Whether you know him as Avatar666, El Chakal or ELCHAKAL666... his talent and attention to detail are undeniable! Avatar666 (as we know him here at Muttpop) graced our figures with his wonderful custom skills prior with his Blanka Tequila and Czar Vodka Tequila (both shown below). He recently revealed his El Panda custom based on Batman villain The Penguin. I love the significant alterations Avatar666 does to the faces of figures. You can see his contributions to our Fan Art Section HERE. I also recommend you check out his Flickr gallery for some making-of pics and some nice photos of his toy collection and other custom figures. Check out his Fickr Gallery HERE.

I have just received confirmation from our distributor, DKE Toys Distribution, that the solicitation for the latest Frank Kozik X Muttpop collaboration, Tequila Ocran Ocinatas goes out tonight. That means that beginning tomorrow, your favorite Designer Toy retailers will be able to order Ocran Ocinatas from DKE. We figured that Ocran Ocinatas was an appropriate way to start 2010. I hope he was worth the wait!

Another Tequila Original figure spotting! This time he can be found on the straight to DVD film called COUGAR CLUB. Way back in 2006, I was approached by a Tequila fan and told that he was working on a film and they were going to include Tequila in a few scenes. I had completely forgotten about the conversation until yesterday when I received an email from the very same fellow (roughly 3 years later) stating that the film came out, was called COUGAR CLUB, and can be seen on Netflix via their instant watching capability. It's a fairly basic straight to DVD comedy filled with fart jokes and boobies... but it gets credit for some Lucha Libre love and a decent amount of screen time from our OG Tequila figure. The trailer (seen below) does not have any Tequila. The screen captures included below do!

Over the last 3 weeks, my sister did an immense amount of traveling that included trips to Morocco and Peru. I was super sad that I couldn't join her in Peru to celebrate my cousin's wedding, but she brought me a bit of joy with these two beautiful Mexican Wrestling matchboxes she purchased during a stop over at the Mexican Airport. There's something cool and silly about the look of a masked Luchador. These glittery matchboxes do a wonderful job of capturing that quirky spirit.

Here it is: an official picture of the Muttpop Series 3 BUD Chase Figure (as photographed by our very own Jerry Frissen). Based on the stat card included with every BUD Series 3 figure, you have a 2.3% chance of pulling one of the figures out of a BUD 3 Blind Box. So, out of a 1000 Series 3 Blind Boxes, there are only 23 Muttpop Chase figures. Nice! I feel special and very rare. It helps that he looks so darn spiffy. Oh yeah, and if you haven't figured it out yet, it's a Red Demon BUD!

Jerry, Lea, and I had a wonderful time attending DesignerCon 2009. It was a bit rough waking up bright and early. I was pretty proud of myself for having been so prepared bringing the materials necessary for manning the Muttpop booth (calculators, notepads, con info...). Then, 5 minutes before the con opened I realized I forgot my wallet. Ahhhh! I had about $100 in $5 dollar bills in my wallet ready for delivering change to fans purchasing stuff from our booth (nope, it's NOT stripper money!). After a bit of a panic frenzy, Jerry calmly pointed out he had some cash on hand. We got change for a couple of $20 bills from the always prepared Dov Kelemer of DKE Toys and began the show. It was great seeing all of Muttpop fans and attendees. I'd love to give shout outs to pato1001, MistaHippo, Kill, William Miller, Scott Tolleson, KiLL!, Ally, thepureguava, and everyone else for stopping by!