I'm what you'd call a modern vinyl ignoramus. I'm very familiar with vintage vinyls and (kinda) recent re-issues by B-Club, M1 and such, but as far as these modern day vinyls, I'm completely lost. The only experience I've had with any modern vinyl is when I waited in line at Santa Monica's Kidrobot for a signed limited edition D_unny for a member of another Board. I didn't understand the appeal of the D_unny, but some of the items I've seen here look badass. Can someone categorize these modern vinyl groups for me, or do they all fall under the term Urban Vinyls? Also, why is D_unny (minus the underline) being flagged as an expletive?
In the simplest of terms I kind of liken it to a sports analogy. If this website's intent is focused on basketball...why bring up tennis? Even though some people might play tennis here..there is another forum for that. Anyway if you search through the faq's you'll see flynn mention a lot of why this site is dedicated to japanese vinyl and not western. There are a lot of people who collect western vinyl but don't bring up it up here simply because this site isn't for that.
Got it. If the D_unny is representative of Western Vinyl, then I'm not too fond of it. What are some of the big names in Japanese modern vinyl? One that quickly appealed to me was the Visighost figures; not sure if it was the figure itself or just the awesome pics by tan-ki. This is a Flynn figure?
New Japanese vinyl stuff falls into one of two categories: Kaiju - Toys based on Godzilla/Ultraman/etc. characters of yesteryear, or original characters that evoke that spirit. Fight Figures - Monstrous wrestlers with the physiques of Smurfs. The three most popular companies that are discussed here are Secret Base (fight figures), Real Head (fight figures), and Gargamel (who make a little from either category).
I'd put all of the Ghostland figures in a class by themselves, but Visighost has a heart, so he's a lover, not a fighter. ;p
You could probably call most of the stuff collected here designer, boutique, or original toys - or to make it simple, sofubi. And with a lot of the new stuff coming out, there's a continuing drift away from kaiju. Actually, I don't think I've ever heard a modern Japanese designer refer to their toys as "kaiju". They usually say "sofubi" or "original toys" - something like that. Some stuff, like Bemon, Blobpus, Charactics, and Anraku, does carry on in the kaiju tradition. But most everything else follows from Fink Shit, Skullbee, and a few of the Bounty Hunter toys.
Wow, so much new stuff to learn. After years of collecting it's actually refreshing to be on the newbie side of a Q & A post; I think I'm getting aroused.....
If it's the terminology that's getting confusing its pretty much: Urban Vinyl= hiphop/graffiti/whatever style toys. D_nny fits into that category and you're better off staying away or at least not admitting it if you collect them. Designer Vinyl= more general, but still kind of a dirty word around here. Some Japanese companies are making them (Itokin Park, Touma, some Gargamel stuff), but it usually means western. Some are cool to talk about here, some aren't, don't bother trying to figure it out. Kaiju= you know what this means, people use it as kind of a general term for anything made out of Japanese vinyl but that's not a very good definition. If you share your vintage knowledge I'm sure people would be more than happy to answer your questions if you aren't finding them by searching.
