Funko Introduces SAVAGE WORLD - A New Line of Toys with the Spirit of "Bootleggery"
"Welcome to your worst nightmares...! Funko announces a NEW product line, titled "SAVAGE WORLD", with the first line-up showcasing HORROR villains in a "new" 5 & 1/2" tall body-form, to be unleashed in September!
FUNKO PRESS: "Everyone’s favorite Horror Villains – Freddy Krueger from ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’, Jason Voorhees from ‘Friday the 13th’, Leatherface from 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre', Michael Myers from 'Halloween' and Pinnhead from 'Hellraiser' - are ready to haunt your dreams and chase you down. Freddy, Jason, Leatherface, Michael Myers, and Hellriaser are heavily armed and entirely fitting additions to the Funko Savage World line."
Now THIS is an excruciatingly interesting toy-development, and showcases something that this blog is familiar with: mashup of licenses, with brands/concepts on different bootlegged body-forms, in this case, pop culture "horror villains" on steroid-pumped muscled "Masters Of the universe"-aesthetic bodies! One immediate line-up popped into mind: Pop Prolific x HotG Toys' "Fury Force" - and I've only just blogged about their "Hellboy"/"Big Red" figure!
All of which of course the mass-produced pieces cannot compare to the hand-made spirit of independent toys ... But may well help fuel the masses in terms of acceptance of such "concepts-of-bootleggery", beyond the obvious price-point differences, IMHO.
But, on the other end of the opinion-spectrum, with the mass-market brand(s) catching-on and cashing-in on what used to be the "allure" of pop mash-ups (now no longer) "unique" to the sub-culture of toys and custom-toys, indie makers might need to do more than just a "clever" mash-up idea now...
This might be "new" to me (thanks to the Funko-emailer), but the line was showcased earlier in the year at New York Toy Fair (I'm slow to the scene, alas :p), with Pixel Dan on-site and in-video! Looks to be exciting toy-times to come for fans of the nostalgic cartoons!
