The Bad Taste Bears line has been around since 1999 when the first set of figures were released at the Birmingham International Spring fair. These figures actually came to fruition way back in 1994 as sketches by Pete Underhill. While Pete was drawing sketches for designs for children's pajamas, he snapped and started drawing teddy bears with a chainsaw, one sitting in urine, and finally a teddy bear with a shotgun in its mouth. Now with 400 individual designs and years later, Bad Taste Bears have evolved out of figurines and into many different avenues.
Gilbert The 4" Quasi Bear Creature
Gilbert The 4" Quasi Bear Creature from the Black Lagoon mash up has a great design. There's great textures going on, from the scaly body right down to his webbed fingertips. This guy is made out of a plastic/resin compound build, so there's no articulation to speak of. He stands perfectly on his own and would fit nicely into any display case.
The thing I love the most about this Bad Taste Bear is the personality that comes through, without being too ridiculous. Sure he's a bear, fish creature meld, but it works. The color of green that is used suits him well.
Each Bear comes numbered on it's back. This unique take on The Creature from the Black Lagoon would fit in nicely with any monsters collection. Some other classic monster parody bears include Dracula, The Mummy, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Frankenstein, and The Wolfman. Release date: first available in November 2004
Bad Taste Bears Myers (Halloween)
Myers The Bad Taste Bear is, you guessed it, a 4' parody on John Carpenter's Michael Myers character. He is hand painted to perfection. You can make out perfectly the wrinkles in his overalls. My favorite part of the paint on this guy is his mask. I know it's supposed to be a funny take on the Myers character, but the dark black eye holes give me the creeps sometimes. The fact he has stabbed a pumpkin does give you some levity though.
There's one thing you really have to be careful of if displaying this guy, The knife hanging out of the pumpkin is very fragile. If the figure falls over you might as well get the glue out, because it's going to break off.
Made out of a plastic/resin compound build there is again no articulation to speak of (like Gilbert). Do you need articulation though when this guy is great for just displaying?
This little Myers can hold his own with the best of them, I'm proud to have him in my collection.
Some of the other horror parodies include a scream bear, Freddy Kruger, Leatherface, multiple zombie bears, Pinhead, Chucky, and Jason from Friday the 13th.
Release date: first available in May 2012
3.5" Three Headed F**k3r by TABUN Studio (Thailand)
TABUN Studio has been around and working hard since 2005. There has been some pretty exciting and fun stuff coming from the studio over the years, such as the ugly 13. These were 13 uniquely different figures each with it's very own personality and design.
You can tell that the designers are truly passionate about designing something very different and fun. 2015 marks their 10 year anniversary as a studio and to celebrate this they've released a figure called Three Headed F**k3r
Our 3.5" three headed friend comes packaged nicely, with a cool designer cardboard backing. On the back we get a brief history of TABUN Studio and the numbered character, this one is limited to 50 pieces. I love the fact that on the front of the box it has the name of the figure (unedited) and then the warning choking hazard small parts not for children under three.
The Three Headed F**k3r is a soft bendable pvc material figure with no articulation. Each head on this figure is totally different from the next. I enjoy the over exaggerated steroid like build on this guy. (I'm guessing that's where he gets part of his nickname). Designed into his back in the form of a tattoo is the word Ten (again signifying the ten year anniversary).
In the way of accessories we have an axe that fits into the left hand of our mutated creature man. The one other thing this guy comes with is a minion snap kit, basically a small hard plastic puzzle like figure which you put together. If you pre-ordered this figure it comes with a very nice t-shirt with the art design from the front of the box on it.
There are a few variant colored figures available of this design (purple and green), limited to 20 pieces each.
I really dig this figure because he's something totally different from anything else have. He stand out and say look at me. Plus you'd never see this on shelves at Toys'R'Us.
I wish TABUN Studios a happy ten year anniversary, and hope to see them around for many more anniversaries to come.
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