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Toys & Collectibles

‘Tater Skins: Super Impulse Poptaters Offer an Array of Fan Favorites

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Hot Mash…

Super Impulse, famous for their line of impossibly small replicas of iconic toys, games and products, showed off a basket full of their Poptaters at the recent Toy Insider Sweet Suite Event.

Poptaters are a mash-up of Hasbro’s Mr. Potato Head and the world of pop culture personalities. A bit bigger than SI’s usual licensed collectibles, Poptaters feature characters from fandoms both obvious and surprisingly obscure. There are also generational leaps from Boomers to Gen A giving the product a wide appeal. 

The Spud Abides…

At the Super Impulse booth, Lucky Trolls (aka Wishnicks) and Garbage Pail Kid Adam Bomb sat next to Child’s Play’s Chucky and Sonic The Hedgehog. Painter Bob Ross seemed prepared to render a happy little portrait of The Office‘s Dwight Shrute and there was even Kiss’s Gene Simmons replete with axe bass and dragon boots. 

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My favorite in this series is the perfect presentation of Jeff Bridges as “The Dude” from the film The Big Lebowski (1998). It’s the piece that made me laugh out loud.

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These boots are made for rocking. Gene Simmons’ dragon boots are just one of the fun details found on Super Impulse’s Poptaters Mr. Potato Heads.

I was a Pre-Teen Couch Potato…

National Toy Hall of Fame inductee Mr. Potato Head has gone through many revisions since its launch in 1952. I have fond memories of sitting on my living room couch (circa 1959-1960) happily pushing combinations of various eyes, noses, brows, and mouths into a variety of vegetables. Unfortunately, the original kit had a fatal flaw in requiring that kids raid the refrigerator for suitable noggins.

Tuber or Not Tuber…

I don’t think my parents realized when I convinced them to buy the toy that it would lead to a daily attack on the family food stock. Honestly, finances were tight and food security was the number one priority in my house. Finding me mangling the contents of our vegetable bin became contentious. 

In the mid-1960s Hasbro rolled out a revamp with the inclusion of a plastic potato surrogate to host the facial parts and accessories. That likely saved innumerable pounds of produce from the waste bin and allowed for safer rounded points on the pieces.

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The ever-mellow Bob Ross prepares to paint a happy little vegetable garden..

SkeletonPete Says… 

Getting a chance to relive a legacy play experience while celebrating a favorite franchise is the lure of Poptaters for me and I assume other collectors. Super Impulse keeps growing the options.

Just announced at San Diego Comic-Con and coming in the fall are Poptaters of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, Sesame Streets Bert and Ernie, Silent Bob, and Vocaloid virtual popstar Hatsune Miku. They’ll also be starchy renditions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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Due in autumn 2023, Poptaters Series 3 will include Vocaloid Hatsune Miku,
Sesame Street‘s Bert and Ernie, Star Trek‘s Mr. Spock, and other pop culture faves. (image courtesy of Super Impulse)

Poptaters figures stand approximately 4 inches tall and come with a selection of 11-14 interchangeable pieces. They come packaged in clear cylindrical display cases to show off on your collector shelves but don’t leave ‘em boxed up. Mixing and matching the various face and body parts is where all the fun lies. 

The Pricing by item runs from $14.99 – $17.99.

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Mind Blown: Oppenheimer scion Adam Bomb of Garbage Pail Kids fame
is easily triggered.
Categories
Toys & Collectibles

Tot Fun in the Summertime: Toy Insider’s Sweet Suite 2023

Scenes from The Toy Insider Sweet Suite event 2023 #weknowplay

The Toy Insider’s (TI) Sweet Suite event was back in full swing this past week. The 2023 installment brought together media outlets from across the continent. National news agencies to social app influencers of all ages convened at Manhattan’s Chelsea Pier to alert the public to what will be the most sort after toys throughout the summer and into the year-end gifting season.

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Toys & Collectibles

Banana Bred: WowWee Fingerlings Return

WowWee Toys will launch a new series of the popular Fingerlings baby monkeys in summer of 2023

We’re a Happy Family…

You’ve heard about the monkey’s uncle I’m sure, but at the recent toy industry event The PlayDate (hosted by The Toy Association and The Toy Insider) I was introduced to the monkey’s cousins! Yes, returning to toy shelves soon are WowWee Toys’ beloved baby monkeys, the Fingerlings

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Film & Television Series Toys & Collectibles

Two Inches of Terror: Diamond Select’s “What If…” Zombie Mini-Mates

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Uh-Oh, Cap is looking hangry and you’re on the menu!
(All photos are courtesy of Diamond Select Toys)

Diamond Select Toys celebrates the 20th anniversary of their Mini-Mates action figure line with a box set that pays tribute to the Marvel animated series What If… as seen on the Disney Plus streaming service.

Mini-Mates are two inch tall, articulated figures that have been designed under a multitude of licenses, from Universal Monsters and Nightmare Before Christmas to Kill Bill characters. I’m always astounded at how the simple body form can be transformed to so accurately convey a character.

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Film & Television Series Photography Toys & Collectibles

Better Run Through the Jungle: Noble Collection Meets Universal Monsters

It’s Monster Monday Again!

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The Noble Collection’s Creature From the Black Lagoon Bendy Fig captured in
a paper craft jungle.

“A sleepy lagoon, a tropical moon, and two on an island” is how the lyrics of the 1940 Number 1 hit song imagines a jungle paradise. That’s certainly not what Julie Adams and Richard Carlson encountered when their archeological team traveled down the Amazon in the now classic 1954 monster movie The Creature from the Black Lagoon. It was way more of a creepy lagoon and prehistoric goon experience.