Albotas Alert! We Need Your Help!

Albotasians, if we’ve ever needed your help, it’s now. We’ve been nominated for a Designer Toy Award under the Best Blog category. Voting opens today and you can vote daily. Please register at DesignerToyAwards.com and vote for Albotas as much as you can. Please spread the word, and don’t forget to hit the “confirm vote” button and to tweet your votes.

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We couldn’t have gotten here without our readers and the toy designers who have supported us throughout the years. Let’s make this the Year of the Octopus.

Zone 6 by ESC-Toy

Erick Scarecrow’s done a 180 with this design. His resin toys are usually cute or cartoony. But this one says “fuck that,” rips out your eyeball, and draws a pentagram on its forehead with it. The 8” figure and accessories are limited to 10 sets worldwide for $150. Order one from the resin underworld right here.

Check it: More Esc-Toy on Albotas

Ewok Figures from TADO

TADO, Jedi knights of cuteness, have crafted these one-off paperclay toys for Gallery Nucleus’ Saga in the Stars show. The Star Wars themed art show opens up on May the Fourth in Alhambra, CA.

Check it: My interview with TADO

Buy: Chuppi by TADO

Little Axe Red by Esc-Toy

Erick Scarecrow’s newest project is so metal. Well, it’s resin, but you know what I mean. Erick’s version of Little Red Riding Hood serves up the Big Bad Wolf’s head, complete with killer blood splatter. The metallic sprays on the wolf’s head are especially nice. This set of two handpainted resin figures also comes with two weapons: the Sweet Steel Axe and the Blue Truth Teller Axe.

Limited to 15 pieces, the set drops on Saturday at 11AM Eastern right here.

Dunny 2013 Lineup Leaked

Just like last year, the Dunny 2013 series has leaked onto the Internet. This year’s artists feature Andrew Bell, Nathan Jurevicius, and Scott Tolleson among others. There’s one chase figure that hasn’t been leaked (yet).

Via Vinyl Pulse | Image via Dunny Addicts

Check it: More Dunny posts on Albotas

Buy: Dunny 2012 Blind Box

April Toy Drop from ESCtoy

Erick Scarecrow will be dropping three new resin toys this Saturday at 11 EST. The vio colorway of Erick’s Soopa Maria figure is a one-off with a very Spring-ish pastel scheme. The corona colorway of Turtum Micci is another one-off with a warm gradient. My favorite is the electric cotton candy version of Chap-Lynn which has a mix of transparent resin colors. The subtle purple stripes at the top are especially nice. This one’s limited to 12 pieces. Be here at 11 on Saturday to grab one of these.

The Hunted: 8” Dunny by Colus

This classy Dunny is a vinyl tribute to the springbok, a southwestern African antelope. The black and white color scheme is super smooth, and the additional ear sculpts and mounting plaque seal the deal. It’s limited to 1,250 pieces and will be released on April 11 for $75.

Albotip: Male springboks spread out a flap of skin near their tails and jump up and down to attract lady ‘boks. This is called pronking. Yes, pronking.

Check it: More Kidrobot on Albotas

Buy: Kidrobot Futurama Mini Figure

Kickstart This Shizz: Papa Behr

Papa Behr is a desktop companion in the form of a cybernetic samurai bear with magnetic armor and sword accessories. He’s also a USB drive.

The creators have already met their $20,000 goal on Kickstarter with an impressive 33 days left to go, but feel free to keep the donations rolling and score some of the sweet incentives!

Kickstart it HERE.

Lunartik Royal Tea ToyConUK Exclusive

ToyConUK is coming up this weekend and our friend, Matt JOnes, AKA Lunartik, will be releasing this regal Royal Tea special brew. It has a great color scheme, a suave design on the front, and a nice ring of gold paint around the saucer. This brew is limited to 200 pieces, each signed and numbered. Don’t live in the UK? Reserve one here and you might get lucky (if it doesn’t sell out at the con).

Check it: A Little Bit on Matt JOnes

Buy: Doctor Who Series 1  Vinyl Toy by Lunartik

Chima Group ToyCon Exclusives

Chima Group make two of my favorite sofubi toys, Ademas and Wool. Check out these “gradation” colorways, exclusive to ToyCon. These are pretty sweet because most of their stuff uses solid colors rather than gradients or sprays. Plus the light blue and pink color scheme is pretty metal.

Check it: More Chima Group toys on Albotas
Buy: I Am Plastic, Too: The Next Generation of Designer Toys

March Toy Drop from ESC-Toy

Erick Scarecrow and company have been hard at work, stirring their cauldrons of resin. This month will see a bunch of new toys drop, but two of the designs really stand out.

The first is the Love Crawler, which is a bruised-up heart. Its creepy little feet and clear resin make it reminiscent of a Metroid, another type of soul-sucking parasite closely related to love. The best part is that they’re only $15.

The second is Chelly Chainsaw Blood Sisters. This is my favorite resin toy in a long time. The glossy paint, the exaggerated teeth of the chainsaw, the rounded edges, the little pants tears and chunks of hair - I love everything about this piece. There are only two available and they’ll run $250 each.

These toys, along with new Armora and Tunic colorways, will go on sale tomorrow at 11AM Eastern right here.

Check it: More ESCtoy and Erick Scarecrow posts from Albotas

Baby Ninjas Series 1 from Shawnimals

You can’t learn to be a ninja. You’re born as a ninja. These handmade plushies from Shawnimals depict primordial ninja using their skills of kawaii for massive damage.

The ninja stork drops them off in a blind-bagged package complete with hangtag. There are 10 Baby Ninja plus one chase. Pre-order one here. Currently gestating, they’ll ship in April.

Reticulated Mario & Luigi from Carson Catlin

Carson Catlin has 1-upped himself this time. He’s customized these Mario and Luigi toys for Game On in San Francisco. Love ‘em more than ‘shrooms and facial hair? Plunk down 500 coins for one of the figures or 900 for both at the show on March 22.

Check it: More Carson Catlin customs on Albotas
Buy: Tanooki Suit Mario 8" Plushy

This Is What All Your Dead Marios Look Like When You Lose A Life

Our friend and designer toy artist extraordinaire RSIN sent us these pics of his custom Mario figure for the Game On art show being hosted by 1AM Gallery during this year’s Game Developers Conference. This custom 8” Mario piece features a sculpted base, gold accents, and Mario’s grill has been sculpted into a Mexican sugar skull with gold teeth.

Kind of makes me wish there was some sort of evil power-up item that made Mario look like this in the games.

Check it: More custom toy posts on Albotas
Buy: Super Mario 5" Vinyl Figure Set of 5

A Little Bit on Sekure D

Sekure D was awesome enough to shoot a video with Albotas and talk about his custom sneakers and vinyl toys. We talk about how he got into painting his own sneakers, the process of customizing, the vinyl toy world, and a whole lot more. Check out the video below, and don’t forget to hit the Like button and subscribe!