Jul 11, 2007
Crazy Label @ TTF '07
Crazy Label dropped several new toys at TTF including the House of Liu figures from Veggiesomething and Seamour Sheep and Marty Mole from Metin Seven. Sometime toy pics don't tell the whole story. In particular a sense of scale and presence is hard to appreciate. Seamour Sheep is quite nice in person -- much larger than I had anticipated. In particular the head stands out and commands your attention.
Veggiesomething made the trip from Chicago to Taipei for the debut release of his House of Liu figures -- Di Di and Mei Mei. In addition to the standard colorway, special all-black editions were available for him to customize for fans. Finally, the swanky gold Rotofugi exclusive editions with an almost brushed appearance were on display. Of the two, Mei Mei really stands out with her triple sphere head and hair ribbons.
Finally, the orange GID Treeson was on display and will be available at SDCC.
Jul 10, 2007
Winson Ma @ TTF '07
Winson Ma made a splash at TTF with several new projects. He showed several new projects from his Winsoncreation company including two new 1:6 scale figures -- T-Rex, the newest Apexplorer (preorder), and Fire Spectre. Both of these have the eye-popping detail, quality and sweet acessories that Winson's fans have come to expect time after time. Winson also showed off the next figure in the Fire Spectre series -- a much more modern look than the first one.
In addition to the 1:6 scale figures, Winson released his new Adam Ape vinyl produced by Play Imaginative, part of the Adam Kingdom line. This dope toy featuring his signature ape mascot comes with a sweet airbrush accessory, a mini ape, and a removable head which covers a wicked skeleton head. The intrepid ape explorer with artistic leanings is available in two editions -- Standard Red (w/GID skull) and a black Previews exclusive (Red head / Gold Skull). Winson also showed of his new "Face Off" ape minis. These have removable faces (hence the name) and are basically larger versions of the mini-ape that comes with the Adam Ape figure from PI. Finally, he showed a special project -- four dragon dancer / kid figures done for the Hong Kong government to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the reunification with China. With a strong mix of 1:6 scale, vinyl figures and minis, Winson's more than ready for '07.
Tim Tsui @ TTF '07
Tim Tsui, the master of the apes, offered two new Da Minci editions -- Da Joker and the rarer variant Darth Joker at his Taipei Toy Festival booth. Love the parody aspect of Da Joker. Tim also auctioned off a set of Bling and Da Minci prototypes in the TTF auction. Relying on others for the chinese translation -- I believe that the set went for about $500.
Jul 09, 2007
Brothersfree @ TTF '07
Brothersfree signed for their fans and collectors @ the Taipei Toy Festival on the main stage this past Saturday. Kenny Wong, William Tsang and Winson Ma's final signing of the event drew out the hard core collectors with their prized Brothersfree figures. We have two short videos of William sketching on boxes for collectors -- fast and clean, nice. From the looks of it, 1:6 collecting has taken hold in Taiwan. While most collectors brought a few figures for signing, one collector had at least 15. It's a rare sight to see so many hard-to-get figures piled up on a table waiting for each member of Brothersfree to sign. All three artists showed their solo projects in their individual booths. Kenny showed Copperhead-18 and Molly, William showed a prototype of his new 1:6 figure, Leo, and Winson showed several new figures including T-Rex, Firespectre, and Adam Ape from Play Imaginative.
Winson Signing Videos
Watch: First Session Second Session (Leo)
Jul 07, 2007
TTF '07 Auction
Today (Sunday, in Taipei) is the final day of TTF '07 and that means the annual toy auction of hard-to-get figures and items. Among the items are several customs and special-edition collectibles from Cronic, Kenny Wong, Itokin Park, Touma, T9G, and many more. While you have to be at the show to bid, we thought you might like to see what collectors will be eyeing today when the auction starts @ 3 PM.
Touma - Slither from Spanky
Slither is Touma's latest figure in his continuing series with Spanky. This snake figure is a follow-on to the previous released figures -- Talons and Snout. Not much more info on this one -- except that the runs are fairly small (less than 300, per colorway ?). Will update this after we double check tomorrow.
Hiroshi Fujiwara Figure from AdFunture
Hiroshi Fujiwara -- musician and streetwear shot caller AKA the "godfather" of Harajuku culture will be immortalized in toy form his own vinyl figure designed by Jukai and produced by adFunture. Not much more on this except it will be very limited with apparently minimal distribution / availability in the USA.
Jul 06, 2007
Itokin Park @ TTF 07
An entire display case at One Up's TTF booth is filled with Itokin Park figures -- production and hand-painted vinyl robos, several Kawadoji editions, and tantalizing pictures of their new upcoming Itokin Park vinyl figure (Crescent moon shaped head). What really makes TTF special for Itokin Park fans is that he's here -- Kazuhiko Ito was at the booth greeting his fans. It's the first time we've met him in person -- he's very friendly and humble. Communicating was slow but hes's patient and eager to talk to fans and collectors.
The hand-painted vinyl robos come in three basic variants -- light spray fade editions, a tribal-ish design with one solid color and a black tribal pattern (vine?) running through it, and paint splatter editions. Each of these hand-painted figures are a little less than $100, a very reasonable price IMO. Also, there's a small black/white photo collage of the new vinyl figure (eta: September/October) which we don't have a clean shot of. We'll post it soon, also we should have larger individual shots soon. It's nice to see such a talented artist start with doing DIY resin in his house to having his own line of vinyl. Congrats Kazuhiko.
Play Imaginative's Protos @ TTF '07
Play Imaginative's double sized TTF booth right at the entrance of the show features several new figures including Touma's crowd-pleasing Grabbit and Winson Ma's sick Adam Ape. Pics + the latest info on colorways and exclusives for these newly released figures is coming shortly. For our first wave of TTF coverage, we thought we'd focus on the cutting edge -- PI's prototypes of upcoming toys. HK artists Ultraman (Ultra King) and Danny Chan (Spooky Porcupine) both have figures in the works. The sculpts for both make good use of the 3d medium with an array of visual texture including metal studs, and spiky hair. Shin Tanaka makes the jump from his hold on paper toys to vinyl with the upcoming TBoy. The TBoy prototype features sculpted-in stitching along the shirt and contrasts the smoothness of the top-half of the figure with the textured trousers + stylish shoes.
Following on the heels of the collaborative Plus trexi series, PI is readying an original collabo robot project with tokidoki and Devilrobots. Tokidoki's Astrodemonio + Captain Murder Jr. (pilot) prototype was at the booth while Devilrobots' Evil King + Shin. K (pilot) is undergoing final changes and was not on display. Finally, continuing their experimentation with vinyl growth hormone, PI showed off their giant version of Evirob by Devilrobots. But wait there's more... PI's new brochure tantalizes with new toys by Bloo Empire, Boredom Squeezer, and Furi Furi.
STRANGEco @ TTF '07
Mixed in with a selection of their current toys, STRANGEco showed off a few upcoming releases at Pixie's large shared TTF booth. First up are two repaints of the Mars-1 Observers by graff legend Seen and the highly respected Delta. The bold colors and wild designs definitely bring a new street-wise vibe to the relatively understated Observers line. In addition, painted samples of Bob Dob's Luey in hellish red made their first public appearance.
Medicom @ TTF '07
Medicom is one of the OG designer toy companies and a major player (especially in Asia) with their highly respected Kubrick and Be@rbrick Series, the long-running VCD line (Vinyl Collectible Dolls) as well as numerous other lines. While Medicom did not have a booth at TTF, several recent and upcoming products were shown in a special display organized by Taiwanese toy distributors, Monster Taipei.
Several new 400% Be@rbricks were on display plus a 1000% Sex Pistols figure and a teaser cardboard image of the band's second upcoming 1000%er. Recent Disney VCD figures produced by Roen x Medicom graced the display as well as a pair of sweet vintage style Mickey and Oswlad Kubricks. The Devilrobots 10th Anniversary figures and the TTF Tofu-heads completed the Kubricks shown. Finally, several detailed 1:6 scale figures were featured in the display.
Taipei Toy Festival '07
Greetings from Taipei. It's that time -- Taipei Toy Festival '07 organized by Monster Taipei. Want to know what's hot in the Asian designer toy market? This is the place.
Got in to Taipei 6 AM local time. Made it over to Mira Living Mall around 12:s30 PM. The first thing you notice are the TTF banners covering the elevator doors. Always seem to be a pretty serious line up at the elevators to get to the TTF exhibition floor. Apparently the crowd for the first day (Thursday) was massive -- the line prior to the opening filled two floors beneath the show floor. People seem surprised at the heavier than expected turnout -- much larger than last year. Perhaps it's the maturation of the market, the growing expectations of a profitable secondary market for show exclusives and other hard to find toys, or a mix of factors. The surge in attendance would seem to suggest that interest in designer toys in Taiwain is not only strong but growing.
Lots of excitement while surveying the exhibition booths -- some of it from seeing previouly announced and anticipated figures for the first time up close (never quite the same as from pics) and some from new products and companies we're learning about for the first time. We'll try to bring you as much of it as we can, as quickly as we can. Enjoy. Vinyl Pulse's coverage of TTF is partially sponsored by Monster Taipei.
Jul 03, 2007
Winson Ma's T Rex @ TTF 2007
Taipei Toy Festival is just around the corner and Vinyl Pulse is getting in gear for the frenzy. Many artists with many toy releases are to be expected but one artist who's works we eagerly anticipate is Winson Ma. At this year's TTF, Winson is accepting pre-orders for T Rex, the second toy in his Apexplorers series. Words cannot justify the beauty of this toy, lets hope these photos will.
Jun 14, 2007
Tapei Toy Fair '07 Exclusives
Summer is right around the corner. That means warm lazy days and of course toy cons. While everyone immediately thinks SDCC, let's not forget about the best show to get a pulse on the latest in asian designer toys, Taipei Toy Festival. TTF '07 will be held from July 5 through the 8th at the Mira - Living Mall in Taipei. Check out the official TTF 2007 exclusive figures -- Kubrick 100% and 50% Set To-Fu set (1000 sets, NT$600 -- ~$18 ), Devilrobots x Gookii x Monster Taipei - 9 " Devil Gookii (200 pcs, NT$1800 -- ~$54), Grey Gablin from Touma (80 pcs, NT$2100 -- ~ $63). Stay tuned for the latest info on TTF and live reports from the show sponsored in part by Monster Taipei.
