Toy Fair 2013: A Crowded Coop: Valve’s (Other) Secret Weapon

Posted on February 21, 2013 by geelw

If you’re one of those video game fans who collects assorted goodies related to your favorite games or if you’re just interested in fun finds with a quirky edge, I bet there’s a nice possibility that there’s something from A Crowded Coop on a shelf or hanging on or from something you own. Based out of Monroe, Washington and made up of a couple of professional genius business types with heavy experience in all things toy related as well as being some very talented artistic types with vision to spare, the company creates its own products as well as licenses and distributes other trendy, hip gear the cool kids (and old farts like me) love through a number of retail outlets such as Think Geek and other quality online and brick & mortar emporiums. At this year’s Toy Fair, the company showed off an outstanding line of collectibles from some of Valve’s hit games (Portal 2, DOTA 2 and Team Fortress 2), a new line of beautiful plush toys from artist Justin Hillgrove, another upcoming fun plush line called Whim Whams and more that had me smiling even as I walked up to the booth…

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Toy Fair 2013: Mimoco Revives Dead Presidents As USB Drives, Ben Franklin’s Ghost Pissed Off…

Posted on February 18, 2013 by geelw

I can hear the spinning coffin from here, as ol’ Ben is mighty upset. George Washington and Abe Lincoln get love from mimoco in these two cool limited edition MIMOBOT USB drives (available NOW), but he’s the main tech guy out of all the founding fathers what with his electrical kite flying hijinx, his sense of humor (Poor Richard’s Almanack!) and other er, “modern” things about the man. That and hey – he’s on the hundred dollar bill and look where the other two ended up on US currency. Obviously, Ben’s the MAN, so maybe you Fans of Franklin should bug mimoco to get with the program and get a BF drive on the site at some point. Still, I say pick either or both of these up just so they know you’re serious about waving the flag for Ben in the future.

Toy Fair 2013: HoboNinjas Need Love (and Food and Hugs and So Forth & So On) Too!

Posted on February 16, 2013 by geelw

So, we all know from that Japanese history course we took (what, you cut class all the time? Shame!) that an unemployed samurai is called a Rōnin and if he says a hearty “Heck no!” to that mandatory seppuku clause in his termination contract, must wander the land, masterless until he drifts into whatever fate (or a decent movie director) hands him. But what about the elusive unemployed Ninja? Well, they don’t quite see the eternally wandering thing as good for potential future gigs because how can you hire an assassin if he’s always wandering around stumbling into trouble (decently-directed though it may be). Anyway, somehow, Mackenzie Mayer, chief designer and all around art ninja (I was going to say “guru”, but mixing mythologies creates time paradoxes or something disastrous like asteroid-shaped pianos falling from the sky over Russia) has managed to capture the spirit of the out of work black-clad agents of assorted demise in HoboNinja form as WillNinjas! Once you see these guys, you’ll want to put them to work for you in any number of (legal) ways…