So as I said last mail day, I’ve been on a major Pushead kick lately. The Skullwing is an early Secret Base fight figure and their first collaboration piece with Pushead. The figure was made based of the logo Pushead made for the Astro Zombies store in Japan. The figure has had many variations and still manages to stay relevant in today’s fight figure market.
This particular Skullwing comes to us from Japan’s Super Festival 60 and was made to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Astro Zombies. The brown tones are mixed with GID marbling and a splash of gold glitter. The colors work great together, creating an almost bone-like look to the wing. The Pus is strong with this one!
Unlike Brandt’sStingy Jack, there was no pre-existing master sculpt for the Calliope Jackalope, which meant she had to be made from the ground-up. With Teodoru Badiu again at the helm of 3D rendering, he created the digital turns of the figure. Stingy Jack sculptor Yohei Kaneko of Mirock Toy would return as sculptor for this project.
One of the really interesting features of the CP sofubi project is the goal to have interchangeable heads between all of the figures. That also presents many obstacles, however, as was discovered while sculpting Calliope: in order to support Jack’s head and have it look natural, Calliope’s backline and shoulder width had to be adjusted. This element of interchangeability will have to be taken into account with each subsequent release and, while a challenge, may very well yield both impressive and playful results.
And here she is, in all her glory: after repeated modifications and adjustments to the figure to accommodate Brandt’s Stingy Jack and preserve Kathie’s signature style, the prototype was approved the evening of the Monsters & Misfits II opening in Takayama, Japan, last April.
Previously on Stingy Jack, An Anatomy II: Stingy Jack sees double after he’s made into a wax model! Five metal molds are created and the folks at Obitsu start casting Stingy’s individual parts. Now: we return to the factory and watch as Stingy’s clone army comes to life one by one.
After all of Stingy’s parts have been poured, spun and popped, the sculptors at Obitsu are left with dozens of lone limbs that need to be reassembled. But before doing that, the flashing needs to be cut off — these are the cone-like scraps you see on the left side of the picture below. The flashing makes it easier to extract the vinyl from the mold, so it can be discarded after the figure is pulled. That’s when the fun of reanimation begins …
Woo, all this sofubi talk is getting me antsy for some vinyl goodness and what happens to pop up on the @circusposterus Instagram just recently but a GORGEOUS shot of Kathie’sCalliope Jackalope — a few, in fact — in a beautiful spectrum of colours. The cutline beneath the photo reads a short and sweet “very soon!!”
Leading the trio is the sofubi paint master for the factory, with two resin handpaints in behind. Exactly when these beauties will be dropping is anyone’s guess. Paris, perhaps? AFA? Oh the anticipation — don’t wander too far!
Previously on Stingy Jack, An Anatomy:Brandt Peters and Tomenosuke-syoten’s Shinji Nakako join forces and found an ambitious new designer toy project: Circus Posterus x Tomenosuke sofubi. This particular blog series follows the production of Brandt’s Stingy Jack, the first of an entire line of sofubi figures from different Circus artists. Part I saw Stingy go from resin prototype to mods to re-sculpting for sofubi format. Now: we head to Obitsu, a long-established Japanese plastics manufacturer, where Stingy prepares to be cloned. ***
Following Stingy’s sofubi facelift, the master sculpt is taken to Obitsu to determine how many molds it will require. With all of his accessories and details, Stingy is considered a fairly complex sculpt by sofubi standards, with seven separate parts (hat, head, torso, two hands, two feet). It’s determined that he’ll require a total of five molds, as illustrated by the colour-coding in the image above.
For molding purposes, the master sculpt is re-cast in wax, which is then used to create the metal molds.
And heeeeeeeere’s Stingy! I mean, can you get more metal?! With these molds, Obitsu casts the first test-pulls. As you can see, the body parts are made slightly longer than necessary to account for the flashing (i.e. cone-like ‘leftovers’ which make it easier to pull the pieces out of the mold).
Now, let us all hold hands and watch Stingy be birthed. It’s actually quite an interesting process:
1) The vinyl is poured into the mold.
2) The mold is then put into a large drum where it’s spun (the number of times a figure is spun is in direct correlation with the thickness of the vinyl).
3) The mold is then briefly dropped into a chemical bath, drained and cooled.
4) The sculpt is then plucked from the mold and set aside.
5) This is repeated with every part of the figure.
Up next: we cut some flash, assemble some Stingies and start planning the figure’s first colorway! (My kind of party!)
Shortly after production began on Brandt Peters’Stingy Jack sofubi, Shinji Nakako of Tomenosuke-syoten has been diligently chronicling the figure’s production process from start to finish. The idea of CP sofubi was first sparked last year and since then, we’ve all eagerly watched this jester-like Jack-o’-lantern come to life, one sketch, WIP shot and prototype at a time.
But now, for the first time, experience the process from a completely behind-the-scenes perspective; the digital models, the revisions, the wax models and pantones … a glimpse at just how much goes into creating the toys we covet.
This is the first instalment of Shinji’s ‘Making of Sofubi Stingy’ series, with many more to come. Enjoy!
Speaking of projects that I’m genuinely excited about: Kathie shared some snaps of the first vinyl test pull of her Calliope Jackalope via Instagram yesterday. This thing is looking seriously beautiful, especially given the complexity of the sculpt by sofubi standards. The figure is comprised of 8 interlocking pieces, some of which can be switched out … like this!:
Errrrmahgerd, mash up madness! Just wait till there’s a whole series of CP sofubi figures with body parts you can switch out … it’s a toytastic acid trip just begging to be happen. Seriously, could you imagine the trading parties?! What if there were unique chase pieces/custom pieces or booster packs you could buy? Would y’all be down?! There are so many exciting possibilities with this project … can’t wait to see where it goes!
More info on Calliope as soon as she’s through test painting — as for Brandt’sStingy Jack, I actually have an interesting piece of (semi-related) news on him, so stick around!
It’s official: the boys have touched down in Japan and Shinji at Tomenosuke has announced that Trouble Boy No.7 [Drifter] is releasing at MIDNIGHT Japan Time on June 16th for $150 USD. Given that this is a retailer release, shipping is likely extra. The edition is limited to 150 so prepare yourself for an Olympian-level race, folks!
Also: be sure to check a time zone calculator to determine the release time for your region. I’ve linked one here.
The second flyer for Brandt Peters x FERG’s next Trouble Boy has been revealed which can only mean one thing: a release date! Tomenosuke’s toy wrangler, Shinji Nakako, has just announced that production on No. 7 [DRIFTER] is wrapping up around May 25th and will be shipping to Japan immediately after. So we’re looking at a mid-June exit.
… Be still, my trigger finger.
More details to come closer to the release date. In the meantime, enjoy the BP sketch that started it all, and a lovely snap of the sweet, cold hardware that No. 7 will be packing (the suppressor is removable!). Pew pew, mthrfckr!!!
It’s time to bust out your cereal box 3D glasses, kids, as this next video is in 3D! Shot by BP Utfil (remember him from last year?), this clip takes us through the Kusakabe Folk Museum and Monsters & Misfits exhibition in an impressive 3D format. It’s about as close as we’re going to get to attending this juggernaut … and it’s freaking awesome!
Monsters & Misfits II is on display until April 26th in lovely Takayama, Japan.
