Raging Nerdgasm #364 - Crawdaddy by Daniel Yu

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.

                                     

Raging Nerdgasm moment- OMFG series 3 submissions

A couple of months ago, we here at Raging Nerdgasm entered October Toys OMFG (Outlandish Mini Figure Guys) series 3 submission and voting is coming to an end. With just a couple of days left, your friends here at Raging Nerdgasm would like to implore that if you haven’t done so already to vote for your favorite series 3 submission (and hopefully it’s one of our submissions). This time around we got organized and submitted three options for this round of the very successful minifigure line created by the fine folks at the forums of Octobertoys.com and founder George Gaspar (and his wife Ayleen of the weekly show “Toy Break”). Normally they urge you not to submit more than 1 entry but here at Raging Nerdgasm we totally believe in going all in on a pair of 2’s and playing like you have all four aces’. If you will, please take a look at our submissions and vote for your favorite soon. Voting ends September 29th, 2012 (less than 2 days).

#16- Roadkill

Roadkill was slightly inspired by the no holds barred style of M.U.S.C.L.E minifigures from the 80’s. We always loved how the series had just about anything your mind could imagine as a wrestler; man/buffalo hybrid on steriods or a 7 foot tall clawed hand with a face on the middle finger and everything and anything inbetween. But yet as much as we loved the series, only a few of them were any more functional as any other rubber figure. There was the guy that could be used as a top but that was just about it. With Roadkill, we wanted a OMFG minifigure with the ability to be cool looking and functional in it’s own way. Roadkill went through several different stages of evolution till we came to a crowd favorite of a free-wheeling version with spiked shoulder cuffs and muscular arms. We thought that a OMFG character that could victimize other characters by rolling over them would make for a hilarious design and add to the overall play value of the whole line. Like I said before, they urge you to only submit one design because some people may only vote once for an artist since you are only allowed 5 votes per ballot. I felt that both Bullseye and Roadkill could definitely hold their own and so far I haven’t been wrong. What a thrill it would be to get two submissions into series 3.

#17- Bullseye

Bullseye was one of first doodles that gained our Raging Nerdgasm forum and the October Toys forum’s seal of general approval. Taking what  elements we love of Garbage Pail Kids, Monster in my Pocket and other equally fun figurine lines; Bullseye is a mutant eyeball with hooves, horns and a tail. Luckily through both amazing coincidence and absolute luck, we teamed with board member EMBoyd who in the end helped us bring tangible life to our 2D drawing and hopefully give it the necessary edge to make Bullseye a part of OMFG series 3.

#18- Bottom Feeder

One thing we’ve noticed over the two previous series, nautical themed characters seem to fare well in the voting stage. For those with a fetish for fish and other things that swim in the briney deep we designed Bottom Feeder, deep sea desinen feeding off of the greed of the surface dwellers with his retractable pearl attached to his tongue. In the end, after several drafts, we went with a full clam/oyster body covered in barnacles with lobster pinscher arms and stubby legs. Bottom Feeder may be recycled for series 4 submissions but only the next few day can tell what may happen.

One of our main objectives here at Raging Nerdgasm is to leave a mark on the toy industry, to eventually become a leading source for toys, games and pop culture nonsense that you’ve grown to love and maybe even get into the independant toy game. Getting into OMFG series 3 would be a dream come true for us and a stepping stone in the right direction for us. Not that not getting one of our submissions made into a minifigure would hinder us any, we would  just have to explore another venture to get the Raging Nerdgasm name out there. Like we said before, if you haven’t yet, please vote for your favorite OMFG series 3 submissions. You get to vote for your 5 favorite submissions once and details of the winners should be released sometime in the following weeks. Voting ends September 29th and if you like what you’ve seen, please vote for our 3 designs when you cast your vote for your five favorite choices.

To see all the submissions CLICK HERE!

To register and vote CLICK HERE!