Something I've been interested in looking into for a while is the world of Kaiju/Sofubi....these figures from Japan are modelled on all kinds of weird monsters from cute looking little Godzilla-type creatures, right through to zombies and brain-oozing demons!
The one thing that's been stopping me from starting collecting these things though, is the price...most of the really cool ones are priced over £100, come in limited editions and are tricky to get a hold of, usually needing to be imported from the States or Japan......
Still, they're really cool to look at, and I thought that if someone was feeling particularly rich, they'd make a great gruesome gift idea for a freaky friend or themselves! The one's you're looking at here all come from a company called Cure Toys in Japan.
They have official distributors in America & France, so if you do fall in love with these creepy creatures, you might be able to pick them up from http://www.lulubelltoys.com/ or https://mishkanyc.com/ if you're in America, and the French store is at http://artoyz.com/shop/fr/ ! All of these links have lots of other cool toys to check out as well, although as I said, most are pretty expensive!
I only discovered this company by accident whilst browsing the web last week, and as the website is in Japanese, I still don't know much about them. I did find some info over at Man-E-Toys that told me about Cure collaborations with other Japanese companies, and more about the figures themselves, but I'm still too clueless to even attempt to make sense, so again if you're interested, take a look over there for more details!
I'll just continue to look at the lovely designs until I can find somewhere a bit more local and cheaper though! Anyway, I'll shut up now at let you just gaze in wonderment at the last few models! ;)
Groovy, eh!? Pity they're so damn elusive and expensive, but don't worry! If you're skint like me and can only scrape a few coins together, the next gruesome gift I look at will be more up your street! That post should be up in a couple of days or so, but in the meantime I'll leave you with a picture of a cute Frankenstein-style monster! Laters!
They ARE nice, and I was "into" the whole "designer toy" thing for a few years, until I realised how up its own arse the whole scene is. Even the name "designer toy" reeks of someone you'd smack in the face if you had to spend an extended amount of time in their company. TOYS is what they are, and you play with toys, not spend hundreds and hundreds of pounds on them just to impress visitors (who mostly will think they're stupid anyway).
ReplyDeleteA better alternative to these (which they somewhat resemble as well) would be the Madballs Head-Popping action figures. They're a LOT cheaper and a LOT more fun - their heads pop off for a start! When they appear on eBay, people are optimistic/greedy with their "Buy It Now" prices, but I always waited until genuine auctions came along, and got most of mine for less than a tenner each. Only one away from a full set now!
Other cheap/ugly/great toys I'd recommend would be Food Fighters (food items with faces, human arms and weapons). Also, if you type "Kaiju -Godzilla" into eBay, you'll be presented with all sorts of weird and wonderful (and mostly cheap) Japanese monsters from OUTSIDE the Godzilla universe.
Sorry about the initial ranting, they ARE great-looking, but what's wrong with mass production?
Yeah, even the single colour models go for crazy prices despite looking like big Monsters In My Pocket! ;) Don't think I'll be collecting very many at those prices, but thought I'd share the pics anyway because they do look great and someone with a bit extra cash might like to get some of them!! :)
DeleteI had the Screamin' Meemie and Wolf Breath Head Poppers when I was young, but the catch that keeps the heads on broke off on both of them! :( Great toys though!