Knives

Intro:

I can’t pretend to know a ton about Machine56. I’ve seen his amazing artwork and character designs around on various blogs and sites. (Check his deviant art page for visual goodness) and now that his figures are being produced by Glitch Network, he’s been hitting my radar pretty consistently over the past year. But for the most part, I’m a Machine56 newbie, as well as an instant fan.

What I can honestly say is that few designers have caught my eye like Machine56’s hip, robo-urban inspired characters.
His designs, to me, feel like next generation Akira come to life. “Come to life” actually means something here because you can buy (or could, they’re sold out) and actually WEAR many of his designs, including his amazing looking fullscale, 1:1 Bonehead Helmets.
I have no idea where I’d actually wear one in Hawaii, but I’ve been keenly watching his Deviant Art page to try and get a bead on when the next one might come out.
Maybe there’s a robo-hula somewhere.

When Bonehead showed up on my doorstep, I was very pleasantly surprised. I’d spoken with a few guys from Glitch Network at SDCC this past year, (including Bryan Lie of God Complex fame) and they mentioned wanting to send me something to review.
I get stuff from companies all the time to review, but rarely do they just show up randomly out of thin air 6 months after it’s casually mentioned in conversation.

One thing is for certain, if the quality of the Bonehead figure can match the strength of of Machine56’s design, I’m going to have to donate a trunk full of art toys to charity or set them on fire to make room for my new obsession.

Lets see.
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Intro

I’m going to go out on a limb here… albeit a very large, sturdy limb… and say that over the past couple years, 1000toys has become one of the most talked about and watched toy companies around. Despite being a very small studio with only a few figures under their belt so far, each of their releases have been highly anticipated and sell out in minutes. The result is usually a bunch of flippers holding them ransom on the aftermarket for some 2 to 3 times retail… leaving some unlucky “true” fans to smash their piggy banks while swearing under their breath.
Fan’s willingness to pay said ransom, is testament enough to 1000toys growing popularity.

It may surprise you to learn that 1000toys, based out of Japan, is made up of only 3 people. They work closely with various factories in both China and Japan to make it all come together but really it’s all due to their collective vision in that they felt they could push 1/6th toy design further than anything currently available on the market. Speaking with one of the founders, Uchibayashi Takashi about their process I learned that one of the key factors in the formation of 1000toys was simply “to make the things I wanted for myself.”

Previous 1000toys figures have been pretty bare-bones, accessories-wise. You get the figure, which has no clothing or weapons and MAYBE a 2nd set of hands.. that’s it. All for roughly $150+ retail. That may seem a little steep, until you actually get one in hand. That’s when you realize that the hype 1000toys has been getting isn’t undeserved. Their figures are easily among the most well engineered and finessed out there. You can check out our previous reviews of Synthetic Human and CaRB for more info… but like, do that after you read this one!

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