not any more. It caused quite a ruckus. Had to bribe the chinese cops to get the dude out of jail and everything. so. no mo mao.
Haha, I was wondering about that. You should consider writing that up as an article or something, sounds funny (kind of).
Excellent reading for the evening. I remember some time back reading about some Chinese laborer who made cat toys on an assembly line. Toxic stuff, and died early as a result. Anyway, he worked his ass off to feed his family, died making this 99 cent crap, he didn't even know what the purpose of it was. I have never looked at my cat's toys the same way. In fact, I made him some stuff out of wood that he loves to play with. Now I won't look at my vinyl toys the same way either.
Cool thread. I met Kozik at a toy show and I think he's cool. Now I think he's even cooler. I think California is getting real strict over this stuff right now . . .
Wow, very informative, as others have said. So here's a question. If you're able to work with a Japanese company, do you avoid the nightmare described concerning Chinese factories, regarding the scamming, crappy quality, etc.? Should artists and businesses consider themselves lucky if they have their stuff made in Japan, or is that naive? I am in the early stages of a new project, in Japan, and would love to know. I'm even considering learning Japanese, to help in the process.
Damn. If you have the discipline to learn Japanese, do it regardless. It will help in your collecting at the very least. Good luck with your project. Mr. Kozik is a wealth of information and experience. Enjoyed reading these resurrected posts.
Oh, didn't even notice how old this was. I'm very confident the people I'm working with are more than reliable, but I am just curious, as I personally have a very bad opinion of Chinese companies and a very high opinion of Japanese companies. Plus, the Chinese government, with their politics and human rights record turns me off big time. Thanks for the words of encouragement. I'm thinking of picking up one of those Rosetta Stone kits to learn Japanese.
While I'm nowhere near as experienced as most of the guys chiming in to the thread here, I've had a bit of experience on the Japanese vinyl side in the last few months, so I'll throw my two cents in. Take a look at your shelves and look at your RxH stuff, your Blobpus stuff, your Cure stuff and most likely a good deal more (those are just a few of the ones I know for sure). Those figures were all made in a room about the size of a large walk-in closet by a very friendly elderly Japanese couple working by hand. The molds were made in another small garage-sized workshop about 15 minutes away by car, and the wax prototypes were likely made by a craftsman who has a little shop about 10 minutes away from there. Then they were painted by a few very nice guys who also live in the same general neighborhood and work out of a converted house. I can't say anything about the environmental impact, but I can tell you one thing: these guys aren't factory workers on an assembly line, they're very skilled craftsmen and they've definitely got a love for the medium. I'd also say that learning Japanese would be a VERY big plus if you're thinking about getting stuff made over here by yourself.
Yeah, I was surprised to learn from Martin last weekend that only one set of paint masks was created for Ojo, and he believes only one mold. So essentially they're all made by a single person - or only one person can work at a time. I had visions of multiple molds being used, and 3 or 4 people sitting around and painting them to knock them out in a matter of hours. These things certainly are hand crafted with a personal touch.
Thanks for the input, guys. That's pretty much what I had in mind. I'm supposed to be learning more in the coming weeks.
more on the vinyl being poisonous thing -- i cant remember the link, but i watched a video from someone that posts here about seeing how M1Go produces their toys. it made me feel a little better about the process... i mean when it is on such a small scale it surely can't have the impact that the factories shown in the film Blue Vinyl, even though i still wrestle with this weird little conundrum. ultimately though i'm just too selfish to change my relatively meager collection habit. i do draw the line that this sort of thing. i'll be avoiding siding, vinyl shower curtains, etc that M1Go video also makes you realize the care that goes into toys like these... as they really are producd by only a few people on a much smaller scale than many other toys. QC certainly must be important when the items only pass through so many hands
This is one of the many reasons I consider even the "factory paint" jobs to be little works of art. Most if not all of the stuff on our shelves is hand painted by someone. Just because I don't know who they are, doesn't make em any less special to me.
The painting is what I'm most interested. Does anyone know how Dehara's vinyl pieces were painted? Looks like some great craftsmanship. For some reason, I get the feeling the details were painted by him, but I don't know.
I'm thinking of the Satoshi Yamamoto vinyl pieces. They're all hand painted and hand numbered. Makes me think Dehara painted them, at least the details (hair, glasses, tie stripes, etc.).
Imagine handpainting 100 Ishidas for Giant Robot. Basically all the same with slight variations in the head and back tattoo.
