The kitties are coming! The kitties are coming! FERG just recently posted this gorgeous snap of his upcoming Misfortune Cat blind box series on his Instagram (@fergbag), which are due out for release mid-September. Measuring in at 2.5 inches, there are 16 designs in total. Ten are revealed between these two photos, leaving a half dozen to our imaginations for now.
This will be an incredible companion series to FERG’s Young Gohst subscription series, which is due to start bombing mailboxes any time now. More info soon — stay tuned!
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 …
For a carnival of spectres it’s only befitting for our ghostly buddy, Boo, to make an appearance and dayyyum, is he looking fine! Brand new from the CP stable is Silver Boo, who, just as the name implies, is enrobed in a shimmering silver cloak, charcoal grey mask and — get this — GID EYES. (!!!)
An edition of 66, Silver Boo will debut as part of Le Carnaval des Spectres next month in Paris, with an online release likely sometime thereafter. There is also the possibility of a CP Sponsor Pack as a fundraiser for the trip, so boardies, keep your eyes peeled on the forums for an announcement from KO within the next week or so.
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!
Chris Ryniak has been plugging away in the Monster Dungeon crafting some incredible pieces for Le Carnaval des Spectres next month and these two are just too much. Dubbed ‘Spectres’ (official Bumblefubblerpufflelumpkin name to come), these figures are sculpted entirely from the ground-up, as we saw with the impressive foil armature from last month.
While the photo of the first Spectre suggests he’s escaping his skeletal confines, this little heartbreaker seems to be missing his dentures. D’aww. (And we thought we didn’t have to worry about such things on the other side.)
Oooooh, things just got a little chilly up in he-yuh!!
The next iteration of FERG’sFr0g species is s003 [Frozn Whole] with K11 companion. I seriously cannot get enough of this series, s001 & 002 blew me out of the water (literally) and to see Fr0g all pimped out Frozn Whole style has my head swimming in my own drool.
As always, these beasts come equipped to the teets; Fr0g packing a wetsuit with threedot camo pattern, air tanks, removable rubber flippers, spear gun, sMP5, tanto knife, 2.0 articulated and OG arms and removable helmet. K11 Spot includes a wetsuit with pouches, rubber flippers and a removable helmet.
The release is set to blow at 12 noon central time THIS MONDAY, Aug. 13 via the Squadt Store. This is an edition of 200 — yes, another small run — and retail for $115 a set.
If this is anything like the Frog s001 release, we’re looking at a sellout-in-120-seconds scenario, troops. Stay frosty!
Travis Louie’s utterly awesome Spirits exhibition opened this past weekend at Stranger Factory and hidden among the paintings and drawings was his Ecto Stan bust, a surprise, 20-piece edition from Travis and Circus Posterus. Standing 7 inches tall and retailing for $250 per, the hand painted resin busts are a brand new platform from CP and it’ll be really exciting to see what they have planned for these, given this strong debut. We’ve had a taster of what can be done with giant Elizabeth and Skelve busts, so there’s no doubt that these smaller platforms should yield all kinds of toytastic magic — editioned and custom pieces alike!
Spirits is on display until Sept. 3 at the Factory and the exhibition is also live right here. For those hankering for more 3D goodness, be sure to check out Travis’ exclusive Uncle Six Eyes, and his Ghostly Stan Skelve, as well!
Ladies and gents, there’s a new cat in town! Since our first teaser of this frisky feline last month, Brandt’s infamous Black Cat has since earned his orange jumper and is ready to paint Paris red! Given that this is the first we’ve seen of the sculpt, it’s hard to say whether the colourway we’re looking at is a one-off or of an edition, but as always, time will tell.
Loving the vibe of this little devil — his cheshire grin and slight cock of his head makes him look like he’s about to hop on stage with a cane and do a little number for us. I mean, he has a read-made audience with those Phantom Zombambies, so why not?
