Review – HooDoo VooDoo Ozzel

www.porlzilla.com dropped this resin toy back in November (mentioned here) and he’s been waiting for a chance to say hi to all of you. Every bit as cool as the Illuminoids resin toys that I reviewed back in August (review here), Hoodoo Voodoo Ozzel looks great with my toy collection. Hell, just take a look at the photos and you’ll see why I’m so happy with this work of art.

Packaging

Wow, this is an awesome hand-crafted box and there’s no way this is going in the trash. From the graphics to the construction — folded and taped together with a great window — this box shows just how much love went into the toy. After all, if the guys put this much effort into the box then the toy’s got to be fantastic. Right?

I’d love to see more resin toys come in custom boxes. I know this takes a lot of work, and just adds to the final price of the toy, but in my opinion it’s worth paying for a box like this.

A Detailed Sculpt

About 4-inches tall, Hoodoo Voodoo Ozzel has a lot more detail in the sculpt than you’d think just by glancing at him. Take a close look at the above photo — and make sure to look at the larger version — and notice how the eyes aren’t just painted on but actually sculpted as depressed areas on the head. Very cool and they work better as sunken features than they would as bulges. Other sculpted details that jump out are the spaces between the fingers and toes, the character’s skull-like mouth, and the dark spots on the ears.

The toy’s not quite as smooth as machined vinyl toys, but it’s obvious that the sculptor, Jon Paul Kaiser (Twitter), spent a lot of time sanding the sculpt before he handed it off for mold making. An impressive work and if the guys at www.porlzilla.com decide to offer this as a DIY I may just grab one.

A Wonderful Paint Job

Painted by Paul Burke (Twitter), this a cute little Ozzel toy with a lot of great painted details. Take a look at that necklace of skulls painted around the toy’s neck. And check out the back of the head; nice, detailed designs that are pretty small and couldn’t have been fast to do. I don’t know how many hours Paul spent painting the ten toys in this run, but I’m thankful that he invested the time because this guy is really cute.

Closing Thoughts

So does anyone else find it funny that I went from not completely embracing resin toys to absolutely loving them? I’m still a bit bothered by resin toys without any articulation — like Hoodoo Voodoo Ozzel here — but I’ve accepted that these are more art than they are toys, and that I love them more as tiny sculptured than as tiny toys. I still prefer the articulated resin toys like Bullhorn (review here), but when it comes to resin toys articulation isn’t a necessity.

Ozzel is a cool, cute sculpt and while it’s too late to get one of these toys today I recommend keeping an eye on the Porlzilla website because there’s sure to be a new design at some point. And if you’re into resin toys then you should seriously consider getting one of these guys for your collection. He’s cute, the guys put a lot of work into the packaging, and the paint demonstrates a real love of the art of hand-crafted toys. A cool work of art.

There were several earlier versions of the Ozzel design released. For photos and information hit this page at the Porlzilla shop. I’d love to get one of the Punisher versions.

Philip Reed should get back into the garage and get to work on his own resin toy projects. Not this month, though, since the office is sucking down a lot of time and the upcoming New York trip is going to steal many, many hours.