One company, Two Characters, Three Cool Announcements!

California-Based Sideshow Collectibles, Inc. has recently announced three new projects based on two of your favorite Star Wars characters!

Sideshow was formed in 1993 as a designer toy and collectible studio under the name Sideshow Productions. At that time, it was a motion picture prop and special effect firm. In 1994, the company shifted it's focus exclusively to the collectibles market. The company typically produces licensed products from movies, television, animation, and comics.

In collaboration with Medicom Toys, Sideshow has recently released a stylized C-3PO vinyl toy. Approximately 8" in height, the toy has 11 points of articulation. While it was designed to fit in with some of Medicom's previous Star Wars releases. Here's the rub, to get the toy to have C-3PO's distinguishable golden shine the company had to made this 'vinyl toy' out of...plastic!

Now, 8" is certainly nice...but how about 66"!? Sideshow announced today they would also be accepting pre-orders for two other special releases: A life size C-3PO and R2-D2!

Made of fiberglass and other quality materials, these robots feature both light and sound functionality for that extra level of robot realism!

Unfortunately, the robot celebrities do not walk around. But here's hoping that they give you some relationship advice after your wife leaves you for dropping over $5,000 each on two robot statues to decorate your living room.

Hong Kong's Ultraman presents: Ultraking!

Hong Kong designer Ultraman has been working in collaboration with Play Imaginative to present us with his newest toy: Ultraking.

This stylish primate is dressed to the 9s with his studded leather jacket, shades, pompadour and pinky rings. He reeks of bananas and cool.

Either he's replicating Nelly's late 90's style, or Ultraking has been in a recent brawl. He sports a (stylish?) double bandage on the right cheek. While it's unconfirmed, this writer believes the wound may have happened during a recent battle with his lifelong enemy: Megatron.

...or maybe not.

Still, while it's only in the prototype stage, it's looking to be one of the Goliath!? favorites for 2008!

Slo-Bots!

If there is one not-so-secret passion that your friendly Goliath!? staffer has besides alternative party snack foods, it would likely be robots. (really?)

In the epic battle of pirates vs. ninjas, robots would win.

So naturally, we got rather excited in finding Mike Heisler's Slo-Bots on the interweb today. Heisler builds many of these custom constructs using salvaged parts from other vinyl toys like Munnys, Qees, and even Mighty Muggs!

Heisler is quite the talented artist, and I look forward to seeing his future creations. His popularity is certainly growing: upon writing, he had 1078 Myspace friends!

Guys and Dolls: An Ugly Remake

While many may view them as nothing more than pillows with personality, David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim's Uglydolls are a force to be reckoned with.

Released in 2002, the cute yet ugly plush toys have taken the world by storm. Seen in movies to music videos, the toys have built up a solid foundation of loyal followers.

For some, common sense might dictate that the dolls' collectors would be predominantly female, or 50/50 at best. An interesting article posted in the New York Times contends that statement, though.

The New York Times' Donald McNeal Jr. takes some time to write in depth about his young son's obsession with the toys, branching out to what he sees as a wide fan-base of boys. He paints a great picture, and it's certainly worth the 5-minute read.

Indie Spotlight!

Goliath enjoys the simple pleasures in life. Two of his favorite are comics and toys. He squeals in glee with every whiff of fresh vinyl while opening the recyclable plastic packaging surrounding his new toy. He reads comics on the bus with no shame, often showing the cool fight scenes to the pleasant old lady sitting next to him.

Goliath is particularly fond of The Maxx by Sam Keith. Something about the purple and yellow behemoth reminds him of his mother. But Goliath has diverse tastes, and often indulges in reading the antics of Francine and Katchoo in Terry Moore's Strangers in Paradise. That Katchoo is such a spitfire, she is.

Naturally, you can understand Goliath's excitement upon hearing the announcement of Shocker Toys' new line: Indie Spotlight! Including the aforementioned The Maxx and Katchoo, the series also includes other lovable characters such as Skud the Disposable Assassin, Shadowhawk, and Kabuki.

The toys are due out in Summer 2008, but that hasn't stopped Shocker Toys from announcing series 2: The Tick, Zombie King, Dick Tracey, and more!

Big Battel!

No, that's not a spelling error. Kaiju Big Battel began as a video project from students at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The purposeful mis-spelling of 'battle' was due to a mis-printing on t-shirts early in the creation.

The toupe has periodic Big Battels that reference both professional wrestling and Japan's tokusatsu and kaiju movies. As time goes on, more and more characters have been introduced, swelling the ranks to over 70 unique characters including names such as Robox, Dr. Cube, Uchu Chu, and Kung Fu Chicken Noodle.

The crew recently announced the coming release of a new toy, Vegetius. Working in collaboration with Marmit, the toy is slated for release later this year. This is Kaiju's second vinyl release, after the success of their San Diego Comic-con 2007 release - Sky Deviler.

In related news, Bloc Party collaborated with Kaiju to produce the music video for their new song Flux.

Heartless Machine

From Christopher Locke's Heartless Machine come these incredible scissor spiders! Running a cool $250, each of these arachnids are made from salvaged scissors that were confiscated at US airports. At 6" and 9" across, respectively, these metal marvels are bound to have your vinyl running in fear.

For those who are interested, be sure to check out Christopher's blog to find out how it was all made!

Free toys: Speakerdog!

Friends, we here at Goliath Industries feel strongly about your right to free stuff. Sure, you can pay a mean $70 Canadian on the latest cute vinyl toy...but what if you want all the cute, but not all of that vinyl?

It is my pleasure to present to you the Speakerdog paper toys by Ben the Illustrator and friends! Now into it's 5th series, Speakerdog may be a name you have heard before. The most recent series includes works from Ben the Illustrator, Doktor A, Fivegalloncan, Garry Milne, Hellofreaks, J3 Concepts, NiceBunny, Phil Toys, Triclops Studio, and Tim Robot!

So how does it work? You simply download the toy of your choice from Ben's website. Then you print it on high quality card stock, cut on the lines, and fold where necessary!

UBIQ & Secret Base Collaboration - Ghost

Not much is certain in these crazy times which we live. But one constant - a beacon of hope in a hopeless world - is that the Japanese make some damn cool toys.

Don't get me wrong, I love the works of many North American artists. Artists such as Frank Kozik, Huck Gee, Sucklord, and many others continue to release fresh and fun toys for our enjoyment every year.

With that being said, I always hold a special place in my heart for many of the Japanese releases. Even with all of the cultural differences that a 10,500 km distance brings, I find that many of their toys hold the same relevance no matter what your location.

Perhaps that's a bit too epic of an introduction for the newest release from Tokyo's Secret Base. The new collaboration between them and UBIQ is certainly cool with it's jelly-covered zombie alien ghost good looks. But is it really THAT special?

Sometimes, all a person wants is a really cool toy to put on their desk at work or to add to their collection at home. For that person, we have Ghost.

Crown Mickey

Medicom is a Japanese toy company that specializes in highly styled and ultra cool toys for all ages. Recently, they collaborated with both Disney and Japanese clothing brand Roen to bring us the extremely stylish Roen Crown Mickey. The design is based on a limited edition collaboration tee that Roen did with Disney.

Disney seems to be taking an interest in collaborations as of late. I think it's fantastic that such a big company is allowing re-interpretations of one of its classic characters and hopefully we'll see even more of this in the future. Disney has developed such a diverse set of characters in it's long history, I am excited to see what might be next.

Medicom has released their share of interesting collectibles in the past, but this one is definitely up there as one of my favorites.

Like a Chump

Frank Kozik began his career in the mid-80s creating posters for upcoming concerts. He has been credited for single-handedly reviving the 'lost' art of the concert poster. As his career blossomed, his work was presented in over 60 gallery shows worldwide, with multiple exhibits in Tokyo and London.

More recently, Kozik has been known for his involvement in the design and production of vinyl toys with companies such as Kid Robot and Toy2R. He is best known for creations such as the Smorkin' Labbit, the Hate Dunny, and Dr. Bomb.

His newest toy creations in partnership with Kid Robot involve 13 highly stylized real-world toys known simply as 'Chumps.' With characters including a boxing rabbit, bookie worm, cat-burglar dog, and a gangster octopus, this blind box rag-tag band of outsiders is bound to create another stir in the toy market.

Mean Muggin'

Hasbro is stepping into the trendy vinyl toy market with their newly released Mighty Muggs. Currently licensed for both Star Wars and Marvel intellectual property; you can see the likes of Wolverine, Spider-man, Darth Vader, and Chewbacca along with 10 others super-imposed onto the 6 inch figures with Sausage arms and balloon heads.

Future releases include Indiana Jones, Princess Leia, and Jango Fett later in the year.

It will interesting to see how the market reacts as some of the bigger players in the toy industry continue to get involved in the designer toy movement.

Bennett Robot Works

Add some one-of-a-kind style to your collection with one of the fine specimens from Bennett Robot Works of Bridgehampton, NY. These are not toys.

These robot sculptures were inspired by the "Modern Age" visions of Norman Bel Geddes and Raymond Loewy from the 40s and 50s. They are made from salvaged parts from such unique locations as garbage dumps, basements, construction sites, and garage sales.

Ranging in price from $750 to $6000, Bennett currently has over 30 robots on display and for sale. Each robot takes approximately a month to build, and range in height from 14" to 25".

While not battery powered or mechanical in nature, you will be able to rest easy at night knowing you will be safe during the impending robot uprising while your friends are forced to fight off the cute but killer Elmo robot and his 'jazz hands' or the always deadly Beerbot.

Konjoined Kitty!

From the...unique mind of Michael Schupbach comes this adorable new plush toy called Konjoined Kitty.

Michael is known for his time spent at Disney as well as Jim Henson's Muppet Workshop. He collaborated with esteemed ESC-Toy Ltd. to bring us this wonderful creation.