I guess it's no surprise, given the remake happy world we live in, that toy companies and filmmakers alike are attempting to revive an entire decade; the wonderful and whacky 80's. That decade's 'Gross-Out' fad in particular, which included everything from Madballs to Garbage Pail Kids, is experiencing a big time revival of late, with not only the Garbage Pail Kids & Dr. Dreadful's mad scientist food labs making a return to store shelves, but entirely new toy lines even sprouting up, with clear 80's influences. What's old truly is new again. And I for one am loving it. A lot. A whole whole lot.
Following last year's debut of little rubber monsters called The Trash Pack, comes a new line of plush toys from Jay at Play International that have been dubbed Stinky Little Trash Monsters, which I found this past weekend over at Toys R Us. Even though the little guy above was a whopping $9.99, I knew the experience of picking him up and bringing him to the counter would make me feel like a kid again, so I figured that was a small price to pay for a trip through the ole time machine. Besides, he made for a nice little gift for Jen, who's got a birthday coming up this week.
Let's pop this sucker out of his soap-on-a-rope tube and take a closer look at him!
Something tells me Oscar The Grouch is gettin' ready to sue some motherfuckers...
This little scoundrel's name is Gloppy, friend to fellow Trash Monsters the likes of Shabby, Yucky, Sludgy, Gooey & Grimy. They're a ragtag bunch of delinquents that spend their time playing around in the garbage, getting as filthy and stinky as they possibly can. Unfortunately, no information is provided in regards to their origins or who they truly are deep down on the inside, but I'm sure if Michael Bay made a movie about them they'd be ass kicking aliens with a taste for LaBeouf blood. Oh snap.
Now the cool thing about these little guys is that they actually flip inside out, with a flip one way putting them into their included trash can, and a flip the other way setting them free ...
If Jewish people wore trash can lids on their heads instead of Yarmulkes, they'd be a lot cooler. Just sayin'.
Pretty nifty little trick there, but I can't help but feel like the ball was dropped big time by not giving these things foul smells, unique to each character. I mean come on, they do live in the trash, after all. And, uh, I was promised they were gonna be 'stinky'. This bad boy would've been kicked up about 10 notches if he actually smelt like the rotten pizza that his body is adorned with. And I really wish some character information/back stories were provided for these guys. Hell, even the little rubber Trash Pack'ers were honored with unique personalities. Meh.
That said, these things are pretty cool even if they kinda reek of 'slapped together' and 'cash-in', especially given they're totally new and yet exude 80's awesomeness. The geek that rung me up told me they were one of the hottest new items in the store, which either means he was lying to me so I would look past the $10 price tag (little did he know...) or that kids these day truly do have a desire to play with trash dwelling creatures again, which the mere thought of puts a huge smile on my face. Geeks don't lie to other geeks, so I'm gonna take his word for it. One of the other hottest toys on the market today? Monster High Dolls. Is it just me or are kids getting cool again?!
The Stinky Little Trash Monsters come in small 5" sizes as well as larger 8" and even full size 15" dolls, all of which can be purchased over at Toys R Us or online at places like Amazon. Fuck Pokemon, collect them all!
I'll wrap this up with a small side story. While being rung up for Gloppy by the aforementioned geek at Toys R Us, I came to the realization that cool people just aren't for me. I'm a total geek and that was never more evident than when this guy and I immediately launched into conversation about everything from the Garbage Pail Kids to the Ninja Turtles. Gotta say, I kinda wanted to be that virgin's best friend right then and there. There's a serious kinship that geeks share with one another, and it's a pretty damn beautiful thing.
I also came to the realization that geek hate for Michael Bay is totally universal, as our conversation took mere minutes to turn into full on hate for the man (RE: his recently announced 'raping' of the Turtles' origin). Though it's fun to hate on him, my personal opinion on that matter is essentially this; nothing he or anyone else can do could ever take away from me memories like shooting pizza pies out of the Ninja Turtles Pizza Thrower Van at family members on Christmas morning, so I really couldn't care less. Lay off the dude and just let him do whatever the hell he's gonna do. It's not gonna ruin our childhoods in any way, shape or form. It's just gonna make us love them even more.
Anyways, ya, Stinky Little Trash Monsters ... get 'em today!!
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