George, is the blue Goga on clear vinyl painted blue or is it a translucent blue vinyl? Regardless, it's a beauty!
It is translucent blue vinyl. Of the regular versions, after clear pink, my second favorite is the rainy day clear blue. (atease: The Black Aurora is basically a one-off. I custom ordered it and then waited several months for the vinyl to be chemically treated (it started as an unpainted green) and then painted.)
Oh why you focusing on this clear green innards goga, sooo beautiful........ makes me cant sleep tonight. Luckily we aren't neighbor, if not i ll sleep walk and grab it at night. Hopefully have a sweet dream, dreaming holding it
Maybe you can clear something up George, I thought the Aurora version was a regular release.... I saw "the_Z" had what appears to be a black Aurora version peaking thru some of his Anraku figs... viewtopic.php?f=17&t=26887&start=375 and I thought Toto had a few of the black Aurora as well. Or.....do you mean you were able to choose the paint scheme on your one off? Are the others just black Goga releases and you coined yours the "Aurora version" ? Were all these black versions chemically treated? I'm really curious to know the story behind those...thxs in advance! : )
I'm interested in knowing about which were chemically treated as well, because his "aurora" is a really nice light shade of black. I think the new cadmium black one was treated as well...is that right? I was carrying around the vader last night (yes I'm weird) and it's definitely a solid black vinyl so I wonder what spurs him to use a green base and chemically treat it. Fascinating as usual.
I carry my toys around the house all the time, I like to see how they look in areas of the house that are usually toy-less. ANYWAY, Maybe he blackens some because he has some blank vinyl laying around but wants black vinyl and doesn't want to spend the money just to pull some black ones? Just my guess. OR just for fun to experiment, to see how it looks. I'd guess that too, since they seem so much MORE limited.
I will try to clarify what I know about the black chemically-treated gogas. First, I am going back to check my old emails to make sure I have things right. I can't remember where the "Aurora" label came from, but will look into it. For some reason, I also recall the label "black hole" goga being used. What I am certain of is that my black goga started life as a green goga and was chemically treated. It did not exist in its black form at the time I ordered it - it still had to be treated and then painted. I think this was because there were no more blank blacks (not sure). Although I was shown some sample photographs of different black gogas that had been previously painted, I was not able to specify a particular paint scheme - I was told that it would be done "on the fly" or something to that effect. My suspicion is that all of the black gogas had different paint schemes to varying degrees. (Atease: Yes, the Methyl that I received recently was also chemically treated to be black - using the silver vinyl from the mutant version.) I am planning to catalog Anraku figures and background information in the new "Splendid Monstrous Beast" blog, still under construction. I hope that the new Anraku-focussed blog will be a group effort by all interested persons, but I know it is tough to find the time.
Could this "chemical" treatment just be plain old black dye ? Same way locomoco does dye jobs. It is in the end chemically treated and if done right pretty permanent.
I don't know. The only other descriptions I have regarding the chemical treatment is that (1) "the chemical solution is boiling" (so that it might splash during application - this was the reason why Anraku abandoned the idea of a red/blue Kikaida themed Goga during the planning stages); and (2) that it is "costly." Do dye jobs normally involve dipping the figure into a boiling solution? Those in the know, please chime in.
The process of dying does involve boiling water. At least in my experience the hotter the water the more effective the dying process is supposed to be. Really nice stuff Geo. Hard to choose, but I think the clear blue is still my favorite of the lot.
Thanks for sharing all these infos and stories, guys! Its good to know, that Mr. Anraku is in contact with his fans and you guys are here to share. From what's been discussed, he's really into his craft and is constantly evolving. Love this thread! @Geo- now I understand your line-up. Its all the different base vinyl- except for the mysterious Aurora which is the green vinyl's cousin?
And I believe the clear blue is the chemically treated cousin of the clear (no color vinyl) with guts versions. I guess this also raises the question of whether the clear pink is also chemically treated clear vinyl... Regarding the black, I have found it referred to by Anraku in my old emails as the "Aurora custom" and the "Black Hole Aurora." I would be interested to hear from the Z if he had similar references when he was obtaining his black versions. I was just looking at the link Ralph provided to Z''s favorite shelf and Z has the most complete Anraku collection I have seen, particularly in terms of sheer variety. Very cool and quite an accomplishment.
from this side view I'd have to say the clear pink and dead center green are my faves. wow I'd love to hold a goga, hell I'd love to hold a anraku piece in general. never saw one in person. not many kaiju freaks in buffalo ny. I think the appeal with goga for me is in the eyes. He has this weird squinty grin about him. From watching those short animated clips on the anraku site, the figure really represents the character well.
Yup , exactly what Tim said. There is indeed boiling hot water involved. And I suppose on the brand or quality of dye and the amount it would take to dye multiple figures this size would get somewhat expensive. I'm betting this is the case. if you had clear vinyl and dye job of blue would make it clear blue, and if you have opaque vinyl and treated it with black it would be solid black. Same goes for the new methyl, if it was silver flake semi opaque vinyl a dye job of black would be semi opaque and let the metallic show through.
What's the normal method of adding color to Japanese vinyl? Some kind of pigment or coloring added to the vinyl before it is formed? How common is it to instead dye the vinyl after the figure is formed? What are the pros and cons of using dye versus other methods of coloring the vinyl? Anybody know the answer to any of these questions?
I'm not the best when it comes to dying vinyl, locomoco would know a lot more. At first I thought it wasn't the best thing to do as I heard it will bleed with time, but if you know what your doing you can really get a solid permanent job that will last forever. As far as color, yes, its determined while its in its raw liquid form. From what I have seen, dyeing vinyl is not fairly common from companies. But I can see and understand why Anraku does it. Small company who uses what means he has to create as much as possible with what he has in hand, and if done properly can be permanent and effective. Say you have 50 clear vinyl figures, but you want to do 5 runs of 10 each, clear red, blue, green, yellow, orange. A dye job would allow you to do this without breaking the bank and having to order these colors already made in vinyl. As you may not know you you have to order a specified amount for the manufacturers to change the color, needless to say it would end up being more than 10 figures worth of vinyl. If this is what he is doing, he has indeed figured out how to do it as best as anyone can. And a lesson that other small companies should learn. Its stuff like this that really gets my attention, not so much the figure but what goes into the overall design.
Yeah, I think that's a pretty safe guess. It's just a way to get more variety out of one run of figures.
That's definately one of the nicest Gogas I've seen. Great subtle sprays, really shows off the clear and the guts.
