Jul 17, 2008

TDJ011 - Totem Doppelgänger by Anton Ginzburg

I usually find myself the recipient of some pretty awesome toys, having many friends that not only like to relive some lost childhood memory by some random piece of plastic in our house, but also by those who get a kick out of feeding my obsession and seeing our collection grow to absurd amounts, knowing that one of these days, the walls of our place are going to give out and the neighborhood kids will riot.

But one of the best pieces of plastic that I can ever receive, is the giftcard. This year for Cinco de Mustache, Beanie gave me a giftcard for AOkay Official, one of the awesome vinyl toy shops here in Chicago. After three attempts (a couple where I couldn't decide, and one time forgetting my wallet) at spending the giftcard, I finally came across the tri-level ghost orgy known as Totem Doppelgänger. Giftcard spent, I headed back to the office to (play with these) work real hard.



The set is by artist Anton Ginzburg and they first made an appearance at the 1st Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art two years ago as a full size exhibit. Now, thanks to KidRobot, anyone that wants to, can have these lovable/creepy guys stacking up in their homes.

Recently having to deal with toy packaging, I'm really going to give props to KidRobot on this sleek and attractive box. It has a nice matte laminate finish with some spot gloss on certain things such as names and the picture of the ghosts on the side. The front of the box has three differently sized circle windows randomly paced so that you can see all three ghosts while in the package, but the different sizes almost makes you think that each ghost is a different size themselves. I also appreciate the simpleness of the design, it's not cluttered and I've actually taken to displaying the box, though empty, next to the toy(s) on the shelf.

The toys are hard to put down and tend to give me an urge to want to throw them. They're made of a plastic that's not too common in vinyl figures, or at least have a coating on them that help them stick to one another while in totem form. They also lend themselves to being confiscated by random jugglers.



As soon as I got these, it was pointed out that they should meet with some paint to make them into Inky, Blinky & Clyde. Not Pinky, she's a jerk. But I'd actually rather do them all the same blue, to represent the ghosts when they're running from PacMan. Though I'm sure that whatever coating is on these guys to make it easy to stick to one another, would make it very difficult to have spray paint adhesive to them. Rest easy, Totem, you're safe for now.



Once open at the office, it soon became obvious that if these little guys were given the opportunity to sit upon another toy's head, that they would be granted full mind control over that unsuspecting toy, turning them into vicious killing machines. Oh, poor Grimace bank, we hardly knew ye.



So now to me and those fortunate enough to live with me, they will constantly be sucking brains/mind controlling various other toys throughout the apartment.

Find Totem Doppelgänger for sale here and here.
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Liz: Have you ever woken up with three plastic ghosts stuck to your forehead?

Yeah, me neither.

Have you ever woken up with three plastic ghosts stuck to your forehead everyday for a week?

Hmmm.

Why do I have the sudden urge to buy Sam more G.I.Joes and wear bikinis when I do laundry?
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Plastic/Material – 5/5
Poseability – 1/5
Packaging – 5/5
Design – 5/5
Playability – 4/5
Price (value) – 5/5
Overall – 4/5







1 comment:

GavinR said...

That is a Boo Berry bank, not a Grimace bank. Grimace and purple and is a thing, not a fruit flavored ghost.