KK Reviews: Stingy Jack by Circus Posterus x Tomenosuke-syoten

Stingy Jack is the first sofubi figure released through a collaboration between Circus Posterus and Tomenosuke-syoten. The making of Stingy Jack, a Brandt Peters character, involved an amazing design --> production development process involving top flight designers and artisans from around the world.

The process involved Brandt's original character design, as well as a 3D rendering by Circus Posterus's Teodoru Badiu, plus a resin prototype, followed by a new sculpt, waxing, test pulling, mask making, and many more steps until the figure reached the final manufacturing stage. For an exhaustive look at all the steps, check out the Tomenosuke blog and the Circus Posterus blog.

I'm thrilled to have the chance to discuss this toy, which blends western and eastern toy design and production techniques. Let's start with the packaging:

The figure is packaged in traditional sofubi style, in a clear plastic bag with a stapled header card.

Beautiful header front featuring an illustration and the figure's name in English + Japanese.

Here's where the packaging makes its mark. This debut version of Stingy Jack - called the Classic Edition (purple) - was a run of 120 pieces. Not only is the exact number of the figure stamped on the card, but each card is signed by Brandt. Really nice personal touch.

I shot the figure at my local park, which we might as well call KK Park since I do most of my outdoor toy shooting there.

More after the jump:

More about Mirock's Dragon Bodhisattva

At the recent Wonder Festival, I had a chance to talk to Mirock about his new sofubi figure: Dragon Bodhisattva. The figure features a Mirock sculpted head and left arm on an adult Real Head body.

One of the things we talked about was sculpting. Mirock's earlier RxH collab sculpts, including his take on Mutant Head, Mutant Evil, etc, had a rather angular look:

Not surprising, I always thought, as he sculpted from a material called "chemical wood." This is a kind of synthetic wood designed for carving and sculpting.

Later Mirock head sculpts had a rounder, smoother look:

Dragon Bodhisattva is also sculpted from chemical wood, yet there's more of a balance between the curved, flat, and angular elements, not to mention a high degree of detail.

The figure's head is a combination of three elements: Mutant Chaos, 菩薩 (Bosatsu: Bodhisattva), and a dragon (the horns). The fusion of the three makes for a striking sculpt.

The left arm is part dragon and part weapon. Looked at from the top down, the dragon sculpt is more apparent:

If past is prologue, I expect we'll see more Mirock releases, including new Dragon Bodhisattvas, at future toy shows. Looking forward to it!

Mirock Toy Dragon Bodhisattva (ドラゴン菩薩)

Mirock Toy first made his mark with Real Head toys with his interpretation of classic figures like Chaos and Evil. Now he turns his prodigious sculpting skills to Real Head adult figures. The first of these is ドラゴン菩薩 (Dragon Bodhisattva), which through name and sculpt combines elements of religious imagery with a fantasy motife, spun together to form a new head and arm for the standard Real Head adult body.

Here are pics of an unpainted pink test shot:

The character's serene face is half covered by a menacing mask, which reminds one of the fierce 面頬 (menpo - faceplate) and 立物 (wakidate - crests) from suits of samurai armor.

Fantastic detail and execution. Again here, the organic and mecha are intertwined.

As far as I know, the figure hasn't debuted for sale yet. Looking forward to its release.