Archive for the ‘Japanese Monsters’ Tag
Guiro Seijin is a very cool kaiju from Ultraman Leo, with a very distinctive painted toy:
http://www.clubtokyo.org/listings/itemListingRpt.php?catID=1&subCatID=12&contentID=1722
I love the paint work and figure, but could never afford the vintage figure. Somehow I thought the Real X Head Gatchigon sculpt kinda, sorta, maybe reminded me of the Guiro Seijin, so I decided to see how the Gatchigon would look in these colors… the end results came out really neat, even if I feel like I cannot have been the first person to think of this custom. This guy was fun to paint; the loose spray vintage style was very different from the tight and detailed spray work I usually do.
I finished this latest Kaiju Eyezon over the weekend and snapped some nice bright pictures today. The goal for this figure was to change it up from the earthy potato palette of the first two Eyezons, and go with some much brighter colors, and a much greater emphasis on the clear and the visible guts. I’m really happy with how this one came out… the colors have a great deal more subtlety than my other figures, with many layers, while still retaining a surprising amount of clarity. The silhouette of the guts can be made out with the figure in your hands, and up against the light, this figure goes up like a Christmas tree. I cleaned off a few critical spots of paint so that the guts could really be seen in-hand.
Hedorah the Smog Monster is one of the most iconic of the Godzilla enemy kaiju, even if Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster is one of the most divisive of the Godzilla films. With his many forms, Hedorah brings destruction to Japan as revenge for their polluting ways. This particular sculpt is by M1GO, representing the most recent Godzilla: Final Wars version of Hedorah, in lovely brown chocolate-ey vinyl from the latest Lucky Bag. The color was so fantastic and made Hedorah look like a giant sewage monster, so I wanted to keep most of the base vinyl color and run with the sewage palette. The green ooze is shiny on a matte figure, with wet looking dark brown in he crevices of Hedorah’s body, giving it a wet and dry ‘made of poop’ look that I think really works for the monster.
Working on another clear Eyezon with guts… this time, the colors are going to be much more wild, starting with the guts. There is going to be a much greater focus on the guts this time, so the paint work is more extravagant, and I tried something new on the clear body. I sprayed the body with multiple coats of Future, inside and out, before I put any paint on it, so it should be much more clear than the first clear Eyezon I did. I will update with some pics of the guts installed once I do it.
Elegab is the work of a single man in Japan, and is cranking out some of the most original vinyl kaiju available right now. All of Elegab’s stuff has a rougher hand-made feel, and the figures never sacrifice on the fun factor. The Shuttlegon here is a towering monster held into some kind of containment suit with a jetpack and mechanical wrench-arm that can grab and hold mini figures! This custom is painted on the Glow In the Dark blank that was released a few months ago… I also have a blank Monster Patrol Car (another amazing toy) to paint up some day. I wanted to try using more colors than I usually do, and used a shiny finish instead of my usual matte. The metallic bits are all Future shiny and look like candy, and all of the organic bits were hit with a 50/50 Future and Vallejo Satin mix. The eyes were painted to match the production Elegab pieces with a thick and rough white and black combo. The horns and claws and teeth are all the base GID vinyl, and the whole figure still glows really well through the paint. Glow shots to come tonight.
An update on the toys that were waiting for me at the end of this college term… some updated proper shelf shots are in order of my now awesome vinyl collection. Kaiju have muscled Gokin and Transformers out of the way to take over! Lots of M1 Lucky Bag blanks, a ton of RealXHead, including the first Gatchigon (Smokey clear with GID vinyl shards and green baby), and two non-vinyl victories, the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Megazord and Thunderzord, two of my favorite toys! Also note the Marka Nagata handpainted Captain Maxx, as well as my Toy Karma 2 Mark Nagata Neo Eyezon and Toybot Studios Rockin Kemur Seijin show pieces. Transformers-wise, I managed to score another grail piece, Micromaster Sonic, partner to Sonic Bomber, the missing piece of my Zone Powered Masters trio!
Prometheus Rising Studios 