Hi,

I'm looking for pictures (documentary style) of the Japanese vinyl toy production process? For instance, sculpting, moldmaking, casting, painting, etc... Any help is greatly appreciated!

-hwb

As the actual toy manufacturers are getting older, and it's unsure that there will be a next generation of people wanting to go into the vinyl toy manufacturing industry as a career, I'd love for someone to do something of a documentary film of the process.

There's a photo of Brian Flynn in Japan doing pulls on Stomp with a Japanese vinyl craftsman somewhere in these forums, too lazy to dig it up though.

Also there's some links to film of the painting process of a one off that was a gift to a member here from Atelier or Marmit or some other company.

http://super7store.com/community/blog.php?post_Id=127

Here is the blog post.

Please be sure to give proper credit to the source if you are using these... ;P

I think it was M1 and I think it was Baiken (sp?) Awesome video, and those pics of Brian are the best.

You were spot on. Here's link:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20731&hilit=baikin

Obitsu has some info about the process:

http://www.obitsu.co.jp/eng/seisaku/fr_seisaku.html

Thanks for the links so far! All due credit will be given.

I'm working on a project that will (hopefully) document the art of Japanese vinyl.

Again, I appreciate the help and wealth of knowledge from sb members!

-hwb

I'm going to offer to share these links with my friend who cynically dismisses kaiju toys as being "mass produced." I think he's confusing Japanese vinyl toys with Hasbro and Kenner toys, despite my explanation that most of the process from start to finish is done by hand in relatively low numbers. I think a lot of people might be surprised to learn that relatively little machinery and no automation are involved.

He's probably thinking of the Bandai Godzilla figures that are pumped out in rather large numbers... or he could be thinking of Hello Kitty.

I couldn't believe the first time I saw footage of the Japanese toy making, the factories look like small apartments, with the rotocasting done by hand, just spinning the molds around in the air. I always had imagined a more factory setting too.

A big part of why I'm working on this is simply educating the masses. Big difference between how a D unny or Mighty Mugg is made and how Japanese Vinyl is made.

My wife was blown away at some of the prices of these toys when I got into this, but than when these pics of Brian showed up I was able to kind of show her the deal.

She also didn't realize that they're hand painted, and by the actual maker of the toys in many cases. Once she kind of got the idea of how DIY this all was and took a closer look at some of them vs. dismissing them on my shelves she really understood.

"Factory" and "production" seem to have very loose meanings when it comes to these types of figures.

I think there are a lot of reasons why things are still done this way: prestige (very few things are actually made in Japan any more), tradition (a major part of Japanese culture), the idea that collectors of modern sofubi want something that was manufactured the same way as the original MaruBuru toys, and the idea that you just don't throw things away (people and places) for the sake of "progress."

I have a DVD of Marusan's production and paint facilities (the word "facilities" being used very loosely here), I'll see if I can get it up online.

That'd be very cool to see Roger. I'm sure a lot of us would enjoy it.

i am going to have to agree with dean it would be really cool to see that i remember watching the video from m1 on the painting and thinking that it was really cool. i would definatly like to see the step before

Yes please do , this would be awesome !!

I always thought that picture on the cure blog of the shaved ice boogies hanging on the strings was one of the coolest things ever.

Both those videos are so sick. He just does that shit right up. haha. Makes me appreciate the art so much more. I love these toys.

I thought this was interesting:

The Making of Super7's SDCC Exclusive Himalan

Wow! What's next chemical make up of vinyl?
You guys are not just some regular sick collectors.
You guys are super sick professional collectors!
I aspire to be one.

Checking out the links now. I am really happy someone brought this up. I was too scared to ask on this forum. I tried to find more information about it but the best videos are more the resin figures sculpted by hand. I took some courses in sculpting and casting in London to further understand the process but I lot more I want to learn. The quality and craftsmanship of these kaiju toys is extremely good. I agree that if there was more documentation on this process it'll only benefit this community. Not forgetting the paint part we well. For collectors it would be inspiring and deepen the appreciation of the toys we see released. For aspiring toy makers this is vital information

Edit: Just watched the M1GO videos and it's so great!!! I love the Matango!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_chloride

Really, it's not that cool...

Just wanted to give another thanks to the sb community for all the great info. Will be updating this thread as I work on my project.

-hwb

It seems that someone, I have no idea who, nor do I want to speculate as to their identity, has uploaded this TV show to Google Video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 5455&hl=en