G3 Clash Crew, Clash Cubes, and 2-Packs (2006)

Clash Cubes were released in late 2005 in single-packs and 2-packs in stores, that could be bought out of a box like most trading card series. 

Or in 2-packs... 

 

 

 

Packs come with a manual/checklist for the game and 6 pieces (2 per strip). As you can see above, you pop them out of the strip and then click them together to form the clash cube. 

Clash Cubes Replaced Trading Cards in single packs:
In 2006, X-Concepts LLC replaced the "Evolution Crew" single packs (2003-2005) with a new series called "Clash Crew". Now, each pack came with a pack of 6 pieces to form a "clash cube".

Crews 1 and 2 followed a clear pattern: 6 new molds/dudes and 6 dudes that were just new color variants of previously established molds.

Clash Cubes Toy Show Sample: 

Peep this sample from some toy shows in early 2006. 

- Henry, in his Evolution and the 3-Pack variant, was put in this package as a placeholder

- The name says Sven (the surfer dude)

- The Clash Crew with C1 branding that the actual figures had at retail was simply called "Clash Cubes" with a CC1. 

They also removed "Bendy Arms!" (a rollover from Evolution crews) in the final product and opted for "New Game!" to promote the new piece/cube rolling game

In the final released packaging, the blue background's pattern and hue were slightly changed.

Clash Crew 1 (2006): 

New Dudes: Shadow, Theodore, Evan, Sturgeon, and Cheeze.
Larry got a new mold for the first time since G1 in 2002. 

Clash Crew 2 (2006): 

New Dudes: Neal, Lump, Baumer, Uzi, and Grillz
Mort got his first new mold since G1 in 2002.

All of the Dudes in Crew 2 were re-released in Zoods Crews in 2007. 

Clash Crew 2 was used for Zoods Crew 6 &7, except for Mort the Megatron parody. Mort was reused in Zoods Crew 4. In his place, Bull's Aztec playset mold was re-issued in Zoods Crew 6.

Clash Crew 3 (2006): 

Crew 3 was released near the end of 2006 and the inception of the Spin Master era (after they acquired X-Concepts LLC and Tech Deck).
It included just 10 new color variants of established molds.
In the case of Bull & Cluckers, this is just their playset figures re-packaged exactly. 

Source: Atamaii (2006). 

The third and final crew included no new dudes and no new molds! 

Just before Spin Master bought out X-Concepts LLC and the Tech Deck properties, X-Concepts released some packs with Clash Cubes and trading cards.

Evolution 2-Packs

The 2-Packs below included 4 Clash Cubes and 2 Packs of Trading Cards.

4-5 of these dudes were re-released in 6-packs in 2007 by Spin Master.

However, most of these variants are SUPER rare. 

Best of luck hunting down Simon, Petey, Rozz, Shik, Superfinger, and Mikey! 

ZOODS 2-Packs (2006-still X-Concepts):

Four Clash Cubes were also included in 2006 Zoods 2-Packs (2 loose, 2 in packs). There were 3 variants of each pack of two dudes. 

These Dudes were new variants of Zoods Crew 1 Dudes and their Zoods. This is the only time the Zoods line had more than one variant.
Added these 3 packs and the 2 single-pack variants, Zoods Crew 1 had 5 variants per Zood/Dude. Thankfully, Zoods Series 2-7 only had one variant or just re-used a variant from other lines. 

EDIT: Actually, if you look closely, some dude packs came with 2 cubes and 2 packs of trading cards, whereas others came with 2 built cubes and 2 packs of clash cubes. 

These came with 2 loose cubes and 2 packs of clash cubes.

These came with 2 loose cubes and 2 packs of cards.

These came with 2 loose cubes and 2 packs of cards.

2008: Spin Master Gives the dudes their only fast food promo

In 2006 Spin Master bought the rights to all Tech Deck properties from X-Concepts.

In 2008, Spin Master gave the dudes a Taco Bell tie-in since they were a larger company with more clout and leverage than X-Concepts LLC. 

Unlike the Clash Cubes sold in stores in 2006, these Taco Bell cubes had the colors of the brand. Pink and purple replaced red and blue, and the original green and yellow were made a more lemon/lime shade. 

They came in four packets that included cutouts of some dudes (Whiplash, Crash, Gorgo, and I am unsure of the fourth dude). 

Unlike the original retail blind packs, these packets were larger and had 6 dudes for each color.

Taco Bell is the ONLY fast-food chain to do a collaboration with Tech Deck or Tech Deck Dudes. 

All the other fast food fingerboards or extreme toys were done with copycat brands or to promote games for pro skaters like Tony Hawk. 

Since finger boarding and extreme sports craze have died in the toy market, I think Taco Bell will always be the only company to do so.

Many of the dude's outfits and hair colors changed to their 6-pack or Zoods variants after the initial clash cubes were released.

EX: E.N. Stein with red and a black lab coat, Splinter in a yellow beanie/black tracksuit, Timbo in orange instead of yellow tracksuit, Green Gorgo, Blue mohawk Lenny, Green Frank, Fuse having a blue sweatshirt, Green Fred, etc. are 2006 variants different from their original 2004-2005 X-Concepts clash cube outfits.

Maybe Spin Master did not have the photo assets of the original color variants of these dudes? The other dudes maintained their original variant, so that's my only plausible theory.