SPLURRT

The saga of uncle Steve, I think the original body might have been misplaced at Maruyama, the legs didn’t hold their position but they could always be heated and repositioned and hold for a good while. The current version out now is actually the 3rd take, the 2nd was lost in the Grody Shogun studio fire. Maybe the most cursed figure out there. But I persevered.
I can’t even remember when my real uncle Steve passed passed away now, Covid has ruined my perception of time. But his son, my cousin Stephen, got married last year and I was able to gift him one for the wedding. That alone made the whole ordeal worthwhile.
I would like to revisit the figure at a 12” scale, if I don’t burn out.

 

@JoeMan Given the unfortunate passing of your Uncle, and how many times the sofubi tribute has gone to Hell and back, makes for quite a real life story for a semi fictional character. That’s a lot to build off of and push for that 12” version to come to fruition! Congrats to Stephen’s marriage!

 

Ouch..that sounds painful

I wasn't aware of the issue you discribed about this sculpt. The toy does feel very light in a way, so i could easily understand it breaking while putting the legs in.

 

it wouldn’t break - it would just sorta sag. As Joe said, it was a cosmetic thing, not necessarily the demise of the figure - but @JoeMan has a penchant for getting things right

 

It’s criminal this page hasn’t been contributed to since January of LAST YEAR. But Joe’s come back with a creative vengeance on some weirdly, bizarre shit. This is GeoRgie! Clearly in reference to Geoffrey Giraffe of Toys ‘R Us, but with an alien bursting from the costumed seams. I’ll reserve the gush for when I get my hands on a release to shoot and detail, but as I mentioned to Joe earlier today, I love that he referenced a 90’s toy mascot, as opposed to creating something derivative of 90’s toys.

 

Thanks Robert! Super stoked on this weirdo/cosmic visitor. People can check him out at Five Points.

 

90’s toy stores were a whole different era of fun, whether you were a kid, an adult shopping for your kid(s), or simply an adult that enjoys the nostalgia of toys(but who’s ever heard of that?). Toys “Я” Us was pretty much king of this era to me, and nothing has quite come as close to the experience of walking through those automated doors to high ceilings and tall shelves, packed to the brim with everything I found awesome. Fast forward to the age of 37 and I get to relive those memories vicariously through Splurrt’s bastardized, horrifying version of Geoffrey Giraffe, Geo”Я”gie. This extratoyrrestrial freak is a terrifying combination of the toy king’s ungulate mascot and John Carpenter’s The Thing. It’s essentially an alien being bursting out of a “Geoffrey” costume, which carries a perfect 50/50 balance of both elements. There’s enough suit where you recognize exactly what you’re looking at, and enough alien exposed where you think “What the fuck am I looking at?” I have to say, the Colombian necktie appearance of the creature’s tongue is my favorite. But the elongated eyes peering from the top of the head is a great signifier of what’s going on with this sculpt. The arms being ripped through, as intricately detailed in the sculpt itself, reveal extended, veiny claws that give a very “coming for you” feeling when posed outward. The back tail has, what looks like to me, a mix of an Alien Chestburster and Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. There’s also a dedicated, sculpted trail for the mohawk of fur down the back of the neck, which I thought was a great detail to add in. All in all, I find this character to be a fantastic, original and fun take on 90’s toy culture, and a great addition to sofubi mascot toys. Very excited to see what further versions come from here!

Spoiler

 

Thought I’d share this new project I’ve got cooking here, since I alluded to it in my last sales thread.

Majin Kaatashi is now in production! Pretty stoked on this guy and the originality. It’s a return to grotesque odd limbed monsterism with a pinch of fun. Am I the first sofubi maker who has engineered a shackle like this? Just cut it out and heat the parts to slip it over. Seemed pretty brilliant when I engineered it but I was very surprised I couldn’t recall any examples of it being done before. Fingers crossed it fits right and doesn’t slide off the foot. But I’m sure now, we will see it done 10 more times in the next year.

 

This is pretty rad! Got those madball vibes going on! As for the shackle, are you just cutting the flash off the top and bottom? And if you don't mind, what type of clay did you sculpt this with?

 

Precisely, just cutting the flash off for the shackle, if it’s too tight I engineered one of the sides so it can be sliced open and then just glued shut again or just held shut with a chain link.

It kind of looks like sculpey firm, but you can’t really get this level of detail in clay. This is a 3D print. I digitally sculpted it. I’ve probably been working on my digital sculpting for about 9 months now and this is the first toy I’m producing from a digital sculpt.

 

Gotcha, makes perfect sense. And nice! I see the the print texture on the flash now that you mention it. The detail on the skin is great, and is what got me wondering. Appreciate the info!

 

the banding on the flash is actually not from the printer. I just left the poly count on that section low since it’s not being used.
Here’s a better shot of the head to see the texture. It’s a big piece which is why I really wanted to play with the texture and make it as tactile as possible. It’s going to be about 8” when done.

 

This is so fun! Love the scar across the eye!

 

Noice

 

Dude, this is so goddamn cool. Love the marriage between a Horn Head Madball and the Harryhausen Cyclops, both of which heavily represent your personality and artistic influences. Very impressed and stoked on how quickly you gained your chops with digital sculpting, ‘cause this beast is beastly and cool as shit. Love, love, love the shackle being its own accessory to the figure and standalone omake off of the foot. Can’t wait.

 

Medicom uses belt that technique for their standard Kamen Rider kaijin.

 

This is lookin’ hype Joe!

 

Hey dude(ette)s, I'm dong a 10k followers giveaway this weekend on instagram. Just want to post it here so all SB who might not be active on there knows as well. If you aren't on insta and you want to enter you can just DM me here as well. Just check my feed this weekend, not sure exactly when it will go up, probably sometime tomorrow.

Let me give you a little sniff for free...

https://www.instagram.com/splurrt/p/C4yBaH4LqG1/?hl=en

 

Thought I’d give SB a sneak peak of the finished Majin Kaatashi. I’ll be dropping 2 versions next weekend. A painted brown and a green and glow marble with hand plugged hair and a painted shackle. This figure turned out perfectly. The head feels slightly larger than a grapefruit and is probably twice the size of my other heads like the cadaver twin or uncle Steve. This larger head just really allows for incredible detail and expression. Overall the figure is about 7.5-8” and the shackle turned out perfectly and fits like a glove.

I’ve been carrying one around everyplace I go since the vinyl came in. I can’t get over how fun this figure is.

 

Those pieces look great ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

 

What a perfect addition to the repertoire. The paint application is wildly impressive here, and the possibilities are endless. I'm assuming from your IG there will be alternate heads and feet in the future?

 

Yeah, by goal is to finish a new head while the previous one is in production. But, after seeing this guy in hand I kind of just want to crank out like half a dozen heads. I'll get around to probably doing an alternate foot or two, but I'm more focussed on the heads. I posted the idea on instagram, but I feel like many sofubi collectors focus on heads, they will buy heads with no bodies all the time. I've talked to people who boought a toy and say things like I liked the head, the body is ok. The idea here was to really place a focus on that head-first approach, the leg really serves as more of a cool "cap", instead of spending money and real estate on a body.

 

Joe, you gotta bring that character bio and painted sneak peek here. One of the coolest designs I’ve seen in a minute and the paints bring the hell out of what you’ve constructed. I like the idea of runnin’ heads as the main focal point, kind of like a series of new Madballs.

Also, Ben, it’s rad to see you back to posting here.