Grub Sub

The Grossery Gang: Putrid Power fad is in full effect. The figures just came out a month or so ago, and yet they've sold out everywhere. Everywhere. Empty pegs abound. There isn't a Walmart, Target or TRU that has any left, because everybody is into these things. Good thing I got the two I liked right away! Loud, proud and easy to spot in a crowd, Grub Sub thinks he's the life of the party! But when the Putrid Power kicks in he's the force with the sauce! He's a moldy Bread Head who's ready to sandwich anyone who gets in his way. Get ready to fight dirty! As you read that bio, it helps to remember that Moose Toys, the people behind The Grossery Gang, is an Australian company. That's why they think that "force" and "sauce" rhyme. Clearly the two are pronounced entirely differently and thus sound nothing alike to anyone who understands how words work, but say them in your best (ie, worst) "announcer in an Outback Steakhouse commercial" accent, and you'll see that they almost sound vaguely similar. If you watched the Grossery Gang movie, then you know that the "Putrid Power" that evolves the gang from squishy rubber lumps to toyetic action figure form is stagnant garbage-water. Suiting the line's play pattern, the figure includes a pre-power PVC of "Meathead" (as he's normally known). It's a new mold, not shared with the figurine that first appeared in Series 2, looking happier and more aware. It's painted in lighter colors, but you really need to look at the render on the back of the packaging to understand what's supposed to be what. The original Meathead was some kind of generic meat sandwich. A meatwich. The web animation distinctly makes him a meatball sub. We know this, because he poops meatballs when he gets scared. He gets scared a lot. Anyway, action figure Grub Sub seems to be a roast beef sandwich or something similar, because the meat visible in his mouth is brown, thin-sliced, and layered over itself. If you ignore the angry eyes, this is an amazingly intricate sculpt of a sub! Seriously, there were Palisades Muppets food items that had less-involved sculpts than this! He also has tomatoes and slimy-looking lettuce in his mouth, because of course he does, and there are a few patches of mold sprouting on the bread. There's a splat on the back that should probably be painted green, but is left the same orange as the rest of the crust. His body is... hard to define. I guess it's supposed to be an anthropomorphic sandwich, maybe? Most of it is the same color as the bread that forms his skull, and it seems to be growing the same kind of mold. There's a... slash(?) on his chest, and various bits of food poking out of him in several places. One foot is green, and the other brown. He appears to be wearing underwear made of cheese. But really, the sculpt and paint is so generically "pile of food-type items" that this body would work pretty well for any of the Putrid Power figures. I mean, the only other one I have is Pizza Face, and his head looks completely natural popped on this body. What also looks natural popped on this body is the small PVC version of Meathead. The small Grosseries have a hole in the bottom of their mold that's just the right size to fit on the balljoint for the neck. The bread on that one is bit more brown than the orange it's trying to match, but again, the design of the body makes it work for everything. Other than that balljoint, the figure's only joints are swivel/hinges at the elbows and hips, which isn't the greatest complement available, but is still better than the "nothing" the toyline previously had to offer, right? The figure has an accessory, which in his case is a bottle of mustard that he's squeezing so hard ketchup is squirting out. No, that's not a mistake: the bottle is yellow, signifying mustard, while the contents are red. So either that's ketchup, or the bottle was filled with blood. Honestly, since the Grossery Gang's goal is to make everything messy, it could be either, probably. The tip of the ketchup stream is the perfect size to match the hole on the bottom of the squishy rubber Grossery, which seems to be an undocumented feature for this line - the squashed tomato on Pizza Face's spatula served the same purpose. Basically, it means you can have the large head on the body, but still interact with the smaller versions. Maybe Dodgey Donut's Putrid Power ran out, and Pizza Face needs to carry him to safety; maybe Meathead is using hydraulic pressure to launch Gooey Chewie across the room. You get to make up your own reasoning! The back of the Grossey Gang packaging shows nine figures, though only six of them are out so far. Hopefully when the second wave of this series ships it will include a restock of the original characters, because right now it looks like Moose Toys underestimated demand. -- 09/30/17

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