Review – Tiki Mug Party Pack

With this set of four ceramic mugs we’re ready to explore the new direction for battlegrip.com; from this point forward we’ll be focusing on glasses and kitchenware for geeks. It’s time I start exploring the large collection of glasses here at home and I could think of no better way than to shift direction. After all, there are a lot of websites out there that review toys, but how many sites give you pics and reviews of glasses and kitchenware?

Packaging

The Tiki Mug Party Pack* comes in a fairly standard window box that shows off the four mugs and gives us all the info we need before buying the set. The graphics are just okay — I wish these had been blister carded with a great painting showing the mugs in the wild — but the addition of drink recipes on the back of the box was a nice touch. And we can definitely get a clear look at the mugs so in the end I’ll call this package a success.

Sculpt

Each mug has its own separate sculpt, though the details are a bit rougher than I was hoping for. My favorite of the four is Jake (the green mug), because of his terrifying appearance, while the weakest of the set has to be the blue Artie. The sculptor should have been given more time with each piece, though, because these aren’t as tight as they should have been.

Articulation

Zero points of articulation on each mug. I guess that’s to be expected, though, but it doesn’t make me all that happy. I was hoping that the mouths on each mug would have been hinged so that I could have staged spooky tiki scenes. Oh well, maybe the next set of mugs I find will have at least minimal articulation.

Paint

Quite rough paint without any real detailwork at all. The gloss finish on each mug helps, but I just can’t feel as if the company went a bit cheap on the mugs; each one is a single color with a dark wash filling the cracks. One color? How lame can you get? At the very least they could have painted the eyes and teeth to help them pop more.

Closing Thoughts

The Tiki Mug Party Pack* is one of the worst sets of mugs in my collection and I really should have chosen a better set to start battlegrip.com’s new direction. And I’m so disgusted with these mugs that I’m going to change my mind; we’re going to keep reviewing toys and statues and whatever else I feel like. If this is what we can expect from mugs and glasses then there’s no way I’m spending all of my time reviewing these things.

Philip Reed hopes everyone enjoyed this quick look at a very odd box set.