Name of Toy Line: Ecologini Production Company: Unknown Distributor: Unknown Years of Production: 1993 Countries/Regions Available: Italy Size/Scale: Unknown Figure Trade Markings: Unknown Approximate # of Figures: 10
Details: As you can see, I have very little information about these figures. I first saw them at the LRG forums when member Stunner76 posted images of them there. He and Toypedia contributor nanoFotato, both Italian collectors, identified them as Ecologini. Unfortunately, a search using Google Italy turns up no information about these figures. Were they pieces for a board game, premiums of some type, or were they simply a minifigure line sold at retail stores? I'm not an expert in the Italian language, so I'm not sure what, if any, clues can be garnered from the name. However, I did find information about a product called Ecologino, which is apparently a tiny ashtray for use at the beach. It's interesting that the names are so close.
I'm uncertain of their scale as well. I'd guess they are 2-3" in height. I'd also guess that they are made of hard plastic. However, I can't be certain of either of those things.
Update: nanoFatato has gotten his hands on an exquisite Ecologini advertisment made by the Italian company Amico Gio (see scan above). nanoFatato also provides a translation which reads as follows:
ECOLOGINI
The nature-saviours little geniuses.
Children, run to Amico Giò (an italian brand). There are the ECOLOGINI for free. Make friendship with each one, learn their strange names and you'll see how fun they are! Flip the page and you'll find your Amico Giò.
Much more information and pictures will be coming soon!
Collector's Note: I don't know anything about this figure's origins. It's about 2" tall and made of a nice, heavy rubber vinyl. It has no trade markings at all. However, the sculpt reminds me of a certain breakfast food character...
If you know anything about this figure and would care to share, please do so in the comments below. Thanks! Thanks BAH for the ID in the comments below! (And nano as well. :D)
Collector's Note: This figure is from a MOTU toy line from Portugal. The figures are very small, about an 1" or 1.5" tall. Check out Nuno Mata's informative post regarding these figures at his excellent blog, My Best Toys.
Color: Light Blue with Dark Blue and Orange paint apps
Collector's Note: Virus Attack is another wonderfully creative toy line from Giochi Prezioso and GiG, the teams behind such lines as Gormiti and Exogini. The line consists of a total of 24 unique sculpts. Each comes with some type of removable armor/clothing. Look for more coverage of this line in the future as well as a (wait for it) full entry some time in the future.
In any case, this is a totally sweet mini figure. It's made of a soft PVC which is super very nice. I've got it displayed with my BEB collection!
Special thanks to Toypedia contributor and Webmaster of Rubberfever, nanoFatato, for trading me this figure!
Collector's Note: This figure is from a MOTU toy line from Portugal. The figures are very small, about an 1" or 1.5" tall. I'm not sure if is a legit, Mattel-licensed line or an unlicensed line. The quality and details of the sculpts are actually very nice, especially at such a small scale. I have more of the figures, all red, that I'll be posting more pics of in the future.
Edit: Be sure to check out Nuno Mata's informative post regarding these figures at his excellent blog, My Best Toys.
Collector's Note: This is a very super rough concept design of where the CAZAM line is heading. The scale of this piece is ~2", but is not representative of what a finished CAZAM figure would look like. The above piece is Super Sculpey over an aluminum foil armature. Detailing on the sculpt is minimal due to the medium.
CAZAM is still in the embryonic stage. Stay tuned. :D
Name of Toy Line: Mini Squishy Production Company: Arbito Distributor: Arbito Years of Production: 2011 Countries/Regions Available: Worldwide via Internet Size/Scale: 2" Figure Trade Markings: Arbito Approximate # of Figures: 4 sculpts, 3 colorways (but possibly more)
Details:
Arbito is an artist/illustrator/designer living in Seattle. Born and raised in Washington State, Arbito’s work has been exhibited globally from Spain to England, Australia to New york. Currently he’s experimenting with resin sculpture but is also recognized for his west coast proto-hippie style acrylic paintings and drawings. (Source: Arbito.com)
I don't know what prompted Arbito to create a line of mini figures, but I'm certainly glad he did. He chose four of his typically larger creations - Patty Power, Cosmic Hobo, Seeker, and Hobo's Van - and shrunk them into deliciously smelly (literally) and squishy minis. Indeed, each of the 3 colorways comes with a corresponding scent: Pink is Cherry scented, Yellow is Popcorn scented, and Green is Watermelon scented! It's a really fun concept and works really well.
Countries/Regions Available: Worldwide via Internet
Size/Scale: 2"
Figure Trade Markings: None
Approximate # of Figures: 1 sculpt, multiple blank colorways
Details:
"Rivet Wars takes place in a world locked in a decades long battle. The inhabitants of the planet Rivet have divided themselves into two factions, the Allies and the Blight.
The Allies see themselves as fighting for the freedom of all Rivets. When the Blight began their attacks, the free nations of Rivet gathered their forces and formed an alliance to defeat the Blighter threat.
The Blight believe that the world of Rivet is theirs to rule by right. Blighters see themselves as Rivet's chosen rulers. They will stop at nothing to crush any opposition to their plans to conquer all of Rivet." (Source: Rivet Wars.Com)
Rivet Wars was created by Ted Terranova as "a context in which to make toys, art, stories and stuff." His first piece is the beautiful Vert Tank. Its creation is a wonderful story. I first learned about Rivet Wars on the October Toys forum. Ted had submitted his Vert Tank design, then called Sherman, as a submission for series two of the OMFG! minifigure toy line. Shortly thereafter he created a 3D design of the sketch using a computer program called 3D Max, submitted the design to Shapeways.com, re-named the piece Light Vert Tank, received a 3D printout of the design in the mail, created a mold of the printout, and finally cast a small army of awesome, new, hard resin minifigures!
If that all sounds very simple and easy, I can assure you it wasn't! However, Ted has made the entire process seem incredibly easy. He has tentative plans to create an illustrated guide of the process he used to make the Vert Tank. Be sure to check his Rivet Wars website for that potential future offering.
In keeping with the military theme, Ted first cast the Vert in shades of green. As you will see, I convinced him to try some new colors.
Name of Toy Line: OMFG! (Outlandish Mini Figure Guys!)
Production Company: www.octobertoys.com
Distributor: www.octobertoys.com
Years of Production: ~
Countries/Regions Available: Worldwide
Size/Scale: 2"
Figure Trade Markings: Unknown
Approximate # of Figures: 5 sculpts, 2 colorways
Details:
Some time in early 2011, the idea for a new M.U.S.C.L.E.- and M.I.M.P.-inspired toy line began to take shape at the October Toys forum. (October Toys are the brains behind the awesome Z.O.M.B.I.E.S. toy line.) Several incredibly talented artists and toy enthusiasts began to brainstorm and flesh-out the details of the project that was to be designed and created top-to-bottom by toy collectors. After several months of churning out character and sculpt ideas, logo and packaging designs, the project began to take on the unmistakable shape of pure, 100%, ass-kicking goodness.
Name of Toy Line: Horros N Heroes Production Company: Unknown Distributor: Mr. Lucky Bags Ltd. Years of Production: 1990s (?) Countries/Regions Available: UK/Europe (?) Size/Scale: 2" Figure Trade Markings: None Approximate # of Figures: 16 Sculpts, multiple colors
Name of Toy Line: Eraser Bouncing Bad Bad Ball Production Company: D.V.S. (Made in Taiwan) Distributor: Unknown Years of Production: 1987 Countries/Regions Available: USA Size/Scale: 1" Figure Trade Markings: None Approximate # of Figures: 8
Super special thanks to Blarghhhspot for introducing Toypedia to these wonderful items and for all the pictures in this entry! If you've never visited the blog you should do so. Now!
Details:
If you love Madballs (and who doesn't, right?) and you love mono-colored mini-figures (sure you do!), then you'll love Bad Bad Balls! These tiny balls combine the best of both worlds: They've got the awesomely round grossness of Madballs and the rubbery colored goodness of keshi!
They came packaged in a simple box with a pull out tray. There were eight of them in a range of pleasant pastel colors including pink, yellow and light green. On the package is text indicating that these pieces doubled as both high-bounce balls and pencil top erasers. Nice! Everyone loves a twofer.
The sculpts themselves are impressive considering the medium (a tiny round ball) and the source material (let's be honest, these are total Madball ripoffs). Come on, let's get up close and personal with these little dudes courtesy the Blarghhhspot.
Not much to say about this first dude other than he may want to invest in some veneers. Seriously though, it's a simple yet solid little sculpt.
Here's a look at one sculpt in two different colors. Seems to be only one of two double sculpts in the box. It leads me to believe there /may/ be other sets and figures - and maybe sculpts! Joy. As for the sculpt itself, meh.
Click to enlarge
I love the color of this next guy. Yellow is always a favorite keshi color, but the light pastel hue is just buttery smooth; And the elephant trunk and tusks put this guy in the running for my fav of the bunch.
I'm not sure what's going on with this piece. Looks to be a normal, albeit goofy human, but there's something up with his/her hair. Is that a snake slithering around up there?
Click to enlarge
Ah, toad eye. I've loved toad eye since I first laid eyes on him! He's got a toad on his eye! Toad eye.
And I noticed something whilst kicking around this Blarghhhspot post. Check out the Sad Ball pictured here below Toad Eye. It seems one sculpt influenced the other, or both are inspired by the same (unidentified) piece.
Group shot.
Click to enlarge
And the packaging. Note that none of the figure drawlings appear to correspond to any of the actual sculpts. The drawing was probably completed preproduction or perhaps in isolation, but I choose to interpret this as proof that there are other sculpts and colorways out there!
Click to enlarge
What a fun Western keshi toy line! Good luck findind these little guys. I've never come across one myself, but of course would love to. Super very good thanks to Blarghhh Spot for the great pics. Be sure to check there for more incredible coverage of Madballs and Madball knockoffs.
Collector's Note: This Gegege bootleg belongs to a line sold in vending machines in the USA as Lucky Yuckies. (See previous Figabulary post featuring a Lucky Yuckie.) Looks like I was promising to make a Lucky Yuckie entry way back then, so there's no point in saying it again. Sigh. So many great mini-figure toy lines, so little time.
Name of Toy Line: Transformers Decoys Production Company: Takara Distributor: Takara & Hasbro Years of Production: 1987 Countries/Regions Available: USA and Japan Size/Scale: 1.5" Figure Trade Markings: Unknown Approximate # of Figures: 52+
Details:
Credit tfwiki.net
Decoys are small, soft rubber versions of popular Transformers characters. The hugely successful Transformers toy line originated in Japan, and so did the Decoys. According to the Transformers wiki, Decoys were first created and released as game pieces for Japanese Transformers board games. They were also released separately in box sets (see image below). They stand about 1.5" tall (although there were several characters released in slightly larger scale as well) and consist of several colors including red, light purple, peach, yellow, blue, and green. In other words, they are Transformers characters in keshigomu form.
Keshigomu is the Japanese term for small, mono-colored, rubber or plastic figurines. Keshi toy lines originated - and are particularly popular - in Japan. There are literally dozens of them.
Transformer Keshi!
Mini-figure connoisseur nanoFatota has been kind enough to allow Toypedia to use images of his great collection. Below we have examples of yellow and red Japanese Decoys. Last is an example of a Japanese box set containing peach Decoys via eBay seller jgallo. Let's take a look!
Credit nanoFatato - Click to enlarge
Credit nanoFatato - Click to enlarge
Credit jgallo - Click to enlarge
And finally, one of the larger scale figures!
Defensor - Credit nanoFatato
I know, beautiful, right?
Japanese Keshigomu have been brought to the West in various forms on a few occasions. One notable example is the M.U.S.C.L.E. toy line, brought to the USA and Europe in 1985 via a partnership between Bandai and Mattel.
Another notable example is... Transformers Decoys! Perhaps because of the relative success of M.U.S.C.L.E., Takara and Hasbro decided to partner and bring Decoys to the West in 1987.
Fifty-two of the smaller-scale Decoys sculpts were brought to the West as companion figures. (Check the resources linked below for a list of the 52 sculpts available.) They were randomly blind-packaged on cards with several sets of smaller Transformers. They were made of the same material and shared the same size as their Japanese counterparts. However, they were unfortunately only released in two colors: light purple and red.
In the first release of the Western figures, the Autobots were released in red, while the Decepticons were released in both red and light purple. This was apparently an error as later releases only included light purple Decepticons.
One other notable difference between Japanese and Western Decoys is the numbering on their backs: Western Decoys are simply numbered between 1 and fifty-two. Let's have a look some of the Western Decoys, again courtesy of nanoFatato.
Credit nanoFatato - Click to enlarge
Credit nanoFatato
Credit nanoFatato - Click to enlarge
Credit nanoFatato
As one can see, the sculpt poses are pretty tame, perhaps owing to their origin as game pieces. Even so, this toy line is oozing with cool and significance. Not only are Decoys members of the uber popular and highly collectible Transformers range, but they are one of the first and most successful keshigomu lines to be brought to the West. Furthermore, though the poses are fairly muted, each sculpt is unique and well-crafted with plenty of detail. Their likeness to the original Transformers characters is essentially spot-on as well.
We're extremely pleased to finally have them documented here at Toypedia! Be sure to check the resources below for more great pictures and information.
Collector's Note: What can I say, Mr. Sawabear has some pretty cool figgies for sale. And "Army Eraser Germs" is just the name Google Translator gave me, it's not exact.
Blackstar began in 1981 as a fantasy sci-fi cartoon produced by Filmation. It has many similarities to its more popular successor, He-Man. Check out the show's opening for the premise.
It's the story of John Blackstar, an astronaut from a future, technologically advanced Earth. He is sucked into a black-hole and finds himself on the planet Sagar, which is populated by a plethora of alien creatures. Blackstar aligns himself with the tiny Trobbit people in their battle against the evil Overlord. Action-packed high jinks ensue.
The toy line was released a few years later, beginning in 1983 and running to 1985. There were a total of three waves - one each year. The six-inch action figures came carded individually and also with a companion figure; The good guys came with a Trobbit figure and the bad guys came with a demon figure.
The Trobbit figures were also carded individually, but never the demon figures.
The action figures are made with mixed materials - both hard and soft plastic. The one example of an action figure I have has soft arms and legs and hard trunk and head. The figure is called Meuton; He's a baddy and appears to be a wasp-man. Creepy and cool!
Definitely would not want to stumble into that guy in a dark alley (or a well-lit one for that matter).
Of course here at Toypedia, the main attraction is not the 6" action figures but the diminutive 3" companion figures! There were a total of six Trobbit figures and nine demons. Both Trobbits and demons are made of a soft plastic.
The Trobbit characters are very reminiscent of Snow White's dwarves. They're tiny little guys with white hair, wearing purple, blue, and yellow garb. Unfortunately I only have the character Poulo in our possession at the moment. Let's take a close-up look at him.
Click to enlarge
(The, uh, bit of plastic between Mr. Poulo's legs appears to be a nub of flashing left over from the casting process. I agree, it is a bit disturbing. I was tempted to edit it out, but chose to go el naturale instead.)
There were two types of demon companion figures. The first type was available in the first two waves. It consisted of a single sculpt cast in six different colors and paint schemes: Green, Yellow, Blue, Pink, Red, and Orange. The availability of the different colored demons varies with Green being by far the most common.
Let's take a look at a Green demon. Note the paint applications on the stomach, eyes, and eyebrows.
Click to enlarge
Red and Blue demons arrived in the second wave.
Click to enlarge
The two Blues I have appear to have slightly different paint application colors. The second figure appears to have stomach and eyebrow paint that is slightly more Purple.
Click to enlarge
Three new demon figures were introduced in the third wave. Like the Trobbits, each new demon had a unique sculpt and a more complex paint scheme. The body of each demon is one single color however, and they are referred to by these colors. Thus, once again, there are Red, Green, and Yellow demons. I've got the Red and Green, so let's take a look at them.
Boo!
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
It's a very fun, highly collectible toy line with several interesting figures, some harder to come by than others. Be sure to check the links below for more great pictures and information about this line.
