Vinyl

Doktor A’s 8″ Ironclad Decimator Dunny from Kidrobot, 9.6

Professor Teslastein jaggedly cuts, bending back the metal flesh.  Feverishly he works to create new vehicles of destruction for his nefarious exploits. Two models take shape from the scraps: in one he plants a vine to give it strength and in the other he gives a piece of himself. The Frankendunnys come alive. He leaves his laboratory, happy with his success, not noticing a third figure has risen from the decay. Concealed in the shadows, its eyes are glowing, gears are turning, and electric current is pulsing with life.

Doktor A fans, prepare to render your F5 key inoperable on September 6th. Rising from the steel slab of Professor Teslastein’s lab is the Ironclad Decimator Dunny, a riveted Rupture robot hardwired for destruction.

The 8-inch dunny is available in two editions: Regular and Mecha Rupture, as well as a chase that has yet to be revealed. The Regular, fashioned in a metallic silver and gold with a electric blue lightening bolt, will be available exclusively through Kidrobot stores and Kidrobot.com. His counterpart, Mecha Rupture, is a retailer release (store list here). He sports a matte pink with high-gloss black and white palette and black translucent lightening bolt. Both editions are a limited run of 600 pieces and the chase is 200 pieces (1:6 ratio). They retail for $75 per. Buckle up; things are gonna get nutty.

[via the KR blog]

 

Brandt Peters’ Sofubi Stingy Jack Dropping This Weekend!

The wait is finally over! Tomenosuke-syoten and Circus Posterus are excited to announce that production on Brandt Peters’ sofubi Stingy Jack is complete and will be releasing this weekend!

A run of 120 pieces, the edition will be halved between Circus Posterus and Tomenosuke-syoten (so 60 per store). They retail for $95 each (7,600 yen) and stand around 6 inches. Each comes poly-bagged with a header card signed by Mr. Brandt Peters himself.

CP will handle North American collectors only (MUST be shipped to a North American destination). The figures will be available through Stranger Factory on Sunday, Aug. 26th at 1pm PST. The release will be treated just like a gallery request, so email strangerfactorysales@gmail.com at exactly 1pm on Aug. 26th for your chance to purchase.

*** Buyers will be notified and if payment is not received by the cut-off date, the remaining Stingy Jacks will be put up on CP.com ***

Tomenosuke-syoten will handle all other international collectors (North American orders will be denied). The figures will drop at midnight Japan time on Aug. 25th (early Sunday morning) via the Tomenosuke + CP sales page.
The figures are one per household. Both retailers reserve the right to deny requests from known resellers and flippers.

Good luck!

Arts Unknown: Doktor A’s Bella DeLamere Goes Into Production

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At long last, collectors can rejoice as Arts Unknown has just announced that Doktor A’s Bella Delamere has officially gone into production. The figure was met with a rash of mishaps since its announcement back in April 2011, but it’s now full steam ahead for this femme fatale (touch wood).

Above are colour samples of the regular and member’s exclusive editions. The latter, entitled “The Winter Deed”, features matte and glossy white accents. And there’s blood everywhere, so naturally I’m biased.

Expect a release announcement for both editions very soon.

Stingy Jack: An Anatomy, Part 4

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 Previously on Stingy Jack, An Anatomy III: The flashing is cut, the tests are assembled and the Pantones are picked. Now: troubleshooting, colour-castin’ and package graphics!

After the test-pulls were sent to New Mexico and green-lit by Brandt, Stingy Jack took another spin through Obitsu, this time for colour-casting. What you see above is not paint application — but actual coloured vinyl which is then painted. Scroll a bit and you’ll see what I mean:

This is one of the first paint tests. Two paint masks were developed for the eyes and collar, along with applications to Stingy’s hat and hands. After this first pass it was determined that another mask would be added to Stingy’s right hand as the cigar looks like a finger. The pom-poms on his belly would also be painted for added emphasis.

Read More »Stingy Jack: An Anatomy, Part 4

Calliope Jackalope: An Anatomy, Pt. I

In continuing with our CP x Tomenosuke sofubi anatomy series, we now turn our attention to Kathie Olivas’ Calliope Jackalope, who we anticipate to see at Le Carnaval des Spectres this September at Artoyz Paris.

Unlike Brandt’s Stingy 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.

Which means: we’re off to get waxed!

[via the Tomeno blog]

FERG’s Misfortune Cat Blind Box Series Coming Mid-September!

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!


Stingy Jack: An Anatomy, Part III

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 …

Read More »Stingy Jack: An Anatomy, Part III

KO’s Calliope Jackalope Coming ‘Very Soon’

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’s Calliope 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!

Stingy Jack: An Anatomy, Part II

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!)

[via the Tomeno blog]

Stingy Jack: An Anatomy, Part I

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!

Read More »Stingy Jack: An Anatomy, Part I