Tim Tsui & Alice Chan

Just a quick reminder about the Tim Tsui and Alice Chan exhibtion opening tomorrow night @ Bodhi brick lane, London. It will kick off around 7ish so hope to see you all there.

Kinder evolution!!!

So it’s that time of year when the shops are full of chocolate eggs (well i think they have been in the shops since sometime in October actually), i forget why, something to do with someone resurrecting from the dead and a cross... hmm and something about a dude called Jesus, but anyway that’s distracting me from the point. The point is that although kinder eggs are available here all year round, (sorry for any American readers that may miss out on the wonders of kinder, and you really are missing out! Chocolate and a toy all in one, what more could you want?) they are available packaged like real eggs in a box of 6 for Easter so i couldn’t resist buying some. Anyway after eating all of that lovely half milk, half white chocolate exterior, i find that kinder has evolved!

Oh yes that yellow plastic case that i usually spent a good ten minutes trying to open with my teeth has been revamped. No longer do you have fight your way in with a fear of choking on the insides (well in my case anyway, see right of top pic), now you simply press one side and the other pops open, still attached with a hinge! Amazing! Now what i wonder is if this improvement was made for people like me to make it easier to get too that exciting toy, or if its some kind of EU law gone mad, and that kids could choke on the yellow plastic? Now if this is the case, surely they could quite easily do the same with the actually small parts of toy contained within. I mean it must be more expensive to produce these new improved cases, so there must be a reason. Or is it that I’m getting old and cynical?

Well either way i thought the world should be made aware of this development, as it is obviously life changing! I will post what toys i get when i made my way through the box :)

Akira live action film

I may be in the minority thinking that as cool as Akira is, the animation missed a lot of the subtely from the books as it skipped 3 of the 6. So quite what and how a live action version will help i'm not sure but with modern CGI it could at least end up looking pretty good when Tetsuo goes...well y'know what happens.

But....ah yes, there's a but...that all depends on how they make it. So far all we know is it's being produced by Leonard DiCaprio's company, executive produced by Akira creator Katsuhiro Otomo (although that could just mean he's making money from it or allowing them to call it "Akira") and directed by Ruairi Robinson. No, me neither.

Its also going to be based in Neo New York rather than Tokyo. Oh dear deviation already.

Now if it goes all cyberpunk and tech noir in a sort of dystopian Terminator/Blade Runner way then it might just work. However at this early stage i'm going to stick my neck out and suggest this will suck balls and divide the fan community more than any other film.

With a little bit of this and a little bit of that....

Soon to be released from Amos Toys is the Bird God! James has been drawing birds for many years, so it is logical that his secret love would be immortalized in vinyl. They seem to have some sort of hypnotic power to me!

PI x Touma

PI are dropping some Touma designed goodies first half of this year. First up is a mini series set...Little Trickers....interesting designs with a sort of cute but nasty edge. Looks like there's some Knuckle Bears (cub?), Grabbit, Konga Bonga and Snouts.

Then back to a larger format is Squeezel....a 9" tall sort of Squirrel but with a big hand tail. Weird but I like it and esp in this colour - presumably a rarer UK red squirrel rather than those damned Grey amercian cousins that take over their habitat!!! Although i'm fairly certain they wouldn't be a threatened species if they'd worn sneakers like this fella!!!

More Dok A goodness

If you thought the first two were something check this out: Stephan Le Podd!!! This is the fourth fig in the set of 6 coming out from MINDStyle. Even at this early stage you've got to applaud both Dok and MINDstyle for creating these beauties and staying true to the artist's work.

Andrew Bell "Giver"

A sneak peak of this came out a few weeks ago but it was an unpainted proto. At the time I wasn't really liking it...something about it didn't really seem like his style. But now this painted version has been revealed i'm liking it a lot more.

No word on release dates yet.

Issue 12 - Cover revealed..

Issue 12 is nearly with us. Hurrah i hear you cry. In this issue we have a feature article with our cover artist, the lovely Tara McPherson. We hang out with Insa in his London pad, and spend a few hours chatting to Pete Fowler and Rob Manly of Playbeast. We also check in with Amanda Visell and find out about the new projects Julie West has up her sleeve. We also have all the usual news, reviews and exhibitions. Plus much much more…

Will be available to pre-order soon!

Iksentrik forum and blog...

Brand spanking new! Ikenstrik have revealed there new forum and blog (http://www.iksentrik.co.uk/iksentrik-blogs/), to keep eveyone up-to-date with whats going down! So get on over there and register!!

Tristan's been at it again...

Just spotted this collaboration between Thunderdog's Tristan and Xbox 360. You can now have cool artwork on your xbox, hurrah! Shame i dont have one... Tristan go do some with sony for the PS3.. pppllleeeaaaasseee :)

Mindstyle x Kathie Olivas...

Just stole this picture from www.vinylpulse.com and had to repost it here. I love Kathie's work so am super excited to see more figures due. These are the Scavengers minifig series and have just been shown at NY toyfair. Can't wait!!

Dok A and Mindstyle

Wow.....3.5" of glorious steam punk loveliness coming from Dok A and Mindstyle. These are the handpainted prototypes but you know Mindstyle will do a killer job on these when they are produced.

Victorian bankers never looked so goo!

All that hype (the monday morning rant)...

So over the weekend I finally dragged my ass to the cinema to watch Cloverfield, and yes it’s an ok film. Great effects, interestingly told story, and imaginative (to a point), but my problem lies in the hype. Can a film (or toy or album etc) ever live up to mass hysteria hype? The viral ad campaign for Cloverfield was cleverly instigated and although I have neither the time nor the patience to follow the trail and clues that were left for all the film nuts and cyber geeks out there, it certainly got people talking. Now my issue doesn’t really lie within this campaign but more in the trailer, and film trailers in general. For a start off, did a film with such a successful marking campaign need a trailer? I suspect that a few cleverly released snippets would have sufficed. My problem mainly comes down to this… Why do film makers feel the need to make us watch all the good parts of a film before it even comes out?

Ok so I get why they do it, and yes it works, its gets us to the cinema. However it only leaves us, the honourable cinema goer, feeling cheated with a horrible taste in our mouths. One of the trailers on Cloverfield was for a film called The Bank Job. Now I hadn’t actually heard anything about this film, but I came across as an interesting Brit flick with a cool story (even though it may have been done a million different times before in different guises). However as the trailer went on…. For what felt like about 15 min… I felt that by the end of it I had seen the whole film and didn’t actually need to go to see it anymore. (here is a shorter version but go watch it.. you will still feel like you have seen the whole film http://www.thebankjobmovie.com/)

So back to case in point, Cloverfield. All the really good bits, like the head of liberty flying through the streets of Manhattan etc had already been shown in all the trailers, which just lead to disappointment, and the monster… well how many monster attributes can we get into one creature? But that isn’t the point, I’m not here to slate the film, it was enjoyable enough. The point is, stop showing us all the good bits!! And NO nothing can ever live up to the Hype, because nothing can be better than thing you have created in your mind… enough said!

Chase Dunny from French series?

So this looks as if it's one of the new French series Dunnys, done by AJEE - she of the Skullskin figure currently in the works from Bonustoyz.

But this....errr.....WTF?? Is it meant to be a South Park character?

Another nail in the coffin of "graff" toys

WTF is this supposed to be huh? Aiko (part of Faile) has been doing some really nice stencils with a whole messed up Disney vibe going on. Think Alice in Wonderland but a bit more sinister.

Never one to miss a bandwagon KR have now produced a toy of the character. Only I'm not sure if they ever saw the original because this looks pretty poor. Now i'm sure the pic isn't doing the overall look any favours and maybe, just maybe the subtle textures on the body are being missed. But why does it look like a cross between a retarded Lindt bunny and a shampoo bottle?

Definitely a missed chance to do something unique. But it's super limited so i'm sure will sell to the hypebeasts.

Roy Scheider RIP

Sad news...Police Chief Brody is dead :( One of the biggest actors of the late 70s and early 80s in Klute, The French Connection and All That Jazz. Oh and SeaQuest DSV!

Still one of my favourite lines in cinema: "Foreground, my ass!"

Hello Kitty x Medicom

Oooh....Sanrio haveteamed up with Medicom to create some new Hello Kitty figs. Not really my thing but an iconic design.

Bodhi has a Blog you know...

To get the lasted info on whats new at London's Brick Lane best toy boutique keep an eye on bodhigallery Then make sure you run down there to pick up the latest releases.

New in this weekend are Mad Barbarians x Kidrobot Cappee flocked figures, a steal at £25!! Obviously the pink is my favourite!




SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL VINYL TOY STORE! oh AND MAGAZINE ;)

Arrest Daft Punk!

Dunno if anyone else saw the Metro paper this morning with the photofit of the bank robber who wore a blanked helmet. Apparently Police are baffled.

Strange cos really I'd be looking in Paris for these two:

Fishy Beaver?

Coming soon from Upper Playground is this little critter described as a Vibrating Vinyl Friend lmao.  From the rather disturbing imagination of Jeremy Fish, our little friend features:- 

• Slightly raised details
• A flexible tail (note the dimpled effect)
• Tree trunk twist activation

Quite 

Kozik Teddy Troop

New 10" Trooper coming soon....this time its Kozik's Anarchy trooper. Now I know what some of you are thinking and, yes, I also though it too. But this design is now Kozik's signature and in some ways could be considered his "tag" on pieces.

Okay so he's not spraying it on walls, but I think the design really works on the shape, certainly far more than a Dunny, Qee or Tofu Robot. It has menace. The only problem I have is that I wish it was a 3" rather than the larger version....I don't have space for all these larger versions!!!

Steel Pollard

New from Biskup a steel Pollard, limited to 40 and in a rather fetching signed and printed custom box. $300 for this...pricey but that box illustration is lovely.

These are tattoos what we got done

In December I went to see Maz & Kirsty when they were getting inked, I wasn't allowed to leave till I'd booked Shakey & I in. So after much debating and emails to Simone we decided on stars for both of us... However Maz & I 'persuaded' Shakey into getting an Adios spade while I asked Maz & Nick to have a play with a design for me!

So in January Shakey had his Adios spade done and I had the Nana Star. Yesterday I went back to get the rest of it done (and oh my did the pain make me pull some funny faces!!)

We love them and hope you do too!!
(First post for Clutter Ho!!)

Expand your Urban Vocab... Innit!

So extreme tiredness and boredom has left me searching the internet for something to fill the gaps in my life ;) what i found was urban Dictionary.com All the insults you never knew you needed, right in one place. With one of my favourite past times being verbal sparing with my friends they better watch out!!

Here are some of my hot picks (not all insults granted):

	A HUMAN SKIDMARK ON THE UNDERWEAR OF LIFE
	A contemptible and low-life individual; a person who's a waste of oxygen and flesh; the ultimate scumbag of existence! Pete's wife aptly labeled him as a "human skidmark on the underwear of life" when he forgot to acknowledge their 20th wedding anniversary by having an illicit fling with the baby-sitter at the local hotel.

	A HEARTY "FUCK YOU"
	A nasty remark given when people are all up in your business. I give a hearty "fuck you" to those people who were so much in my grill when they needed not be. PUNANZA A punani bonanza, a festive and wild event or occurrence that involves a large number of punanii. The party was one hell of a punanza. CLIT DICK a man with a dick no more than 3 inches long He pulled down his pants and she exclaimed, "I've seen clits bigger than that"! You have a clit dick...!!!

If your really bored hit up http://www.insults.net/html/odd/random.html

Secret Wars Grand Final...

If your in london on the 29th make sure you check out the grand final of Secret Wars 2. It will be held at Cafe 1001 (Truman Brewery), Brick Lane.

secretwars.co.uk

Valentines Visighost

I'm not normally one to be sucked in by Valentines Day but here at Clutter our love of the colour Pink trumps any made up celebrations. However if someone out there wanted to buy it for me then its released on Feb 14th (obviously) and will be $65 from Super7.