Ron English — Grin

GRINtoy

We first saw this  Ron English figure earlier this month in Miami at the Kaiju Monster Invasion show.  At the time we though it was a  custom.  Turns out, the show served as a preview of sorts — it’s a new production figure.  Grin is set for world-wide release on January 13th  2009 in HK from Garageworks  Ind. / Made by Monsters.   This is apparently the first of several new figures in an upcoming Popaganda vinyl series from Made by Monsters.

Grin reminds us of the humanoid figure from Ron’s previous Big Yang and the Yang Bangers (still love the name after all this time!) — ‘cept he even more closely resembles the pop icon he’s based on.  The hyper-detailed skeletal mouth is creepy and adds a nice juxtaposition with the surrounding ‘toony design.  Finally the shirt pattern is a nice visual throwback to the previous toy. We like, very much.