I took a trip down to Mexico City last spring. Fantastic, art everywhere, amazing food, super cheap even for a budget-minded cheapskate like me and friendly. I don't know why everyone doesn't go there all the time. Naturally, I brought back some toys. Zopilote Ramirez. I got this at the late, great Kong. Solid resin with no articulation, but check out that costume! Check out those y-fronts! All the Mexican designer toys I saw had amazing packaging and are all made in Mexico. It's interesting how so much of the contemporary art there is influenced by / obsessed with lucha libra. Castaneda ("the looney bin") - I think this is made of extruded latex, like insulation. I saw an idol in the anthropology museum that looks like this guy's saner brother. The box art is fabulous. Molote Con Filtro. No idea what that's supposed to mean. I got this at the fantastic Headquarter. Totally weird with fluorescent madness. These are Spore Invaders. You may have seen them on Mark Nagata's blog. Squishy GID brain under a clear dome. The box is pre-weathered for your pleasure. Also purchased at Kong. Bimbo is a ubiquitous food brand in Mexico City. Here's a Hot Wheels-sized plastic truck from the flea market. La Merced doesn't just have limes by the truckload. It also has cheap header-bagged luchadores with tiny, crappy wrestling rings. A little larger than kinkeshi in hard, soapy plastic. El Chavo Del Ocho keshi from the convenience store. These are from the new cartoon series, not the classic live action one. Mega-jumbo luchador. I carried this thing through the streets of Mexico City, through US Customs, on a flight from Mexico City to Atlanta, through the Atlanta airport (where I met a Kid Robot-loving bartender who hooked me up with free iced tea for having a cool toy) on a flight from Atlanta to Montreal where a sassy, sexy-in-a-Fresh-Prince-era-Queen-Latifah-way flight attendant paraded him through the cabin, through Canadian customs (including the special inspection room). 36" of polypropylene wrestler in a giant header bag. $12 USD. On expedia yet? The Mexican superhero El Chapulin Colorado. Inspiration for the Simpsons' Mexican Bee Guy. This is a blow-molded toy from a pinwheel. I have an unpainted one too - I should have bought 10. Santa Muerte, a popular folk deity in Mexico City. Not actually a toy at all, but totally freaky and cool-looking. They had these in so many different colors of resin, including rainbow-striped ones. I think it looks like some kind of Microman villain. Again, should have bought more. Vintage El Chavo Del Ocho vinyl toy. This came from the flea market and it was all grodulated, but a little soap and water brought it back to life. I would have liked to do more flea marketing, and I will next time. So many treasures in Mexico City. Mexican Gorilla bank. These are everywhere and come in many sizes from small to mega huge. Kong had some custom-painted ones. Die-cut sticker eyes! I also bought a vintage lucha movie poster (Blue Demon contra los diabolicos) some comics (Mexican Black Hole comic FTW!) and a painting. I took lots of photos. What an amazing, super-fascinating place for art-lovers.
Crazy stuff, thanks for sharing! I've always failed to see the appeal of crude & cruddy toys/bootlegs, but threads like this are slowly starting to turn me... Damn you!
Seriously cool toys, thank you for posting. You know how Mexican popular iconography is ... once an icon takes off, it really takes off in the popular imagination. I think lucha libre figures are so popular because of the "hero of the people" aspect ... thanks to Santo. Luchadores are the new Frida. The only Mexican toys I have are very traditional paper mache and wooden calaveras and a cool burro. Not really what this board is about but I love 'em and they get along very nicely with Japanese monsters.
Btw, the bartender didn't love anything naughty. Apparently "kid r0b0t" is an expletive on this board.
Yeah, so is the name of their premier platform toy, which shall not be named. "What are the unwritten rules?" FAQ
Great post! When i saw Zopilote Ramirez I realized I needed to have it but when searched the figure i saw the other stuff this company does I now need a few things from them. The Santo angel statues are amazing. Just what i needed, a new thing to collect. Thanks a lot!
Wow! I would never guessed you'd find such a unique array in Mexico? Whereabouts did you go? That luchadore with the Z cape is outstanding!
There was an interesting editorial by Octavio Solis about La Santa Muerte at SF Gate recently, but they seem to have removed it from their archives. There have been references to shrines to La Santa Muerte in several recent New York Times articles about the Mexican drug wars. She's become sort of the second "saint" of drug traffickers (and all things associated with the narco biz including the murders) in the past decade or so, following the folk canonization of Jesus Malverde which is similarly controversial. The Wikipedia article on the figure has some background information but fails to mention the current significance and context, and incorrectly suggests that she is a version of the Virgin of Guadalupe. In brief, she's an unofficially canonized avatar for the ancient Aztec goddesss Mictecacihuatl, sister of Tonantzin. Tonantzin was the basis for the Virgen de Guadalupe. Until relatively recently the Catholic church refused to recognize the Virgen de Guadalupe as a legitimate aspect of the Virgin Mary, a point of considerable resentment among Mexcian and Latin American Catholics to whom she's very important. Although Rome finally relented on the matter it's extremely unlikely that they'll ever accept La Santa Muerte as a legitimate saint, especially given the narco-association. If you live in California or the USA southwest you can probably find figurines of La Santa Meurte at Latin magic/religious shops. Not to be confused with Posada's "Catrina." That's something else entirely.
So much great stuff! Unfortunately for me, I visited a resort town (Puerto Vallartas) when my father and I visited Mexico many years ago. I'm sure this kind of stuff was hidden around there, but I didn't know where to even begin looking. I want this more than any other toy right now. Amazing.
Dean - you might like this book Sonora: Magic Market Mexico City http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8493612340/ref=ox_ya_oh_product - it's photos of the many "lucky" and spooky items to be found at the Sonora witchcraft market, where, conveniently, you can also buy dishware, pets, party supplies and 36" jumbo luchadores.
Yup, I only went to Mexico City. The bootleg-ish stuff came from the giant La Merced / Sonora market and the designer-y stuff came from some shops in the Colonia Roma neighborhood, which is a sort of artsy posh area, like the East Village. The vintage stuff came from the infamous Tepito market.
i would go fuckin nuts in mexico buying cheap toys. my favorite kind of trash i love this kind of stuff. that gorilla bank is extra tasty looking
El_Notario, thanks a million for the recommendation. I'm going to order the book. I recently read a book about the contemporary practice of Aztec religious magic in Mexico ... pretty amazing and definitely spooky stuff, a far cry from Casteneda's new age misinterpretations. I didn't know about the market in D.F. but visited a curandera in Aguascalientes in the late 90s. She gave me a beautiful silver amulet and said that it would protect me from "the evil eye" but that I must never bring it back to Mexico after leaving, or it would turn against me. Naturally I heeded her advice!
slow day at work, so I'll raise up another long dead thread with some pics I never posted up here... Went to Mexico City for Thanksgiving vacation in 2013 and 2014, and of course both times picked up a bunch of toys. Here are pics of just a few that I've picked up down there. View this post on Instagram spiderman trio View this post on Instagram luchador set with ring
