Review – Kidrobot’s Evil Skaters Emi

Whenever I start talking about designer toys then I almost always end up mentioning at least one of Kidrobot’s excellent vinyl toys. From their large range of mini-figures (most of which are blind packed) to their beautifully-designed book, I Am Plastic, Kidrobot produces some of the best designer toy-related items available today. That’s a lot of the reason why I’m so excited about visiting their store when I’m in New York next month (I just hope I can get out of there without spending too much).

Designed by Touma, the Evil Skaters series of mini-toys (each one’s about three-inches tall) come blind packed; in each box you’ll get one random figure. A few weeks ago, while shopping on South Congress, I picked up one box (priced at $8, which is about average for toys of this size) which held Emi, one of the twelve different figures in the series. Emi’s cute, but not exactly the figure I would have chosen if I could pick one. But that’s how blind boxed toys work so, since she’s the one I’ve got, let’s take a look at Emi.

A fairly typical mini-toy, Emi features limited articulation — arms and neck only, which isn’t unusual for a toy of this size — and is, actually, a bit of a letdown as a designer toy. Sure, she looks weird, and the shimmery blue paint job is neat, but overall I just can’t get into the toy. I expected a lot more from this series — the Touma Goon toy that Gina bought a few years ago (you can see a photo of the toy at Limited Ed. Magazine) is an amazing piece (which it has to be, for what it cost) — but Emi just doesn’t have the same level of “cool” that Goon has.

Closing Thoughts

It’s not that Emi’s a bad toy, it’s just that she’s a fairly average, dull design. Unfortunately, as I look over all of the figures in the Evil Skaters line there are only two or three out of the twelve that I could see myself getting excited about. I think Kidrobot made a mistake with this line; I expect more from Kidrobot and I wish they would have shelved this line before it went past the sketch stage. Whoever’s in charge of commissioning designs at Kidrobot, in my opinion, should have sent Touma back and said “try again, and this time create something neat.”

I seriously doubt that I’ll buy any more Evil Skaters toys.

For some excellent photos (and other thoughts) on the Evil Skaters line of mini-toys check out this post at toybot studios and this post at ToyCyte.

Philip Reed is probably going to place Emi on a shelf and then forget she even exists. No doubt a few years from now he’ll find her, dust her off, stare at her, and then toss her into a box. With luck, Emi will become an extremely popular toy and sell for so much on eBay that Philip can throw her up there and make enough to buy a neat toy. Nah, that’s pretty damned unlikely. Philip’s probably just stuck with a lame toy.