Here are some design sketches that Bill (artist of Red Demon, Dr. Destruction, and the Luchadores Five) did based on a conversation Jerry, Bill and I had with some of the fine people at Todd McFarlane Productions. Todd McFarlane was the superstar Marvel/Spider-man artist in the 1990s who later co-created Image Comics and the Spawn comic character. As mutual fans, we met with a handful of people working for McFarlane. In an attempt to explore the possibilities of collaboration, we were thinking that it'd be cool for the Muttpop Lucha Libre art team to create a Kaiju version of the more familiar characters of the Spawn universe. In exchange, we thought it'd be fun to see our Lucha Libre characters redone in the hyper-realistic Spawn style made famous by artists like McFarlane and Greg Capullo.

I asked Bill to come up with some design sketches for Spawn based on our conversation. Which are seen below.

Later on when the Spawn team was thinking of doing a Spawn comics anthology, we were asked to take our Kaiju concept and pitch it as a comic short story. I was pretty proud of what we came up with (a mix of Spawn X Ghost Rider X Shadow of the Colossus X Kamen Rider) but, sadly, the Anthology project was eventually canceled.

Fortunately we still have Bills amazing designs to share with you guys!

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!