Secret Base

I know they have been around for a while, I'm not stumbling on something new here, but I just have to say how much I enjoy the work of Secret Base. Their toys are some of the coolest ever created. They have that perfect mix of cute and scary, adorable yet grotesque. They are made of soft vinyl with miniature plushies stuffed inside and average about five inches tall, just the right size. I like the wide variety of different color vinyl used on the figures and different materials used for the plush innards.

My favorite examples of their recent work are the B-Man Skullbrain Forever [pictured above, left] with its Batman sheets plushy innards and the Astrozombies Skullwing figure [pictured above, right] with an 80's pink plaid plushy, that was available at the Astrozombies booth at Superfestival 42 on April 29th, and is darn near impossible to find now.

The only complaints I have about the Secret Base toys are their price and availability. They are a little too expensive to collect the immense variety that they produce, you have to be selective, get just the best-of-the-best. I don't know how the Japanese do it, with Secret Base headquarters in Shibuya-ku,Tokyo. I would be there everyday to check out their new creations. And you have to know where to look to find them outside of Japan. There are two good places on the interweb to start your Secret Base collection here in the States: Toy Tokyo in New York and Span of Sunset in Los Angeles. Their prices are comparable, location is the big difference. Wherever you find them, I'm sure you will be pleased with the results. For more information about Secret Base, check out Toybot Studios.