Background
Plaseebo Custom recently released the second edition of their Night Gamer rotocast vinyl figure. The glow-in-the-dark piece was co-designed and sculpted by Bill Hand and Bob Conge. And as with all of the Plaseebo characters, they have a rather interesting story.
The Night Gamers are little creatures from an alternate universe (30 seconds ahead of ours). They’ve traveled to our universe, to a teddy bear factory. After hiding within a bear suit, they were taken home by a pair of young brothers.
At night, while the boys are sleeping, they come out of their suits and decide to play. They use their probes to search the children’s memories (via their brains) and play games. All the while, the two players’ heads glow. The Gamers actually took their names (Wilbur and Orvil) from that first game they played…trying to build a working model of a plane (it was from a quiz the kids once took).
Packaging
The Night Gamer figure comes bagged with a header card that is illustrated by Plaseebo artist John Kastner. The illustration is that of the two characters removing their teddy bear suits in anticipation of a session of gaming.
The Figure
The Second Edition Night Gamer stands at 7” in height and has one point of articulation (the neck). It’s made of white glow-in-the-dark rotocast vinyl. Each figure has a blue probe, red glass eyes and a motion-activated LED light inside of its head.
To activate the light, you need to shake the figure and simply watch. It’s best to do so in the dark (as you can see in the video below). The light cycles through a number of different colors, which then create a glow throughout the figure’s entire body.
This super limited figure is available in a run of approximately 20 pieces. Each hand painted figure comes with a GID brain accessory and is signed and numbered.
Our Opinion
The Plaseebo collection of artists have released some of the most eerie and creepy characters…and that’s a good thing. The baby-looking mummy was followed by a dinosaur-like trash heap and then a brain-sucking alien. They keep getting better.
And while the story might keep you up at night, the only loss of sleep that will occur from the vinyl figure is from its glowing. Every time you see the rotocast piece, you’ll definitely want to pick it up and give it a good shaking.
It’s definitely one of our favorite figures of 2008.
You can pick one up at the following:
Plaseebo: $110.00
Night Gamer Ed. 2:
Quality: 9/10
Paint: 9/10
Packaging: 8/10
Durability: 8/10
Hype: 8/10
Fun Factor: 10/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 9.4/10
Have this figure? What do you rate it?
What a cute and creepy toy all rolled into
one brain-probing, gaming junkie. I just
ordered one and was order #13 – so if the
order numbers line up with how many have
been sold, then 66% of the 20 made are gone
so far (April 7, 2008).
I'm looking forward to shaking it to see
those nice colors at night. And I'll try
to remember to rate this figure on your
5 star scale once I get it. I have a feeling
I'm going to score it 5 out of 5 stars.
What a cute and creepy toy all rolled into
one brain-probing, gaming junkie. I just
ordered one and was order #13 – so if the
order numbers line up with how many have
been sold, then 66% of the 20 made are gone
so far (April 7, 2008).
I'm looking forward to shaking it to see
those nice colors at night. And I'll try
to remember to rate this figure on your
5 star scale once I get it. I have a feeling
I'm going to score it 5 out of 5 stars.
My Night Gamer (edition 2) came in the mail
and it looks great especially at night when
it's easiest to see the lights shine through
its body.
Previously I thought the 5 stars represented
the rating system you wanted us to use since
the stars are sitting right there next to the
question about rating the toy. I don't
know how my brain jumped off the track of
the 10-point system you use to score toys.
So here's my rating
Sculpting quality : excellent – 10
Paint job : great – 8 ( there were some bumps
on his head the brush didn't get right)
Packaging : 8 – excellent artwork (lost points
for stapling through the excellent artwork)
Durability : 7 – the figure itself is going to last a
long time, but there's not a way for me to get
the neat glowing ball out for replacement when its
batteries are finally drained
Hype : the back story for Night Gamers is creative
so I'll score a 9 here
Fun Factor : very fun especially at night – 9 – the
fun factor would have hit 10 if it had something
extra like being able to hide it in someone's
room and then use a remote control to start its
glowing lights after the victim turned off the
room lights.
Value : 8 – for $110 I'm overall pleased
Overall : 8.4
A wonderful designer toy definitely worth getting.
My Night Gamer (edition 2) came in the mail
and it looks great especially at night when
it's easiest to see the lights shine through
its body.
Previously I thought the 5 stars represented
the rating system you wanted us to use since
the stars are sitting right there next to the
question about rating the toy. I don't
know how my brain jumped off the track of
the 10-point system you use to score toys.
So here's my rating
Sculpting quality : excellent – 10
Paint job : great – 8 ( there were some bumps
on his head the brush didn't get right)
Packaging : 8 – excellent artwork (lost points
for stapling through the excellent artwork)
Durability : 7 – the figure itself is going to last a
long time, but there's not a way for me to get
the neat glowing ball out for replacement when its
batteries are finally drained
Hype : the back story for Night Gamers is creative
so I'll score a 9 here
Fun Factor : very fun especially at night – 9 – the
fun factor would have hit 10 if it had something
extra like being able to hide it in someone's
room and then use a remote control to start its
glowing lights after the victim turned off the
room lights.
Value : 8 – for $110 I'm overall pleased
Overall : 8.4
A wonderful designer toy definitely worth getting.
The star rating system for readers to vote is out of 5. The script I found only allowed for a 5 star max.
The star rating system for readers to vote is out of 5. The script I found only allowed for a 5 star max.