Shit! I had my pitchfork all ready to go too!

How about we turn this thread into a thread about pizza:


I'm a big fan of medium crust twice baked!

Also lately been into garlic as a topping.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I LOVE PIZZA

Alex now where talking !!

Next time I'm in town where gonna grab a nice garlic pizza !

damn, that's a nice looking pie...!!!

mmmmmmmmmmmmm cheese

garlic pizza sounds very good. i can eat garlic on just about anything

Good stuff Stealth!



Ok, since Don is in Osaka:

This thread is ridiculous, and fraught with conjecture. Some of you are making a very humble guy, sound imperialistic.

Mori has fan customs on display, in his shop from peoplearound the world. He appreciates the enthusiasm for RxH, and is many times stunned by the excellent quality of fan finished figures.

He would rather people did not commission customs, and just enjoy what is dropping from RxH.

If Joe or Bert or Pike make up more sweet ass customs, just don't sell them. Trade them or gift them. (Jebus Joe I love that Ultra Head)

That's it.

Pretty simple if you ask me.

Thanks Scott and Jason. Interesting insight on the paint masks and wash releases- just think, all of your toys are painted by a 72 year old man. Sort of mind-blowing.

Daniel, Goto-san did the shop release Chaos you snagged...and continues to be the artisan for most of the shop and secret releases.

Amazing.

Great reply Stealth

This is the same Goto-san, no?

http://toykarma.blogspot.com/2008/08/wonderfest-japan-summer-2008-part-3.html

Yes!

Oh man, great write up!

great post scott...!!!

thank you so much for the very insightful information...

such a cool image of goto san...

Thanks for clarifying, I had only heard parts of the story.....


rusty machetes > pitchforks

Hey for the sake of this discussion - what's the definition of "custom"?

Grassy ass!

Thanks Scott for the input.
Very informative.
And that pic of Goto-san is classic.

And what the hell is medium crust twice baked?

This thread turned out great! Awesome pic of Gotosan!

...now will somebody please do a Mutant Chaos in a Garlic Pizza Colorway...PLZZZZ!

Wow, thanks. Very insightful indeed! So much for the telephone game...

This is interesting, I never would have seen this thread since Real Head stuff isn't my thing and I don't read the forum regularly, but it popped up in a new thread search.

Yuji Nishimura from M1GO also disliked the idea of customs for a long time. I don't know if he still does. His issue with them was that pictures of customs would show up in magazines, or the internet, and then completist collectors would bug him, asking if the customs were done by him.

The thing is, once you sell that toy, it's out of your hands and it's someone else's property. There's not much Yuji or Mori can do about it.

The only thing I can figure is Katsura-san wants to make his products toys (hence the drive towards standardization and production streamlining, with more mask work and color variants), not collectibles (hence the "slight variant" re-releases) or art pieces (hence the "ban" on customs) or unique items (hence his position on not doing one-offs).

I think a lot of us were attracted to Real Head because of its artistic component - really nice, creative sculpts and gorgeous free spray color work - basically, the sort of things that drive our interest in other neo-kaiju companies. So, we've kind of been hit for a loop with the "new realities" and have taken a while to adjust.

Now that so many people have gotten feedback from Mori and have "laid things out" here, the picture is a lot clearer. In particular, big kudos to Scott and Luke for their awesome reporting!

The only thing I'd like to see is people taking all this less personally and looking at customs or one-offs or whatever from a more detached perspective. After all, we're all just collectors. Nobody here (as far as I know) is an investor in the company.

Whichever direction Katura-san takes his enterprise, I wish him luck. It's tough to strike out and forge a path on your own, whatever field you're in.

A +1 to most of what andy said. It's great to hear a clearer idea of what Mori's opinion is, thanks Scott and Luke and Jason for any of the info you've slipped over.

To data, for the sake of conversation, a "custom" and "1-off" or "Hand Paint" are different. I don't like "customs" because I don't see it as collecting. You just say "hey painter, I want this toy looking like this!" with no hunt, on demand (quite literally CUSTOM made.) I don't dislike customs, I just find no hunt behind it and so, to steal the famous phrase, it's not like collecting rather than just buying.

I see a "hand paint" as a figure someone just painted for the sake of it, and is trading or selling or giving it away as a gift. A little bit more of a hunt behind it, I consider most of what Koji does as "hand painted" figures (with the exception of Tokoji, see my next entry.)

"1-Offs" are handpainted figures painted by the creator/designer of the line (or unpainted too, like a lot of RxH 1-off's) which they consider to fit into their line of figures.

All just MY personal definitions of those words used, none of them meant to be derogatory, and none really STRICTLY used, just a loose guide of how I define the phrases/words.

In your definitions of a custom and a hand-paint you are stipulating that the primary difference is that there is a buyer-seller transaction of some kind involved with a custom and none with a handpaint?
1-offs could encompass test shots, paint tests, and even rejects.
Just trying to get clarity on your definitions - which for the most part I agree with.

Customs could be further broken down to
Sanctioned customs for shows in which the artist is sanctioning a group of artists to customs paint their figure and usually there is an arrangement for profit sharing. (or at least there has been the courtesy of a heads-up to the artist)
Unsanctioned customs done without the artists permission to be sold and/or put in shows.
Custom Runs - sanctioned or otherwise- in which 3 or more toys are painted in the same colorway.

It should become apparent to all that Mori has warmed to the idea of sanctioned custom runs as recent releases with Paul Kaiju, L'amour Supreme, Itokin Park, Shef and Skulltoys attest. In most of these instances Mori or I have asked the artists to be involved. The closest he will come to doing a custom show I would say.