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‘Kong: Skull Island’ POP! Vinyl Toy is Massive and Awesome
What you’re looking at is some monster from a bygone era.
One of the cool things about the upcoming Kong: Skull Island, headed to theaters on March 10th, 2017, is that it’s going to feature the biggest incarnation of King Kong that ever lived. According to director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, his Kong measures a massive 100-feet tall, and the reason for the upgrade in size is so the beast will be able to do battle with Godzilla in 2020.
But let’s focus on the here and now. In advance of Kong: Skull Island arriving on the big screen, Funko has just announced and unveiled their very first POP! vinyl figure of the iconic movie monster. True to the new design, the King Kong toy measures a massive 6″ tall, making it quite a bit bigger than standard POP! toys. To show off his size, Kong holds a tiny helicopter in his hands. Actually, it’s a huge, full-size helicopter, it’s just that Kong makes it look like a toy.
Vogt-Roberts recently explained the new Kong design, depicted by the toy:
If anything, our Kong is meant to be a throwback to the ’33 version. [Kong] was a movie monster, so we worked really hard to take some of the elements of the ’33 version, some of those exaggerated features, some of those cartoonish and iconic qualities, and then make them their own…We created something that to some degree served as a throwback to the inspiration for what started all of this, but then also [had] it be a fully unique and different creature that — I would like to think — is fully contained and identifiable as the 2017 version of King Kong. I think there are very modern elements to him, yet hopefully he feels very timeless at the same time.
Look for the Kong: Skull Island POP! vinyl toy in January 2017.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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