Review – Blobpus Diablo

Blobpus (website) is one of those Japanese vinyl producers I’ve been admiring but haven’t really gotten their toys into my hands (I have one other than the piece shown here). Well, recently at Skullbrain I spotted this Blobpus Diablo for sale and jumped at the chance to get such a fun design. And holding the toy I am now certain that I made the right move in buying it.

A Skull-Fisted, Goat-Horned, Cthulhoid Monster

The Blobpus Diablo is, as you can see in the photos, a bizarre combination of elements that go together wonderfully. The Cthulhu-like tentacle face combined with the small bat wings and demon horns is wicked, but the toy gets even more fun when you follow the right arm down to the mass of skulls that take the place of the toy’s hand. It’s truly an incredible sculpt and holding it the six-inch vinyl toy has a durable, satisfying feel that’s every bit as good as the best Japanese vinyl toys in my collection. There’s nothing cheap about this guy.

Articulation

As with most of the Japanese vinyl toys that I’ve reviewed over the last few years, the Blobpus Diablo features articulation that has more to do with manufacturing requirements than it does playability and poseability options. Even with that the case, though, the Blobpus Diablo actually has quite a few points of articulation with 360-degree swivels — where plastic plugs into plastic — at he neck, each shoulder, the waist, the skull hand’s wrist, and the point where the mass of tentacles meets the toy’s face. That’s only a total of five points of articulation, but it’s enough that I can pose the toy with my other vinyl toys and change up the look a little whenever I pick him up and play with him.

Paint

Black vinyl with metallic green paint are the dominant colors of the Blobpus Diablo, but it’s the detail work — specifically the red blood splatters and the silver highlights on the horns — that really help make the toy look so fantastic. Everything except for the red splatters was done with an airbrush and the effect makes this one of the more striking new vinyl toys I’ve bought in a while. That metallic green is great!

Deliciously Demonic Design

The Blobpus Diablo has an awesome sculpt that looks even better in person than it does in photographs. That mass of tentacles on the face has just the right amount of twisting and squirming to it to look terrifying and everything from the claws on the feet to the horns on the head is smooth and ridged as appropriate. I may like this design almost as much as I do the Screaming Pumpkin (first review here, second review here) . . . which no doubt means that I now need to find out if there’s a clear orange version of this design to display with my clear orange Screaming Pumpkin.

Bone Mask!

And the toy even comes with an accessory, shown in the below photos. The bone mask hangs on the horn from a strip of leather and I’m not sure if it’s a hand-sculpted or a cast piece. I’m pretty sure it’s cast from some sort of plastic, but the mask feels different from the rest of the toy; it’s denser and more solid than the toy itself. A simple accessory, yes, but it adds a great layer of detail to the Blobpus Diablo and gives the toy just a little spookier appearance.

Closing Thoughts

I’ve bought a lot of cool Japanese vinyl toys over the past couple of years and would be hard pressed to identify one as the absolute best piece. But if I was backed into a corner and forced to create a list I’m pretty sure that this Blobpus Diablo would find its way into the top five. The toy feels good in hand, is painted beautifully, has a fun sculpt, and has an accessory that pushes its level of excellence even higher. All in all a remarkable work of art and recommended to anyone who collects vinyl toys.

Philip Reed should review some of the other designer toys he has picked up lately. But first he needs to get back to unofficial Transformers toys and accessories because the clock is ticking.