Tuesday-Toy-Review: Greasebat by Jeffrey Lamm x Monster Worship (NYCC Green Edition)

Truthfully, the sheer size of the baggy with header-card, caught me slightly off guard. Having opened a swell box of toys in 2010 to find Greasebat peering back at me, was indeed a super surprise (thanks Justin!) as I had never expected to have a Greasebat in my humble collection! Reviewed here is the NYCC 2010 Green edition, featuring the first factory paint of GB. The full name for the figure actually is "Real Fighting Greasebat".

TOY-CATCHUP: Designed and created by Jeffrey Lamm, Greasebat was first manifested as a 2D illustration and monster who basically graced tons of event / gig posters. Monster Worship was the outfit who produced the character unto a 3D-toy, with sculpt-work provided by Walter "Chaukoskis" Jacott. The recently sold out Brown/Chocolate edition was the 3rd colorway to be released (Nicest colorway to date).



HEADER CARD ART: The painted artwork is very reminiscent of nostalgic 50's monster imagery, which also includes huge Japanese fonts for effect. Part of me relishes the though if the card looking more distressed and vintage, but perhaps that may be overkill, and take the attention away from the actual figure. And we don't really want that now, do we?

Interestingly, we do not see the signature illustrations of Jeffrey's line-work (which you can see on his Flickr). UPDATE: And this is Jeff's response to the header-art question: "... I thought that was strange as I was doing it. One of the reasons was I wanted an old school style header card and knew I couldn't paint it correctly, the other reason is I like to include other artists in my stuff.

For instance, the new toys header card was colored by my friend Johnny Sampson who is a comic book colorist. I see great new artists all the time who I want to ask if they'll do a header card!

I know it's a little odd since my thing is doing art also, but I don't know... I like to get other people involved."

And just who is Greasebat?

"During the mid-eighties neo-rockabilly craze, lots of young men were putting pomade in their hair and getting fresh tattoos. All this petroleum waste from hair pomade, mixed with peeling skin from tattoos, combined to line sewer pipes deep under the streets. A jolt of radiation from a black market Russian nuclear device in 1995 gave life to the mass of hair, pomade and skin cells.
The result, born in 2005...Grease Bat. It is unknown if Grease bat is good or evil. He clumsily destroys everything with his short legs and poor vision from separately rotating eyes. He has been observed eating barrels of heavyweight motor oil and old stock vinyl for pressing records.

He can fly short distances and is a ferocious fighter, who will use anything within reach to win. His egg shaped body is covered in thick armored scales and his head with bulbous jelly like pustules."

SIZE & ARTICULATION: As an articulated toy, Greasebat turns at his neckline, and arms, while both the torso and legs are solid-still. The movement of the arm-limbs along with the wings, is pretty fun, and somewhat adds charm to the already strangely charming figure-sculpt.

Personally, if there were more articulation to the figure, it might somehow loose it's charm, at the very least the dumpy-tummy might not be as effectively cuddly, as well articulation to the leg-limbs affecting the shape. So I'm fine with me Greasebat, thanks!

What surprised me the most, was perhaps the heft of the figure, in size but not necessarily the weight. As much as I blog about toys day-in-day-out, and mention their size (ironically in "inches" as opposed to "centimeters" in Metric-Singapore). I like my "big toys", and Greasebat sits uncomfortably between a tiny toy and a huge one, and frankly, there is nothing wrong with that.


SCULPT: Initially upon first look, I had actually done a double-take on the figure visual, with the sculpt a perfect sculpting-representation of Chaukoskis' visual aesthetics, as well the exacting imagery of Jeffrey's character art unto toy ~ Primarily of which was the huge googly-eyes and thickened lips/mouth!

Regardless of who influenced whom, it seemed like a great synergy had transformed the character unto three dimensional reality, and one for of the few aesthetics which worked from print to sculpt, IMHO. And as a sculpted figure, it is strangely charming (yes, I mentioned that twice hahaha) and doo-googly-duh, which makes him even more likable! Kudos for the sculpting adaptation and excellent details! Great job all around, guys!


NEGATIVITY: One glaring "issue" with my particular sculpt, was the obvious protruding neck-region. The groove was not to be hidden, neither was it aggravated to be such. I have not dared attempt to "hair-dryer" it and push it to be in line with the body, but I think I would live it at that, and count my blessings for having a Greasebat in my collection in the first place.

I am sorry, but that is the only obvious downer, and speaks not well of the manufacturing or fitting process.



CONCLUSION: Teetering on the edge of kaiju and designed-monster, this incarnation fits more into the "art toy" mold than it dares "kaiju", although this is hardly an urban character, it is ultimately his pedigree that has grabbed a hold of my toy-lurving heart. But having said that, this Green colorway fit snugly into the "art toy" category, while the "realistically" painted Brown edition somewhat veers it towards having the "kaiju" vibe. Regardless, perhaps I should get my categories down pat instead, yeh?

Basically if you can get your hands on a Greasebat, you should! Seems folks around are going nuts over the figure (and I can easily see why) and each online sales leave the stock sold out and collectors wanting for more, it seems (based on online chatter). There is even a Greasebat Appreciation Society setup by fans on Flickr. And if folks happened to be on the Greasebat Facebook group, they would have first-info-dibs on the G.A.S. Exclusive Colorway - "BLANK BROWN" (limited to 25 pcs @ US$65 per). And yes, it is sold out.

But for the reality of the desire, the truth only seems to be in the hands of the manufacturers. Meanwhile, Chaukoskis constant produces other customs, while Jeffrey is set to unleash M5 Bravo and Stee-Gar "Modular Kaijus" also bearing the look of Greasbat. Personally, it is always interesting to "collect" a series of figures, rather than an individual piece, and multiple colorways of a single figure can only go so far, IMHO. Here's hoping there are more variations, if not other characters to come.