gonzo
Symbiotes – Grab a set this season!
December 28th, 2009 Monkey Island!
December 24th, 2009Hi everybody! Remember me? Yea, me neither. Anyways, the guys from Symbiote sent me the Monkey Island statue this week so I thought I should share some pictures.
Merry Christmas!
Farscape, Star Wars and more
December 16th, 2009We have been working hard this holiday season making cool toys that will be ready next year. I know you have not seen many progress shots, but you will be happy to know we have been working. We make 90% of our profits off making toys for other companies and since it is the holiday season we have been very busy. We are finally happy to report that our own projects such as Farscape and the Sam and Max Symbiotes are on track and will be out early next year.
We also have a first look at our Star Wars exclusive bookends. These will light up and are made of polyresin not cheap plastic that some other places use. The best part is, they are at a super low price of only $50. You can pre-order them now on Star Wars Shop.
Star Wars Bookends
Zhu Zhu Pests
December 9th, 2009It began with Cabbage Patch Kids. The saga continued with Tickle Me Elmo. The fervor may not 
always be consistent from year to year, but each holiday season, one toy finds itself elevated above the rest. In two-thousand and nine, your kid wants an electric hamster.
Zhu Zhu Pets are marketed as doing every a real hamster can do except eat, poop and die. Well, to those who have fabricated hysteria over a couple of stuffed rats with wheels, I suggest you eat poop and die.
I shouldn’t blame the masses. They’re prone to hysteria. In this economy, it’s good to see people spending money on anything frivolous. Go buy your fake pets.
This Christmas, I think I will adopt a real hamster. They’re the real losers this season.
Until next craze, I’m gonzo
Hallowin
November 10th, 2009As we continue to speed across the holiday highway, we must wave good-bye to All Hallows Eve as it quickly diminishes in our rearview mirror. With our thoughts already turning to poultry and anthropomorphic cookies, we must remember that Halloween is an occasion so great that its influences can still be felt even in the second week of November. Although Christmas has already thoroughly infiltrated the aisles that Halloween had just so robustly occupied, there are still signs of orange and black to be found. The selection may be smaller, but so are the prices.
Buying discounted candy and paraphernalia for fifty to seventy-five percent off its original cost has become as much of a tradition as the holiday itself. This year I indulged in a bag of assorted Reese’s items defined as the “Reese’s Lovers’ Assortment”. The placement of the apostrophe in “Lovers” is interesting; suggesting that this bag will be shared by multiple persons. Not so fast Mr. Reese. These 28 morsels are all mine.
The collection includes the traditional Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups as well as ET’s favorite M&M look-a-likes Reese’s Pieces. Reese’s Fast Break and Reese’s Sticks round out the medley. This bag originally retailed for 5 or 6 bucks, but I only paid 25% of that. I also found Charlie Brown at the same CVS for the same 75% off. It was a glorious day.
Regrettably, this stockpile of peanut butter did not include the greatest Reese’s Halloween candy: the Peanut Butter Pumpkin! Essentially overstuffed Peanut Butter Cups, the Pumpkin is the epitome of Reese’s greatness. The peanut butter to chocolate ratio is jacked up in favor of the peanut butter and it elevates the treat to an entirely new level of greatness. Luckily this magical pharmacy had plenty of these Pumpkins on sale for the impossible to pass up price of 19 cents.
Needless to say I have gone into 5 diabetic comas since Sunday.
gonzo
Cellar Dweller #1
October 27th, 2009
This blog celebrates the toys you’re glad to own, but don’t necessarily feel the need to see on a regular basis. In conjunction with this most ghoulish time of the year, all the toys on this list were found in the most terrifying room in the house: the basement!
But don’t let their castaway status fool you; each toy on this list packs a horrifying secret; or is at least based on someone or something that can be spun into sounding somewhat frightening.
1. Dozzzy
WHY IT’S STELLAR – Released by Galoob in 1987, Dozzzy was on the cutting edge of children’s entertainment. Dozzzy’s face would literally light up when a child pressed his right hand. The toy’s main gimmick was Dozzzy’s ability to talk. He accomplished this amazing feat by essentially being a cassette player wrapped in doll’s clothing. In order to insert a new tape, you had to pull down the butt flap in Dozzzy’s pajamas to reveal the cassette player door.
That was strangely appealing.
WHY YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID – The only thing more horrifying than sleeping next to this moon faced gremlin would be waking up in a pitch black room to find a pair of electric red lips jabbering up and down as Dozzy drones on in his monotone vernacular.
The years clearly haven’t been kind to Dozzzy, but I can’t imagine a clean pair of PJ’s would make him look any less horrific.
WHY IT’S IN THE BASMENT – ‘Why isn’t it in the garbage?’ is the real question. This thing is huge and weighs a ton. It’s as if I was holding onto it just long enough to write about how much I wish I didn’t have it.
For some reason, I feel like if I tried to throw it out, Dozzzy would end up back on my doorstep, covered in blood and warning me not to try that again.
And with that, we have at long last reached the end of the Cellar Dweller countdown. It’s taken us an entire year to count down from five, but we finally made it!
I could have sworn I posted the number one entry already, but looking back through all the old posts, I just don’t see it. But hey, what better time than now, the week of Halloween, to revisit these scary entries? Make sure to read numbers two through five to complete the saga.
Nothing Symbiote Studios makes would ever end up in my basement. Of course, I live in an apartment now and have no basement, but none the less!
gonzo
Monkey Island has arrived!
October 26th, 2009
Our highly anticipated Monkey Island statue has arrived and is now shipping from our warehouse. If you have not purchased a statue yet we are offering a great deal when you buy both the Sam and Max and Monkey Island statues.
JAKK’ed for UFC
October 20th, 2009Like most people who have followed the WWE line for the better part of the last decade, I have a 
love/hate relationship with JAKKS. Outside of Hasbro’s Star Wars, no line has a greater depth of character than the WWE of today. I’m constantly amazed at how frequently JAKKS is capable of releasing new Superstars and updated looks for existing figures. Obviously there is a flip side with JAKKS constantly cutting corners by re-using molds and skimping on paint detail. Despite their flaws, they have managed to have multiple successful concurrent assortments of WWE action figures for many, many years; and soon that all ends.
When the WWE backed away from JAKKS (thanks in large part to a lawsuit filed against sister company THQ), JAKKS was left scrambling to pick up licenses that would allow them to remain a player in the action figure world. They also had a wealth of wrestling parts, so they took the logical step and acquired TNA wrestling. Some may call that desperate and others may call it strategic, but none of that really matters, because JAKKS has already started making something better: UFC!
There are obviously parallels to be drawn between UFC and WWE, but that is beside the point at the moment. This post stands to celebrate the tremendous effort JAKKS has put into their UFC line and to console tearful WWE fans who must be left wondering “why not us?”
The basic body JAKKS has incorporated into UFC is most like the deluxe WWE mold, but with several key improvements. First, the shoulder joints have been re-engineered with an extra back and forth joint that improves the figure’s playability tenfold. You can actually put these figures into respectable wrestling holds. It’s really quite impressive and makes these toys fun to interact with.
JAKKS has also stepped up the detail. The UFC guys love their ink and these toys reflect that. I can’t speak for the complete accuracy of the tattoo work, but I will say that it’s quite extensive and looks great. We also get a good deal of sponsor names and logos on the gear. It’s great to see that JAKKS worked out deals with the sponsors to get all the details they could into these figures. A race car would look strange without its sponsor’s logos and the same goes for these guys.
Now, one category where these figures fall behind the WWE line is accessories. Or do they? Since this is UFC and not professional wrestling, you are not afforded quite the array of weaponry to choose from as appropriate accessories. No steal chairs or breakable table. No cookie sheets or kendo sticks. None of that is used in the UFC, so why include it? What JAKKS has smartly done is included some key accessories and worked to make them as detailed as possible.
Case and point: Royce Gracie’s gi. You have a two piece, fabric gi and it works beautifully. It’s functional and it looks perfect. Gracie was already a figure to look out for due to his short packed nature and Legends status, but if nothing else, this is just a wonderful karate action figure that would look great in any martial arts setting.
I’m not a UFC expert. I don’t know most of the names. But I appreciate good action figures and fun toys and for my money, JAKKS’ UFC line has quickly established itself at the top of the shelf.
UFC Symbiotes sounds like a match made in heaven. Somebody book that, quick!
Until next time, I’m gonzo
Monkey Island Boxes
October 6th, 2009
Here is a first look at our Monkey Island Statue in its box. You will notice that we went back to the clean black design like our Sam and Max Statue. The art images were created by Dela Longfish. The box design was created by Curt Rapala. The Monkey Island statue will be available at Symbiote Studios and Star Wars Shop at the end of October.
Monkey Island Statue Base
October 1st, 2009
Our Awesome Monkey Island Statue based on the Lucas Arts Game is shipping no later than October 26th 2009. Below is a first look at the stamp on the bottom of the base. Each one is hand numbered and the Star Wars Shop and Symbiote Studios will only be offering 1,000 statues combined for sale. As with all our products, once they are gone they never come back.