Hello! I'm David, a long time lurker, finally beginning to post. I'm from the LA area and I was introduced to these fascinating creatures through Designer Con and the Toy Art Gallery. My collection currently consists of Rangeas and a lone Bearosman. I didn't care for Japanese vinyl at first but they certainly have become a new obsession of mine. I think it was the care and quality that go into the pieces that got me sold, that and how freaking awesome they look!
Hello! My name is John Black. I love vintage and new vinyl. My passions are planet if the apes, anything Gerry Anderson and keeping up with new toy designers. Stoked to be here!! Thanks!
Welcome to the forum John! Seems like you have some great tastes. And anybody with a taste for vintage collections will find a bounty of things to see here and are definitely very welcome.
Hi, I'm Nic, an artist/animator from Chicago. I've started to get into designer/vinyl toys and have started a humble collection recently. I also have some of my own custom designs I've been making. Check them out at the links in my signature.
Hey guys, just signed up today! For those of you who might already know me, you'll know I'm a major ron english fan, and currently reside in Australia. I'd say 90% of my collection is english figures. I even managed to convince myself to take a loan out (first loan ever) to buy myself a 4ft Telegrinnie a few months back haha. I'm a full time graphic designer and illustrator, and don't mind a bit of painting here and there. Favourite place on earth is Japan, been there a few times now. Not overly crazy into Kaiju's and Sofubi at this stage as I can't even comprehend how I would be able to afford anything on top of what I already spend trying to keep up with all the English releases haha, but do love the designs! I do have a small handful of bounty hunters, secret base and gargamel toys but thats about the extensive of my Japanese collection. Anyways, looking forward to trading and chatting with everyone...
The online equivalent of a cold call that no one wants! I think you guys joined the wrong forum! Tiredchildren . . . These are fictitious accounts just to fuck with me, right?
Really dude? Anyways, we don't exactly have much of a sofubi scene in Oz, so forgive me if I haven't yet warmed up to it yet, but I'm sure I will. No point being rude to the newbies, you just look like a dick.
This forum WAS (I stress WAS) set up originally as a strictly Japanese toy forum. So some of us old guard tend to remember when posting Kid Robot/Western related stuff was a huge no no and basically got you run out dodge here quite quickly. Putting it mildly try posting the word *unny here..... Anyhow coming to this forum and declaring your love for western toys and saying you're not overly crazy about kaiju and sofubi is kind of a slap in the face to members of this forum. Yes you did say you have a handful of Gargamel/Secret Base. I'd say that and future purchases (if any) should be your focus when visting here. If you're not sure about kaiju/sofubi, browse around, learn about all the different makers etc, otherwise it's a head scratch why you signed up? The online equivalent of a cold call that no one wants! I agree 200% as soon as a n00b signs up here and declares they are some sort of designer, I cringe at the coming posts trying to push/sell their new crap toy. Sorry me and Andy have been proven right about this too many times to count.
Sure man, completely understandable. Honestly, I probably didn't exactly word it out the most perfect way, didn't intend on offending anyone - I actually love a lot of the designs, they're extremely interesting and being an artist myself I 100% appreciate the art form. I'm a big gargamel and mutant vinyl hardcore fan, I just haven't reached the point of collecting much of it yet - that's what I meant by 'overly crazy'. It was meant in a collecting sense. But yea, it's my first day on here, and in a very exited way I just told everybody who I am and what I collect at this point in time. Don't think it's fair to get a punch in the face by someone who seems like a long time forum member. We all have to start somewhere. You can't expect every new member to be a 20 year sofubi collector. Anyways, I'm here to stay, and I'll be heading back over to Japan early next year and I'd be happy to help grab a couple pieces for anyone looking for some assistance...
Don't take it personally. Happens to most new people here. From the FAQS and RULES section of the board up top somewhere. So as you can see not all toys are suited for this particular place. Some kinds of toys are even auto-word filtered so you can't even say them here. Even now this is not a catch-all forum for every kind of toy. Probably never will be. That one explains itself.
A sensitive Aussie . . . go figure! Whilst S7 and SB admin welcome you with open arms to bolster their customer base, your 'In search of' tagline just confirms the fact that you'd be way better suited to the Kidkozik forum!
Haha fair enough dudes. I'm not sensitive haha, just not one to be made look like a tart. I'll take the hint though and I'll keep it strictly sofubi and Kaiju on here then. Pretty keen on a couple recent designs I've seen floating around.. Thanks for the arse kick I guess. On the same page now at least
Hello ! I'm Jo from France, collecting toys since approx 3 years, i love lot of different type of toys (western, eastern and kaijus) i'm generally not stick to a platform and like diversity. Really happy to be here thank's !!
Welcome Jo. There seem to be a few French collectors on here now, though I couldn't say exactly where or how scattered. There isn't much happening in the toy scene in the south, at least that I have managed to find.
Well you couldn't have picked a better place to learn more about it Now that you've been introduced to the Japanese soft vinyl world, it's going to be interesting to see how your tastes may change, or not (we can't help but like what we like). Especially if you find artists who's creations you become more passionate about than Ron English's work. It may even cause you to view English's pieces a bit differently. What I mean is that without being able to see the whole menu, you may not really be ordering your favorite foods. Growing up in South Ga in the 80's meant that the only music we were exposed to was country, rap, r&b, and whatever was on mtv. Very little of what I listen to now (I'll always have love for that era in rap). You gravitate to what's closest to your interests with what you have available, and we know from Glenn (Bad Teeth - Aussie soft vinyl artist) that there's little to no scene there. It's the same down here, as I've gotta be the only collector of such in town, but it's still not an absence from the entire country. Sooooo anyway, I look forward to seeing how your collection may evolve based on all of the new information at your fingertips... I'll tell you 1 thing, you should Definitely schedule for the "Soft Vinyl Mayhem" exhibit in Brisbane next month (http://softvinylmayhem.com). It would be the perfect experience for you to see a good variety of these types of toys up close and perhaps make some new friendlies. Can't wait to have an experience like that for myself one day... Can I live vicariously through you? Will you where my webcam surrogate hat? SPeaking of that Brisbane show coming up - Since it's supposed to be an introduction of soft vinyl toys to Australia, I sure hope that there's a vintage display. Not that they have to be for sale, but since there's such a big difference between most vintage and modern works, it just seems like it should be a requirement for soft vinyl 101. Besides, there are definitely those of us who shrug their shoulders at the new stuff but love the classics.
Cheers man! Yeh I actually know Glenn ha ha, I've bought some stuff off him a couple times. He was the one who actually reccomended I join the forum. Man I'm absolutely kicking myself, I've picked one weekend in 9 months to head to Melbourne for a small holiday and its on the weekend of the show!! Can't frign believe it! I have another friend heading over though so I think we may both need to wire up to his secret hat cam haha. I've booked in some tickets for Japan again in feb (third time now). Can't wait to go vinyl shopping. Wasn't much into collecting anything at all the first time I visited as I wasn't a collector at that time! But earlier this year I made my way over to Nakano and pretty much fell over - couldn't believe the amount of toys I found. Managed to spend about 4 hours in Nakano Broadway and took a stroll through a few cool stores such as Mandarake. Got myself my first gargamel deathra there. I almost grabbed a Mishka bootleg as well but was pretty pricy at the store I was at. Anyways man, appreciate the welcome!
