How 'bout that for some giant, beautiful chunky weirdness ( with varied articulated apendages). I am truly smitten. NYC puke sharks please stay away.
for the uninformed* definitely not something for me, but the toys sure are ridiculous in every aspect. really huge toy, a myriad of details. weird indeed. id love to see the original sculpt or the studio where these were made. they remind me of warhammer castles and orc things of that nature.
^^ Yes Michael, i would love to see the molds for these. To say nothing of the great big sumo they must employ to pull those those giant sections. I am far from a compulsive wanter, but i really want one of these.
I agree. But that's also precisely why I like these. Unlike other things in my collection, which are clearly toys, I view this as a sculpture. I think it'd look great standing on a pedestal on its own. Doubt I'll ever get one, but I do like 'em as "art pieces".
I checked this out on KK earlier too, and initially was not very impressed, but since then they have grown on me. But anyone that know my collection could tell you this just isn't my thing - too 'intense' and scultptural. But, I really appreciate them for their aesthetic, and the more I examine them, the more I see in those crazy designs that I think is cool. Throwing all those things (spikes, arms, horns, gears) can easily go awry in so many ways, but they have really pulled it off. I keep coming back to examine them again, they are so intriguing. The combination of organic and inorganic parts I think is what really fascinates me, and that superb paint application. They remind me of some kind of pseudo-future fantasy world, like design gone awry I would expect from the artists of Heavy Metal or a Miyazaki film. I would love one, but would probably* never buy one, if that makes any sense. Something I would love to put in my office or lobby as a CEO, but wouldn't have any place with my toys. But excellent work, I cannot deny that. And for the money, I would take this over any of the New York crew hyped stuff in half a heartbeat (or less). *If I had the money I probably would actually, hahaha.
I could definitely find a place for one of these in my collection. I can already see other toys juxtapose against the Zenith. A couple of Vertebrata as hand maidens, a Blobpus Raou as a sentry. This sculpt is well done and really not as busy as it seems on first look. The multiple parts and symbols just fit together for me unlike, say, the Garakutagigas which at first take was attractive then fell apart in it's business. I don't think that will happen for me with this toy because it has a more timeless quality that I can identify with on more than one level. I also like the stacked parts that can be rotated to different positions and the possibility of the addition of other appendages. I'm not an idol worshiper but I do like the idea and artwork that goes into some, this being one of them.
What follow is from a post on One-up blog about "zenith": "We wanted to create a new sofbi with a strong impact, like a monument, so we asked to a foreign maker named Zenith, suggested by a mutual friend, to help us create this figure. The figure must have been of the biggest size can enter in a sofbi-former-oven. First we created a silycon prototype with the kind support of Dream Rocket, who helped especially in the last details. Unfortunately, the mold factory told us that was impossible to create a mold of that size, so after a lot of improvement and adjustment we managed to divide it in 5 part, even without knowing if the forming was possible or not with such molds. The problem was the extremely high level of the details and the irregularities of the surface. Also, occurred 20kg of sofbi material for 5/6 figure, what is normally required for 60-70 standard size sofbi. When we brought it to the factory we were asked if the final price would have been around 100.000yen or something... What is funny is that we never decided the name for it. We always called it "figure", "statue", "object"... I think this will be a good lesson for the future!" The Japanese original text is on the following website: http://blog.one-up.shop-pro.jp/?cid=35336
This is freaking insane. Don't even want to know what the shipping cost would be... Definitely a very intriguing project, although I agree that I would have trouble finding a spot for it. How tall are these things anyway?
Thank so much for posting that, your help is really appreciated. I am sure I am not the only one that has tried fruitlessly to find some more information. It is very difficult for non-fluent speakers to find Japanese sources, so thank you. Wow, the production for these is even crazier than I initially thought. I would not be surprised if only a handful got made in the end then, which is unfortunate. I think this is definitely something that could use with pre-order/kickstarter support to help them out with the incredible endeavour. I wonder if they would be interested in anything like that. This is clearly a labour of love and fandom, which I can really appreciate. Full props to the creators and Zenith for getting a seemingly impossible dream materialised.
I was unsure if i should post about this. Quite glad i did. Thanks for the great info. I am officially attempting to obtain one of these mad totems. I like how the makers seem to have been as puzzled as i was as to how this could be made.
Wow, that is so great he could grab one. Shows you the quality when a fellow like Mark loves them too. And I love being able to get a different view on it, we couldn't even see that tentacle before. Actually, though, it is smaller than I was thinking.
i do really like the concept behind these... but to actually pull the trigger and buy one? not so sure... it does bring these to mind again, though: remember when these originally showed up in the grody shogun threads? i know it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison, but i think they kind of come from the same arena.
I initially thought they were even bigger, this photo realy shows the scale. I wonder how it holds the weight with out deforming
^ The answer to that, straight from the maker, would be: "There is the thickness of 1.5 times - 2 times of the normal soft plastic monster"
So I am wondering if Mark grabbed the one from the 1-Up store display, which I think is probably the case, and whether these two were just initial run prototypes. Or maybe the whole thing has been one-offs as they experiment with the production.
Thats what i wouldve guessed, am i blind? did i miss that somewhere in the post? These things are seriously impressive and i like that someones testing the boundries of sofubi production
