Madballs Hairballs Update!

We've made new friends over at top sekret MADBALL HEADQUARTERS and they've shared out of package pictures of the Madballs Hairballs lineup, despite the kaiju Mariah Carey descending on us all. (As soon as you hear her sing "and I....." you'd best be running!) Dive in below for pictures of the 6 ball series setting Walmarts ablaze across the US of A. Like all things Walmart, these are hitting a tad early, so don't worry your pretty lil head if you've not seen your ball-tacular end cap yet. It's coming. Oh yes. You will have balls soon...

MADBALLS RETURN!! AGAIN!!!

Cloudco Entertainment, proud owner of the Madballs™️ property, is thrilled to announce a strategic partnership with Hunter Products for a global relaunch of core toys, with a line that includes both classic and brand-new characters and innovative items that will launch via an exclusive, first-to-floor arrangement at 2800 Walmart doors in the US in early 2025. International accounts for Hunter Products’ new toys will start to roll out in spring 2025, with the balance of other key US accounts picking up the line beginning in fall 2025. Madballs is most recently coming off a successful multi-year co-branding program with fellow 1980’s brand, Garbage Pail Kids, that featured more than a dozen licensing partnerships. 

Toy Fair 2023: Premium DNA Resurrecting Retro Toy lines

A sure way to get a toy collector's attention as a new company on the block is to gobble up a handful of licenses from the awesome 80's and 90's and breathe new life into them. What was once a jumble of badly decomposing, discolored plastic with popping rubber o rings and exploding crotches becomes a newly sculpted thing of beauty, utilizing the original artwork to spark heart bubbles across the toy message boards. Premium DNA started their journey of retro resurrection with some killer vinyl Madballs figures and has followed up with a Toy Fair 2023 showing that has people signing over their paychecks. 

Vannen Madballs Watches Up For Pre-order April 30

Every day that a new company picks up a license for Madballs is a day to celebrate. Remember when three companies were making Madball toys at the same time a couple of years back??!! Those were insane and excellent times. Now, we await the drop of two limited edition watches from Vannen, who in the past have given us designs honoring the cult following of movies like Twin Peaks and Star Trek, some of our favorite artists like Alex Pardee and Chris Ryniak and bands like The Aquabats, Bauhaus, All Time Low and The Descendents. These are sure to be epic and very possibly sell out crazy fast!

Limited edition Madballs watches available for pre-order on Friday, April 30 at VannenWatches.com!

Toy Fair Everywhere July 2020: Virus Smasher

Quarantine got your down? Social distancing has you yearning for an accidental bump into another living, breathing human being? Do folks wearing face masks on their chin fill you with the rage of 1,000 Rocky Balboas?? Wild Hair Creations has the product for you! Leave it to a toy company to put a face on a global pandemic so you may pummel it to your heart's content. Madball and monster toy fans, take notice!

Kidrobot Adds Horror Icons To Madballs Lineup

Last we spoke to kidrobot, the powers that be mentioned that if all went well with the roll out of their first, insanely extensive line of Madballs, they would look into a second series and some original designs no one has ever created in ball form before. YAY CREATIVE BALLS!! Today, we are happy to report they are artists of their word and are pitching a whole new line of scream inducing balls bearing the likeness of our favorite horror movie creeps!

Gross for one, gross for all, we play with our Horrorballs?! Kidrobot, Madballs and some of the scariest names in the game bring you freaky, frightening fun in the all new Madballs Horrorball foam series! These monstrous mashups combine the Madballs platform you know and love with the terrifying villains from the Aliens, Predator, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Nightmare on Elm street franchises. Add all 6 to your collection and make it hauntingly horrorball!

Fright-Rags' MADBALLS Apparel Creeping Into Your Closet

As a kid in '80s, there was no shortage of toys aimed to gross out your friends and family. Chief among them were Madballs, the classic toy balls featuring disgusting fun characters. Gross out your loved ones once again with Fright-Rags' new Madballs shirts and socks.

The collection includes five designs by Scarecrowoven, Coki Greenway, Jeff Zornow, and Kyle Crawford. Each one is available on black shirts, with select designs also available on color shirts or baseball tees. Three pairs of custom-knit socks - featuring Hornhead, Slobulus, and Skullface, respectively - are up for grabs as well.

Toy Fair 2017: Just Play's MadBalls Series 2

Just getting over a wicked illness that caught me at the very start of Toy Fair 2017. I held out for as long as I could and posted quite a bit of our images before I had to take a breather...but now we are BACK and i'm looking forward to showing you all the awesome toys coming your way over the next year. We head back into the thick of it with Just Play's MadBalls. We showed you Series 1 and our new reviewer Jackson covered those blind bags with as much enthusiasm as one could muster...without thumbs. Now we'll take a look at the standard sized balls series 2 and the next wave of blind bags!

Madball Mania: Just Play Reignites Classic Creep Frenzy

It is the time of MADBALLS!!! Hell, we've got to get something good at the start of 2017. What better way to kick off a new year than three companies tackling one of the most awesome creepy toy lines of the 80's! In the next week or so, we'll check out multiple releases from Just Play, Mondo and kidrobot for a closer look at their unique take on Madballs. As expected, we are going to say balls a lot. ...Prepare yourselves.

Life In a Time of MADBALLS

Here at Idle hands, we often celebrate the fantastic times we live in, with mountains of geeky media to inhale with outstretched gimme hands on a daily basis. There's no greater evidence that we live in the golden era of dorkdom than THREE companies releasing Madballs items, simultaneously. THREE!!! That's three times the retro creepy toy fun, and in some cases, times 2 again as each company has more than one product releasing from the license, allowing the newly interested ball-enthusiast to have an instant collection over night. Let's check out who's got what...

NYCC 2016: Kidrobot on MADBALLS!!

New York Comic Con is quickly becoming a hunter's show. Where as San Diego Comic Con is known for being a center for previews, be they from the world of toys, movies, tv or comics, New York is a little more laid back, allowing people from the opposite coast to see a portion of those toys and mayyyybe something new here and there. This makes reporters interested in toy news hunt in every booth for little bits of newsworthy plastics...a figure here...a new variant there...OR A WHOLE LINE OF MADBALLS!!!

SDCC 2015: Mondo's Collectibles Own Your Retro Heart

At San Diego Comic-Con last year, Mondo stepped up with an Iron Giant collectible figure that made the top of people's heads blow clean off. Brains....everywhere. This year, Mondo premiered their 1:6th scale Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a mega-artistic Godzilla statue, MADBALLS and more! This company is quickly becoming the one to watch among toy collectors and grown up geeks with a soft spot for 80's properties, so we sent Ben Delloiacono and Emilie Noetzel to spend some time with Creative Director for Toys/CollectibleBrock Otterbacher at Comic-Con 2015 to get all the details on their latest projects. Take it Ben!

Toy Fair 2015: Funrise Madballs, My Little Pony & More

Back into the UK Toy Fair 2015 coverage with Funrise...one of those companies who are always accommodating, but you never now what you are going to see within their booth space! This Year's lineup included a small army of My Little Pony plush characters, Moja Monsters, Gazillion Bubbles, and the inevitable, inescapable return of ...Madballs! You'll notice Funrise seems to have gone for a printed design and not the traditional sculpted Madballs we are used to from the start of this property. I'm sure their thinking was that it didn't work out for the relaunch some years back, why would it work now? For collectors like me, all the appeal is in those sculpted faces on the balls! We'll see how it works out this time, but I'm fully prepared for a world of geeks screaming for the more traditional feel. Let's check out the goods...

Shocker Toys US Toy Fair Press Release

Shocker Toys LLP will celebrate its tenth anniversary by exhibiting at the American International Toy Fair in New York City at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, booth #4924. Shocker Toys can be found in the new Action Figure aisle in the lower level of the Jacob Javits and will feature fun, interactive products, samples and a great sales team.

"This year, Shocker Toys looks to grow and add to our experience across a diverse range of products," said Geoff Beckett, CEO. "We are finishing great new toy lines and making fun, new concepts also. Our newly designed Indie Spotlight line will please all comic and action figure fans and our new 5” marshmallow themed designer line will expand into new markets including lines for girls as well."


The company will showcase a number of new toys that offer new styles of playability and creativity, a re-growing trend within the industry. Products combined with paint, new designs and comics will enhance the overall play experience. These products include Indie Spotlight, a comic book universe action figure line as well as Mallows the designer line featuring articulation, big licenses and a fun factor like no other.

On Display At Toy Fair:

Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight Comic Book Heroes, which was released in 2009 and hit mass retail in 2010, is an ever-growing comic book universe action figure series from Shocker Toys. Presenting independent comic book characters in hyper-posable 6” scale for collectors to fit in with their other favorite lines, the line features collector friendly packaging and accessories.

Series 1 features: Jim Valentino’s ShadowHawk and ShadowHawk black costume variant, Rob Schrab’s 'SCUD, The Disposable Assassin' and variant 'SOL', Terry Moore's Katchoo of "Strangers in Paradise", David Mack’s Kabuki, and MTV’s The Maxx (an 8 inch mega figure). Each figure in Series 1 or, "The Maxx Series" also includes an Isz, a small monster from the Maxx's world, with each figure. As an added bonus. upon collecting all of Series 1 and mailing in the UPC's the customer can get a FREE mail away figure (Mr. Gone) from the Maxx's comic world.



Series 2 features: Dick Tracy and Dick Tracy with Tommy gun and overcoat, King Zombie (from "Deadworld") and a King Zombie variant, Jack Staff, Ignacia (from "Wildguard") and The Tick. Each figure in Series 2 or, "The Tick Series" also includes an accessory from the Tick's world. As an added bonus the Series 2 free mail away figure will be Arthur from the Tick's comic world.










Series 3 features: (The Phantom, Zorro, Grendel, Fist of Justice and Nira-X)











Indie Spotlight Golden Age Series 1 features: (Dan Garret's Blue Beetle, The Arrow, Black Terror, Daredevil and The Heap)

Indie Spotlight Two Packs: Two Packs Series 1 (Captain Action and Zen), Two Packs Series 2 (Lazerman and Classic Madman)




Mallows
Mallows are a new 5” marshmallow themed designer figure, featuring up to 10 points of articulation and up to 7 interchangeable parts. They will be sold in licenses such as Madballs, My Pet Monster, Sushi Pack, Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist:Brotherhood, Soul Eater, Johnny Test, Monster in my Pocket and more. They will also be a girls only line called Go-Girlz and a featured artist designer series plus blank color bodies for customers to create their own characters.