The fugliest toys you have seen while collecting.

That's the Doomkopf @coma21 was referring too. I don't think it really fits in with the others up top either. Looks like an enlarged keshigomu design. And not that it matters to me, but it wasn't digitally sculpted @quentor. Copied from theblotsays, "The DoOMkOPFs was designed by Blitzkrieg Toys and Christopher Ulrich, and then sculpted by George Gaspar." Originally an OMFG submission maybe? It wouldn't have been the first not to win a spot in the series to then go on and become a different toy. Like the Deadbeat for example, which wasn't voted into omfg, but was still produced, as both - a keshi minifigure and a standard soft vinyl toy.

I just visited that Christopher Ulrich fella's website and he's quite the talented painter. He has a great sense for character design and a good many of these would do well as toys.

 

That tower is my favorite of the bunch. More referring to the unbox stuff, and alot of the super technical looking samurai stuff coming out nowadays. It may even appeal to me, but McFarlane does come to mind more than sofubi. Also red hot style, and a few other companies that are hyped right now do 3d sculpt. Not that it matters. If you like it buy it, but it's an interesting new trend.

 

i have not seen a dick toy that I've wanted for myself. but i assume they make great gifts for some.

 

Maybe he should so you'd stop repeating it over and over on the boards.

 

I don’t really think any of those toys are fugly, just that they don’t really have a place in sofubi. At least, not traditionally. I’ve seen a few in hand, and they’re designed very intricately and thoughtfully. The overly hyper detail and texture isn’t inherently bad, but doesn’t have its place here, in my opinion. That’s probably the most elitist sounding shit I’ve ever said.

 

We're definitely seeing artists branching off into a different realm of hyper-detailed sofubi, which are a far cry from the simplistic retro designs that most of us think of when we think of sofubi. I personally find it too "noisy" to be of interest. I don't know where exactly I'm supposed to be looking. I can appreciate the artistry and effort, because clearly a bad sculptor or bad painter couldnt make these toys. It's just very, very different and begs the question to why they chose sofubi as a medium instead of a different, perhaps cheaper vinyl.

Even the things that do catch my eye these days are so far out of my price range though that I don't even bother...

 

Well, to be frank, sofubi has exploded pretty heavily across social media outlets like Instagram. So it may be, perhaps, that many of these artists were independently seasoned in sculpting and painting, and once they saw a new medium gaining notoriety they saw a chance to either capitalize on a trend, or a means to get their work into people’s hands. Plus, the Chinese soft vinyl, while admittedly not of the same quality I find in Japanese, is rather impressive. So taking the less costly route and not necessarily sacrificing quality is obvious to the volumes we see. While I don’t find these sculpts to be bad, I personally wouldn’t own any, sans the Doom Kopf. That thing is too cool.

 

You're getting there...

 

To quote one of these new makers via Instagram, "Smooth vinyl has no soul".

 

I hate that monkey warrior thing. I guess it wouldn't be bad if it was a statue or something, but it definitely shouldn't be sofubi.

 

If it was anything else I wouldn't even touch it not even in resin. Sofubi is fine. Less chances to break it unlike in statue form.

 

What a dickhead.. tell that to Kappa Shonen

 

Did you see that post, Glenn? I wish I could remember who's photo he made the comment on. But yeah, if that is a greater mindset, it sure explains a lot. By all means, follow your own path, but if you can't appreciate or respect what came before you, then you'll never have the understanding to do your best work.

It's in a similar way to the reason the people with the biggest egos tend to be stuck or stunted. They create a ceiling for themselves believing they have nothing left to learn. For some reason this is stupidly prevalent in the world of "professional" photography. Most likely because of the misleading mindset that the equipment makes the photographer...

"You can't really know where you are going until you know where you have been."

 

Nope.. I didn't see the post @boon velvet - but it's not surprising, to be honest I've been checking instagram less and less. For the past few months it seems like instagram has become nothing but lotteries for overpriced chinese vinyl or posts with nothing but "Want/Need" in the comments and that irritating as fuck triple shot of the smiley emoticon with the heart-shaped eyes. I fucking hate that thing!!

And for @Headhunter 's sake, it should be re-iterated that everything looks like McFarlane took a shit and called it sofubi. Sorry, but with the influx of Image Comics documentaries (SyFy, AMC, etc) it's just driving home the point that we are currently in the speculative era of sofubi, much similar to comic books in the early 90s.

Funnily enough, a big contributor of the comic book bubble bursting was when the sub-studios in Image (Top Cow, Wildstorm in particular.. Maybe Extreme? I can't remember which titles they produced) tried to re-produce the success they had in the first year, hiring artists to basically imitate the OG Image guys styles. As cheesy as Image was, the original guys were great artists, super-charged with energy and brought something new to the table. Then the market got flooded and everybody lost interest seeing the same shit under a handful of different titles by each studio.

I feel like they exact same thing is happening here with these toys. When I got into sofubi (late to the game around 2012) these things were unlike anything I had seen in Target, Toys R Us or even the vinyl toys in comic book shops. I think that's why a lot of us started collecting them. As an artist it was like I was holding a physical drawing by guys like Le Merde etc. This stuff was unique, it had charm, the material itself felt like the toy equivalent of some fancy type of leather (sorry vegans) and being totally honest I felt like I was part of a "cool club" for collecting it.

Now there's just too much - too many toys coming out way too often. There are dudes who have been making toys for what, one or two years and they already have a dozen sculpts out - half or more of which are rip-offs of current toys with a couple of details altered here and there. No wonder they can produce toys so quickly - just take a popular toy and whip up your own cover version overnight. These toys should be like albums - a new sculpt every year or two.. take time and release something the artist is proud of. Just look at how often guys like Shirahama/Cometdebris/Gargamel release a new sculpt compared to PlanetxAsia/RedHotStyle flood of boring ass shit.

Anyway - sorry for the wall of text/blabbering - I ain't writing for the New Yorker here. Hopefully some of my points good or bad gets some more discussion happening on the boards.

 

I guess a lot of my favorite toys have no soul. That's a good thing though, I would be pretty freaked out if my toys were haunted.

 

Well change was coming ether for good or bad. You knew it was once things started getting more well known in the hobby especially with how fast media exposure makes things available now a days. What you view as terrible I do not. Will it hurt what you love? Maybe as far as fair price and even quality to an extent but the Chinese are catching up rather fast and soon you won't be able to tell one from the other once things are perfected. Will it hurt what I love in this hobby? No, because now I have more artist to love.

The Instagram thing I do though sometimes I feel like you especially with the "repost/hashtag in your account" thing. Mainly because I'm getting older I guess and don't understand how hashtags and crap work in the first place. I even have to remind myself I'm getting older before I get unreasonably frustrated. But I do use the hearts and emotes sometimes rather than trying to convey an entire fucking novel to the post.

 

Your toys are both dickless and soulless. FORSHAME!!!

 

You will always be able to tell the difference between Japanese and Chinese vinyl.. no matter how "advanced" they get. Just like Coke and Pepsi!

 

Honestly I prefer Pepsi over Coke anyway. But some ppl like both as well.

 

I think Glenn had a number of good points and I am aware of your feelings on hyperrealistic sculpting, your love of McFarlane toys, etc. To each, they own.

For me personally, FUCK McFarlane toys for as long as I live. McFarlane needs no celebration on this board, and will get none, except by you and maybe newer future board members. He is not adding anything new, original or significant to the toy scene except for how many gazillions of dollars he can make, in my eyes.

As to the "changes" who gives a shit? If it means a lot of the Japanese toy lines I collect fall out of favor and become cheaper in the short term, then great. There will always be a deep appreciation of the imperfect, truly hand-made, wabi sabi style toys that embody sofubi. The tradition of craftsmanship that started decades ago in terms of soft vinyl toys (and WELL before that in the fine arts, ceramics, etc.), continues on today, with thousands of collectors around the globe appreciating the old Tokusatsu franchises and the imperfect-but-beautiful toys that were created from them. The fact that you don't understand or appreciate this, and/or are focused on the newest realistic western flavor is of zero consequence to the global community of Japanese toy collectors.

There is also the somewhat cold reality that most of the early Japanese toy companies were probably focused on making a buck over all else (like most companies), and the particular style, rooted in various aspects of existing Japanese culture, was understandably a very enduring one in my eyes and eyes of many other collectors. I am okay with that-perfection is often accidental!

The fact that McFarlane style shit has any staying power is ironically one of the same reasons that Japanese vintage toys are so sought after-licensed toys have a much larger history, meaning, fan base etc. than artist-centric designer toys. People think they are SO great to come up with an "original" design, but the true staying power of any toy design comes from an inherent appreciation and respect of the history that came before them. Think about how many designer toy artists from the Kidrobot era no one gives a shit about anymore. Wonder why? there's your answer. No history=no future, in the pop culture art/toy/whatever world and in general, in your your day-to-day endeavors.

This is all my opinion, and opinions are truly like assholes. I don't put much stock in my personal opinion. But hey, if not for this kind of discourse, we would have all migrated to Instagram by now.

 

You make a lot of good points. Ppl ether embrace whats to come or they stay in the little spot that makes them the most happiest. Thats all that needs to be said. Im truely happy with both vintage and none vintage toys alike.

 

You already knew my disdain for McFarlane toys, the rest was just rambling! Cheers

 

I know man, it's fine! Best to speak your mind than bottle up emotions.

 

I have to agree there, Pepsi tastes more like European cola candy... so I like it more. But I'll take any cola, being a cola fiend.

As for my soulless, dickless toys, they will never be able to drink soda, on account of the fact they have nothing to pee through.