Wasn't sure where to put this opinion but can't keep it to myself any longer. Maybe we can turn this into a cool thread for discussion on things you don't like that you know alot of people do. It's not a trash your most hated maker shitfest. Let's keep it constructive if we can ha. Ok here goes: I have never liked the marbled meat colorway. I don't find the raw meat look to be aesthetically pleasing at all. Makes me want to wash my hands. And I'm not vegan or anything.
You’re not the only one I don’t like a lot of Secret Base pop culture releases like basically every SpongeBob they’ve done
Forced homages being repeated over and over. And I’m not talkin’ some vintage Bullmark or Marusan paints. Too many goddamn Mickey paints and references. I’m so tired of seeing Mario morphed into random pop culture stuff like Pulp Fiction. Sort of on the heels of @BrickBat with marbles, I don’t like when one artist does a release of marbled toys, then other artists/companies follow suit by doing the same thing with their. The meat marble is a perfect example. Once Rotten Rexx hit the skreets with that one it just opened up to, like, six or seven more artists wanting to do meats releases. *Too* many marble releases was also a thing for a minute, also. I’m not keen on collectors that collect lots of different toys, but only post/show off one hype artist. Get your taste out there. Show people what your personality reflects in what you collect. Fuckin’ like counts are self social vampires. The overall state of how expensive toys have gotten by lots of multiple artists. I don’t give a fuck, no one should be paying half a mortgage or a whole mortgage for a single soft vinyl toy, no matter how much you enjoy or appreciate the artist.
Personally also find it boring it when people just do multiple photos of the same toy in a slightly different location. Try to at least mix up combos or actually do something artistic, and not just flex to your followers that you have a certain toy or pander to the artist so you can get reposted. I'm sure it doesn't help the algo, but would rather see lower quantity and higher quality than essentially a re-run in my feed.
@timmyummy Couldn't agree more! I know some cats with awesome collections, but they don’t run up lesser known toys in photos, for whatever reason, and it’s a bummer. ‘Cause that could literally help ‘em get known and put on for the artist. I love the older street figures and undesirable toys I own and I love gettin’ ‘em in their own spotlight!
Agree on that! The only toy i can tolerate in this colorway is Big Bobo by Pico Pico. He is very muscle-y so marbled meat kinda suits him
@Heavenlytoycreatures I thought the Brain Bug Boogie Man by Cure Toys worked well, too. Texturally and thematically it lined up nicely!
Really interesting topic, Chris. I think there are probably a lot of 'pet peeves' we all carry with us, but not all of which are going to be unpopular. I didn't actually the whole 'meat' thing was in fact so widely received - though I completely agree it is being overdone. I generally think, and probably the first few posts in this thread support that argument, that actually it is very divisive and probably one of those very personal things. In fact, I was actually on the side of 'not really doing anything for me' but have since come round to it and have a few different toys in this scheme; but that is because I particularly like those toys, and not because of the vinyl choice itself. e.g. Dennis' excellent Mushroom is a good example for me, a toy I love and just have massively struggled to get (with no licensing outside of Japan) and was done in very limited amounts until the marbled meat version which, for whatever reason, was more available. Marbling itself is very touchy for me, as I have spent hours poring over comparison photos (and maybe I am the only one) looking at different versions of the same toy. It's interesting to me in that, as a result of the nature of this production method, nearly every figure is going to be completely unique, even if it is a blank, which I find kind of cool (but provides a lot of consternation to the OCD side of my nature when selecting toys). In short, totally respect this opinion and I think you are far from alone, or even in the minority, about feeling this way for this particular colour scheme. [personally, I think the whole 'meat' moniker is a failure and a major reason why people might have an inherent cringe about it, whereas simply calling it red&white marble makes quite a difference; YMMV].
This isn't really a pet peeve or a gripe, but I find myself mostly disinterested in new toys coming out these days. Not that I'm anywhere close to being up to date with what is being released, but the ones I do come across online (with exceptions of course) leave my wallet feeling very safe. Even new sculpts from artists whose toys I collect don't seem to have the same pull anymore. I don't mind this though, as it makes me feel like I've finally found some kind of direction in this hobby. Plus being more selective with the toys I buy and hunting variations of older sculpts that originally made me fall in love with sofubi, feels much better than when I was trigger happy with all the new stuff, and thus ending up with a bunch of toys I eventually felt indifference towards. Or maybe I'm just becoming an old fart and not hip to new things anymore, idk.
Outside of the very platformy/interchangable lines like real head adults. I think this is very common for most collectors in my experience. They latch on to 1 or 2 figures that they really like. I’m the same way, for instance I just want tkom to make more Gamaotoko, which was probably his first sofubi, even though it’s retired.
I appreciate Thrashout colorway toys . . . but only when Gargamel do 'em. (I may be proved a hypocrite later in the year, but I will accept it as and when)
Oh man, thread derail. Since Amy’s passing I haven’t felt like doing much with the Lulu projects. I’m sitting on one last batch of pinks, and that will probably be the last run.
Seeing a completely symmetrical sculpt that was done on a computer always kills my enthusiasm for a figure. This opinion may be unpopular and I may be too nitpicky but I am willing to suffer the slings and arrows of my peers.
The meat look wasn't a fav with me either (toys or people). Apparently the dress was made of real meat (beef sirloin).
There's a big difference I suppose, in collecting things that are still being produced, and things there's a finite amount of (like EC comics for example). I was late to the party with Sofubi compared to a lot of the old school collectors on this board, but even I've witnessed a massive change in non-Japanese people jumping on in recent times. When I started, Sofubi meant Japanese toys made by Japanese people, except for a few non-Japanese who'd paid their dues over many years and earned collectors respect, who'd steeped themselves in the history and tradition of the form. Nowadays, the dam has broke and the market is saturated. Its awash with new releases. It proves the collector base has grown immensely, because someone is buying this shit. Like all the stuff I post on the fugly thread. Personally, I'm not a fan of mash-ups at the moment. And 'forced homages' as xSuicide Squadx called them. It's just lazy, lazy, lazy. These new makers just jump on trends, riding each others coat-tails in a big circle jerk. But, if it sells, it sells. Why bother being different or original?
I’m definitely on the “fuck homages” bandwagon. I love when people do homages to classic vintage colorways, (like how Gargamel has been doing in Lucky Bags the past few years) but the franchise shit is so boring. Mickey, Ronald McDonald, the Joker, things that look like Teletubbies… the lack of actual creativity is so evident with these makers. Another pet peeve of mine is the crazy price increase of sofubi. I feel like you can’t get a decent toy under $100 anymore. Most of my collection consists of things I bought for $70 and under. Many artists that have been producing sofubi for a while have definitely earned the right to up their price tags, but it still sucks when you can’t afford something you really like.
Unpopular opinions… hmm. I hate mixed parts (color) toys for the most part. If it’s a figure with 4 or 5 parts and each is a different color it really needs to be something special for me to go for it. I don’t mind if it’s a figure with a body and arms/legs/tail in one color, and the head is cast in a different color, but when all parts are different colors it gets under my skin.
Oh and I don’t have a strong opinion one way or another on meat marble toys. Eh. I think I like pink/green marble toys less, because those colors mix into a brown that I don’t care for all that much. At least red/white mixes to pink.
Oh! Here’s another one that I know I’m in the minority about- I don’t care much for the eye burning brink clear pink vinyl that is popular in soft vinyl toys. If it’s painted right it’s not bad, but blank I don’t care for at all.
I am going to have to put together a group shot of weird coloured marbled, meat, flesh blank, Thrashout, and mixed parts toys just to share in this thread. * And add in some vinyl toys not pulled in Japan.
