Re: Whatever happened to chronic I'd love to see him mysteriously reappear with a new figure. But some people just move on.
Re: Whatever happened to chronic I heard he ended up doing high end one offs rather than production releases, but not sure if that's just rumors. Cronic was, i feel, another line that got deemed "not cool" by the powers that be. For a while it was flying high, and then people got rid. Not everything was great, but some of the figures were nice. It also suffered from some early and likely well meaning hype. The end result just couldn't live up to the hype. I got a few old figs out for my recent sale and noticed how nice some of the paint jobs were, but ultimately, they don't fall in a must have category for me. ... But they are IMO superior to some current lines that are popular. Maybe worth re- evaluating in the cold light of non-hype?
Re: Whatever happened to chronic I still think Cronic's toys have some of the most innovative original designs from the JP vinyl world. His toys did not have the most marketable look, but they were very polished and thoughtful. Not to mention his top-notch painting ability. I heard that he transitioned to exclusively selling one-offs through direct mail sales before disappearing entirely. In any event, the look of the bandages, blood and toy weapons on the direct mail one-offs never really grabbed me to the extent that his earlier releases and customs did. Continuing my hunt for the Maverasus!
Re: Whatever happened to chronic I heard he was going to concentrate more on doing art than toys. I was never a big fan but I'm happy with the Cronic toys that I have, and he did do some pretty cool art to go with some of his toys.
Re: Whatever happened to chronic I like the smaller Cronic figures. Nougaki and Ankron are two of my favorites. I always thought his strategic placement of jewels was pretty cool also.
Re: Whatever happened to chronic i tried chronic out, but it never grabbed me--but i do think that his colorways and applications were some of the coolest i've seen. i was always hoping for an old-school real head and chronic collab. rxh toys with chronic paint apps. oh wells.
his one offs were pretty crazy at times with the accessories and bandages.. if he could pop back now he could make a killing on mixed part unpainted pieces this is the last info I have seen of cronic.. maybe a lil more in the future http://kaijukorner.blogspot.com/2012/04 ... e-set.html
Cronic is one of the best artists to ever paint an indie toy. It isn't always easy to photograph his work, as the color transitions and blends are often very subtle. But in hand, quite a number of figures are simply stunning. As one of the only people to buy his work in the early years (around 2006-2007), I can say there was never any hype for his toys - probably the opposite even. For a while his stuff got really hot (especially around 200, but as some folks have mentioned, that died down after he switched to doing customs only. I liked some of them - especially when he got into mixed painting styles and super creative weaponry - but couldn't get into the gory figures. Cronic might also be the best pinstriper to ever work on an indie toy. Some of his pinstriped figures, including the clear blue Deathra, remain classics. (I have one, but the above shot is not my pic.) Other painted figures are phenomenal. One of my all-time favs: I haven't been in touch with him for a few years so am not sure what he's up to these days. BTW, at one point I was putting together visual checklists of his figures. I got pretty far with Maverasu and Nougaki. Those are up on KK (links are on the right-hand bar). Ribbon controller - the Cronic Pinstripe set I wrote about was released in 2007. I lucked on one by chance several years later.
"disappear" is the best word to describe it for me. It's tough to contact with him anymore and so we can't know what's happened to cronic. I remember he said he will stop producing Maverasu at the place of WF in 2009. His last work is clockwork toy for One up. anniversary (we saw its announcement in toy magazine)but it's never happened/released officially. Now I tend to loose the passion to collect vinyl toys but I still collecting and looking for cronic toy. Core-fan seems not to try to sell his/her cronic collections easily (that's bad!) and I think this prove Cronic toy fascinate his fan deeper even today. I also believe Naoki-san is the best pinstriper. Now I want to upload the awesome Mav from his secret release; I couldn't place my offer in time at that time, who bought and got this Mav ? Anyways, I still wish for cronic's returning.
I still see his stuff for sale in mainstream store's "kaiju" sections so it's not like his stuffs no longer around anymore at all. I've seen people discuss it recently on "other" forums. That tank he did is pretty good and some of the clear dyed stuff he did was well executed but ultimately not my scene.
How many indie makers have come and gone with no one seaming to notice or care? I have heard the question of what happened to Cronic come up several times recently on and off the board. I think that is testament to the toys Cronic produced. I'm not a big fan of the Mav, but have a half dozen of other figures, and would like to add more it's just not a priority. I think some kind of database of past and present makers and links to websites of those who currently have one would be a cool feature to have on the board. I know there have been good resources in the past, Kaiju Taro, Kaiju Chronicle was close, but it's no longer maintained and they were missing some anyway. And I'm bringing this up because I was looking for the Dr. Strange Toys site the other day, and couldn't find anything. Anyone have that link by the way?
Late to the party....as usual. I agree with Andy about the "hype" thing behind Cronic. For one, Naoki is one of the very few people in the Kaiju world who doesn't rely too much and base his toy on an existing sculpt. Mostly his own. HIs painting style and skills are one of the best as shown through the years when he was active. And his creativity would be witnessed as far as when he incorporated jewels, resin and metal weapons, cloths, etc. And, I can only think of a handful of people whom I consider Cronic heads back in the day--not a lot of people or very few people really pursued his toy line as much, or as aggressive as how some would do today with the new generation of toys. Would be interesting for me though to see what he had to offer at this time. New sculpts, paint styles, etc. And oh, it would be awesome too if he would do a pinstriped Standard Deathra with guts, that would rock!
There is still a healthy collection of Cronic toys avalible at One Up. I think the last new sculpt he did was his version of the maxtoy tripus.
If memory serves- when I was there last month, there is stuff in the cases that is not up on the website.
I have never been to the website, only the store. I don't know if they are cycling stock but there have been new ones in there since my last visit in April. They are out there, just stores only. Mandarake has a bunch in the akiba store too.
yeah, when I went this last fall I picked up some stuff that I had not seen on their online store. I tried to ask about that, but the guy didn't speak much English.
