time that Quitey’s art has been figure-ized was in an earlier set of DC Direct figures, where his Superman and Superwoman drawings were made plastic.

Sideshow Toys is always pretty exciting, as they hold the reins to most of the greatest collectible licenses out there, but the favorite thing I’ve seen is the gloriously goofy 12” Punk Zombie from their original ‘The Dead‘ line. With original lines completely failing in the current toy market, it’s stellar that Sideshow have dug in their heels and are adding more to their ongoing collection of zombies. My Butcher only just arrived in the mail yesterday, and I’m sure he’ll look awesome with the Priest, the Prophet and the Babysitter. Ash Wood’s Les Mort 13 will lead them, and Mr. Bean will wander into their legions and, somehow, fit in.

Also on the list of ‘things you should give me’ are the full-sized Darth Vader bust with the removable helmet, and the 1/2 scale Iron Man in his movie armor. They’re only about $1200 and $2000, respectively

Mattel will continue my personal favorite ongoing line, DC Universe Classics, and by wave ten, I’ll finally be getting that Doom Patrol Robotman that I’ve always wanted – as well as a 3 3/4” scaled Doom Patrol JLU four pack, which has me just about wetting myself. I’m a really, really bad geek when it comes to silver age comics. These will all be exclusive to either Wal-Mart, Target or MattyCollector.com.

Unfortunately, a few ‘collectors’ were a bit too grabby at SDCC, and reports of one-of-a-kind designer toys and prototypes going missing seemed to flood in, the most notable two being Chris Ryniak’s Stitch custom figure (seen above), and Andrew Bell’s O-No Sushi prototype (seen below), both vanishing within moments of each other on Friday night. The news spread on Twitter and Facebook instantly, but there’s currently no word on whether or not either were recovered. This, combined with stories of stolen purses at the recent Otakon has made me really question whether or not these events are the safest places to bring things that you care about.

If Con culture does anything, it makes you want to spend money like crazy, which can only be a good thing in this wacky economy. I’ll be pumping a few bucks into the nerd sectors for the next few months, and hopefully, a few gracious patrons of the arts will pump a few bucks back into me. Hey, I had a piece in the Mez-Itz art show (upper right figure at this link), so I’m getting there. Soon enough, I’ll have the safe haven of a booth to retreat to there. Wish me luck.

Back in  the year 2000, you couldn’t sneeze in a comic store without spraying all over a ‘block figure’ and/or a guy who liked his mom a bit too much. Tiny-Generic-Figure-mania had gripped the toy world, and everyone was selling their own version of the easy-to-produce, infinitely variable ‘block figure’, usually defined by a standard, simple body that was often composed of geometric shapes, fair articulation, and a height that rarely reached over 3 inches. This shape was used and reused repeatedly, each iteration having a new paint deco and maybe some new accessories.

Contenders included the Japanese Kubricks, which were arguably the first form to kick off the popularity of the toy genre, and LEGO minifigures, which almost definitely inspired Kubrick and predated them by decades. These were followed (in no particular order) by Minimates in the US, Cuboids, Shockinis, I-Men, Palz, GeOms, Stikfas, Bloxx and finally, Mez-Itz. While each had their own different features, Mezco’s Mez-Itz were one of the few lines that built upon their original body form with new sculpting for almost every new figure.

This was one of Mezco’s very first products, and despite the popularity of their original lines of pirates, ninjas, samurai, aliens and monsters, as well as line for Hellboy, Army of Darkness and Austin Powers, the blank, silver Mez-Itz that came with the now-defunct Mezco Collectors Club package remained the most accessible and popular.

Fast forward to today. The block figure has all but faded from the minds of toy collectors (with the exception of the tragic cancellation of Diamond’s DC Minimates line, linked above), and the urban vinyl, designer toy trend has completely taken over. The diversity of Mezco’s products also happens to extend way back into the very beginnings of the urban vinyl scene, before it was even hip and Hasbro started strangling the concept with their non-vinyl ‘urban vinyl’ Mighty Muggs. Check the toy archives and you’ll find some of the earliest examples of US-made urban styled toys have come from Mezco, with their Run DMC, Public Enemy and Notorious BIG figures, as well as that little loud dude from the Sprite commercials.

This is when the old 3” Mez-Itz get much larger and repurpose themselves. I had the pleasure of playing with one of the first handful of new, 6” scaled, vinyl Mez-Itz, which will hit retail shelves very soon. While mine was blank and ripe for me to destroy with my sculpting and scribbling, the official products will start with a pair of Toys ‘R’ Us exclusive Hellboy figures, specific to ‘The Golden Army’ (pictured above), while San Diego Comic Con will soonafter get an exclusive Hellboy Mez-Itz based more closely on Mike Mignola’s HB artwork (pictured at left). And man, as a pretty serious Hellboy collector, I’m jealous. And by ‘pretty serious’, I’d also like to remind you that I own Agent Manning’s pants. And that I tried them on.

Mezco’s Mike Drake stated that when these Hellboy toys hit mass retail across the US, they will very likely be the first time that ‘urban vinyl’ will have extended beyond the usual brick & mortar market, which is extremely limited to NYC and California. And he’s right, because there’s nothing like the touch of toy vinyl. It’s addictive, and it’s never been accurately represented on the shelf of a large retailer, who are usually too busy rolling around in massive vats of Bakugan to get an accurate gauge of the full toy market.

SDCC will also play host to an amazing collection of artists who have laid their own designs onto this new 6” Mez-Itz figure also – many of whom have been culled from outside of the usual art toy crowd. While I’m not bragging, I feel particularly honored to have been included among these folks. Brevity is not my strong suit, obviously, so I’m just going to drop a full list of the featured artists here.

Voltaire, notable musician & goth icon
Trevor Zammit
Tony Carrol
Tish & Snooky from Manic Panic
Tim Gore
Suckadelic, the originator of the ‘bootleg’ custom
Steven Walden aka Swass
Stephen Blickenstaff
Rich Young
Raymond Choy
Nelson Kong aka Kreechur
Miss Monster
Mike Drake
May Sy
Matt Connelly
Matt Cauley aka Iron Cow, known toy customizer
Lee Gajda aka Leecifer, amazing toy artist
Kyle Thye
Kyle Robinson
Kim Dylla
Ken Usanami
Josh Izzo
Joranthalus
John Mallamas aka Jin Saotome
Jeremy Sung
Jean St. Jean
Jason Jerde
Jason Geyer aka ToyOtter
Irene Mendonis
Guy Davis
George Gaspar of October Toys
Ed Wires – David Healy
Dave Cortes
Danny Bushey aka Rustedhalo
Daniel Brodzik of Front Line Studios
Collin David, myself
Chris Houghton
Carrie Conger
Brandy Anderson
Billy Chasen
Barry Anderson & John Graziano from Ripley’s Belive It Or Not!
Angus Oblong, creator of ‘The Oblongs’
Amos Hemsley
Joe Dunn of ‘Joe Loves Crappy Movies’

It’s a super impressive list, and Mezco has given CQ the first shot at a whole bunch of professional shots of many of these artists, so check out our gallery for a full view of some great, artistic examples. A form like this is really begging for some officially produced, specialty market figures featuring artistic designs, rather than just licensed characters. It’s almost a given that it has to happen eventually.

So, keep an eye out for a potentially awesome, new collection. Oh, and did I mention Freddy & Jason in series two?

Collectors’ Quest & Mezco Toys are psyched to announce the winners of the 1st part of our Friday the 13th Contest!

First Victim:

The Jason 3.75 inch Toy Fair 2009 Limited Edition figure goes to Zoltan from Canada-should be an excellent addition to that Tomb of Toys he has!!

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Next Casualty:

The Cinema Of Fear Friday the 13th 2009 Remake 7in Figure is heading out to Ozzt of Elkton, MD!

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Congratulations guys!

Don’t Forget!! There’s still two weeks to win the sickest grand prize for the gorily creative…

An autographed copy of the Living Dead Jason doll
signed by Damien Glonek, one of the original creators!

Click here for full details

Good Luck!!

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Every year, the hardest part of Toy Fair is scouring the thousands upon thousands of unique offerings to decide which will appeal the most to collectors. An item might be exceptional, but would someone want more than one of it? Does it come in variations? Does it lend itself to display? Would multiples of this thing make its inherent value, aesthetically or practically, increase?

I’m at a crossroads, so I’ve been becoming extra particular. Toy Fair makes that very, very difficult. Plastic seductresses at every turn, luring me onto the bone-crushing edges of folding tables and drowning my resolve. I’m a fat man set adrift in a sea of bacon and Twinkies.

Here’s the ‘everything else’ of Toy Fair 2009, with apologies to all of the omissions I’ve made for the sake of brevity and not appearing like an overexcited puppy.

BANDAI! Bandai is all about the Kamen Rider, Dragonball (both animated and live-action), Ben 10, and Power Rangers. Every one of these things lends itself to collectability – forming color-coded teams, completing sets of alien transformations, and in the case of the live-action Dragonball figures, completing a big, blue, translucent figures from parts contained in the packages with every other figure in the line.

Most of these are properties that have been brought over to the US from Japan (except for Ben 10), but like most Japanese-to-US interpretations of things, they’re tweaked for wider acceptability to the US audience – though I noticed two things from Bandai that defy this trend. First, the upcoming Dragonball Z gashapon sets, which for all of their popularity and collectability in Japan, rarely see success in the US. These are little, plastic sets of pieces that are assembled into a highly detailed statue, diorama or character, and I’m a huge fan of the genre. I think that the overarching opinion of these is that kids in the US don’t have the patience to put together their own toys, and I wouldn’t totally disagree. Second, the Japanese ‘Mugen’ series of keychain toys, which I’ve blogged about previously. I don’t know if the Mugen Pop Pop makes silly noises in Japan, but at least the theory remains in tact.

I’m a huge, dorky fan of Japanese TV show monsters, with my own collection of kaiju toys, so the more bizarre monsters I get, the better. Much of what Bandai produces is all about the heroes and their transformations – I’d love to see some of the creepy, foam rubber monsters that have appeared in these shows – seams and all. Click here for the Bandai Gallery.

NECA also produces a whole bunch of great-looking toys that are just beyond the cusp of what I actively collect. Most of their properties are video game related, with a focus on giant, ugly, terrifying monsters from Resident Evil, Gears of War, and other figures from violent or scary games. They also are continuing their ‘Cult Classics‘ series of figures, which are all about movie monsters – both classic (like the various possessed forms of the girl from The Exorcist) and modern.

Most interesting to me is the continuation of their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures, which are based directly on the art from the original comics, as opposed to the films or cartoon. So far, we have the four Turtles and a pack of convention exclusive Mouser robots, but NECA was displaying the sculpts for April O’Neill  (who, debatably, is not based on original comic art), Shredder and Krang, and a bad guy grunt. Anything based on the work of a specific artist is always attractive to me. Also, anything that involves a creature that’s a malevolent brain. The NECA Gallery is here.

Mezco (who are one of my favorite companies) was also present, having skipped NYCC one week earlier, but was not permitting photography. Their biggest announcement was the Little Big Planet property, based on the amazingly creative PS3 video game. As it naturally lends itself to customization and variety, it’s a natural fit with the whole toy scene. A wide range of figure sizes are planned, starting with a series of costumed Sackboys and Sackgirls, including a very awesome robot & devil – two themes that I tend to collect.

Mezco is also continuing with their many stylized versions of horror movie icons Freddy, Jason and Leatherface – plush, 3.75” (Star Wars sized) figures, 12” figures, with my personal favorite being ’surgeon’ Freddy from the 6” scaled line (whose many costumes are always great), and of course, the giveaway, Toy Fair exclusive 3.75” ‘glowing mask’ Jason.

Figures and props from the upcoming Wolfman movie were also debuted, as well as a whole series of products based on the ‘Goosebumps‘ series of children’s books. Bookmarks, keychains, plush, and my favorite, the M.U.S.C.L.E.-styled ‘Pocket Horrors’, which are mini, unpainted figures of various monsters and beasts from the series. These should go great with Hasbro’s ‘Handful of Heroes’ minis and your generic army man, as there seems to be an industry-wide return to basics.

I’m also a fan of Hexbugs, being a lover of both robots and bugs. These are small robotic creatures that are programmed to skitter around, and respond to light, sound, or touch stimulus by adjusting their movement to either move towards or away from said stimulus. The newest Hexbug is the Inchworm, joining the original cockroach-like bug and the Crab. The Inchworm differs by being actually radio-controlled, so you can direct its movements consciously, instead of just watching it bump into things. For a robot of such a tiny size, it’s an impressive feat, and I cam imagine a whole handful of these operating together in some kind of tiny robot rumble. Not out yet, but on the horizon, is the Ant – which runs around at a breakneck speed that has to be seen to be believed, and is engineered to thwart that most heinous hindrance of small moving toys : the carpet. It’s a little terrifying and thrilling, and it’ll probably freak the brains outta your cat.

Schleich is a well-known name in unarticulated figure production, most notably for their Fairy and Smurf lines, with many older or exclusive Smurf figures going for high prices on the secondary market. Smurf dedication is kind of epic, rivaling the intensity and complexity of even Pez collecting, and books have evolved around the figures in Schleich’s Fairy collection, so both properties are something to watch. The Schleich Gallery is here.

My award for ‘Nicest Guy at Toy Fair’ goes to Micah Linton, creator of Weebeasts. With an extremely small number of original, creator-owned booths at Toy Fair compared to past years, I was really curious to see who made it this year. Micah’s Weebeasts are a unique concept, as they combine a series of books with a surreal, almost-Bosch-looking doll. His books wordlessly chronicle the evolution and progression of his Weebeasts as a species, and are done entirely in pastels and pencils, calling to mind the aesthetics of primitive, ancient recordings or cave painting – all while still detailing a very clear, very methodical progression. This set of three books (so far) were packaged in a handsome slipcase, and came with a Weebeast doll. His display included a whole bunch of Weebeasts dressed in costumes made by family and friends throughout the world – at least a few of them probably generated by his whirlwind library tour.

We talked about art and publishing a whole bunch, and I was inspired by his organic, ‘art for the sake of art’ approach to his whole property. So, Micah, not only were you refreshing to talk to, but I wish you lots of continued luck as you spread the Weebeasts around.

If there was a definitive trend at this year’s Toy Fair, it was ‘toys that go online’. Many, many different properties incorporate an elaborate (but kid-friendly) online environment into regular hands-on play, from Bella Sara introducing flocked mini-horses to their existing online world, to my favorite new discovery, Freaky Creatures, which are full-sized action figure that all have online components for care & battle. With a system of cards, flash drives and really interesting character designs, I’m excited to play with some of these soon – especially because they has a cthulhu-based figure that they let me take home, name Cthonus.

Sometimes, I like to think that they schedule Toy Fair to fall on Valentines Day because they know I’d be tremendously lonely and depressed otherwise. The free swag that accompanies the day is certainly a bonus. Instead of chocolates and kisses, I go home with free dolls, keychains, pens and action figures. What more can the lonely geek ask for?

Aside from the gentle curves of a woman.