Review – Lowdtown Mooks

More than once now the phrase “Resin is the New Vinyl” has found its way onto the internet. And with good reason, since anyone can learn how to cast resin at home, which means that all of us have it in us to create a resin toy. It’s a neat idea, and one I’ve been toying with myself, and we’re definitely seeing more and more people create their own resin toy designs. I’m not sure how far this new trend in designer toys will manage to go, but for now it looks as if there’s going to come a point at which there are more toys than there are customers.

Until that happens, though, I’ll continue to review the occasional resin toy. Like this new toy, Mooks, from Lowdtown, a shirt company.

I told you everyone is starting to make resin toys.

Packaging

A bright pink window box stuffed with shredded paper, Mooks reached my house in this little box that’s a step up from the usual “bag with header card” that I’ve seen with several short-run resin toy releases. The guys at Lowdtown went all out on this stage of the toy and I’d love to see more resin toy producers move to a box.

Mooks!

The Lowdtown Shop describes my Mooks toy as:

“This is the second set of official Lowdtown toys named Mook in an inverse colorway. There are only SIX of these super rare collectible toys, so grab one while you still can. Comes in custom Mouthcan packaging with a clear mouth. Own a piece of Lowdtown history today!”

He’s pretty cute, and a little rough, standing right about 2-inches tall and completely hand-cast and hand-painted, with slight imperfections and rough patches showing in the sculpt. Scratches, fingerprints, and a slight mold line lock this guy squarely in the “rough art” category of resin toy.

Now when I say “rough,” don’t take that to mean that it’s ugly or unattractive. Mooks has a cute, wholesome charm that is one of the more important parts of resin toys. He’s certainly not the greatest resin toy I’ve ever seen, but he’s made with love and that love shows through (which is more than can be said for some of the vinyl toys out there; at some point vinyl went from artistic impression to a source of money and some companies seem more interested in pumping out cheap plastic and forgot that they were supposed to be creating art).

The paint job is pretty basic, with Inverse Mooks painted black with white paint on the eyes, mouth, and belly, and gray paint on the eyebrows. The white highlights on the photo below is a reflection from the lights and not the paint.

No Articulation

As anyone who has been following my comments on resin toys knows, one of the things I am most unhappy about when it comes to resin is the lack of articulation. A tiny guy like this would be really tough to articulate — hell, a lot of the vinyl toys out there at this scale aren’t articulated — but I’d like to see the guys at Lowdtown craft a larger version of this guy and give him articulated arms. The peg and hole method seen in Bullhorn (reviewed here) and V’r (reviewed here) is exactly the sort of thing I want to see more resin toy producers use with their designs.

Closing Thoughts

$25 is a lot to pay for a 2-inch tall toy, but it’s not a bad price for a piece of artwork that’s limited to six pieces. The line between art and toy is blurred a lot these days, and resin — because of the short runs and the fragile nature of the material — falls more on the art side of the line than it does the toy side. As a toy, Mooks is a poor choice, since any excessive playing with this guy will result in damage.

As a piece of art, though, he’s cute and makes a great addition to the collection. There are a few of these left at the Lowdtown Shop, but I wouldn’t expect him to be available for long. If you’re looking to get into collecting resin toys I wouldn’t start with this guy, but if you have some experience under your belt then he could make a nice addition to your collection.

I hope these guys try another design.

Philip Reed’s opinion of resin toys continues to change as he picks up pieces. Many of them aren’t playable toys, but it’s fantastic that artists can produce their own toy designs without investing thousands of dollars (tens of thousands!) into working with Chinese factories.