With the release of a new batch of glittery CP x Tomenosuke sofubi ready to be released next week, we thought it would be a good time to show off an amazing sofubi (and more) collection. Leecifer, besides being a brilliant artist, also has an amazing collection – from classic vinyl and sofubi, to original art. He also has an unprecedented Stingy Jack collection and is seriously salivating waiting on the new red glitter Jack next week.
We were planning on asking Leecifer some questions about his collection, but he gave us an perfect account already!
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I guess the place to start is that the collection as it is displayed now is a fraction of what it was.
We went from 12 Detolfs, many shelves and the wall space of a 3,000+ sq ft home to a single 10′ x 16′ office. All the large art is in storage and we got rid of as much of the collection as possible. I must confess, it pains me not to have the entirety of the Strangeco collection out in one place. There were cases w/ all Super7, w/ all Circus Posterus and wonderful misc vinyl artists. Also, cases of my own work (show prep, commissions etc) piles of plush, and art for days.
The following varies every time I try to recall it, but this is the gist of the toy/art collection’s origin. With the exception of the multi-armed armed army men I horrified my family with by making as a little kid, some of the first pieces I customized were Bounty Hunter and expensive kaiju stuff gotten off e-bay. After visiting Kozik to drop off my “Panda Meat” submission (and drool at the MASSIVE collection of toys in his apartment), he mentioned this new place opening called Kid Robot (way cheaper fodder). I butchered 4-5 cases of series one Dunnys and we had 30-40 8″ Dunnys plus innumerable other pieces in the collection before I began working w/ the Super7 guys. Enter the Kaiju Detolfs. But to back up a bit – about the same time as we first went to Frank’s, we began scaling back our 2-D art purchases. I still had walls and walls of gig posters (my initial participatory passion) from our first house and we had become largely West Coast-centric in our art buying. We discovered StrangeCo before ever setting foot in KR and they remain today my favorite toy co. The artist roster made up for the crappy production value, (knowing even then, that the gold stuff would slowly melt into toxic shmegma) as it was all the artists we had been buying 2-D work from. The association w/ Super7 turned out to be great fun and I began to curate shows, work odd events/SDCC, paint house product, moderate the custom forum page, and produce vinyl toys (well, multiple color ways of ONE toy lol, the Honoo) and of course collect toys, toys, toys!!!
Although I had heard of Kathie and Brandt, and was familiar w/ their work, it wasn’t until I was in a group show, at Wootini, w/ her that I was able to acquire one of Kathie’s paintings (the little Jackalope Misery Child on the teal background). In fact, the only other two pieces of art we currently have hanging in the house are Kathie’s “Resuscitate” and Brandt’s “Mummy Gator” in the bedroom we currently occupy. But, backing up again, when I finally got a good look at their figurative stuff, it became apparent to me, what Kathie and Brandt were producing was a truly nuanced, highly stylized, hybridization of art and 3-D figure (toy) along w/ their wonderful paintings. Beautiful pieces, strong on personal vision (lovely sense of ephemeral history), impeccable execution and just plain fun. Circus Posterus has their shit together and it’s a true honor and pleasure every time I get to participate in one of their projects or shows!
Oh, and I’ve been saying this for years (despite the fact that I failed w/ several toy co’s to produce one) that pumpkin heads would one day be the new black! Eventually I’ll get off my ass and produce one of my own.
You can see more of my collection and my own stuff via
Instagram/Twitter: leecifer1
![MW[1]](http://www.circusposterus.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/MW1.jpg)
