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OMFG - Outlandish Mini Figure Guys
"The
following is a guest review. The review
and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford
or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the
guest author."
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Ridureyu checks in with a look
at the coolest little guys on the block - the OMFG! Tell us all abou
them, R...
Every so often, something happens in the indy scene that is worth
celebrating. Indy and designer toys have become big business
lately, with lines ranging from Mighty Muggs-esque "paint your own'
blank slates, to bigger lines like Glyos System, which is just as good
as anything the major companies put out. OMFG, short for
Outlandish Mini Figure Guys, is unique because of how it was
developed. Conceived by George Gaspar, the line has been
almost entirely fan-produced - funds were raised via Kickstarter,
figures were designed through a forum poll, and the entire thing has
involved fans from day one. And then, as icing on the cake,
the figures themselves are of excellent quality, with plenty of
exclusives going to smaller stores - rather than Wal-Mart or Toys R Us
or even Big Bad Toy Store, these exclusives have come through places
like Onell Design or Little Rubber Guys. Fantastic!
OMFG is meant to evoke many of the older mini-figure lines,
particularly MUSCLE. In fact, the "basic" color is MUSCLE
flesh! At this current moment, they are still in pre-order,
EXCEPT for the Onell Designs Pheyden Blue colorway, which is why all
the photos here are of blue figures. The colors are:
MUSCLE Flesh: Available from the [producer]
Black: Special Kickstarter pre-order bonus only. No longer available,
so good luck finding those.
Pheyden Blue: [Onell
Designs]
Neon Green: [Little
Rubber Guys]
Orange-Yellow: [University
Of M.U.S.C.L.E.]
Dark Blue: [Rotofugi]
These sites are all run by awesome guys, so give them your business!
Minifigures are a great love of mine - most of my reviews here have
been 6-inch or 3-3/4" scale, but MUSCLE was my first and favorite
collection, and seeing new figures in that style is
fantastic. I have posted many comparison pics with other
small figure lines for the purpose of size comparison. Those
are:
-MUSCLE, Kinkeshi, CUTIEs
-Battle Beasts, Glyos System, Gormiti
-Monster In My Pocket, Gogo's Crazy Bones, Marvel Handful of Heroes,
Diener Monsters
-Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures, Star Wars Miniatures, Final
Fantasy Creatures
-Star Wars Clone Trooper, Homies, Fist of the North Star Keshi
With that done, let's get on to the review!
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Packaging
- Depends on Vendor
Each individual seller has their own OMFG packaging. Onell
Designs sells in a baggie with a card, whereas Little Rubber Guys has
its own full blister. This is purely up to personal
preference, and some of the packaging is not yet known. Hence
the lack of a score. Either way, all revealed packaging shows
off the figures nicely, and has nicely-customized art. Onell
pixellates them like NES characters, whereas Little Rubber Guys has a
massive piece of art of the figures playing with MUSCLEs!
Sculpting - ****
All of these are awesome, and even more so because of how they were
made. People submitted designs on the October Toys forum, and
other people voted. This line began with the fans, and has
continued as such. Fans rule! The figures are:
Multiskull - Designed and sculpted by Charles Marsh (aka Monsterforge)
from South Carolina. This is already a fan favorite, and no
wonder! The sheer amount of detailing on this little guy is
astounding!
Crawdad Kid - Designed and sculpted by Daniel Yu (aka Dory) from
Singapore. Although the name brings to mind a cowboy, Crawdad
Kid has more of a pseudo-1930s-era soldier look, perhaps with bits of
art deco or dieselpunk. Quite intimidating!
Phantom Outhouse - Designed by Kyle Thye from Iowa and sculpted by
Ralph Niese from Germany. Phantom Outhouse has an alternate
name, which shows up on some promo material. Let's just say
it's not appropriate for children. The Phantom Outhouse,
however, is hilarious, and excellently-sculpted! And it also
leaves a little up to the imagination - a few people have painted the
arms as water! This figure also fits in with quite a few
MUSCLEs, since that line contains two urinals and one roll of toilet
paper.
King Castor - Designed and sculpted by Dominic Campisi (aka
The Evil Earwig) from California. King Castor is a
fantastically-detailed castle monster/robot, with lots of little bits
and pieces that you won't notice until you've studied it for a
while. Fantastic work!
Stroll - designed by John "Spanky" Stokes from California and sculpted
by George Gaspar from California. A cyclopean troll creature,
Stroll would fit right in harassing your Troll dolls - he even has a
bare behind! It should be noted that it LOOKS like he has an
artist's signature on his rear, but according to the sculptor, that's
actually a Spanky Stokes tattoo!
As previously mentioned, the sculpting is great. The only
things that have raised any eyebrows at all are:
-Certain figures are constructed from more than one piece of
plastic. It's really only noticeable with Stroll's arms.
-Stroll's eye is completely blank, meant to be painted. But
this is not a problem, either.
The plastic is sturdy and reminiscent of MUSCLE plastic (it's actually
the same stuff that Glyos and Z.O.M.B.I.E.S. are made from0, and should
hold up to play. The figures are roughly MUSCLE-size, but not
entirely - most but not all are taller, for example, and all are
thicker. These sculpts have depth, and even a little
weight! My hat is off to the whole production team!
Paint
- Bupkis
The paint is whatever you want it to be. These are a tribute
to mono-colored minifigure lines, so why should there be
paint? Likewise...
Articulation
- Bupkis
Minifigure line, remember? The lines that this line is a
tribute to are unarticulated.
Accessories
- Varies
I say "varies" because they are not true accessories - donating to
Kickstarter could net you t-shirts, posters, and all sorts of cool
stuff. Little Rubber Guys has a poster offer (with two
different posters), Onell Designs has an online comic, and who knows
what else may be in store?
Value
for money - ****
Designer toys tend to be expensive. For these, you're looking
at $15.00 for 5 figures - that's $3 per Indy toy! Many
well-loved independent manufacturers will charge $15-$30 for a single
figure of this size! And again, some exclusives come with
extra materials.
Things
to Watch Out For -
The glue on the multi-piece figures will hold just fine, but of course
these could be choking hazards. Also, keep in mind that
Phantom Outhouse's alternate name is pretty visible on the regular
poster and title card, so watch out for it! But other than
that, these are perfectly child-friendly.
Overall-
****
This is a fantastic effort by fantastic people, and I cannot compliment
it enough. Head on over to October TOys' forum to check out
the design submissions for OMFG Series 1, and help keep this line
alive! It's rare when something this awesome happens in any
indy scene, and I am glad that this one came along.
Where to buy
See above. You will want to get these from the original
manufacturer or the exclusive vendors. Please support your
local indy toy producers! I personally either have ordered or
plan to (when available) two of each colorway, including the
black. I am absolutely satisfied with my Onell colorways, and
hope to see more goodness soon!
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This product was purchased for the review by the reviewer.
Photos and text by Rideruyi.
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