We would like to share with you Cris Rose’s contribution to the Brain Evolution Exhibit at Toy Art Gallery. He took Emilio Garcia’s 5” Jumping Brain figure and turned it into Bufo Emilio/The Cyberhypnotoad. To bring this custom to life, Cris incorporated an 8” Egg Qee and two Bits n Bytes to help operate this 9” tall walking weapon. Cris has also produced a large number of resin bots and will be releasing 5 new sculpts for the opening event. The show will take place on Friday, September 16th at Toy Art Gallery’s new location on Melrose! More pictures and backstory of The Cyberhypnotoad after the jump.
Toy Art Gallery
7571 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
"In a deep valley of a remote jungle, a team of Rumble and Rummages searched for an experimental pulse-fusion engine that had been lost there half a century earlier. Kept out of the region by tribal warfare, political wrangling and insurmountable terrain, the device lay at the heart of a failed deep space probe that had crashed back to earth minutes after launch. Sabotage had been suspected, but as the ship had never been recovered, there was no proof. Future missions had gone without a hitch, however the core of "Emilio’s Leap" was known to be intensely radiogenic and the whole area declared an exclusion zone. Due to the impressively engineered ablative shielding and the short-range effect of Menzel Radiation, the effected area was highly localised within the valley, posing little risk to the rest of the world.
After a lengthy mission, the Rummages returned with the core, flight recorder and all other hazardous materials for decontamination and study. It’s said that on any given mission, at least 1 or 2 Rummages will return with something unexpected and this mission was no different. Within the last robot to return, there was not technology, but an unknown member of the local fauna, a very large amphibian with an uneasy stare. Keen to study the long term mutagenic effects of Menzel Radiation on the local wildlife, the creature was retained and given the latin name Bufo Emilio. It would soon pick up another, more disturbing moniker…
The findings from the mission were taken to Omega Tellurion’s primary research lab on the moon. Three months passed without a report of any real substance being submitted regarding the wreckage. The man charged with checking up on the team returned with a distant look and nothing more than calm reassurances that everything was fine. Remote access to any research files relating to the matter were either inaccessible or gibberish that seemed to involve a mixture of technical details about the pulse-fusion core and brainwave analysis of every member of the team. When it was noted that there was no one on the team called Emilio, it was postulated that this referred to a unique toad which had mistakenly been shipped alongside the salvaged parts.
The breaking point came when large amounts of resources were covertly diverted to the project and a colossal production hanger was seized and sealed. A group of disgruntled researchers that broke in to the lab to reclaim their equipment not only failed to take back what was theirs, but filed formal requests to transfer to the project and stayed. Unable to do anything about the situation and unwilling to lose anymore men or resources, the facility was evacuated and all remaining personnel reassigned to the OT labs elsewhere on the moon.
One misty autumn morning on the East coast of the North American continent, an unscheduled OT dropship de-phased it’s cloak in the middle of the main commercial district. Opening it’s warehouse-sized bay door, the machine stepped out into full view, 19 feet high and glistening in the early light. Turning towards the gathering crowd, fear started to set in as the giant brain pulsed and undulated atop the robotic walker, training it’s imposing canon upon them. As the crowd turned to run, the monstrous creation fired upon the mass, casting rings of glowing blue energy down upon them… the people slowed… and stopped. Everything was quiet. Then turning to each other, smiles and laugher broke out. Some began to hug one another or play, others just lay on the ground and looked at the clouds above as the intruder moved away.
Affected by decades of radiation, an unlikely series of mutations had enhanced the Hypnotoad’s latent psionic abilities. No longer needing to fear any predator, it’s population exploded, as a simple look could not only calm the savage beast, but the neural feedback was enough to sustain the amphibian without harming it’s subject. It was pure chance that a Rummage chose to bring one back to civilization, but as the first human was caught within it’s stare, he was captivated. While not directly controlling them telepathically, the Hypnotoad evoked within the scientists that studied it a feeling of deep well-being, and a need to not only understand it, but share it with humanity. Feeding off the combined intellects of some of mankind’s greatest minds, Bufo Emilio grew to immense proportions until the majority of it’s organs became vestigial and not even it’s skin could contain the mass of brain within it. Meanwhile, the researchers had set about constructing a giant robotic platform around the pulse-fusion engine, to both carry the brain atop it, and amplify it’s empathic field with a huge Psionic Resonator mounted on the front. To ensure the cybernetic parts would continue to function, a Rotund and a Renold were specially outfitted to travel alongside on the platform and undertake any required maintenance.
Loaded into a dropship and sent down to Earth, the men knew that all of mankind would thank them.
Striding purposefully down the street, the Cyberhypnotoad bathed all before it in soft blue light, raising spirits, melting worries away, bringing mankind together, whether it felt like it or not. "
