Review: Kidrobot's Dunny 2012!

Kidrobot’s annual Dunny release (blind-boxed vinyl rabbits creatively embellished by the world’s leading designers) is always a much-anticipated highlight for me, especially since I began buying them by the case. This usually guarantees an additional rare “case incentive” figure as a bonus and, in the past, a case of 20 has given me most (if not all) of the more commons plus, if I’m lucky a couple of rares, or maybe even a chase.

That probably meant nothing to at least half of you. Layman’s version: we are about to look at some crazy toy rabbits.

Dunny 2012 has officially been released and I have a case right here!

Crack it open with me... after the jump!

But first let’s open up the exclusive incentive figure, only available when you order a case. This time it’s by one of my favourite indie toy creators, Sucklord, perhaps best known for his wildly creative/offensive bootleg Star Wars figures. And he does not disappoint:

Yes, it’s a delightfully misshapen Vader inspired Dunny, coloured in the lurid pink and silver of Sucklord’s famous Gay Empire stormtroopers! This is also one of the few Dunnys I can think of that have a completely unique head sculpt. This is already a winner and we haven’t even started yet!

Now onto the main course. Each Dunny is blind-boxed so we have no idea what we’re actually going to get. Maybe we won’t even get a Dunny at all? Could be a bar of soap or a hornet’s nest!

But let’s first examine the menu so we at least know which figures are possible as well as their respective rarities. Here's the first half:

And the second:

Remember we’re about to open 20 here, so most (if not all) of those 1/40 ones are going to be out of our reach. Some are so rare, like that awesome three-boobed devil girl, that they are listed as ???/??? because nobody even knows! There’s also a shadowy mystery figure but he is 2/20 so it’s very likely we’ll see what it is.

And here are the contributing artists:

And here is what I got! Starting with:

Ping by Mauro Gatti! He has a fabric net that stretches between his ears and a paddle which is blue on one side and red on the other. Initially I wasn't too thrilled that two very similar Dunnys are included in the same set, but the pair together looks pretty cool. Not a huge favourite but far better than I thought it would be. The only setback? The next Dunny I opened was Ping again! Not even Pong! I got a double straight away! In fact, a lot of the doubles in this case seemed to be packed right next to each other. I don't know if that's a coincidence or if that's true for other cases. Something to think about if you're cherry-picking.

But this more than makes up for it. Third Dunny opened and it is:

Nakanari's rare ninja figure! He's packed 1/40 in so this is a score! From the box art I thought his scarf would be cloth but it's actually sculpted plastic and far more dynamic. My only gripe is that he has a dirty smudge on the white between his eyes. The paint ops are usually pretty solid on these figures so it's a big of shame to get a rare one that isn't 100% looking his best. Still - a very cool figure and a real coup!

So we're doing good. I won't mention the other doubles until the end - from now on we'll just focus on the unique stuff. Like this one...

This is the Jeremiah Ketner. It's a cool piece, I dig the colours and I really love the painting that it's based on. It's one of the simpler figures with no unique sculpting but it's a nice addition. 

But this is super cool...

It's our mystery figure by Jon-Paul Kaiser! And it turns out to be a samurai, which we of course guessed from the silhouette, but we didn't expect him to be holding a gun, or to have a uniquely sculpted giant moustache! Apparently there are four colour variants of this guy. We've got the black and white version which has a really nice graphic/comic style. I dig the black outlines. The only minor gripe again, the white areas have a few black marks - even on that glorious moustache.

So a 1/40 followed by a mystery figure is great, but then we hit the jackpot:

It's another 1/40 figure! And not only that, it's the red chase variant of Andrew Bell's incredibly elaborate rabbit! I absolutely love this one, it's probably the real highlight of the set apart from the ultra rare ???/??? figures. It's the first Dunny to have four arms, an intricate sculpted headpiece containing tiny rabbit heads, and a flaming sword. This one is awesome.

And now we complete a subset with... 

Pong! They do look good together. Check it out for yourself:

Well, by this stage I'm pretty resigned to the fact that we're not getting any more rare figures. We've had two 1/40's in and one of those was a chase. Now we just have to get as many of the more common ones as possible. Starting with...

This one's by MAD and I think it's really cleverly designed. The spray caps added to the ears create perfect spray cans, and the spray mask is a completely separate plastic piece that you can remove. MAD always does really stunning work and this is no exception.

And then...

Another version of Jon-Paul Kaiser's samurai! And I think I like the red variant even better. No paint issues on this one. He's perfect!

Followed by...

This really has to be one of the most creative uses of the Dunny mold. Triclops Studio has turned him into a sword-swallower by turning one ear into a sword hilt and covering the other ear with a removable top hat. It's a brilliant idea and it looks fantastic.

And speaking of brilliant ideas...

This is top-notch design from Sergio Mancini. It really is a work of art. I love all the little details and annotations on the sketch side and he takes one of the simplest Dunnys in the set (no unique sculpting on the figure) and he transforms it into one of the most memorable. It does have a unique accessory though, which is a tiny compass. This is inspired.

And then we have...

I love Tara McPherson's work but this may be my least favourite Dunny in this series. I really prefer the character stuff to the more abstract art, and in that regard this falls a little short for me. I know that Tara is probably sick to death of creating cutesy female Dunnys but I like her past work more. Still! It's good to explore!

And finally...

Another really inspired design. The helmet is two separate pieces which clip over the skull. I love it but the ray gun is super fragile. I broke the barrel off getting it out of its bag. I then got a double of the same figure straight away and tried to steal his accessory instead. And it broke straight away again. Awesome figure but be super careful with that gun.

So out of 20 figures (21 if you count the bonus Sucklord incentive) I got 8 doubles. I have already given away the Ping and Pong doubles and this is what I have left:

So I missed the long-necked giraffe Dunny altogether, as well as Attaboy's winged Dunny, but got everything else apart from the two super rare figures. All said and done it was a pretty successful case! I'll be definitely continuing to purchase them this way in the future! 

Another really solid year for Kidrobot who continue to expand, explore and excel.

I got mine from our pals at Popcultcha. If you live in Australia then definitely check them out. Free shipping locally and they have a big sale on this weekend!