@hellointerloper Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous toy! Just love all of those happy faces on the broccoli head (oh the cuteness!). If Buta ever made standard sizes, I could see twin toys. And if SWDL ever collaborated with Buta, now that would be something to see!
What happened in 2023? My perspective, based on what I have seen and heard: As more foreign collectors returned to Japan, folks commented that Mandarake shelves seemed more sparse than they were before the pandemic. Beginning and ending auction prices started to rise noticeably, as well as Mandarake prices. Established shows like Five Points Fest and Creature Bazaar continued, and the last DesignerCon in LA was held. New shows such as TAGFest and Kaiju Brooklyn had their debuts. Many new toy makers entered the scene. Sadly, we lost people this year: Connell Little aka Phuntsy Amy Osowski of Lulubell Frank Kozik Shigeru Arai aka NagNagNag Newsworthy stuff: As AI image generation tools such as Midjourney gained widespread adoption, the notion of computer-generated toys started to be discussed again. See: This toy does not exist. AI-designed sofvi Kaiju kontinued on the big and small screens: Monarch Legacy of Monsters: New Apple TV Show starring GODZILLA! Godzilla Minus One Along with this, Japanese media companies continued pushing their merchandise into the US market: Tsuburaya Welcomes Bandai As Ultraman Master Toy Licensee For North America New US official Godzilla webstore is now LIVE Plus folks continued to experiment with new ways of manufacturing sofubi: Home slush casting with 3D printed molds. Notable Skullbrain threads: First Toy Sales ART or TOY? Can we have a talk about racist iconography? Unpopular opinions about toys Proof that necroposting is a positive thing for humankind and that Skullbrain is a force for good in the world: A Paul Kaiju classic: Zinclon Garamon. And the eternal flame still flickers: looking to sell (most of) my collection
2024-2025 is gonna have a lot of bootleg/ mashups of big brand Kaiju characters. There is a lot of homage movement in the overall art market. I’m guilty of it… and thus maybe am more aware? Excited to see what’s poppin
2024 so far seems to be filled with a lack of originality. So many homages, but also direct copying of franchise characters. That’s not anything new, but I’m seeing a few creators who literally do nothing but use other people’s intellectual property. Edit: Getting a license to make a franchise character is fine, I’m talking about people without licenses brazenly stealing ideas.
The best toys I've seen this year have been bootlegs/Wonderfest toys, Izumonster is pushing out good stuff HxS is going strong, and the NagNagNag stuff is great, 100% turn from anything he did in the past, too bad he wasn't around to see the reception his latest work is getting. The American artists are gaining more notoriety, and putting out great original content. Paul Kaiju's new Dolphin Army set with Creature Bazaar is so cool. Life is good.
It’s from an illustration. I recall him sharing an image of it (I think). I always thought the comet debris shark was an jo
It’s an illustration from 1971 by Shigeru Komatsuzaki for a children’s magazine to answer the question “are Dolphins smarter than humans?”. It was referenced here in the Kotorimark channel and, as always, there is an obscure Japanese blog / website / encyclopedia that has all the info you need.
A Chinese guy I friended on FB was all over this, he also had his photo taken with Mori from RxH, again (whilst wearing a RxH shirt). I think he genuinely likes the toys, but it's also very much a status symbol thing. He's like a high roller at a casino, he shows up and throws considerable amounts of money around.
I would imagine there are tiers of collectors there, ranging from the guys just trying to buy a more reasonably priced run of 50 figure, to the guys who are in the auction because they really do like the toy but are forced to give up, to the guys throwing crazy money just to impress everyone in the room. I don't know how much the ticket to the event was, but they had a buffet and everyone got a shirt I think and a blank figure set. But the auction format is increasingly taking over, even with artists asking for people to send auction bids on their instagrams without any event taking place.
Lol, just had another look. He literally calls it a 'Luxury sofubi party'. And yes, the venue and catering looks very posh. It's a VIP experience for people who can afford it, like the VIP stuff at conventions.
no context, I'm talking about a collector who combined this auction with his usual hook up with Mori.
Happy that Izu has held onto and deepened his niche, and double-happy that I don't collect any of it.
It's an Izumonster x Swimmy Design Lab event. And I'll be honest I'm not really impressed with anything in this show and I don't understand how Swimmy Design exploded. It's kind of everything I hate, just making things look silly and out of place for the sake of it. It's the Peppa Pig of sofubi, if Peppa Pigs animation team had a 5 year old on staff. But I can barely sell a toy for $150 these days, so what the fuck do I know. I'll show myself out.
Izumonster has some fun blank mixed-part runs, but I think I’m on the record already as saying even those are “too busy” for my liking, because of how many different pieces/colors they have.
Most sofubi rn is quite boring. Not a bad time to slow down and track older stuff in this swamped of overpriced newness. The auctions would be fun if they weren’t such a blatant money grab. Plus, nothing launders money like some art. Let’s not forget the more suckers you get to pay for blue chip ‘art’ the more monies you can wash with it.
