Jun 27, 2011

Kane County Toy Show 5.15.11

I forgot to post pictures of the last Kane County Toy show from May 15th. We didn't really get to walk around, so here's some pictures of our booth.



We normally get three tables outside, but these shows usually take place during very harsh weather conditions (too hot, cold, windy, rainy) so we decided to just get two tables in the new indoor building so we wouldn't have to deal with that. I think it was worth it even though two tables inside is about $30 more than three outside.




Jun 24, 2011

TDJ032 - iWako Puzzle Eraser (Horse variants)



Things are about to get weird.

Let's start this off by saying that I did not intend for the pictures to go the way they did, but I'm very glad they did. In fact, I actually went back and took new pictures after taking the initial set because I couldn't stop messing with these toys. Although they are just erasers, they've quickly become my favorite items on or around my desk.



As you can see, these are small horse erasers that are billed as "eraser puzzles" because they come apart and have a total of five pieces. Though they come in package assembled so I'm not sure how much of a puzzle there is to them. These are from a Japanese company IWAKO that specializes in erasers of all different kinds. This is a line of zoo-themed erasers that also contains pigs, pandas, giraffes, elephants and a couple others. Each animal has a few color variations which instantly made me pick up five of one animal. As soon as I saw these on a counter at Toys R Us I had to stop myself and pick only one animal to buy as they're a dollar a piece. It's a good price, but it's also easy to spend way more than you thought when grabbing multiple animals in all different color variations.

The five different pieces to each erasers is the base (feet), left and right side of the body, head and hair. Which means you'd instantly switch them around for different color variations.



Which is cool, and has a very large number of variations with pretty much the same result, that kept me busy for about five minutes until I realized...



THEIR HEADS FIT PERFECTLY ON GI JOE AND STAR WARS FIGURES!! Horse head figures! And I cannot stop now. Every time a new figure comes near my desk I instantly have to put a horse head on it. Which also means I want to pick up a panda eraser REAL BAD. I must have an army of different animal figures! Again, this is very similar to what would happen with my toys sitting around the office when we started "toy of the day". Mixing body parts, accessories and such is the best part of having a bunch of random toys laying around.

They have the perfect "face" for being on human bodies. Very stoic, calm & collected and ready for anything you could do. Shoot at them, same face. Tell them that their daughter is pregnant, same face. You're out of tacos at Taco Bell, that ridiculousness doesn't matter to them, same face. Though the taco thing might make them use whatever weapon their newly found body comes with...


(This is my favorite combo thus far.)

I strongly urge others to pick up these animal eraser puzzle thingies just so I can see other pictures of animal heads on action figure bodies. I want this to become a thing. Let's make it happen! Screw planking, no one is going to die from animal-head-action-figuring. Hopefully. Well, maybe... if they cross this guy;



Definitely don't fuck with him. Oh, and while I'm on the subject of guys you shouldn't cross...



This is from IWAKO's site. I'm sure he's the guy that all the other people wish would quit. He definitely is a morning person and probably writes inspirational sayings on post-it notes leaving them all around the office. Or there might be a lot less funny reason to why he was making that face that would make me feel horrible. Hmm... back to horse-head action figures!


I bet it was even harder for Han to cut that Tauntaun open now...

Well that's all the time I care to spend on talking about this, it's much more fun to keep swapping heads than it is coming up with something interesting to say about them. Go! Buy them! Take pictures! This is a dare.

Look for IWAKO puzzle erasers here and here or hopefully at your local Toys R Us.
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Liz: Like this?
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Sam's note: I wasn't really happy that this was Liz's attempt at the photos, until I saw the site she took it from and someone had said this in the comments;

Emily Says:
THIS ISNT RIGHT PEOPLE SHOULDNT BE ALLOWED TO POST THESE THINGS!!!!!

Shut up, Emily.

Plastic/Material – 5/5
Poseability – 1/5
Packaging – 3/5
Design – 5/5
Playability – 5/5
Price (value) – 5/5
Overall – 4/5