Sunday, October 08, 2006

Homespun Voodoo

The incredibly rare Voodoo Vince doll. These have sold for millions of dollars on eBay.

The most common question I get via the Beep Industries website (next to "Are you guys dead?") is from people who want to know how they can buy, beg, borrow or steal a bona fide Voodoo Vince doll. We would have dearly loved to see vast heaps of shoddy Vince merchandise, dolls included, but that was not to be.

A Vince doll was made (above), but it was mostly sent to members of the gaming press. The crew at Beep and some of the Microsoft people snapped up the rest. It couldn't have been more than 100 or so dolls, total. I managed to get three. One is on the shelf in my office. Another is being kept in its wrapper for my kid when he's old enough to really enjoy long, pointy pins.

Speaking of which, one sad aspect of the promotional dolls is that they didn't include Vince's pins due to the usual hand-wringing and liability concerns. Vince without his pins is, well, just a doll. The pins you see on my doll were made by my good friend Patrick Hoynes. He melted authentic Mardi Gras beads onto antique hat pins, creating pins as lovely as they are dangerous. That earned Pat the third doll from my small supply.

It's sad. Given the lukewarm reception Vince had in some quarters, those dolls would have been better off in the hands of eager Vince fans. Maxim magazine mailed theirs as a gimmick to a random recipient. I stongly encourage indifferent members of the gaming press to put theirs up for sale on eBay. Contrary to my caption above, you will only make a few bucks but it would help to right a great wrong and restore balance to the gaming nerd cosmos.

This lack of dolls hasn't dampened the spirits of determined Voodoo Vince fans. Since no Vince merchandise exists, they've made their own. Over the last few years I have received some great pictures (and one actual doll) from fans who have made t-shirts, artwork and quite a few home-made Vince dolls. No mass produced chotchkey will ever match these for personality, warmth and all-around coolness.


























One lucky Vince fan received this statue for her birthday from her very talented son:


I have to smile every time I look at these. When I think about the hours these must have taken to create, I'm simply amazed. This proves that an idea can live on in the hearts of gamers long after the machines that play them have been converted to goldfish bowl case mods - with or without the help of marketing.

This final image by a grade schooler is better than any sign-off I can think of.


CK

12 comments:

John Perry said...

Hey Clayton, this is John Perry, son of Victor Perry. I just want to say I've been reading the blog and I really enjoy it!

Those poor dolls, handed out to those who didn't really wanted them. They're not half-bad, really.

I really enjoyed your earlier post talking about the level where Vince glides over the flood of toxic waste in New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina I considered asking you what you thought, since you went to New Orleans and all...

But as always, I was too lazy to write an e-mail.

Great blog, I shall continue to keep reading!


On a completely unrelated note, what do you think of the Lego Star Wars games?

Clayton Kauzlaric said...

Hi Mr. Perry. Thanks for dropping by. Glad you like the blog. Give my best to your pop.

I have no opinion on the Lego Star Wars games as yet, though they look like a hoot.

wii-games-daily said...

Hiya,

I've been reading your blog for the past week or so. Since I started to play Voodoo Vince (which I love btw).

I write game reviews as a past time and I'll be writing one for Voodoo Vince.

Here's my first impressions of Vince http://www.opensenses.com/discussion/voodoo-vince.

I was wondering do you do interviews? As I'd love to conduct one with you regarding Voodoo Vince and how it plays.

Sorry if this is not the correct place to ask, but I couldn't find an email or any other form of contact details (via gamepress).

You can write to me at james@opensenses.com or even better contact me via the sites forum. Where I bum about for quite a bit :p

Cheers in advance!

P.S Please someone put one of the Vince plushes on ebay so I can buy one :p

Clayton Kauzlaric said...

No problem. I'll be in touch. A Vince review 3 years after the game released? Better late than never, I say.

btw - Anyone who wants to contact me outside these fine comment sections can use the info@beepindustries.com address. I try to sift through those messages and extract the 2 or 3 actual messages from the boodle of spam at least once a week.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Kauzlaric,
You know, I should stop opening my comments like this, because I'm not writing you E-Mails anymore. Anyways, all I can say upon seeing these Vince dolls is... wow. I'd thought about making one once, but I don't think I ever would have gotten this far. The most I ever did was a pic of Vince's chainsaw power(Well, that and constantly drawing him in all of my notebooks at school).

Keep up the good work on the blog, and don't stop trying to get back into the console circuit. I'll be waiting for when Vince finally dethrones the Master Chief as Microsoft's mascot. XD

Unknown said...

Hi Clay, I am 36yr old mom of 2, my son (8yrs old) is the excuse I get to play Voodoo Vince he has taught me a couple tricks and I have taught him some as well. I thoroughly enjoy Voodoo Vince and enjoy the snide remarks especially the gas station (we have never been able to pass) "Hey burlap boy I think I hear ya momma callin" Is a classic and I tease my son with this constantly. We have since lost are xbox in moving some how and upgraded to Xbox 360, but not Voodoo Vince. I thank you for creating this game and I hope you are delighted to know you have given us endless hours of bonding time in the process.

Clayton Kauzlaric said...

That is so great to hear. I can't believe somebody bothered to listen to Reggie and Primo's (the two gas pumps) trash talk!

Anonymous said...

I have had a search on for one of these for over 2 years now. One finally appeared on eBay within my price range!

Anonymous said...

Hey Clayton,

it's Linda from Germany. You most likely won't remember me, but I'm the biggest Voodoo Vince fan on the planet, I'm sure of it! I don't even own a XBox and therefore haven't been able to play the game for years now - but I'm still keeping it, if only for sentimental reasons. Thanks for letting me know about the soundtrack CD back in the days, I still play it a lot.

I came here for two reasons:
1) I wanted to brag, because I'm one of the chosen few that got her hands on one of the official Vince dolls years ago! Even though I'm still sad that there won't be a "Voodoo Vince 2" and I can't play the first one anymore, looking at my Vince doll always makes me smile :-).
2) I want to have a special Vince t-shirt made by a nepalese embroiderer (yes, honestly!). He's a true artist, his shirts look absolutely stunning. But I can't find a picture big enough to serve as a reference. The picture on the beep industries site is a little too small. Can you help?

Best regards
Linda

Clayton Kauzlaric said...

Hi Linda,

I'd be happy to provide a reference image. Just contact me using the contact info from the Beep site. If there is a specific pose you'd like to use, I can see if it exists somewhere in the Vince archives.

CK

Anonymous said...

Really? Awww, thank you sooo much.
You just made my day.

Anonymous said...

I have been searching for a bonafide voodoo vince doll on and off. I'm not a good seamstress, I suffer depression and would like a voodoo vince doll to cuddle. My favourite cat ran away 4 months ago, and I know he's still alive because I see him all the time in the next street, but he runs away. Voodoo Vince would cheer me up...