Tuesday, July 31, 2012

2012 Summer Wonder Festival - More about Yutari and Zone Fighter

At WF the other day, Yutari had some of the most interesting, well made, and intriguing one-day license figures. I recently learned more about them from a knowledgeable and friendly Japanese collector and followed up on that lead with a (much longer than planned) info trawl through the webosphere.

Instead of burying what I learned in my mega post from the other day, I wanted to separately write about the figures and their background. So here we go.

Here's the Yutari booth again:
The figures are from an old Japanese TV show from 1973 called 流星人間ゾーン, which is known in English as "Zone Fighter." (The literal translation from the Japanese is "Metor Man Zone.")
Here is the main hero, Zone Fighter. Apparently ZF and his family were alien refugees (their home planet having been destroyed by the Garoga army) living incognito among the earthlings. Whenever Earth was threatened by not-so-friendly alien monsters sent by the Garoga army, Zone Fighter and his family transformed into giant silver kick-assists!
Click here for an extensive Wikipedia page about the show, which was a Toho production that ran for 26 episodes in 1973.

More about the WF releases:
This is ジキロ: Jikiro. The character appeared in the first episode of Zone Fighter. He's a Terro Beast. They're villains in the story, sent to Earth by the Garoga army to wreak mayhem. Fortunately Zone Fighter and his family and friends were there to thwart the attacks!

This is ガロボーグ: Garoborg, another Terro Beast who appeared in the 13th episode.
Unpainted Garoborg
As I mentioned in my previous post, Godzilla (another member of the Toho family) made an appearance in the show to help Zone Fighter (shown here in the bottom right) defeat some villains. So there was lots of crossover action in that heyday of live action shows!

Who says radioactive creatures and alien heroes can't be gentlemen!
These Yutari releases are excellent examples of the one-day license releases that help make Wonder Festival such a compelling event. They're also tributes to the passion and talent of indie toy makers who spend countless hours crafting figures, getting molds made, and then assembling (and often painting) and bagging figures for ultra-limited release. 

The quality level is so high as to rival many of the figures put out by large companies for widespread release. Pretty awesome aspect of the indie toy world, if you ask me.

2012 Summer Wonder Festival - Medicom

Once again, Medicom had a nice booth at Wonder Festival, including a display of its recent and upcoming sofubi releases:
 

 More after the jump:

Sunday, July 29, 2012

2012 Summer Wonder Festival - Indie Toys

Today's Wonder Festival was amazing in so many ways - from the number of indy sofubi makers attending to the fantastic new versions of existing figures to the debuts and previews of a huge number of new toys.

I'll start in this post with an indy toy maker roundup, from A to Z:

Akaikutsu Club




Amapro

 250+ pics after the jump:

Friday, July 27, 2012

New from Star Case (recent release and uncut sheets)

New images of the Star Case display case:
Recent Dester Commando. This is the third production release of this figure. Like the third Garumaya (the unpainted yellow version), the Commando was sold via pre-order and will be  made to order.

As with the "build it yourself" Garumaya, this figure comes disassembled.

But fear not! There are instructions in the box.

 More after the jump:

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Matt Doughty (Onell Design) original art: 2007-2011

Here's the final batch of pics of Matt Doughty (Onell Design) original art pics. Once again, a big thanks to Matt for filling me in with the excellent descriptions of each piece.

This set covers 2007 (part 2) - 2011.

2007 (part 2)
Original Crayboth box illustration layout

Original Space Traveler Pheyden box illustration layout

Original Sir Bean concept design

Original Duck Runner illustration
 More after the jump:

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Matt Doughty (Onell Design) original art: 2005-2007

Now that the dust from SDCC has (mostly) settled, I can get back to posting images I shot of original art by Matt Doughty. (Click here for my earlier post on Matt's art from 2004.)

This time, we have art from 2005-2007 (part 1):

2005
Original Cirie, Exellis, Lochren, Nan, and Rafe artwork
2006
Cover of Rechlen and Aves 2006 Edition


Original Beantown Product concepts

Attic Wall Beantown artwork with Marc Beaudette

Unproduced Beantown Wedgie concept art with Marc Beaudette
More after the jump:

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

New from US Toys - Upcoming Wonder Festival releases

New US Toys releases, slotted for release this Sunday at Wonder Festival, at booth 6-04-07.
Agira (Orange) Size - 85 mm. Price - 2100 yen

Starbem Gyeron (Midnight color)  Size - 90 mm. Price - 2100 yen

Kemura (Midnight color) Size - 110 mm. Price - 2100 yen

King Joe (Blue GID)  Size - 85 mm. Price - 2100 yen

Monday, July 23, 2012

Scott Wilkowski "Of All Ages" show at SDCC 2012

One of the most prominent displays at SDCC was a showcase at the DKE booth featuring resins by Scott Wilkowski. The Wisconsin-based sculptor has made a name for himself with his extremely intricate skeletons, which he houses within clear resin figures based on popular designer toys.

It's a pretty cool concept, but beyond that, it's extremely fine original work on the skeletons.

The releases at the show, entitled "Of All Ages," included Scott's take on David Horvath's Flatwoods Monster, Brandt Peters' Skelve, and so on. The figures were sold at various times during the con, though one of the releases was rescheduled for sale at a future date.

Here's a closer look at the display:


One of the cool things about the display was the inclusion of the skeletons on their own. This is where Scott's imaginative sculpting skills really shine.

Also on hand were a number of pieces which were sort of imagined fossils of dinosaurs and other creatures.
 More after the jump:

Friday, July 20, 2012

Nederland MonsterJam opens today!

As we reported a few weeks back, a fantastic kaiju show for the Netherlands has long been in the works. The show. Nederland MonsterJam. opens today at the Concrete Image Store in Amsterdam and runs through July 30. (Click here for the store's exact location.)

This international kaijucopia contains 40 pieces from 15 artists, including:

BLObPUS
Mark Nagata
Paul Kaiju
YAMOMARK
Plaseebo
MVH LASH
GUUMON
Shing Yin Khor
Todd Robertson
Masayoshi Hanawa
Will Long
OsiRisORion
Hardart Kustoms
Mark Bently
D-LUX

Gummon Vinyl Labs sent over pupil popping pics of some the figures in the show:
BLObPUS one-off custom Dokugon
 More after the jump:

L'Amour Supreme's Baby Huey test shot

At SDCC 2012 L'Amour Supreme brought along a test shot of his new sofubi figure - Baby Huey, which was sculpted by Itokin Park. Here are detailed looks at a baby blue test pull:

 More after the jump:

KK finalist in Designer Toy Award voting

The DTA folks sent over an image (over on top left) and an announcement that KK is a finalist in the best blog category. Clicking on the image takes you to the page to vote for KK for best blog. I think you can vote once a day. Thanks for your support. :)

Thursday, July 19, 2012

New BLObPUS Enma Ollie pre-order (international orders OK!)

BLObPUS is selling a new Enma Ollie via pre-order. The figure is base green with some really wild gold, purple, blue, and black spray.

According to the details on his blog, Kaji-san is making these made to order. The price is 13,800 yen per figure + shipping. Payment can be made via Paypal.

The pre-order window closes on July 22, and payment is due July 27. The figures are scheduled to ship on September 7. Click here to get all the other ordering details on the BLObPUS blog.

Kaiju Korner Review: Todd Robertson's Ammonaito

Todd Robertson is well-known for his amazing toy customs, especially his signature mecha virus treatments of figures, which range from the tiny to the gigantic. His work has been shown at events and in galleries from Boston to Tokyo and many places in between.

Todd's place in the indie toy world solidly established, he now brings us an original resin figure: Ammonaito. This one-piece toy has a lot going for it, and I'm thrilled to have not one, but two Ammonaitos to show you.

This time, I did the shoot indoors. Let's start by looking at each figure, and then we'll look at some side by side shots:
Ammonaito strikes me as a kind of a sci fi crustacean, just as home at the bottom of the ocean depths as he is on a deep space freighter.


You can see the complexity of the sculpt here. Though it lays flat, its angles, curves, and recesses make it burst out from whatever surface it's on.
Another side look
More after the jump:

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

More indy toys from SDCC 2012

Lots more pics from the event:
TTF exclusive Diggler

display only


 More after the jump:
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