Review – October Toys’ Z.O.M.B.I.E.

So you’re completely nutty for the old M.U.S.C.L.E. toys (hit Nathan’s M.U.S.C.L.E. Page for more than you can handle), can’t get enough of the new Marvel Universe Handful of Heroes toys (review here), and no matter how hard you try you just can’t forget the Garbage Pail Kids Cheap Toys (www.geepeekay.com has the scoop). Well, if all of this is true then it’s time for you to grab a few sets of October Toys’ Z.O.M.B.I.E. toys (also known as Zillions of Mutating Bodies Infecting Everyone). These tiny little inarticulate toys immediately remind you of those old M.U.S.C.L.E. toys and, more importantly, the Z.O.M.B.I.E. toys are fun and enjoyable.

Packaging

Bag and header card, exactly the sort of thing we expect from short-run designer toys. And I’ve spotted a few different header card designs, though they’ve all been basically the exact design with just a few minor tweaks. The packaging is functional, well-designed, and completely disposable. Let’s shred this bag and get to the plastic monsters!

Five Designs

The basic Z.O.M.B.I.E. series includes five different tiny designs, each one of which is between 2-inches and 2.5-inches tall. There’s the ape zombie, the woman zombie, the zombie missing part of his arm, the zombie with the horribly twisted ankles, and the zombie holding his own guts. It’s not a huge variety of designs, but it’s enough for a first series and a great base for future designs.

The sculpting on each design is sharp — a lot sharper than my photos are — George and Ayleen Gaspar and Matt Ayleward, credited with all of the work on the header card — should feel proud of the level of detail sunk into each one of these guys. Each one tells its own story, even if the ape zombie’s story is especially gruesome. I’ve never been an awesome sculptor, but I’ve seen enough gaming miniatures — and seen enough original sculpts — that I can see these are top notch designs. And fun and twisted designs, which is important in a zombie toy!

Seven Colors

As any designer toy producer knows (in fact, any plastic toy producer), once you have a mold you need to get as much mileage out of that mold as possible. And when selling little figures there’s no better way to rack up mileage than with multiple colors of the same designs. And that’s exactly what October Toys has done with the Z.O.M.B.I.E. series, giving us white, red, blue, green, glow-in-the-dark, purple, and gray toys. And collectors will be very happy; the toys are not blind bagged but, instead, are sold in sets based on color. So if you just have to own a purple set all you have to do is order the purple bag — only $5 over at the October Toys website — and you’re good to go.

If you’re into challenges, though, you can skip the ease of buying sets by color and just snag a Z.O.M.B.I.E. Horde pack, a random assortment of 13 Z.O.M.B.I.E. toys for just $10. This is perfect if you’re more concerned with numbers, since dropping $30 on this will net you 39 individual Z.O.M.B.I.E. toys. Perfect for overwhelming your army men . . . uh, army.

Z.O.M.B.I.E. Art Cards

And the folks at October Toys immediately prove their mine kind of people by offering a pack of Z.O.M.B.I.E. trading cards for just $5. It’s not a random set (which is why they’re called art cards, I guess), so all you need is one $5 pack to get all 9 cards (each one by a different artist). Five of the cards are based on the five different toy designs while the last four are just zombie images (a peek at an upcoming series?). And since trading card sheets hold 9 cards you can stick all of these in your card binder and show off your art cards the next time your buddies are over. They’re sure to be impressed that you have a complete set (until they figure out that $5 scored you the entire set, that is). If you love art, and if you order a pack of these toys, then you’re gonna want this art card pack.

Closing Thoughts

Inexpensive (well, as long as you just stick to one or two colors and don’t try to collect every single color), tiny, fun, the Z.O.M.B.I.E. toys from October Toys are a great example of what can happen when toy fans get a chance to create their own toy line. Obviously inspired by the old M.U.S.C.L.E. toys (just look at the name and size of the toys), these are more than just a derivative work and bring their own style to the genre of little inarticulate toys. The Z.O.M.B.I.E. toys will never be my favorite toy line, but they’re so cute and inexpensive that I can see myself getting at least one pack of any new series that’s released.

NOTE: This review isn’t entirely unbiased. I’ve enjoyed chatting with George and Ayleen over at the October Toys forum, and I’ve enjoyed their work with Toy Break, so that interaction definitely colored my thoughts as I wrote this review. I just wanted everyone to know about this since it no doubt affects your opinion about this particular review.

Philip Reed must admin that some of the Z.O.M.B.I.E. toys in his collection were gifts from the guys at October Toys — hell, even Matt over at Onell gave Phil some Z.O.M.B.I.E. toys — but Philip wants everyone to know that he also bought some packs of his own.