Post-Sufes 58

To all who followed on twitter and instagram - and especially to all who attended Superfestival 58 - THANK YOU! The event was a great success for RAMPAGE TOYS, and I believe it was one of the most well attended and altogether successful SF's in a while! Indy Sofubi IS NOT DEAD, and people in Japan seem to be gaining more and more interest in the creations of Japanese and non-Japanese Indy sofubi makers alike. This show made me really excited for 2012 - I'm already looking forward to the next Sufes in April!

below are a few shots of the RAMPAGE TOYS table, and some other stuff. There are bundles of pictures on my Flickr as well as a VERY VERY in depth report of the event over on my Buddy Andy's Blog (Kaiju Korner). Andy did such a thorough job of covering the event - it would be silly for me to attempt to do the same! Here are some of my pics:

"Zee Rampage Booss"
Ilanena-san with some vintage Starwars awesomeness (in front of his table)
Some Card-Monster and Ugly Unicorn Comradery

Ilanena Custom UU's! A taste of the (maybe near, maybe distant) future!

All of the remaining items from the show (Ugly Unicorns, Collab stuff, etc.), will be in the shop tomorrow, January 11th - early morning time in America - late night time in Japan ;-)

Here's the shop:

http://rampagetoysandart.bigcartel.com

Next up - more Kikkake Elephants and Bears, and then some REALLY exciting stuff! Who likes things that glow in the dark - I DO!

SUPERFESTIVAL 58!

Today I depart fropm the Snowy North (Akita - Japan), and board a train for Tokyo! Ahead are plans for some hanging out, toy perusing, a visit to Studio Uamou, Shinto Gangu, Mandarake, etc. - and a nice trip to Kyoto for some 'other' culture as well.

At the end of the trip we will return to Tokyo for SUPERFESTIVAL 58! I'll be laoding my little 1 meter table with tons of Sofubi Toys - Ugly Unicorns and Collaborations galore!

Here are pics - I'll let them do the talking:

Clear X-ray Ugly Unicorns:
"Snowgon Ugly Unicorns" :

COLLABORATIONS (rampage paintwork on other designers figures):

Chima Group Bolo:

Kikkake Kuma-chan (little bears):

Velocitron Ghouls:

Chima Group Tnegallon:

Come to Tokyo! Should be AWESOME!

RAMPAGE x Imps and Monsters MANOTAUR!

Hello Toy People!

Update time! A couple quick-fire posts coming right up!

1st off - RAMPAGE is teaming up with Justin Hillgrove (Imps and Monsters - http://www.impsandmonsters.com/) to release a very cool new Sofubi figure - the MANOTAUR! The sculpt was done by Justin himself, and it has already been recieved at the wax/mold workshop here in Japan. We're looking at a spring release - hopefully at Justin's booth at this year's Emeral City Comic Con in Seattle!

This guy will stand around 8 inches tall - he's pretty bulky too! Here's the sculpt:




This toy is being made here in Japan - with the super high quality vinyl we are all getting used to seeing - and prep for releases will be done primarily 'in house' in the RAMPAGE TOYS' studio - here in Japan as well. I will be painting the realeases, and Justin and I will both host sales of the figure on each of our websites/shops. Also expect small and unique painted runs on occaison - from both Justin and myself.

Here's a little info about this dude (written by Justin)- gives you a feel for the character and Justin's sense of humor

"The Manotaur roams the world in search of something he can’t quite remember. In fact, ever since he invited that fire spirit into his head he’s had trouble concentrating on little other than catering to his countless neuroses and consuming anything with the word “gummy” in the description. In any case, he’s pretty sure he’s forgetting something really important..."

Here's a digital doodle that Justin did for this fellah - SWEET!



I'm psyched for this release! Hope you all dig this dude :-)

Playing Catch-Up

OK... way behind on the blog! Things are moving right along with the Ugly Unicorn and life in Japan - and time is flying by so fast!

The fall shows were great - NYCC and Design Festa! Most of those toys are off in the hands of the UU faithful (Thanks People!).

Anyway, here are some pics of recent Ugly Unicorn releases. There are still a few items up in ye olde shoppe, and more to come soon as well!

Some customs that came out of the woodwork for Design Festa (in Tokyo a couple weeks back). The fleshy fellow in the foreground awaits a warm(-er) home - it's frickin' cold here in Northern Japan!
Design Festa Exclusive "Original Ugliness" Unicorns! Did a run of 5 in this colorway.
"Army of Brightness" Uglies! These guys were a bit of work indeed... But I'm psyched on them - nice bright sprays over black vinyl. As I'm writting this, you can still grab one of these fellows here.

Up next is a release that I'm SUPER excited about! I'm teaming up with KFHC (Kentucky Fried Hardcore) for a very very cool UU release! These guys will be coming up just in time for Christmas - and there's a bit of a surprise in the works ;-)

Lot's more coming for 2012 and beyond!

BOO! Halloween is Coming!

It's that time of years again - ghosts and goblins and all that sort of stuff!

So, what better time to get some paint going on some fresh sofubi?

I managed to pull together a nice little pie of goodies - all of which will go live in the shop on Halloween - sometime in the morning (around 11AM EST I'm thinking... depends on how late I'm up here in Japan!).

PICTURES!

GID micro-run - edition of 5! These will come bagged and carded with GID screen printed header cards (not done yet :-P ). Lots and lots of work went into these guys - setenciling, brushwork and the like:



Customs - some of the more detailed customs yet! I've been messing with paper accessories and more masking techniques - basically having fun! There will be 3 Ugly Unicorns and 1 Adult sized RxH Mutant figure up in the shop:



Last, but not least - I have not forgotten my resin roots! I'll soon be releasing some new resin minis into the wild - a new MUSCLE mash-up and a new Monster in my Pocket (MIMP) mash up. More details soon, but here's a little picture of what's done so far (being cast up by Monstrehero - Cliff - in all sorts of wild colors, like candy!):

After NYCC and CCM! Only one UU left Standing!

Hello people out there in the internets!!!

So, NYCC was a big old success, and a very great first Stateside outting for the Little Ugly Unicorn Fellah! The figures at the Lulubell booth went like hotcakes upon releasing on Friday, and the Tenacious Toys' release trickled down to just one remaining! (NOTE- join the mailing list if you are interested in having a chance at grabbing that last TT Ugly!) Not sure who noticed, but there was a tiny little surprise at the Tenacious Toys' Booth as well - the clear blue guys were split 50/50 orange and yellow eyes - a little variant fun ;-)

The two eye variants at TT's booth looked like this:

And some pics of the little blue guys in place at the con! Thanks to Kris Dulfer (Kid Ink Industries) for posting the pictures on Facebook! Awesome to see the Uglies in the company of such greats as Bob Conge's (Plaseebo) Molezilla!

And then there were the pieces at the Cotton Candy machine in Brooklyn! I was happy to see people postin pics around of these guys - and I really dig the pastel colors. Not sure how many there were (or how many went off to new homes), but here's a shot of one of the two variants. The other is just a switcheroo - blue legs and pink-ish top. I'll be getting some of these at some point, so keep your eyes peeled for updates if you want one but were unable to attend the SUPER COOL show at the CCM.

Another exciting bit of news - Andy, of Kaiju Korner fame, put together a great review of the Ugly Unicorn! He took some great pictures (and wrote very flatteringly) of the little 'Poppy Goji' dude! Here's a picture I stole from Andy's blog - so cool! Head over to the blog to read the full review, here:

http://kaijukorner.blogspot.com/2011/10/kk-reviews-ugly-unicorn.html

Last, but not least - NEW STUFF! I'm almost done with the Halloween Ugly Uicorns! These guys are done on GLOW IN THE DARK vinyl, and will feature bundles of stenciling and brush-work! Dropping on Halloween - here's a teaser:

Cotton Candy Machine!

Just a real quick note! There will be a very limited number of exclusive UGLY UNICORNS (I think 5) available at the Cotton Candy Machine's Friday evening partay! There will, of course, also be loads of other awesome things! I highly recommend checking it out if you are in NYC this weekend. All the info is here

http://www.thecottoncandymachine.com/events/show/cherry-vinyl