Grody Shogun's Ojisan - Early development shot

First up, congratulations to Luke (of Lulubell Toys) for starting up Grody Shogun and making his own vinyl toys. After years in the sofubi trenches, what a way to go over the top and charge forward!

Seeing pics of the first painted versions of Grody's Ojisan reminded me of a cold winter's day some 6 months ago, when Luke and I were standing in front of Shinto Gangu. He showed me an early stage sculpt of a figure he was working on. I snapped a shot, but at that time, there was no Grody, the figure had no name (that I recall), and so the pic has stayed in its digital dormitory for some months.

Now that Ojisan is live in all his sofubi splendor, here's that pic I shot from the figure's early evolution:

Clearly the character's central features and dimensions are there, but, as with any project, it underwent changes during the development process. Here's a look at a painted version of the sofubi production figure:

Pretty cool to see them side by side and note the subtle changes here and there.

Not sure about other people, but I love learning about the stages involved in a toy's development, from sculpting to molding, pulling and painting. Some makers, like Max Toy and RESTORE, have done a great job giving us pics (and sometimes videos!) of the process. Recently I posted some of the first shots of the final head sculpt of the MVH x Blobpus Enma head for Ollie. (Click here for that.)

I'd love to devote more posts to this side of the hobby and will do so when I can!