SDCC EXCLUSIVES

Uh oh! Sun-Min's birthday
approaches. Time to pretend to have a
meeting in town so I can go get something.
Many emails asking what the SDCC items
will be. This year there will be one plush
item which will be exclusive to SDCC.
No more releasing our entire line in
one color. That was fun but it's no fun
when the cost to collect them all is a
small fortune and you JUST got to SDCC
where there's so many other great finds
waiting for you. But we are super excited
about the one we have ready for the show.
Like before, if we still have some, we'll
offer them to other shops after, but
this time there's only 400 pcs.
We'll also have the solid green
Wage Kaiju at the booth. 50 pcs.
What I'm really excited about is
the whole new line we'll be
revealing preview night.
Lets see if info leaks out
before. The press seems to
like posting everything online
as soon as they get photos.
Can we get everything done in time?
The race is on.

PEEK A BOO

OK so what's going on here?
This dad was trying to catch what he thought
were peeping toms looking into his daughter's
window and instead got this on video.
Apparently it blinks. Real or not,
what's with the recent bombardment
of UFO related subject matter and
sightings being reported
on by the mainstream press?
Are they warming us up to the
idea after years of calling
perfectly decent people
"wacko"?
Check it out!


Oh and this is awesome.
I found Indiana Jones Otaku!
They know where to get the
actual costume parts.
CLICK THIS ONE!
You can even get the jackets
and hats by the people who
made them for the movie.
I guess the actual shoes
come from a certain old
school shoe maker in
Sherman Oaks.
That's rad.


I ordered the shoes right
away because I needed
good shoes for the winter.
Sun-Min complains that
I wear shoes out too fast
because I walk like a
penguin or goat or something.
Now I'll walk like a
real winner!

OH GLOW UP

Glow in the dark Kaiju Ice-Bat is now up for pre-order
at INTHEYELLOW.COM. CLICK HERE TO SEE!
Our first glow in the dark Ice-Bat was an edition of 50
by Critterbox way back in 2005, released during
the SDCC. Now Ice-Bat is here for all to enjoy.
Eh, all 50 of you. Watch your eyes though.
Not just because of the super bright glow...
those ears are not for kids! Ouch!
Ages 15 and up.
Edition of 50 pcs.
Made in Japan.
Ships June 10th.

Is that you Mr. Lau?

I don't think it is. Nike had this set up
at the huge CoeX Mall in Seoul.
Not so sure who designed these.
Maybe it was him or Eric So?
Maybe not.



I received this nice
surprise for my birthday from
my very talented brother.
He'll be getting a VIP pass to Uglycon.
The video shows my first ever speeding
ticket. I received 2 total, and none in the
past 10 years. Better radar detector now.
Oh and that crumpled license plate is
from when someone skimmed the
front bumper of my first car, a 74 beetle,
at over 50 mph while I was at a stop sign.
The plate went flying into a nearby school
yard and had rolled up into a long tube.
I was listening to the soundtrack to
Indiana Jones 3 when the guy hit me,
so I wanted to chase him but instead
decided to go get my front plate and
unroll it.

What dat

Don't you think it's strange that
the Vatican came out last week saying
belief in UFOs are OK, the British MOD
announced a few days ago that they are
releasing all UFO files, and CNN just reported
news of the Nasa Rover landing on the
north pole of Mars to begin a life-search
mission?
You do?
I don't.
But I just wanted to see
if you did.
Never mind.

TRUST HIM

Woah fantastic. Really, my favorite
movie in over a decade for sure.
Not just because it was Indiana Jones,
but because it's about basically every single
interest, passion and belief of mine
outside of toys rolled up in a giant ball.
(Just like how it is in real life.)
Wow.
Oh maybe there's toys too.

FURBYS!

Yesterday we had the closing ceremony
for the 12th annual Seoul Cartoon and Animation
Festival. Good to see a healthy mix of students
and huge companies side by side.
A funny story and catchy visuals is all you
need, big or small.


As you can see, it was off the hook.


The new shows on the horizon
were pretty revolutionary.


This was before the whole gang
showed up, but there's the nice
people from Iconix. They own
Pororo the Penguin. Basically
the Mickey Mouse of Korea.
Also publishers of Bossy
Bear for the Korean market.


Bat Man Dark Knight toys!
The taller ones are pretty
incredible. More on that later.


Going to see this now.
Will it be any good?
What did you think?

PLUNKO

Plunko and Babo's Bird in stock at
giantrobot.com
Click above link to see.
That was fast and somehow they
got them before we did for our own
uglydolls.com web store!
Check your local store very soon
wherever you may be.
They also have the new Uglydoll
shirts from Mightyfine in stock
(not up on their web store yet.)


Also in stock, the super limited
Chupacabra pink and blue.
We made 50 of each, but only
released 35 of each into the wild.
These were exclusive to the Giant
Robot NYC Comic-con booth.
Made in Japan.
Click here to see.


Also back in stock, the
MOTHMAN VS FLATWOODS MONSTER
extra cheapo PLAY SET!
CLICK HERE TO SEE!
Ooooh scary. Heavy.
STINKY!
Amaze your friend.

CLOAKING DEVICE TYPE

MYSTERY SOLVED

Clear Gold Chupacabra!
Edition of 150 pieces, to be
released in June. I had no clue!
He will be available through
intheyellow.com and a few
other places outside Japan.
Much better photos here:
CLICK LINK
Wait but what's THIS at INTHEYELLOW.COM?
CLICK HERE TO SEE


It would seem that DEHARA held back a tiny few
Menta Ice-Bats for the JP market.
Here's the web shop link.
The rest are at Giant Robot in LA and
should be on sale soon.

CLEARLY!

An image of an upcoming toy of ours has
leaked out online and I have no clue how
it came to be! So odd! I have no idea when
he is coming out or how many we will make,
so I will hold on posting images for now.
I may know by today.
I have him right here!
Truly strange!
Want to see?
The image is here...
But I think that came
FROM HERE?
The image I put up instead is of the
Kakuranger Fortress Muteki Shogun reveal.
I want to live in there.
But who would clean up when
the robot mode makes that
mess with the boulders?
Not me.

ICE-GLOW

Glow in the dark Ice-Bat Kaiju
has been revealed on INTHEYELLOW.COM
Release date us in June.
Edition of 50 pcs.
Stay tuned to intheyellow.com
for more info.
We'll try to announce the
exact release date as soon
as we find out.
His colors may seem a bit
familiar. Aha!
If you haven't seen glow Kaiju
from Intheyellow, you can use these
to light up a dark forest.

入荷待ち!!!

HHSTYLE is one of our favorite shops
in Tokyo so this is great news.
The design shop on Cat Street, Harajuku
(the street connecting Omote Sando with
Shibuya) has decided to give Uglydoll a
try and they sold out almost immediately.
I really wanted to avoid any sort of post
like this in general, but for this one I
just had to congratulate our team at
BUDDYZ for working hard to help Ugly
find it's way in Japan, and I wanted to thanks
INTHEYELLOW for helping us out with the
fantastic Ugly Kaiju. Also a huge thanks to
STITCH for being huge supporters early on
when nobody else knew. I have a funny feeling
you guys helped spread the word and make us
look every Ugly-er.
Thanks for believing in us!
ありがとう!!!

MENTA ON ICE

Indiana with no hat and rocket.
Not sure why this one didn't include
a hat. Is it a spoiler figure?
They could have thrown in
the hat like they did with the
other version holding the skull.
Why are there spoilers? I never understood.
You're going to go to the movie knowing
everything. Why would you want to
spoil it? Are there spoilers for
romantic comedies?


EDIT:
That hat in trailer 3 looks very 3D CG.
Could explain no hat on the toy, which
would have been made nearly one year ago,
but then why the jacket? Too bad.
Also in trailer 3, just as the lights flood
the empty mayan temple, you can see
the skull emblem on the far right begin
to open up! Woah.
Check it!


So it looks like the Mental Ice-Bats are
indeed at the Giant Robot in LA, but I
must warn all with GR on the speed
dial, I have no idea what their plans are.
They may split them up between the
different GR stores, sell them all
through one shop, online only,
or none of the above?
I also don't know their sales
plan with these. Could be
random first come first served?
I only mention all of this because
of the recent emails we've been getting
about them.

KAKURANGER

After I dropped out of Art Center in
1990, I spent many years studying
the ins and outs of toy distribution
while working as manager of an upscale
toy shop in Century City. At the same time
I would spend my weekends grilling the
staff of Pony Toy in Little Tokyo about
the ins and outs of the toy biz in Japan.
They turned me on to Kakuranger.
Probably just to shut me up.


Next trip to Japan is coming up soon.
Many meetings and a few trade shows
with nothing to do in between.
This means it's time to track down
what I am missing from Kakuranger.
Kakuranger is the best, in my opinion.
Why? Dude just check out the
English translation of the song.
Diamond bridges, alternate dimensions,
and time alone with "that girl"!
Plus they break the 4th wall and
thank you for watching.
You can't beat that.
For a second I thought that was the
guitar riff to no woman no cry
from the Fugees in the opening shot.
Yeah I was wrong.


But you know what?
There's one thing the JP version
never had on their sieeieeieeieeiiiid....

GOING MENTA

Our own samples of Menta Ice-Bat arrived
today from Dehara. Which means the rest
are on the way to Giant Robot.
We have no idea what day they will arrive
as we have no way of knowing
how long EMS will take,
or if they were sent by another method,
but they are on the way!
We'll post when we find out more info.


Each one is numbered. There's 2 kinds, 25 of each kind.
But only the ones already sold at the opening have both of our
signatures on the back of the box.


25 white eyes and 25 blue eyes.


The blue eyed one has a drawing of the blue eyes version
by Dehara on the box. Same for white eyes.
All have pink veins and blood.
Or is that just melted icee.

SOUL CHIPS WITH RICE AND BEANS

This just in from the Super Ben CS toys
service experts from Japan. A full set of
Soul Chip candy toys. The actual
soul chips are the same size as the
ones which come with the DX robos
from Go-Onger. I won't be opening
this set so not sure what they sound like.


Best candy packaging in a long time.




Many emails asked how big the G6 is.
Many also asked how big of a nerd I was.
Here's both. As you can see, huge.


Decent Mexican food in Seoul!
These came from Taco Taco in the
foreigner area.


A very thoughtful gift from the nice folks at Intheyellow in Japan.
Rillakuma is our helper.
If you haven't guessed yet, it's a big work week and we won't be going outside much.
Lots of books and toys to make!

Here's the G6!

I like it when they show you how everyone moves around with
that drawing of the robo's insides.
Why doesn't the bad guy attack during the 20 seconds
it takes to get through this?

GUIDE TO LIFE

Random House has revealed
the title to Ugly Guide #3 due January 2009:
Click here to see!
We may have shown elements of the
cover on here before, but here it is,
all done. The Ugly Guide to
Being Alive and Staying That Way.
January 2009, but let's see if the
book fairs release this one as early
as they did the first one, which
means this could sneak out for
Christmas 2008.
It's up for pre-order now here.

ELLE KOREA

I was never a huge fan of fashion magazines
but this month's Elle got something right.
I don't know what. It just has a really
good vibe to it. Also found a really
incredible Japanese ramen shop
near Hong Dae. Hong Dae is in
Shin Chon. A very arty
area where cool kids dress
more like the kids in Tokyo.
Of course there was a line.


If I had a watch I would be able
to tell you how far into forever
I had to wait.


Behind you! Behind you!


Those kids are toast.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Separated at birth?
We've been away and unplugged from the digital world since
Tuesday and now it looks like we won't be back until next
Tuesday. I know you miss those toy robot updates
and photos of me getting hit in the head by the
major toy companies. We'll be back soon.
We miss you too.


Ugly Guide #1 and #2 back in stock
at Amazon. Did you find the hidden
secret stuff in them?
CLICK HERE TO USE YOUR TAX REFUND!

MORE OR LESS

I hear so much about how the economy is bad
on the news. OK so if I am sitting around and all is
fine, but I hear such a news story, I might think twice
about buying something I don't really need
this weekend and start saving up just in case.
So that $20 doesn't go to the
store down the street, so the shop doesn't order
more, so the company making those $20 doodads
makes much less money and has to let people go.
Fired! Now I can't make my house payments and
the story on the news is now true.
Dang but hold up now, who made gas $5.00!
Here in Korea gas is about $10 per.
Time for a bike! One with a bell though.
Or a horn.
Beep beep.


When is more too much?!
Pics of the G8 released today.
Seems to be stacked a little high.
I dunno. Maybe it works in person.
It seems like the theme is to just keep
adding on and on this year. I wonder
if the carrier will be a sort of outer
armor or something he would stand
in like the King Brachion.
Oh and saving money is always good,
no matter what the news says.

LITTLE WII WII

The Wii has come to Korea.
The controllers have rubber bumpers
on them. To avoid the broken TV sets?
Why were they called TV sets if you
only got one? Anyway these
are selling like crazy here.
Nobody got shot, but then again,
nobody has guns here.
That must be why.


Saw Iron Man. Loved it!
Yeah! I know the dudes from France
who did the 3D. Method rules.


The toys are pretty cool too if
you can find ones without
flimsy limbs or bad paint.


They had Indy posters and cups
everywhere at the theatre.
Probably so you know the movie
is coming out and all that.


I really want to go to Japan
when it opens in June but
we have to go to Tokyo
right before that, so may
miss that one. Dang.
No Indy with beer.


50's diner here in Korea.
Daily Kings.
They do it right, for sure.


This place rules, and has a
very future airport feel to it.
The burgers give you that unique
American food "full" feeling.


You know what?
Don't take this the wrong way,
because I think this kid Rain is
very talented and works very
hard, but this is total BS.
The movie is NOT about him!
But in Korea, that's all you
see. On TV here they make it seem
like he's the star of Speed Racer,
and on the Mattel Hotwheel
display he is all you see.
No sign of the other cast members,
ever. As in never.
Just Rain.


It's like this.
Does this look right?
No.
Sorry Rain, you're in it,
but you're just in it.


Dude you can buy this at Emart
and it's 100% real and alive.
No joke. $15.00
SOLD!

LIVE CHAT WITH UGLY

Yahoo LIVE is very slow for us here
in Korea so Sunday, May 4, 2008 at 5PM
PACIFIC TIME, 8PM EASTERN TIME
(Monday May 5th 9am Japan time)
we're going to have a LIVE CHAT in our
Yahoo LIVE channel chat room.
Here's the link:
http://live.yahoo.com/uglydolls
Chat LIVE with Sun-Min and David.
Yeah because on a beautiful Sunday
evening, you want to do just that. Sure.
A few updates to announce, we'll TRY to
get Yahoo LIVE to work for a bit if we can,
and we'll be on for one hour to answer
any questions you might have.
Uh here's hoping it all works!

HATS OFF TO YOU

Today is May 1st.
That means shops are allowed to
put out the Indiana Jones toys.
No Indiana Jones toys in Korea so
I had to break the street date to get
what I have so far and have the
rest sent through the mail.
The older Indy has a removable hat and a way
better holster than the "Raiders" version.
Too bad you can't switch the heads like
you could on the 80's ones.
I would make everyone at school nuts with my
hat wearing Indy head on the body of the
"Map Room" Indy figure (minus the robes)
way back, so I had a jacketless Indy variant.
The smartys in the class weren't wired for action
figure deception and never figured it out.