*REVIEW* 1000Toys – JOUMON KUGUTU ENZI

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INTRO

I don’t always know how to start a toy review. When that happens, I’ll stare at my screen for half a hour and type nothing before giving up for the day… or just completely procrastinate by telling myself, “I’ll get to this tomorrow”.

It could be because I’m not super familiar with the related franchise so I’m hesitant to sound like an idiot in front of savvy fans and readers. Or sometimes, I’m very familiar with the franchise but am not a huge fan of it… making reviewing the related toy somewhat a chore, whether the toy rocks or not (cough, Bayformers). Other times, the review is for something that I know from the onset that I’m going to have a lot of “cons” to discuss and I just hate putting that negative toy energy out into the world… deserved or not.

But for a 1000toys figure.. it’s quite the opposite. It always takes me a few to start a review because the words “Wow, everyone should have this” play over and over in my mind. Anything after that is met with a bad case of writer’s block.

Sure, they’ve had a few (in my opinion) less than perfectly executed figures… to this day I still don’t love how they handle their soft goods… but the 1000toys gang is one of the bravest, boldest toy company’s out there and every new release and idea they take on brings with it a massive tidal wave of excitement.

They have a knack for working in the shadows.. releasing relatively obscure figures and characters while the rest of the toy world latches onto the latest DC/Marvel/Movie franchise. Even what is probably the most renown worldwide characters in their line up.. GI Joe’s Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow.. are not hardly recognizable because 1000toys went all, “1000toys” on them, giving them some familiar notes, but heavily stylizing them in their own unique way.

And they build all this on one of the most cutting-edge engineered 1/6th scale bodies available today.

1000toys figures are freaky. They’re awesome. They’re eye catching… They’re incredibly well made.. and the figure I’m reviewing today threatens to be the very peak of all of those things combined.

Sculpted by well known Japanese sculptor, Takayuki Takeya… Joumon Kugutu is 1000toys biggest risk so far… and possibly their biggest accomplishment.

(This sample was sent to me for review, the pre-order for this figure as well as the variant colorway, Bokkoku starts February 24th (JPN) at 11:00am – click here for more info)

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*REVIEW* Devil Toys – Heavy Weapon Specialist WOO

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INTRO

Happy New Years!

I’d hoped to get this review together before the holidays, but well.. the holidays got in the way. So instead, we’re closing out 2016 with it!

It’s been a long wait since the last time we saw another Devil Toys WOO figure. Their last full release from their World of Order line of figure, Secret Master (which we reviewed) came out way back in June of 2015! In early 2016 they released a cool looking, unarticulated war wolf figure to play companion to the Secret master but we havn’t had a proper 1/6 figure to add to the WOO ranks in almost a year and a half!

Devil Toys must have sensed my anticipation because they were kind enough to send over this sample of their limited edition follow up, the Heavy Weapon Specialist.

I opened up the figure the second he was delivered and my brief, first impression was really positive. It’s time to put him under the review microscope and see if that impression holds up!

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*Review* 1000toys SnakeEyes

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INTRO

My favorite franchise as a child was Transformers.. I loved the cartoon, the characters, comics and of course the toys… but my favorite toys.. the ones I played with more than anything else without question, was GI Joe. Not only because of the huge colorful cast of characters, amazing vehicles and battle sets  you could fill your room with… but because of the articulation. Yes, back when I was <ten years old or so, I appreciated good articulation. More than appreciated it..I often turned my nose up at toys that lacked in that department. In fact, while Star Wars was easily my favorite movie/make-believe universe back then… I really didn’t like the figures… I never asked for them for Christmas (xwing, millennium falcon & tie fighter being the exceptions)or spent a dime of my allowance on them.. because I knew with their super limited articulation, I couldn’t pose them in exciting fighting poses. They couldn’t hold a gun in a cool way or wield those super rad lightsabers in both hands like they did in the films… they couldn’t even look up.

I had a ton of Transformers because I loved robots.. but I walked right past Masters of the Universe, WWF Wrestlers, Thundercats, etc in the toy isle. If they didn’t have a swivel bicep joint and rubber band holding them together, I really wasn’t interested.

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Which brings me to today. Today, I’m holding a GI Joe… well, not just ANY Joe.. the most badass of Joes, freak’n Snake Eyes.. and he’s put together by the guys behind some of the MOST articulated and well made 1/6 figures available on the market today, 1000Toys. (Check out a few more of their figures we’ve reviewed herehere and here) Continue reading

3A’s TK Master 5 video preview

I “borrowed” this from Ashley Wood’s personal instagram account. Just a great little video showing the upcoming Tomorrow King releases set for the end of June on Bambaland.

This release is significant, not only because it’s another release of 3A’s popular Tomorrow King figures, but also because this marks the release of the final character to complete the 7 Bones set, a collection literally years in the making.

Sale goes live June 30th, 9am HK time and I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a surprise or two during this drop (cough, cough, Deathmask) so stay on your toes if you’re into that sort of thing.

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Master 5,s #ashleywoodart #threea #tomorrowkings

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