not knowing what our favorite toy maker looks like, i ask this question: are the new spacemen heads self-portraitures? or is it based on the face of a character from a storybook not yet posted here?

I am pretty sure they are self-portraits Bill. You can see a larger self-head on this cavewoman one-off. Personally, I love it, and don't really see it as narcissistic for whatever reason.



I kinda love the idea of him in vinyl, like a Haruo Nakajima figure - it is an homage to a love of vinyl toys. Maybe it is just a nice nod to the fans who love his work, like giving a little part of himself to them in thanks. Or I could be wrong and it is just ego. Doesn't go with what we know of Buta though in my opinion.

i can hardly make out the resemblance since the new ones are so tiny and cast in inscrutable neon-yellow but yeah, i was hoping they were of him. like you said, there's probably no ego involved except to maybe fulfill a childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. why not?

theres one head that has glasses on, looks like the cave-ohashi.
dont think it got released yet though.
pretty sure only the 7 from the left side of butas table were released.
the other 6 plus the new red set (with seabozu and dodongo! to name a few)
were not released yet as far as i know.

^ the whens/ifs don't matter to me since it seems to be nearly impossible to get them here for anything resembling reasonable prices how awesome are those new ultra kaijus!

sighing aside, thanks for the insight, guys!

The g units (the red spaceman) released at the SF61 have the head of the Japanese politicians Abe and Noda and they were created by Butanohana for the Japanese general election of the last month.
Also, he first uploaded their pic on the butablog on the Election Day.

Annnnd now we know. Very interesting and a little weird subject matter.

the truth is far stranger than our imaginations! thanks for setting us straight. do you know if he was commissioned? is there a buried political message?

I don't think that they're commissioned.. It's like American artist that make a custom head of Obama and Romney for his toy, so I don't think there's a political message beyond them. Japanese people are not so involved in politics as the Westerns are. The last general election turnout was under 35%...

Wow. Very interesting.
Thank you for posting.

Grumble Toy has this blue micro set for anyone looking

I thought their store was closed? Not working from here anyhow... Would love that blue tako!

I really want the sstain, devil and lobster

Yeah, I haven't received an email from Chris in ages. There's quite a few Buta figs that popped up on there since this past Monday. Lots of dinos and other sweet goodness

I did get an email from Chris saying he won't be taking orders for Butas anymore.

But it was great of him to have done so in the past. Thanks, Chris!

And on those head on the minis, aren't those some politicians?

^

plus this:

This is the coolest thing I've seen for a long time, this would fit in the hand of some of my bigger caveman toys and look great.

Hmmm a Mammoth. I know Butanohana has a dinosaur series but I wonder if this mini is paying homage to the Marushin Mammoth?:




Probably a stretch on my part but it would be cool if it was.....

Definitely a sweet sculpt, so for all the ease of making these micros (small size, no joints, unpainted, etc) I can't figure why they don't just pump them out. Maybe he is trying to make up for the elephant that never came as part of the first series? Micro cavemen and dinos would definitely be welcome.

Holy crap! I definitely want that mammoth

Isn't the mammoth one of the storybook characters? I think I saw an illustration of this guy somewhere back in this thread

wow, that lion chest guy slays!! fuckin hell

and judgin by the illustration of the guy with the glasses. thats GOTTA be ohashi!

せびろ = sebiro (business suit)
アウストラロピテクス = ausutoraropitekusu (australopithecus: extinct genus of hominids)
マント = manto (cloak)
ムネポケ = munepoke (breast pocket)
ケトラサウルス = ketorasaurasu (ketorasaurus)
ライオン = lion
ハイマツ = haimatsu (? stone pine, because of his hair shape/color, huh?)


in all the photos so far, i never noticed the dead ape skull before.

so, this is team "g"? some sort of g-men?

edit: thanks for the help, oli!