We’ve seen Pokéball soaps and bath bombs with toys hidden inside them. Firebox came up with a similar gimmick, but with a candle and an actual, albeit, extinct animal.
The Hatching Dinosaur Candle measures about 5.5″x 5.5″x 6.2″. As it burns, it will reveal a porcelain figurine of a baby velociraptor. The raptor will be covered with soot as the candle continues to waste away, but you can easily wipe the little fella clean.
Firebox is selling the candle for ~$45 (USD) each, but it won’t ship until 2016.
Successful franchises know how to reinvent themselves to stay current. The venerable Mr. Potato Head is no exception, recently putting out a Mr. Heisenberg figure, of Breaking Bad fame. There are 8 removable parts, which you assemble to create a spud version of the meth kingpin. It’s an officially licensed figurine measuring 6 inches tall, and setting you back a very reasonable $25.
A little bit menacing but a whole lot adorable, UNITED MONSTERS are a creative and artistic collection of toys made from sustainable concrete. With a wide array of monstrous options, the range of creatures each has their own unique story and character. Available here, each order includes the art toy, temporary tattoos and a sticker pack!
Last year we featured Digital Soaps’ Poke Ball soaps, which has toy Pokémon embedded inside. Etsy store Fizzy Fairy Apothecary has the same gimmick but with bath bombs, for trainers who choose fizzies.
The bath bombs are available in six variants: the regular Poké Ball, Ultra Ball, Net Ball, Great Ball, Premiere Ball and Master Ball. Each variant is tied to a particular scent by default, but the shop does take custom orders.
Sadly as of this writing Fizzy Fairy Apothecary is closed, but the owner said she’ll be back in business later this month.
Like Hero Forge, Imagine 3D Miniatures’ Mounted Heroes are an upcoming customizable miniature system based on 3D printing and a user-friendly configurator. While Hero Forge has more diverse characters and more importantly is already up and running, Mounted Heroes does have an ace up its sleeve: mounts.
Mounted Heroes currently has two main races – humans and orcs – and both have access to different mounts. Human miniatures can have horse, griffin or dragon mounts, while orcs have boar, wyvern or lizard-like mounts. More races and mounts will be released in the future, sooner if Imagine 3D Miniatures’ stretch goals on Kickstarter are met. I get the logic behind pairing a race with a mount, but I think Mounted Heroes would better serve its purpose – i.e. customization – if that restriction was removed.
Like Hero Forge, Mounted Heroes’ configurator is easy to understand and instantly reflects your choices on a 3D doll. You can start from scratch or pick from available templates. Either way you’ll be able to customize your characters’ pose, face and various pieces of armor and weapons.
Both services also offer two materials for printing – one brittle but better suited for details and thus display, and another that’s strong and flexible and is great for regular use. The popular 3D printing marketplace Shapeways will handle printing duties for Imagine 3D Miniatures.
Pledge at least $30 (USD) on Kickstarter to receive a Mounted Heroes miniature as a reward. I think ultimately the quality and variety of options will decide the fate of services like this, but Mounted Heroes is off to a good start, considering they don’t have the resources or the IP to make a grand entrance into the world of miniatures.
Still, established miniature makers like Games Workshop would do well to embrace 3D printing, or services like this will make them obsolete. In the same way, Mounted Heroes and similar competitors should immediately promote themselves to artists and hobbyists to create a self-sustaining community and provide even more options to customers. I wouldn’t be surprised if art communities like deviantART branch out and provide a similar service as well.
While pundits mull the Seahawks’ questionable decision making at the Super Bowl, the Internet is talking about Left Shark. One of Katy Perry’s dancers, Bryan Gaw made glaring mistakes at the halftime show performance, turning him into a meme within hours. And now we have Left Shark merch.
Here’s the real MVP in unsynchronized action:
Designed by Fernando Sosa, the 3D printed Left Shark figurine is about 3″ tall and is made of full color sandstone. Update: Fernando is no longer selling the figurine, as per orders from Katy Perry’s lawyers. Boo. Maybe they’re planning on releasing official Left Shark merch. You can order one from Fernando’s Shapeways shop for $25 (USD). Funko, if you know what’s good for you you’ll have a Left Shark bobblehead in stores tomorrow.
It turns out you don’t need to turn your pets into quadcopters to immortalize them. Just send Cuddle Clones a picture of your buddy and it will make a plush doll or sandstone figurine based on your beloved animal.
Aside from sending multiple pictures, you can also give Cuddle Clones specific instructions about how the doll or figurine will look, such as the position of its ears. Maybe you can even give it quadcopter rotors. Probably not.
Skip to about 2:12 in the video to see customers’ reactions to their Cuddle Clones:
Stuff a plush browser and head to Cuddle Clones’ website to order. A plush doll replica costs $129 or $199 (USD) each depending on the size of your pet, while figurines cost $99 each. You can check out Cuddle Clones’ gallery, Facebook or Instagram pages for more samples.
Bigshot Toyworks is now raising funds on Kickstarter for Four Horsies of the ‘Pocalypse. The four-figure set is the toymaker’s follow up to Maddie, its Cthulhu and My Little Pony mashup toy. The set includes Raven, the horsie of Famine, Clash, the horsie of War, Calamity, the horsie of Pestilence and Ghost, the horsie of Death.
Aside from their original colors, Bigshot Toyworks also has limited edition glow-in-the-dark and clear versions of the figures.
He may be invisible, but I’m pretty sure the horsie of commercialization was all over that video. Pledge at least $100 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Four Horsies of the ‘Pocalypse set as a reward.
Geeky soap specialist Digital Soaps borrowed a video game mechanic to boost its soap sales: random loot drops. The shop makes 2″ Pokéball soaps with a random Pokémon figurine hidden inside.
Just like video game loot, these figurines have tiers. In true Pokémon fashion, the rarest are literally shiny Pokémon. These figurines are coated in or even made entirely of silver or gold. Such figurines are worth between $77 to $170 (USD)!
You can order Pokéball soaps from Digital Soaps’ own shop or from its Etsy shop for $16 (USD) each. It releases the shiny ones in only a few of its batches, so keep an eye on the shop’s Facebook page for updates.
Etsy shop Geekify Inc. offers the proper start to start a Protoss toy collection: a pylon figurine. This cute copyright-infringing replica of the warrior race’s most important structure is handmade from resin and brass.
Place a proxy browser near Etsy and warp in $59 (USD) to get a pylon figurine.
