Super Sentai Series Christmas Tree スーパー戦隊シリーズクリスマスツリー

  

Here's another Christmas tree set up in Akihabara. This one celebrates the 35th anniversary of Super Sentai, the live action TV show. Like the Akiba Kamen Rider Christmas tree, at the base of each side of this one are backlit images of the show's characters. On top are a couple of toys.

 More after the jump:

Mai Nagamoto art 長本 真衣 のアートワーク

The other day, I covered the Uamou x Mai Nagamoto (長本 真衣) exhibition at Studio Uamou. We got to see Mai's paintings, customs, and dioramas, as they intersected with Uamou's toys and characters. A few images from that show:

 

 

We often look at toys and toy imagery here, but, when possible, I think it's nice to sidestep and look at an artist's other work, to get a more well-rounded picture of their work, inspirations, color palette, and design sense.

So I was happy Mai when sent me more images of her artwork and gave the OK to post them here:

 

You can check out more of Mai's work on her site.

New from Grody Shogun: Meet the flash monster

One of the most fun and interesting things about Grody Shogun is the way Luke pushes boundaries and challenges collectors to stretch their perceptions of toys and collecting. A while ago, he told me about an idea he had to convert plastic toy waste into a figure. Yesterday, as Irene and I visited his studio, he put the concept to the test and created a new toy before our eyes. There's no name for the figure yet, so for this article, I'll just call it the flash monster.

When a vinyl part is pulled at the factory, there's excess plastic jutting out. That's cut off one piece at a time with an exacto knife.

What you're left with is a cylindrical piece of waste plastic, called flash. Every toy maker has mountains of flash, which is typically thrown away, since what else can you do with it? What indeed. Luke hit on the idea of stacking pieces of flash to use as a body for a toy.

 More after the jump:

RESTORE x Medicom double release!

In Japan, not only is December cold, but it's also a month when life tends to slow down. Companies ease off the gas pedal and projects are put to the side as the country gears up for the New Year celebrations and long holiday.

This year, somebody forgot to tell the sofubi world to downshift for the month! In addition to 2 big events: Pachisummit + the Bearbrick World Tour (KK will cover both, in addition to the Yokohama Hot Rod show), there is a growing list of fantastic sofubi releases. Three of them are from RESTORE. The other day, I posted about the spectacular RESTORE x Popsoda 9th anniversary Debris Japan COSMO release, slotted to go on sale Dec 1.

Also, on December 10, Medicom's Project 1/6 store will release two glorious versions of Debris Japan. Project 1/6 releases are typically available at the shop + online (usually for domestic orders only).

Both figures are GID, and they come with demon papers, waist cloth, resin knife + wrist rings. The price will be 8400 yen each.

Splurrt pre-orders

The pre-order train keeps a rollin'...all night long. Next stop, Splurrt (Joe) has some cool new releases up for pre-order this Friday.

The sale features a really nice "Abominable" colorway of his new sofubi toy: Diggler. Those are limited to 1 per person. Joe is also releasing green/black marbled versions of both Diggler and Cadaver Kid. Those are limited to 2 of each per person. Here's the promo image with all the glorious photos and details:

The sale on the Splurrt Bigcartel page starts at noon (EST) on Friday and carries on till Sunday.

Kikkake x Rampage Toys collab

This Friday, Rampage Toys (Jon) will be selling some custom versions of the Kikkake (Kotaki-san) mini elephant. The mold for the elephant was made from an old ceramic figure found by Kotaki-san. He then made the figure, which articulates at the neck, into sofubi.

Pic of the blank figures, which were sold at Design Festa 34:

Pics of Jon's custom run:

The figures will go up for sale on the Rampage Toys Big Cartel Friday around 10:00 AM EST.

Bandai Tamashii Nations Exhibit (Nov. 2011)

In a passageway next to Akihabara station, Bandai maintains an exhibit space where they show off some of their anime, robot, SD, kaiju, and other lines. It's a nice way to see a lot of new toys out of the boxes, and often on rotating dais, so you can see the figures + accessories from all sides.

Click here for a look at a previous exhibit, from July.

Here are pics of the latest line up:

 More after the jump:

RESTORE x Pop Soda exclusive Debris Japan release!

In celebration of Pop Soda's 9th anniversary (HUGE congratulations to Hossy-san!!!), RESTORE has created a stunning new version of their seminal Debris Japan figure. This version is called COSMO.

I've got to say, I've always had a sofubi spot for space themes. The figure is black base vinyl with spiraling purple and white spray and hand painted GID dots, creating a spectacular galactic design both in normal and GID mode.

Here are both the English and Japanese press releases:

Like previous versions of Debris Japan, the figure will have demon papers covering the face. Plus it will have a red waist cloth.

This version will sell for 8,400 yen and will be released by Pop Soda via its online shop on December 1 at 8 PM.

Congratulations again to Hossy-san for 9 great years, and to Abe-san for another amazing release!

Kamen Rider Christmas Tree

On the lighter side of toy culture, here's a Kamen Rider themed Christmas tree in Akihabara.As part of the series' 40th anniversary, we're seeing lots of commemorations, promotions, and installations like this.

 The base is surrounded by back lit images of KR characters.

 More after the jump:

More about Fuei Shokai (and ordering info)

After Superfestival 57, I reported on a newcomer on the sofubi scene: Fuei Shokai. They had a single figure for sale at their booth. Remember this?

If not, you'll probably remember this: the SF version had a rattle inside that turned out to be a tooth!

Fuei Shokai wrote in to tell us more about the company:

"FUEI SHOKAI Soft Vinyl Doll Making is a brand based on an urban legend in the world. Have a strange character, and give everyone a sense of distrust and fear of the world by specializing in monster."

And some words from Fuei Shokai about the above figure, Slender Man:

"The first doll is called the SLENDER MAN. A description of the SLENDER MAN: SLENDER MAN is American urban legends, legends of the current form is a little different, and rather deep roots of the legend of precedent. In the former West SLENDER MAN is Germany's 18th century seems Erlkönig. Erlkönig and the words are from a mistranslation of the Danish Elverkonge. Elverkonge "the king of the fairies" and that means, Erlkönig the "king of black alder" is. Erlkönig carry away was a traveler wandering in the woods to die. SLENDER MAN is targeted to children present. The urban legend and SLENDER MAN dark woods at night, country road, the road appears in the foggy city. SLENDER MAN invisible to adults, only children can see the SLENDER MAN. Are also said to appear in a child's dream. Ignore it and judge for creativity and runaway children are reported. Children who are targeted by The SLENDER MAN missing from the world. Whereabouts is unknown of course."

Lulubell is working with Fuei Shokai to make the figure available to collectors worldwide. Lulubell's image:

The 6.5" figure is available on Lulubell's site for $50, which is a great price for a sofubi figure of this size.

I've also learned that the figures shipping from Lulubell also come with a tooth inside, so there's a bit of macabre bundled together with the sofubi!

Monster Kara update #1: Factory Parts

It's been a month since the Grody Shogun x Kaiju Korner Monster Kara pre-order went up, so I thought everyone might like an update on where we are.

The parts have been delivered from the factory. Here are some pics:

Next comes the assembling, painting, and packaging. We're right on track to ship the figures on schedule, within the 6-8 week time frame posted on the pre-order page.

The Karas are preparing for their onward voyage. Commencing countdown, engines on!

Ugly Unicorn clear with guts

Rampage Toys has plans to give Ugly Unicorn the endoskeleton treatment. When I met up with Jon at Design Festa 34 the other day, he had clear parts on hand, as well as a prototype skeleton to test the concept.

First off, here's a snap I took a couple weeks back of a bag of clear Ugly Unicorn top and bottom halves.

One of the figures assembled.

Skeleton sheet that Jon made.

And the figure with the internal parts.

I think it's cool the way Jon is experimenting with so many techniques. Looking forward to seeing how this version turns out.

PS: Jon wrote in to add he made 5 proto skeleton versions, and they've all been sold and shipped to the U.U. faithful. The next batch of endo-uglies is slotted to be sold at the next Superfestival.

New Kaiju Korner link image

Just put up an image for linking to Kaiju Korner:

 Feel free to grab and repost on your site. :)

Uamou x Mai Nagamoto exhibition

Ongoing now at Studio Uamou through November 22 is a collab show featuring Mai Nagamoto's take on Uamou characters. There are a lot of really creative customs, including gorgeous dioramas and mixed media pieces. Well worth checking out.

Pics from the show:

More after the jump:

New from Grody Shogun 11.18.2011

Some images from the Fort:

The plan is to release these painted. The clear vinyl is really nice.

Ditto on the clear En Mans. The glittery tinsel is in there because Luke was given a batch of the stuff by Amy from Lulubell. Luke and I had a spirited discussion about the merits of holo shredded tinsel vs cut sheets (which, incidentally, were used for the secret version of the Ilanena x Kaiju Korner release. ;-) The riveting conlusion: They are both shiny and of the goodness.

A word on the pink Oji-san's from Design Festa. These will also be sold painted. No plan to sell them unpainted.

Bonus image from my last Fort visit.