Toy OTD: Nigo's Bape (Bathing Ape) Milo Vinyl Figure

This figure was created by fashion designer Nigo, a huge Planet of the Apes fan (he purportedly has one of the biggest Apes memorabilia collections in the world). He started his Bape ("BAPE-ee") clothing label in 1993, and later moved into toys. This figure is called Milo, named (I think) after a character in the Apes cycle. Wasn't Milo the talking baby chimp in one of the later films? Help me out here!

There were several colorways of this design, both with and without helmets. Most of the variations echoed other Apes characters, and were bagged similarly to the old Dakin vinyls of the seventies. The design, sculpt, and paint work are all terrific - the only minus being that the plastic soldier helmets are very fragile (you can see a small break in the helmet above). A softer vinyl would have been really helpful.

The original versions will probably be pretty hard to get these days. There's some camouflaged versions for sale on eBay right now, but they're so cheap ($15 each?), I have a feeling that they're bootlegs. There's some more camouflage variants for $60 + shipping each at eCrater, so maybe there are legit versions of this colorway. There's also a trio of figures co-designed with toy czar KAWS on eBay for $550 + shipping, to give you an idea of what you might be in for. A eBay favorite Search might help you to comparison shop a little. Good luck!

PS - Here's an article about how the Apes films have rippled though our culture - Bape gets mentioned briefly.

Here's a Bape fan site with more information about the label, its products, and designer.