Nothing will say Happy Father’s Day like these new Throbbleheads from Aggronautix. At 7″ tall and limited to 2,000 for GG and 1,000 for the Meatman, it’s a steal at $14.95. Make ‘em fight your Wilco dolls.

Hold off on buying that Bon Jovi doll! This will be a better fit to keep your Beach Toy company. Turns out Jeff Tweedy’s a big UNKL toy collector, and when the urban vinyl toy company found out they contacted Jeff about creating a limited run of 2″ UNKLs in Wilco’s likeness. The band acquiesced, and behold.

Cute! We like the one with the funny head. The mini-Wilcos will be sold in a set of six, released at San Diego Comic-Con. Anyway, Sky Blue Sky is such a grower; sure it’s no Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, but O’Rourke’s not working with them anymore, they’re older, Tweedy’s not addicted to hillbilly heroin, they have dolls out in their likeness. Of course they’re gonna sound different! But it works. We were gonna back that up with some great live vid of the band doing “Hate It Here,” which you may have seen earlier today on Pitchfork. But now it’s gone! Probably a Warner thing (you know how they like their intellectual property).

Now your Fall Out toys will have someone to get frisky with! All that’s missing is that “Wanted Dead Or Alive” cowboy hat.

Spawn.com also is putting out a Richie Sambora doll. We’d show ya, but it doesn’t involve a powder-blue muscle shirt.

Pretty soon you’ll be able to represent the entire, tragic arc of popular music in action figure form! To represent the now, you have the Fall Out Toys, but this holiday season you can make a gift of the glorious roots of modern pop music with a Brian Wilson doll! Designed by Mark London, the figures depict the look and dress of the beloved songsmith circa ’66. You can get ‘em signed by Brian (in a limited run of 300) for $150, or sans signature for $75. Purchasing info here.

Worth a buy just to have it kick the Pete Wentz toy’s ass for permanently degrading “Boy” band monikers. But what rocker toy do you want for your stocking? We’re thinking Appetite-era Axl is a can’t miss. Or Grizzly Adams.

Mini-sandbox sold separately.

Coming to Target stores this fall: Gwen Stefani the doll. Gwen’s dubbed the line — wait for it — “Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Fashion Dolls.”

Via AP: “Each 10-inch doll looks like the platinum-blond rocker or one of her Harajuku Girl dancers and comes with Stefani-inspired collectibles such as posters, pocket mirrors or trading cards.”

From left to right, here are Tick-Tock Gwen, Bananas Gwen, and Cool Gwen.

Gavin doll sold separately never, so you can totally make Bananas Gwen give your plastic Gerard Way a handjob.

Finally, a Stereogum-relevant revelation from the weekend’s Comic-Con. MTVNews reports that toymaker SOTA unveiled a line of vinyl Fall Out Boy figurines! This puts the band among a motley crew of music action figures: KISS, The Beatles, Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Biggie Smalls, Johnny Cash, Jerry Garcia, Jim Morrison, Led Zeppelin, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, Insane Clown Posse, Kurt Cobain, and My Chemical Romance (tiny eyeliner sold separately).

$12 each at Hot Topic this fall.

Please someone make a Brandon Flowers be@rbrick! Then we can act out the most awesome emo/pop doll deathmatch and put it on YouTube.

If you stopped paying attention to Gomez after they won the Mercury Music Prize, you’re missing out. Fortunately, now’s a good time to jump back onboard. How We Operate, out tomorrow, is a perfectly crafted synthesis of the band’s influences: Britfolk balladry, harp-heavy blues, and lilting alt-country. We were hooked from opening “Notice,” which rides a sweet acoustic riff and swiftly switches gears from lush to cold with “Creep”y mechanical stops in the verses. “Chasing Ghosts With Alcohol” is half harrowing confessional, half raging rocker. “Charley Patton Songs” is a slow-burning singalong that recoils with a tense syncopated break after each chorus. And funky “Hamoa Beach” may just be our favorite track. On the whole, Operate is quieter, dreamier Gomez than we expected. But vocalist Tom Gray can pull off a weepy ballad as deftly as bandmate Ben maneuvers his patented growl. We can’t wait to see this stuff live.

AND not only do we love Gomez, we love limited edition Be@rbricks ’cause they’re like Beanie Babies for twenty and thirty-something eBayers with too much money…

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When Stereogum got our Buddha Machine a few months ago, we didn’t quite know what to make of it. The iPod-looking device, brainchild of electronica artists FM3, has got a volume control, headphone jack, and a switch that allows you to choose between nine ambient loops (available as MP3s on FM3′s site). The packaging, and even the batteries, are in Chinese, so we were compelled to just turn it on and play with it. Which is the point. Is it art? A toy? A bizarre novelty for sure. But we never predicted how this drone box would take off.

Pitchfork was so enamored it rated Buddha Machine an 8.2! And now comes word that Amoeba is consistently selling out of the curiosity, along with rumors that Urban Outfitters has their eyes on distributing it. Brian Eno bought eight. There are even official t-shirts.

Stereogum’s teamed up with the exclusive Buddha Machine retailer Forced Exposure to give away five of these babies. They come in multiple colors, so we can’t tell you which you’ll get if you win, but if this zen gizmo does what it’s supposed to after you turn it on, your eyes will be closed anyway.

Enter here. Contest is over.

Jonathan Schmitt put together this fine mix of holiday tunes…

Angels We Have Heard On High – Sufjan Stevens
Winter Wonderland – Phantom Planet
Yule Shoot Your Eye Out – Fall Out Boy
Jingle Bells – Barenaked Ladies
Last Christmas – Jimmy Eat World
All I Want For Christmas Is You – My Chemical Romance
Christmas (Baby. Please Come Home) – Death Cab for Cutie
Come On! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance! – Sufjan Stevens
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Jack Johnson
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Coldplay
The Christmas Song – the Raveonettes
Christmastime – Smashing Pumpkins
When I Get Home For Christmas – Snow Patrol
Christmas Party – the Walkmen
Jinglebell Rock – the Arcade Fire
That Was the Worst Christmas Ever! – Sufjan Stevens
Happy Christmas (War Is Over) – John Ondrasik
The New Year – Death Cab for Cutie

Download the MP3s at his site The Test Pilot.

Ironic that MCR cover “All I Want For Christmas Is You” ’cause all I don’t want for XMas are their new action figures.

Don’t be fooled by imitations. This official mask is fabricated directly from Marilyn Manson’s actual face casting!

Only $24.95 at monstermakers.com.

Just like that Self song! Self – “KiDdies” (via Selfies).

Here’s 8th grader Brian Hugh Warner at Heritage Christian School in 1983.

I don’t know why I ended up writing about Marilyn Manson today. I intended to review last night’s Tilly & The Wall/Now It’s Overhead/Rilo Kiley show (photos). The kid puking against the wall during “Portions For Foxes” distracted me from staring at Jenny Lewis; otherwise, the show was lots of fun. Sorry Laura for making you miss Tilly‘s set. We’ll get you to some other tapdance show real soon!

UPDATE: A few cool Self covers…
Self – “ABC” (Jackson Five)
Self – “Fat Man And Dancing Girl” (Suzanne Vega)
Self – “Stratford On Guy” (Liz Phair)
Self – “Sour Times” (Portishead)

Of course the greatest Self cover and possibly my favorite cover ever is the band’s version of “What A Fool Believes” performed exclusively on toy instruments. I don’t have it to share at the moment. Check out the album Gismodgery.

Wow … this post was all over the place. Sorry, it’s Friday.