Mutant Vinyl Hardcore x SpasmOne clear Ollie made to order release

I love me a good pre-order. Even better are made to order releases, a trend which is rapidly catching on. We've seen MTO releases from numerous sofubi makers, including Blobpus, Elegab, and a certain Grody Shogun x KK release. ;-)

Now Mutant Vinyl Hardcore is getting in on the act, with a MTO Ollie collaboration between MVH and SpasmOne. The release features a clear Ollie with guts printed on clear acetate. The result is simply stunning.

The price is $150, and the pre-order will begin on MVH's Big Cartel site on Friday 11/18/2011 at 5:00 PM (presumably EST) and end on Sunday 11/20/2011 at 11:59 PM. (Seiko precision!)

As Rich writes, there will also be a chase version. In his words, "The chase will have different color guts and will come with a half painted fade in MVH color scheme of purple, green black and red !!!

These guys will not be blind bagged, but inserted at random. So there is no guarantee what you will get, but you will get utter gut madness !"

Gut madness never sounded so good.

More pics:

 More after the jump:

Dream Rockets custom show (video)

Pay no attention to the man in the mirror. ;-)

Here's a HD video I shot of the Dream Rockets show. You should be able to pause it on most figures to get a look at them (but I probably could have paused a bit longer on each one to improve the frame rate). 

Dream Rockets solo show at One up Akiba

Hot on the heels of the Rumble Monsters show, today One up Akiba launched its next indy sofubi solo show, featuring the customs of Dream Rockets. For the show, Dream Rockets customized figures by Kaijin, Yamomark, as well as several Dream Rockets characters.

Figures went on sale tonight at 7:00 PM. Until next Monday, sales will be at One up Akiba only. After that, sales will open up online. I asked Ken-san to send me a photo of what's left next Monday, If that comes in, I'll post it, as well as Ken's e-mail, so you can place an order.

On to exhibit pics:

Kaijin Figures

 More after the jump:

New from US Toys / Nagoya Ultra Q Returns Exhibit

Yesterday, a new exhibit called Ultra Q Returns opened in Nagoya. The event, which is being held at the Parco department store, runs through November 27. It features Ultra Q inspired artwork. Plus, there are T-shirts, DVDs, and some extremely limited toys for sale. Click here for the event's website.

Event details:

Location: Nagoya Parco 名古屋パルコ西館7F連絡通路 特設会場
Admission: Free
Address:　〒460-0008　愛知県名古屋市中区栄3-29-1
TEL: 052-264-8111

 Here are the US Toys figures available at the event:

Silver Garamon. Height: 80mm. Price: 2,500 yen. Limited to 20 pieces.

Painted Goro. Height: 85 mm. Price: 2,100 yen. Limited to 10 pieces.

Bronze Goro. Height 85 mm. Price: 2,100 yen. Limited to 20 pieces.

Silver shampoo bottle type Kanegon. Height: 150 mm. Price: 3980 yen. Limited to 20 pieces.

Rumble Monsters exhibition @ One up Akiba

One up Akiba's first indy maker solo show was by Rumble Monsters. The event, which ended yesterday, featured a fantastic 2004-2011 retrospective of RM figures, most of which were for sale. It was kind of nostalgic looking at the Damnedrons, Pharoans, and other figures from one the pioneers of the modern indy sofubi wave.

The top row of figures, which included some nice Pushead HPs, were display only:

Vader and Stormies!

Pushead HP. You can also see the back reflection of the Pushead Hot Fudge Damnedron (one of my all time favorite sofubi toys).

 More after the jump:

Max Toy x Kaiju Korner figure + print set on sale now!

Welcome to the release of the first Max Toy x Kaiju Korner collaboration! Irene and I are thrilled to have worked with Mark Nagata of Max Toy on this set. So let me start by thanking Mark for being a great guy and all around kaiju master!

The kabuki-themed set contains two Max Toy mini figures: Dragigus + TriPus. They are all painted by Mark, with line art by Irene. As the figures are hand painted, there will be slight variations from figure to figure.

Here are indoor and outdoor pics:

Each set also comes with a signed and numbered postcard-sized giclee print based on a painting by Irene:

This Kaiju Korner exclusive release is limited to 15 sets.

The sets are first come, first served. One set per person. Ordering is easy. First, the basics:

Price
Each set (2 figures + 1 print) is $75

Shipping Options
Japan
Signed delivery: $10

China
EMS: $15

Taiwan (Happy 100th Birthday!), Singapore, and other Asian countries
Standard airmail: $10
EMS: $15

North America, Australia, UK
Standard airmail: $10
EMS: $20

Europe + Central America
EMS: $23

South America + Africa
EMS: $26

How to order:

To order, please send an e-mail to: kaijukornerandy@gmail.com

In the subject line, write: Max Toy x Kaiju Korner set. In the body, include the following details:

Name:

E-mail:

Address:

Country:

Phone number:

Shipping method:

After I receive your order, I'll generate a Paypal invoice. After the invoices go out, you'll have 48 hours to make payment. I'll ship within 3 business days of receiving payment. And that's all there is to it. :O)

Thanks!

KK Andy + Irene

New Grody Shogun pics

Pics I shot the other day at the Fort:

Base vinyl for "squeaky wheel" release

I called this mashup "Pieta."

Luke is nuts about this figure, which is made by a Japanese company. The character is very old and based on a long forgotten property. To get the Monster heads to fit, he had to use a sculpting tool like a shoehorn.

Clear Ugly Unicorns. (Later, I'll have a separate post about Jon's plan for these figures.)

 And a bit of Cherry Vinyl:

More pics:

Seagool head

I shot this pic after Design Festa, as I sat at a restaurant sorting DF pics.

Max Toy x Kaiju Korner preview pics

Here are a few more pics of the Max Toy x Kaiju Korner exclusive figures. I took a set outside to shoot to give a better sense of how they look in natural light.

Remember the figure + print sets go up for sale right here tomorrow November 15 at 11:00 PM (Tokyo time).

To read more about Mark's painting process for the figures, click here for his excellent blog post. 

There are just 15 sets, and they're $75 each plus shipping. The sets will be first come, first served, and payment will be via Paypal.

See you tomorrow!

Design Festa 34 - Part 3: Videos

Here are a couple of videos I shot at DF 34.

The first is a vendor who played his accordion while people browsed. The guy was so mellow and just seemed happy to be there!



The next video is the Shinkairyuh booth. They exhibited their fantastic mechanical creations at DF 33 as well.



Click here for Part 1 of my DF 34 report: Indy toys.
Click here for Part 2: Everything else.

Design Festa 34 - Part 2: everything else

Some of the many other sights from DF 34. After my reports for past DFs, I've gotten lots of questions about how to get in touch with exhibitors. So, where possible, I've added the booth's name and contact info.

 More after the jump:

Design Festa 34 - Part 1: Indy Toys

Design Festa 34 opened today at Tokyo's Big site. As always, the show was packed with hundreds of creative types selling their wares, painting, or just occupying booths and hallways in an eye catching way. Many toy makers set up booths as well. Though there weren't quite as many new toys or variants of existing figures as in past shows, there was still quite a lot to see, as well as several new players on the circuit,

Here's my pictorial of the indy makers who exhibited today. Some, including RESTORE and Galaxy People, will be at the event tomorrow.

Setting up

Max Toy

 170 pics after the jump:

Final update to Design Festa 34 indy toy preview

We're up to 20+ participating indy toy makers. The show opens in about 15 hours.

Click here for the final preview run down.

Rumble Monsters exhibition at One up Akiba

One up @ Akiba Zone isn't wasting any time putting its new exhibit space to use! When I was there shortly after the grand opening, Ken (the owner) told me a certain section of the store would see revolving exhibits from indy sofubi makers. Looks like the first of these features Rumble Monsters. From the promo poster, it could be a retrospective of the maker's work over the last 7 years, which sounds awesome.

The show runs through next Tuesday. Not sure if I'll have a chance to check it out, but if I do, I'll make sure to put up a full report.

Click here to read my store visit report, which includes all the details about the store, its location, pics, etc.

Meet the Monsters

One of the funnest things about Grody Shogun's Monster line is the multiple body parts. That includes 4 bodies, 6 arms (3 left + 3 right) + 6 heads. As I've reported before, the figures are all based on two monsters: vampires and Frankenstein. In fact, all six heads were made from just two sculpts. Luke made several wax protos of each head, and from those, he sculpted the variants. So in addition to smooth heads, you've got others that are angular, coarse, etc.

Luke keeps the sculpts around in case he wants to create more mayhem down the line. The above pic shows the two original Monster head sculpts. Bit of Grody Shogun lore.

Irene Fu x Uamou customs

Here's Irene's newest custom set: line art using Sign Painters' 1 shot pinstriping paint on blank Uamou figures. During my last visit to Taiwan, I picked up some super fine brushes from Germany, which allow for amazing precision at the micro level.

The smooth contours of Uamou's figures make them easy to work on. Also, the paint really pops on the bright white figures. It's early days, but a future collab may be in the works!