First, let's talk exclusives at the show. We had a silver Truffle, silver Porcino and the recently-released Cactus Rocker in his event-exclusive blue-haired colorway. Cactus Rocker is a great little piece, feeling right at home with the rest of tokidoki's figure offerings.

And speaking of rock, Simone talked a bit about his newest line, Punkstar (which Natalie wrote about earlier this month). Releasing sometime in July, Simone says the Punkstar line of vinyl and plush pieces get their inspiration from his teenage years and his love of punk rock. The characters themselves are neighborhood kids who are all members of a band (named ... well, Punkstar), using elements incorporated from some of Simone's musical heroes. In all, the line has about 25 to 30 characters that Simone created and he says the fit well with the brand, but they could easily stand alone, too. The upcoming Punkstar Frenzies blind-boxed series will feature 20 pieces, probably covering quite a bit of the Punkstar character family, and they'll be US$5.95 each when they arrive in stores later this year.

The big news, though, was that Simone told us about a future release from tokidoki: a 5-inch-by-5-inch Unicorno DIY blank figure! Each one will come with a special tokidoki x Sharpie marker, with the colors coordinated to match tokidoki characters. For example, green would be paired with a Bastardino design, blue with a Bruttino one, etc.

Simone's got some other projects down the line, too, including a collaboration with artist Mr. Cartoon and a special piece for the Guggenheim Museum in Venice, Italy. There's also a Unicorno coming for Singapore Toy, Game and Comic Convention that will feature the STGCC logo on it. 

As for the Marvel license ... well, tokidoki's contract won't let them do larger vinyl figures of their designs, so don't expect any. Sorry. However, Simone mentioned that they've had talks with Capcom about the Street Fighter license, but there's nothing set in stone on that. Simone also mentioned that he would like to work with other franchises and licenses in the future, but didn't want to take too much on his plate. In particular, when I asked him what his "dream" franchises to work with might be, he mentioned DC and Star Wars, both of which I think would be awesome. 

Thanks again to Simone for talking with us, and stay tuned; it sounds like we'll be hearing a lot more from tokidoki in the future!