Luke Rook (Grody Shogun) at Giant Robot booth at SDCC 2012

Luke Rook hung out for an hour at the Giant Robot booth at SDCC. He brought along a bunch of really cool motorized figures, as well as a couple of figures from the new Grody Girls line. Here's a video I shot followed by some still shots:

 More after the jump:

Ricky Wilson talks toys + Paul Kaiju's newest sofubi figure: Pollen Kaiser

Yesterday during my visit to the Fort I had a chance to catch up with Ricky Wilson (aka Velocitron) while he was working on the wax proto for Paul Kaiju's upcoming sofubi toy: Pollen Kaiser.

In the video, Ricky talks about Pollen Kaiser, upcoming Velocitron toys, the next batch of figures for the TAG Karoshi show, and a lot more.

I brought a tripod this time, so I think the video quality is a tad higher than for previous videos. Luke makes a cameo at the end and proves the ancient adage: left to right tripod swivel good. Limited up down tripod swivel makes photographer look Hobbit sized.



Here are a couple of stills of Ricky working on Pollen Kaiser:

New from Grody Shogun 3.5.2012

Today I had a chance to hang out for a while with the gang at the Fort. Here are images of Grody Shogun works at various stages of development:

New figures Luke is working on:

 Here's an upcoming Grody Shogun x Uamou collab:

 Finally, here are a bunch of En-man heads from a recent release:

As always, these are snapshots from Luke's studio, not official preview shots. Official release info, pricing, etc will go out through the Lulubell newsletter, homepage, Facebook page, Twitter, carrier pigeon, etc.

Grody Shogun x Velocitron mashup

The final leg of our Leap Year Day quadraped is a photo shoot of a 1/1 Grody Shogun x Velocitron mashup released at the recent Wonder Festival. The mashup works on so many levels I wanted to give it its propers with a multi-sided, multi-angle shoot:

First a look from all sides:

From the front, the figure looks like its doing a promo shoot for a 1930s boxing match. It's either that or a middle-aged lady holding a handbag...

From the side, the figure reminds me of Mimic, a cool film in which subterranean creatures survive by contorting into a shape resembling an overcoat-wearing human.

This look has a crustacean feeling, which is strengthened by the paint scheme. This side also looks like he's praying, or maybe reciting the pledge of allegiance?

More after the jump:

Medicom sofubi bonanza!

Medicom has released pics, prices, and ordering info for a grip of new sofubi exclusives. The good news for fans around the world is international shipping is available for all of them!

First there's Josh Herbolsheimer's Earth Wolf:

Sold as a pre-order for 9450 yen, with the ordering window open until March 31. Click here for ordering info

Next up we have the debut painted releases of MVH's Death Sludge Demon:

These are 9000 yen each and will likely be sold lottery style since orders are sure to far outweigh supply. The ordering window is open through March 10. Click here for ordering info.

More after the jump:

New Grody Shogun figures

Grody Shogun takes us deeper into the very deep waters of Japanese culture with a new series of round figures. Just as Oji-san and Karakuri were inspired by elements of Japanese history and folklore, so are these new, as yet unnamed creations.

First, here are a look at some of the sculpts:

One of the sources of inspiration was the kokeshi (小芥子), a traditional Japanese doll made of wood, with a round head and no arms or legs. Here are some examples:

Another point of departure was the Jizo (地蔵) or Jizō Bosatsu (Jizo Bodhisattva), a very popular Japanese deity often represented as a stone idol. The statues are found everywhere in Japan, often draped in red clothing and hats. Here are some:

Luke created his figures starting with a long indented slab of Fondo (a sculpting material):

The resulting elements are stackable like so:

No word yet on when we'll see the first of these in sofubi. Hopefully soon. I think these would be very cool surrounding a clan of Ojis and En-men.

Custom Grody Shogun Monster - Frankenruge tribute

The other day at the Shikaruna studio, I spotted a custom Grody Shogun monster in one of the cabinets. The custom was done by a friend of the studio. Really nice work:

Clutter Issue 16 + The Fort

Clutter Issue 16, which is now out, contains my 6 page article/photo essay on The Fort, where Grody Shogun + Velocitron ply their trade and produce some of the world's best known sofubi. I also go into the sofubi making process, and there are a couple of dozen nice hi res photos which I shot at the Fort. So, lots of good stuff in there.

The mag (which can be ordered from the Clutter site here) is a beautiful glossy publication and only costs something like 10 bucks (full disclosure - I don't see any of the moolah).

Here are thumbnails of my piece:

Karoshi - featuring Velocitron + Grody Shogun - show at TAG gallery

Karoshi, a two man show featuring the work of Velocitron (Ricky Wilson) and Grody Shogun (Luke Rook) opens at the TAG Gallery in Hollywood on February 3. The show kicks off with an opening reception at 7 PM.

New images from the Fort

Some stills I snapped on Friday the 13th. You can see some of the figures in the video I put up on YouTube here. As before, I need to note that these are shots of Luke's studio, and they aren't necessarily preview shots of what's to come from Grody Shogun.

Luke Rook (Grody Shogun) talks toys (video)

Last night I visited the Fort, and as we munched on cookies, we talked toys, Japanese culture, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash (and Young). In this video, Luke talks about his use of new paint techniques and gets into some of the nitty gritty of applying different paint applications.

Note: The toys you see in this video (and my images from the Fort in general) may or may not be made into production figures. So please don't treat everything you see as "previews" for upcoming Grody figures. A lot of figures in Luke's studio are just concepts he's testing out. So please wait for "official" announcements, images, etc from Lulubell (on Facebook, Twitter, etc.) before contacting them about figures. What I'm doing here is providing a behind the scenes look at Luke's work and the toy making process. OK, end note. :)

More from the Fort (Grody Shogun, Paul Kaiju)

Some more images I shot yesterday:

This was the MMMM proto. In the final release version, the body parts were the same, but some joint positioning and other adjustments were made.

Paul Kaiju Seagool (released yesterday on lulubelltoys.com

More after the jump:

New Grody Shogun En Man mashup - more angles

Here are more angles of the new Grody Shogun En Man mashup. It's also a different example of the figure shown in the previous post.

New from Grody Shogun 12.22.2011

New Grody Shogun figures:

Karakuri GID base vinyl

Oji-san counterpart. Also GID

Not sure if this is GID. Maybe.

Another GIDer. Insane new figure, combining parts from En Man, Karakuri, and Monster.

In development