The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bank has been such a huge success that I decided to look into two variants.  One will remain secret (for now), but the other one is here.  He’s a glow-in-the-dark blue variant (similar to the Minimate we did for San Diego Comic Con).  The head in the picture is the wrong one (the production piece will have the “happy” face), but the material prototype turned out so well that I had to share with you all.

Nope, I don’t believe that for a second.  After all, who is more likely to transform and roll out with all your hard-earned loot?  But, then again, no matter how spot-on these sculpts are, or how screen-accurate the paint may be, these are just banks.  There really isn’t more to Megatron than meets the eye…or is there?  Guess you’ll just have to pick one up to find out.

It’s as easy as 1-2-3!

1) Use it as a Bank!
Save up your $$$ for a firehouse of your own! (or for the thriftier of us, save up for your own fireman pole!)

2) Use it as a Logo Sign!
When you’ve saved $$$ and bought a firehouse, stick this baby outside above the door!

3) Start taking customers!And you’re on your way!

One in Comic Stores and one in Toys “R” Us!

He just can’t shake this bad wrap… the pillaging, the looting, the Ghostbuster hating. It’s just not fair!
He just wants to spread joy and smores to all!

When you see him, give him a hug. He deserves it!

Meh, it sounded funnier in my head, but let’s go with it.  The point is, the time has come at last for our bust bank line to branch out into the wonderful world of Clones and the almost limitless possibilities for variants.  The lead-off release is, obviously, the basic Clone Trooper.  Much like the R2 bank, the Clone is based on digital scan data and was painted by Ed Wires.  Look for him at the start of 2010.

True confession time again - Sometimes an idea sounds great in my head, but then I get a little muddled when it comes time to explain it to the people that have to help make it happen.  In this case, I was all excited about my first Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bank variant.  So, I said “I want a glow-in-the-dark blue version”.  Um, yeah, back to the drawing board…

True confession time again - A few people have been wondering why the R2-D2 figure bank seemed to be roughly 6″ while I’ve been telling you that it is 1/4 scale.  Well, to be honest, there was a teeny tiny miscommunication when we were ordering materials.  Some dimensions got crossed and lost, and no one knew anything was awry until I opened a very small box and saw a very small casting.  These things aren’t cheap, so I made the call to get as far into development as possible and hopefully only need one replacement casting for the factory.  To assure everyone that all is well, I’ve included a picture of the piece you have all been seeing (in catalogs and at shows) standing in the shadow of the sculpt that is going to the factory.

Here we have the approved paint for the R2-D2 figure bank (what I am unofficially calling the “Quarter Scale R2″).  Personally, the droids were some of my least favorite characters, but I have to admit that Eddie really did a great job on this little fella.

Here is the sculpt for the R2-D2 figure bank.  Based on Lucas digital data and slightly modified to fit the rotocast process, this little guy is not so little.  His finished height should be a little under 11″, making him a perfect visual fit on the shelf where you keep your Ultimate Quarter Scale action figures.