Hello to any and all who've voyaged to the blog for a short read. It had been my intention to be more 'post-y' on here this year, but you know what they say about best laid plans...
Anyway, here we go!
The other day I agreed to take part in one of CLUTTER gallery's livestream interview thingies on their YouTube channel. It's not common (even less common than my blog posts) for me to get on camera. Something about the way my voice sounds... But it was actually a sorta interesting conversation, and it was fun to talk shop about some of the formative years for RAMPAGE TOYS, and a bit of what went down when I was living in Japan for 5 years. You can now watch the whole thing at your leisure over on the CLUTTER YouTube channel. Here's the link:
Since it isn't live you can skip past any segments that you don't like, or rewind and critique at your leisure. And that brings me to the subject of critique...
The live format is fun and spontaneous, but it certainly doesn't allow for edits or thorough corrections. I attempted to be as factual as possible, but certainly there's plenty I don't know, and there's TONS that gets grouped under the blanket term 'DRAMA' that can only be truly discussed with A LOT of backstory already understood. So, yeah, take from the whole thing whatever you like, but let it be known that the thing would have to be many many hours long for all the historical stuff (even just the past 10 years) to really be clarified properly (or fairly).
I'm writing this in light of being told that there are now makers who have taken it upon themselves to create online forums not only to promote their own works, but also to talk smack about others. At the level of maker/artist, and in discourse amongst makers/artists, that's the sort of thing that generally gets relegated to personal (or private professional) conversations, and should stay exactly there. When a maker goes public, and his audience is only exposed to his/her opinion, there's a good chance the public will simply side with said person. There is always more to what's said than what's written in a forum post, or an instagram post. Be sure of that. When people start acting like some sort of cult around an artists - fearful that they won't get the goods if they are known to have 'mis-stepped' or their 'allegiance' isn't 'pure....' - WELL - that's just fucked up.
If people genuinely enjoy my work, and they choose to spend money they have earned on buying and collecting my work, then that is the highest compliment I can receive as a maker. This applies at all levels - be it five dollars, 20 dollars or one thousand dollars. The fact that my creative efforts are not to EVERYBODY's liking is a fact of life, and is to be expected.
AAAAANYWAY!
RAMPAGE 2023 LUCKY BAGS ARE COMING!!!!
Ugly Club members will receive an offer for all available bags in early January, and remaining bags will go live via other outlets a bit after the UC gets dibs. Bag contents are still a bit up in the air, as I've been waiting (quite some time) to get the last batch of figures I am hoping to use in the bags. I'm aiming to include a few brand new figures in the bags if all goes according to plan!
This year bags will be available via the following Outlets:
-RAMPAGE TOYS webshop (shipping worldwide and offering an array of options)
-ONEUP (limited lucky bags and micro gachapon release for customers in Tokyo)
-MUSHROOM TOYS (for customers in Taiwan)
-Vintage Vinyl Club (limited quantities for customers in Hong Kong)
-Sofubi Art Base limited quantities for customers in Macau)
STAY TUNED for all the release info!
-Jon (RT)
