Thursday, April 24, 2014

Tank Head by Jesse Destasio and Eric Nilla



This year I decided that with cutting a lot of junky lines out of my collection I could finally start to dive into designer toys. Whether they be original sculpted designs or cobbled together out of several different existing figures, I want to add some of these pieces of modern art to my collection. Also, with some upcoming announcements in Raging Nerdgasm's future, I figured it was time to really get oriented with the field. Some of these toys are made of resin which is a material very close to a hard plastic in nature. It's easily sanded and takes paint very well. Some are made out of rubber very reminicent of the original Kinnikuman keshi (or rubber M.U.S.C.L.E. men from Mattel). Lots of these "homebrewed" figures are visually amazing and I'm really enjoying adding some totally original pieces to my collection.



Eric Nilla has an amazing store online where he specializes in not only fully original figures but also offers some really cool reproductions of older keshi from the last 30 years. Jesse Destasio has been designing toys that may very well be on your shelf right now with his tenure in the toy industry. For the last few weeks, Eric Nilla and Jesse Destasio have been "teasing" images of Tank Head. Tank Head is what you'd expect for a custom take off on the classic Kinnikuman line; a muscle-bound man wear boots and tight wrestling trunks with a tank turret for a head. I don't usually get crazy for a toy on pictures alone but with the background of both people involved in the project, they had both my admiration and trust that this toy was going to be awesome. It didn't disappoint in the least.









Tank Head comes in a customary baggie with stapled on header. This is a normal way for figures like this to be packaged, normally the more involved a package is the more expensive the toy is and it harkens back to the bootleg toy culture that spawned this toy style. Those of you that follow Jesse Destasio on social media will automatically notice his artwork adorns the header card (I, for one, really do enjoy his watercolor art).  Tank Head stands nearly 3 inches tall which gives him an intimidating look amongst your other 1 1/2 to 2 inch tall figurines. The value is also high on this piece, for $19 shipped you're getting a really unique figure that other collectors will really take notice of. The tank turret is also removable, if you feel crafty you might feel obliged to create your own head for the body (and I'm sure to make way for variants in the future.) Check the website for current stock and also upcoming releases as his store stock is always revolving.




                                     

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