Micro Mutants capsule toys

Micro Mutants is another excellent capsule machine toy offering that appeared recently. I had to track some down as soon as I laid eyes on them.

Unlike most modern-day monster toys, what's great about these is that the designs aren't cutesy or overly stylized. They are genuinely creepy, bizarre mutants.

I'm pretty sure these first appeared sometime in 2018. They can currently be ordered in bulk online through vending suppliers such as gumball.com (which offers bags of 100 and bags of 250), where the description for the set reads: "Look what just crawled out of your nightmares! With their menacing eyes and sharp teeth, these creepy creatures will leave an impression on customers of all ages...Be sure to get your hands on these micro mutants before they get their hands on you!"

See below for the lowdown on Micro Mutants, plus some more images.

• The set consists of 8 different sculpts that each come in 6 different colors.
• The available colors are black, purple, green, red, blue and glow in the dark translucent white. The glow white is called out specifically on the vending display card as a "Glowing Mutant," but it didn't seem any less common than the other colors in the bag of 100 I ordered.
• The figures are about 1" tall.
• They are made of a firm-but-flexible soft plastic / hard rubber
• Each figure has minor painted details, mainly mouths and eyes.

Here's a close-up shot of all 8 sculpts:

 

Here's shot showing on of my favorite sculpts in each of the 6 colors:

 

And here's a size comparison shot with a MUSCLE figure:

I think the Micro Mutants are great figures with interesting sculpts, especially for being so tiny. What about you? Have you come across these little weirdos, or do you plan to track any down?

Wee Beasties capsule toys

There's been some decent capsule machine toys showing up recently, including these little buggers -- Wee Beasties! Google "Wee Beasties" and you'll find a Texas-based punk rock band, but further down in the search results (much further), you'll find this mini figure set that I believe first showed up sometime in 2018.

The Beasties are billed as "cute" on their vending display card. I'm usually not a big fan of cutesy depictions of monsters, but these feature sculpts that are still pretty interesting and appealing despite their cuteness. They're worth picking up if you see them out and about, or if you choose to order them in bulk online through companies such as Geddes (which sells bags of 100 figures) or A&A Global Industries (which sells bags of 250 figures).

Below are some basics about the Wee Beasties as well as a few additional photos.

• The set consists of 10 different sculpts that each come in 6 different colors.
• The available colors are red, lime green, aqua, blue, indigo and purple.
• The figures are about 1" tall.
• They are made of a sturdy plastic that's firm but has a tiny bit of give to it (think MUSCLE).
• They are monochromatic except for white and black painted eyes on each.

Here's shot showing each of the 6 colors:

And here's a size comparison shot with Monster in My Pocket and Cosmix figures:

And finally, to wrap up the post, another group shot of the 10 different sculpts:

Beastie Buddies capsule toys

A short while back I came across a photo of some cool-looking capsule toys called Beastie Buddies that I had never seen before, and it of course made me want some. After researching a bit further, I discovered that Beastie Buddies came out last year and were designed by James Koenig, someone I had seen around before in toy groups.

There are five different Beasties in the set, including a "Little Shop of Horrors"-esque venus flytrap monster! As someone who always wished for a mini figure of Audrey II, seeing that convinced me that I needed to track some of these bad boys down!

It took a bit of searching, but I was able to order some in bulk online. I've never actually seen any in capsule machines, so once again the wonders of the internet come through.

Beastie Buddies display card - front and back

Here are the Beastie Buddies basics:

• The 5 sculpts/characters include: Flora (the flytrap), Yuna (the unicorn), Oggy (the ogre), Sammy (the samurai), and Shelldon (the snail)
• All of the sculpts are available in 5 different colors: brown, pink, yellow, aqua, and tan
• All of the figures include painted details, but interestingly, there are 2 different versions of each character in each color: one with several features painted and one with only the eyes painted (or in the case of Flora, the teeth). In my big box of figures, there was an even mix of both types. I'm not sure why the decision was made to release the figures in both versions, but the ones with less paint tend to look better, since most of the other versions are sloppily painted. In fact, some of the paint jobs are almost laughably bad (pupils painted onto foreheads, etc)
• Each figure is about .75-inch tall
• They are made out of a soft, squishy rubber similar to Trash Pack and Squinkies

Here's a closer look at each Beastie Buddie in all of its color and paint variations:

OGGY THE OGRE

Fantastic sculpt on grumpy little dude! My second favorite of the set.

SHELLDON THE SNAIL

So much fun. He looks like a cantankerous old snail who would yell at snail young'uns to get off his sand patch.

YUNA THE UNICORN

Gotta love a derpy unicorn.

FLORA THE FLYTRAP

My favorite. Pretty much a little rubber Audrey II toy, which automatically makes it amazing.

SAMMY THE SAMURAI

This guy's great as well, although the paint jobs tend to be especially bad on him. I picked out the best ones in my pile of them for this photo, but the majority were pretty crazy.


And there you go! A very cool modern-day set of vending mini figures, which we don't see often enough. James Koenig's designs pack a ton of personality into these tiny weirdos. The factory paint jobs are dicey and I would have preferred them to be made of a firmer rubber or plastic, but for what they are, I can't complain too much.

What do you think of the Beastie Buddies? Have you ever seen any out in the wild?

Mini toy mix-up: More cheap capsule treasures

This is an add-on post to the last one featuring a bunch of old plastic capsule toy charms. Here's an even more random group of cheap vending toys I gathered together recently. There's no rhyme or reason to the mix - it just made for a fun photo.

I believe the figures here range from the 1980s to the 2000s. I remember spending a lot of effort and quarters to get that crappy Scooby Doo pencil topper sometime in the '90s! The pink gumball machine stamper in the upper right I've had for as long as I can remember, and might not even be from a capsule machine. Has anyone ever seen one of those?

Charmingly cheap charms: vintage capsule toys

Here's a random group of mini plastic charms I've had for years. I have vivid memories of getting most of them out of a small capsule machine at a laundromat as a little kid. This would have been in the late '80s or early '90s, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had been sitting in the machine for years before that. Strangely enough, I remember the same laundromat had another vending machine that specifically offered little boxes of those long balloons that clowns use to make balloon animals at kids birthday parties. I think that's the only place I've ever seen a balloon vending machine.

Anyway, here we've got a nice little mix of dogs, hats, fish, horses, guns (maybe it seemed less weird back then for little kids to walk around wearing gun charms?), and more. Even Satan is in on the fun. I'm sure my Mom was thrilled with me getting a Satan charm out of the cheapo toy machine.

Who else remembers machines filled with these little plastic charms?

Lucky Yuckies (GeGeGe no Kitarō capsule bootleg keshi)

The covers of all 5 Lucky Yuckies booklets

In the 80s and 90s, a lot of Japanese keshi were bootlegged and sold in 25 cent capsule machines in the U.S. and other countries. One such set was released under the name Lucky Yuckies, and used figures of characters from the Japanese manga series GeGeGe no Kitarō (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎).

The Lucky Yuckies set came out in 1987, consisting of 12 different rubber mini figures and five mini booklets. The books contain bios and stories around all the characters, with the idea being that kids could make wishes on these little creatures. I assume you'd get one booklet along with each figure. There's no mention anywhere of GeGeGe no Kitarō, and all the characters were given completely different names. So as with other bootlegged capsule toys from back then, most kids probably had no idea these originated from something else.

I've come across a couple different versions of Lucky Yuckies. Some of the figures (including the full set pictured above) are made of a soft, flexible rubber -- even more rubbery than Monster in My Pocket figures. I also own a few of them in a firmer plastic that more closely matches MUSCLE figures. I'm not sure if they came out at different times, or if one variation is less common. Below, you can see that the firmer figures are a bit darker in color.

What I love most about this set is how bizarre and wacky some of the monsters are. I'm not very familiar with GeGeGe no Kitarō, but these little weirdos make me want to learn more about it. I also love the fact that the writing in the little booklets is hilariously strange (you'll see what I mean below).

Here's a closer look at all of the Yuckies along with their corresponding character bios:

Rubber Uglies knockoffs

In the 1960s, Topps produced an assortment of small rubber monster jigglers called Rubber Uglies, which were based on their successful set of Ugly Stickers. The designs featured truly bizarre creatures, often with tentacles, giant eyeballs, fangs and other weirdness. You can read more about their history and see a gallery of them on this site. In the decades since, many knockoffs of the Uglies have been produced, often available in toy capsule machines.

While the prices the original Uglies command have kept me from collecting them, I have gotten a few knockoffs—I believe all from vending machines in the late '80s and early '90s. Let's take a look:

I remember getting this one from a vending machine when I was four or five (yes, my obsession with little rubber monsters goes way back). It uses the design of the Rubber Ugly shown under the name "Belle" on the site I linked to above. I always loved this guy, 1) because it's an eyeball tentacle monster, 2) because of the crappily-applied blotch of bright pink paint on green rubber. What's not to love? I think that orangey part on the longest tentacle is discoloration that has appeared over the years, which for me has only added to the appeal.

This one is based on the Ugly named "Florence." Unfortunately, it has suffered some damage over the years. I think at least one of its many appendages has been torn off, but even missing appendages can't take away from its charm. I love how ornery this weirdo looks. It's most definitely the Rubber Ugly that shouts at all the little Rubber Uglies to get off of its lawn.

This pile of tentacles and despair looks to be a knockoff of the Ugly named "James." Don't be fooled by the cheery lemon-lime color scheme—a lifetime of pain exists behind those pathetic, barely-there eyes. Ugly life ain't easy, and bootleg James knows this well.

Finally, we have a Rubber Uglies knockoff that's not rubber at all. This guy is made of hard plastic and appears to correspond to the Ugly listed under "Margaret" on the site linked above. I am pretty sure it came out of a vending machine attached to a little spring and stand, which I'm sure I promptly ripped off as a kid. Has anyone seen any other hard plastic Uglies bootlegs?

Hopefully one day I'll add some real Rubber Uglies to my collection, but these knockoffs are definitely some of my favorite weirdo vending toys. What about you? Do you have any Uglies or Uglies knockoffs?

Warriors of the Universe: MOTU knockoff vending minis

Vending machine header card

Last week I completed one of my collection goals. I finished my set of 12 Masters of the Universe knockoff vending mini figures in transparent colors! Check out the whole crew above.

I first became aware of these many years ago when I got a green Ram-Man (who was sadly missing his axe) in a lot of random minis off eBay. He was the only one I had up until last year, when I set out to track down more of them. Fast forward to earlier this month, and Man-E-Faces and the He-Man holding an axe were the final two I needed. Thanks to the kindness of another collector and luck on eBay, I got them both within the same week!

According to what I have been able to find out online, these guys were sold in the mid-late 1980s in toy vending machines under the name "Warriors of the Universe." It must have taken someone hours to come up with that name in order to not use Masters of the Universe, huh? I actually don't remember seeing these out in the wild as a kid. I'm sure if I did, I would have gone nuts trying to amass as many quarters as possible.

Here's a list of the MOTU characters included in the set, from left to right, top to bottom in the above photo:

Ram-Man & Zodac close-up

He-Man with axe
Stratos
Skeletor
Teela
Ram-Man
Beast Man
Man-E-Faces
Mer-Man
Man-at-Arms
Evil-Lyn
Zodac
He-Man with sword (possibly Faker)

These figures are made of a firm-yet-flexible plastic, maybe a bit softer than a MUSCLE figure, but not rubbery like a Monster in My Pocket figure. They're about 1.5" tall. They were also released in a variety of solid, non-clear colors, but I wanted to put together a set of the transparent versions because I think they look cooler. You can argue that the details don't show up as well on clear figures--and you'd probably be right--but man, nobody will ever be able to convince me that a mini figure doesn't get an extra jolt of awesome when it looks like a Jolly Rancher. The clear colors include orange, red, green and blue (if there are others, I haven't seen them).

Comparison with MUSCLE & Monster in My Pocket figures

Here's a shot of Mer-Man and Man-at-Arms minis in solid color versions. Interestingly enough, Mer-Man is made out of hard plastic while Man-at-Arms is made out of soft, rubbery plastic. Now that I've finished my clear set, I'll probably try to fill out a set in solid colors.

What about you? What do you think of these guys? Do you own any or remember seeing them in vending machines?

Kōryū Densetsu Villgust keshi & vending bootlegs

One of the many Japanese keshi lines that you've probably seen around if you're into collecting monochromatic mini figures is Kōryū Densetsu Villgust. Villgust figures depict characters from the Japanese RPG of the same name, which was released in the early 1990s. According to the Villgust Wikipedia entry, the premise of the game was to "rescue your girlfriend and to return to modern Japan from a parallel medieval world."

I've got only a handful of Villgust keshi, but there are many different sculpts that exist, including a variety of monsters and heroic warrior type characters. You can see a whole bunch of them here. Some of the figures--like the ones pictured at the top of this post, consist of multiple pieces, with heads that plug into bodies, etc.

The figures are made of soft plastic and come in many different colors, including peach, gray, light green, dark green, blue, gold, red, purple, brown and more.

Of the ones I own, my favorite is the peach guy pictured above, who looks like some kind of cat-mummy pharaoh!

Villgust characters also appeared in U.S. vending machines as bootlegs. In the mid-1990s, I remember getting the figures pictured below out of a department store vending machine. They're about 1" tall and made of very soft, spongey rubber with removable plastic "gems."

Unfortunately, as you can see, the non-durable material hasn't held up too well over the years.

The only reason I realized these were Villgust knockoffs is the fact that the cat-mummy and robed monster guy are the same characters as depicted in the larger figures shown in the first photo of this post. Here they are side-by-side:

What do you think about Villgust keshi? Do you own any of the real things or remember seeing any bootlegs in vending machines?

It came from the vending machine: Parachute alien mini figures

Here are some more super obscure denizens of the land of the little weirdos. These guys show up in lots of mini figures occasionally, and people tend to have no clue what they are. In fact, I've seen more than a few collectors ask about their origins.

I'm not sure if they were ever given a specific name, but what I do know is that they came out of vending machines. I got all of mine pictured here out of a single vending machine at a Phar-Mor around 1994-1995 (if only I was able to retain information about the important things in life as well as I can remember where and when I found little plastic monsters, ha...). I've also seen at least one person say they got some at an arcade.

All of mine came with plastic parachutes attached so you could throw them up in the air and watch them float down. As a kid I always found the parachute thingies pretty useless and annoying, so I cut them off nearly all of my figures. With the loops above their heads that held the parachutes, you could also use them as charms.

As far as I know, there were five different sculpts as pictured above. If anyone has seen any others, please let me know. They are made of a couple different kinds of soft plastic (for some reason some are more rubbery than others), and I've seen them in many different colors, including: yellow, orange, dark purple, light purple, dark pink, light pink, blue, green, and white.

Some of the designs of these are pretty wonderfully bizarre, like the bearded frog-crab guy in the middle and the vaguely female thing with gigantic ears and no neck. The alien pictured above in white seems to be at least somewhat based on Lenny from Gremlins.

Below are some additional photos showing each of the sculpts closer up, including one with the parachute still attached.

Do you have any of these figures? Do you remember ever seeing them out in the wild?

Oh No! Aliens vending mini figures

Some of my favorite mini figures to this day are ones I got out of vending machines as a kid. Unfortunately, in recent years vending toy offerings seem to have gotten much less interesting than the used to be. That's why when an awesome vending toy set like "Oh No! Aliens" comes along, you know right away you've got to grab 'em!

The Oh No! Aliens set is made up of nine sculpts depicting wacky-looking space creatures. They're made of a hard yet somewhat flexible plastic (think more MUSCLE than Monster in My Pocket) and are monochromatic aside from some painted details on the characters' eyes and mouths. The figures come in nine different colors: neon orange, neon red, pink, purple, beige, aqua, teal, gray, and lime green.

Here's a shot of the whole gang, showing all nine sculpts and all nine colors:

A cool fact I found out about these after getting mine is that they were sculpted by David Arshawsky, whose work is probably part of your toy collection whether you know it or not. David designed/sculpted pieces from classic toy lines such as Playmates' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ertl's Socket Poppers. Knowing that, it makes perfect sense that the Oh No! Aliens sculpts are so well done.

All of the aliens are really nicely sculpted and detailed, but there are a few that stand out to me. My very favorite has got to be the multi-eyed, ball-shaped creature that's shown in pink in the photo above. It reminds me of a Beholder from Dungeons and Dragons. I also especially love the scrawny, long-faced cyclops alien (shown in neon orange) and the bizarro winged alien (shown in teal).

Slurfies

If you're into the kinds of toys covered here, chances are at some point you've seen jiggly rubbery creatures like the ones shown in this post, even if you didn't know what they were called. I had all of mine ever since I was a kid, and until a couple years ago was not aware they were known under a specific name--Slurfies!

According to collector and Flickr user Astronit, the original Slurfies came out in the 1970s (click here to see a photo of them). Then, over the years, they were reproduced and bootleged into various shapes, sizes, colors and levels of quality. Some look like they had their paint apps applied by a blind monkey, but their goofiness and crapiness gives them a certain charm.

Here's a photo showing a few different varieties of Slurfies:

Slurfies are similar to Topps Rubber Uglies, but aren't based on sticker artwork like Uglies, and the designs are somewhat less bizarre and more "friendly"-looking.

If I remember correctly, most of my Slurfies came out of vending machines, although they very well could have come as arcade prizes, variety stores and other places. I don't think I have any of the original '70s versions, but the yellow one in the upper right of the above photo looks like a very close reproduction (I remember getting that one and a few others like it sometime in the '90s).

Below are a few more photos showing various types of these classic little weirdos.

Do you have any Slurfies, or do you remember ever coming across any?

'Dragons' vending machine figures

Anyone recognize these great, detailed dragon mini figures? I'm pretty sure I got them out of a vending machine years ago (probably early-to-mid 2000s), but I don't know what they were called or anything else about them.

The figures are about one inch tall each, are made of a firm yet flexible plastic, and are painted in different colors. Each dragon is sculpted as sitting on a rock and has clear purple wings that are attached as a separate piece (but aren't removable).

While I have the seven sculpts pictured in the group shot above, I'm not sure exactly how many made up a full set.

I've always thought these dragons were really cool and like all the details in the sculpts, from the various poses used to the transparent, textured wings, to the little skulls that some of the dragons are holding.

If anyone has any additional info on these, please let us know!

UPDATE: LW reader Mason of D.I. Treasures found a link to a vending supplier that has an image of the display card for these. Apparently the set was simply called "Dragons" and there were 10 different sculpts. Check out the image below.

And here are some closer shots of all seven dragons individually: