Hey Guys, this week I'm Critter Crazy! I'm not sure if anyone out there is old enough to remember a little horror, comedy movie from 1986 called Critters, if not let me give you a little plot summary. A gigantic ball of furry, vicious creatures from another world land in a mid-western city determined to eat their way through it, townsfolk and all.
These creature are the polar opposite of Gizmo from the movie Gremlins (1984). They're small, furry and have and endless appetite and are armed with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth and large bloodstained red evil eyes. They're indeed a critter to run for the hills from.
The people over at AmokTime have released a vinyl critter figure of their own, as part of their Monstarz line. The Critter in question comes boxed nicely, pictures of Critters are printed on it. The box also has a nice window type display, so if you're a collector you can keep your little critter mint in box (unless he eats his way out). Now to the figure, he is nicely painted on rubbery vinyl. The critter's eyes stand out being that they are bright red. His small smiling mouth shows off his hundreds of razor sharp teeth. There's nice realistic hair running down his back starting at his hairline. His bright yellow fingertips also draw your eyes to them. This little Critter looks just as I remember from the movie. You can find him on Amazon too.
Now let's get to the price-point for this figure. At the time of this column's release AmokTime's has this beautiful and beastly figure listed at $19.99 (USD) with free shipping available for the 48 continental US states. Since I live in Canada I checked on the shipping cost here, and it's $11.75 which is not bad at all. Do I think this guy is one heck of a steal at the price tag, I sure do. If you haven't checked out the movie, go see if you can find it, you may find yourself grabbing a Critter of your own.
There are many other custom Critters out there in the wild.I thought I'd share a few with you. The prices on these customs are way out the range for most of us, But cool nonetheless.
First up is from Bonyo Customs. It's a fully modeled resin figure, with decent painting. It measures 5.5 inches tall and comes with specially designed card bubble and blister package. This one is listed on eBay for a starting bid of a hundred dollars. For that much money I'd buy 3 AmokTime Critter figures and gift one to a friend of mine.
The next custom Critter figure up to bat is Retroband Critters. There are two releases, a normal critter and a bloody variant critter both of which are 1:18 scale and both versions are hand produced and hand painted. Each come in blister packaging and on a handmade card. The handmade card is very well done and you can see the designer's love for this figure and movie shine through. These figures are very reminiscent of Funko's ReAction line of figures but the only big difference is the price tag. Funko's ReAction run close to $10.99 while, the Retrobrand figures are $189 each. I would love to recommend this figure as you can tell the time and love put into each one, but the price is just way too much to justify for this size of figure. Chances are someday soon Funko might pick up the rights to these and produce their own line of Critter ReAction figures.
Next up is one from the people over at Brujolandia Toys (based in Argentina) who have also released a couple different Critter figures. The first one is a life sized Critter. This version of our little Critter creature is made of latex and synthetic leather, fully sewed together. Each claw is painted with hand nail glaze. The teeth on this version are implanted one by one, each tooth is soaked in artificial blood to give it that Critter like realism.
This figure stands 9 inches tall, from furry head to sharp claws. There are multiple variants available, all with varying price tags from $149 (USD), to a whopping $211 (USD), plus shipping of course. Brujolandia's other Critter release is a nice looking lifelike Critter keychain. It is made of latex and synthetic leather, and is also fully hand sewn. This little guy is hand painted using 4-tone paint. I could see myself getting one of these to hang in my rear view mirror or to stick on the old Christmas tree. The price of this figure is a more reasonable $39 (USD) plus shipping.
And the last of the custom Critters I will write about are Resin and Rubber Figures by Eric Nilla and Friends. These ones are tiny in stature but large in coolness department. The price tag on these figures are $12(USD). They are available in a few different colors: standard colors (Light or Dark) - flesh, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, black, brown as well as the following:
Glow: vanilla, purple Thermal: red, blue, black Metallic: blue, red wine, gold,, silver, light green, lime green
Film-like Color: (sold out) retailed for $25 (USD)
I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did.
It's Canadian Chris checking out...Eh!
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