We are currently swimming in the deep end of a glorious ’80s toy revival. It seems like any property that those of us who were children of the ’70s/’80s enjoyed might have a good chance at getting an update with modern aesthetics. Even GoBots are getting into the action. Well, Madballs are getting their turn now. What a world!
Madballs, like so many properties in a toy-stuffed decade, came and went quickly when compared to other, more popular properties that were built around soldiers or nearly nude muscle men. But there’s no doubting the fact that they left a lasting impact. Everything has its niche, and Madballs have maintained a cult following over the years. There was even a brief resurgence a few years ago with a little redesigning and the addition of some extra gimmicks, but we’ve reached the pinnacle of nostalgic cocaine with the release of Mondo’s trio of Madballs.
I was floored when prototypes for these were shown off way back at SDCC 2015, and when they finally went up for preorder I hopped on them without delay. So to say it feels like I’ve been waiting for them forever is no joke. A year and a half is forever, right? It definitely feels like it. That’s a long time for things to go wrong, or for projects to just disappear into the cancellationverse, never to be seen again. Or they could just linger in delay hell until such time as they’re a footnote in toy history.
So it was with much relief that I got the email stating they were preparing shipment. Finally, the wait would be over. Would they live up to all the hype though?
Yes.
Yes they would.
Madballs have always been a slightly odd entity in that it was hard to nail down what exactly it was. It was half sporting equipment, half collectible, half display piece, half inaction figure. For those of you who are better at fractions, they’re different things to different people. It wasn’t until they added bodies that they could truly be called “action figures,” so at this point they were … who knows. Novelties. Gimmicks. Round balls of coolness. Three-dimensional trading cards. I don’t know. That’s probably why I like them so much. These little balls of fun refuse to conform to your notion of what they should be. Suck it, conformity!
Someone at Mondo clearly has the same level of passion for the concept of Madballs as I do, because these hover at the pinnacle of quality for a gross round novelty ball. These are vinyl, sturdy and hard, and hollow, so they’re light but strong. There’s no chance of squeezing these in your hand unless you blast them with a hairdryer, so don’t do that.
The initial trio consists of Horn Head, Slobulus, and Skull Face. In this instance, I think “which is which” is pretty self-explanatory. I’m particularly grateful as Slobulus was both my first Madball and also my favorite, and Horn Head is a very close second. Sadly, my original Slobulous Madball was from the run made of a deteriorating foam, and, as such, it has not held up well against the passage of time. For a long time I’ve been wanting to track down a good set off of eBay, but Mondo might have saved me the trouble.
They come in a sturdy box with a window. I keep very few packages, but these are keepers and will be good to store the balls in if I ever need to.
These are all a bit larger than the original balls, coming in at softball size where the originals were baseball-sized.
Without articulation to speak of, the quality boils down to sculpt and paint. The sculpt on each of these is faaantastic. They strike the perfect blend of updated aesthetics and vintage faithfulness. Of the three, Skull Face was given the most stylistic updating, taking the shattered skull motif of the original and ramping it up to 11 while still maintaining all the hallmarks of the vintage ball to make it visually interesting, yet as familiar as ever.
Horn Head and Slobulus skew a bit closer to their originals. Horn Head features the addition of a handful of extra horn-like protuberances down the back of his head, but for the most part he’s faithful to the original. Slobulus features a bit more slime and the addition of a few bugs nestled on his oozing skin to ramp up his groos factor, but otherwise there’s no mistaking him for anybody else. I’m not sure the additional bugs were necessary, but that might be my own purist instincts kicking in.
The detail packed into these little balls is just fun to study, from the stitches and warts to the intricately sculpted cracks, brains, and slime. These are not descriptions I get to use in just any toy review.
This much sculpting detail requires an equally strong paint job to bring out all that grossness, and these don’t disappoint. I have to give Mondo the highest marks possible here, as the paint is immaculate, featuring–from what I can tell–zero slop or mess. I would expect no less from what is supposed to be more “collectible-based” than your average Walmart figure. Sometimes that doesn’t really matter much nowadays, but from the highlights and shadows to the gradients in both Slobulus and Horn Head’s eyes, there’s a ton of paint detail to match the sculpting. The slime is perky, featuring low tones of green and higher tones of a sickly yellow. There’s even a bit of a gloss where appropriate, like on the brains, eyes or gums.
If you can’t tell, these really hit the spot for me, and I’m sincerely hoping Mondo doesn’t stop with just these three. There’s five more of the wave one balls, and an entire second wave. Plus the Super Madballs, and, hey, go for a round of fully articulated Head-Poppin’ ones as well. VeeBee and I will both love you long time if you do so.
You can preorder these from Big Bad Toy Store: Horn Head, Skull face and Slobulus.