A place to share pictures and information about Japanese vinyl kaiju toys, figures, and collectibles, whether vintage kaiju or neo-kaiju. All kaiju fans are welcome to add their comments, ask questions, or otherwise contribute to the kaiju knowledge base. Enjoy!
Guiron was from the 1969 movie commonly referred to as Gamera vs. Guiron, the fifth entry in the Gamera series. Guiron (or "Guillon" - named for "guillotine"), was a giant quadrupedal dinosaur-like monster with a head shaped like a long knife. Along the knife is a hole that shoots small magnetic shurikens.
"Plot summary: Two boys, Akio and Tom, spy in their telescope a spaceship that descends into a nearby field. With Akio's little sister in tow, they bicycle out the next day to investigate. The boys accidentally take off to a Counter-Earth, while Tomoko is left behind, unable to convince any adults (except kindly but eccentric police officer Kondo) of the boys' misadventure. On the icebound planet Terra, the boys encounter two beautiful but sinister alien women and the monster Guillon, who effortlessly dices a Space-Gyaos with its knife-blade head. Gamera eventually tracks the boys to the ice planet and battles Guillon while the boys try to avoid being served up for dinner by their hungry hosts."
Golden Xam with glitter by Mark Nagata, from the Toy Kaiju Show at Rotofugi in Chicago. Blue Xam by Paul Kaiju of California - painted on GID vinyl... Click the pics to enlarge them.
This absolutely amazing figure is now the premiere piece in my collection, bar none. Thanks to Carlos, Mark Nagata of Max Toy Company, and Whitney and Kirby at Rotofugi in Chicago for making some of Carlos' work available at the Toy Karma Show that was held at Rotofugi in September. My photos do NOT do this figure justice.
Fiberglass sculpture. One of an edition of 8. 15 inches tall.
Carlos Enriquez Gonzalez is an artist from Caracas, Venezuela. His work is in the permanent collection of the Caracas Museum of Modern Art (Museum of Contemporary Art of Caracas Sofía Ímber) and he has exhibited his kaiju and Astroboy influenced sculptures in other museums and galleries around world.
Mark Nagata has provided a very nice description of how these figures are made by Carlos:
"Carlos goes thru a rather hand intensive process on each figure. First each is carved in wood, than special molds are made, and from those fiberglass copies are made. [The figures that were offered at the Toy Karma show at Rotofugi in Chicago] only have 6-8 unique versions. After the raw casting is pulled, each one must be sanded down and patched up if needed. Once done each is primed for paint. Now the magic begins... very expensive auto paint with glitter in it is used to hand paint each figure. No two figures are the same... each has a subtle "fade" in it's painting... something that no photo can pick up... much like a low rider car, these figures simply glow in the sun! Since these figures are so limited the cost is not cheap. These are not toys or even customs.. but rather fine art, think Murakami or dare I say Warhol in approach. ... After each run is done the molds are destroyed and will never be released again."
Watch the movie! Click the "play" button. Turn up your volume.
(You may be able to view it in larger format here. Click "full size" at the lower right hand corner.)
Nathan Jurevicius spoke at the AGIdeas 2007 design conference held in Australia on April 1-3, 2007 (www.agideas.net) as part of a group of other international speakers. The theme was about "inspiration" for each of the participating designers’ work.
Nathan talked about his inspiration for various aspects of his work, including the then-secret Fauna figures that he was working on for MTV Canada (three of which have just been released through Super7 at the Halloween Monster Mash Show, pictures below - they are now available there – better act fast though because they won’t last!); as well as his then newly released City Folk series; the previously released Scarygirl sets; and beautiful paintings of the Scarygirl/City Folk alternative universe. NOTE: I have added some links to the MTV Canada videos below!
Nathan was kind enough to share with me a copy of the slides from his talk at the conference, shown above. (I was thrilled that his presentation included some of my photos of pieces from my collection of Japanese kaiju figures and of my silver Bunniguru and clear Mr. Egg.)
The slides do not include his spoken comments from the conference, but here is an overview of what he talked about while showing the slides:
The presentation consisted of three main parts:
“The first section shows my ideas/ drawing process and how I don’t pause to think - just draw and write notes....
“The second section shows a work in progress project I'm doing for MTV Canada [the Fauna series figures] and how I'm inspired by desk objects, rubber balls, plant/sea life and [Japanese toys]. The project is kind of eastern Europe meets Japanese characters and we will be doing both animated spots and actual toys eventually (so stay tuned).
“The final part of the talk shows my influences for Scarygirl [and City Folk] and then goes through the story and world.”
“Basically, [my presentation is] showing how on 2 projects I looked around at what interests me or is personal to me and created designs from them... It was shown originally on a massive screen so everything was way bigger.”
[I added the music to Nathan’s slides…First track: "Cin Alayi", by Projekt X (Adrian Belew - g; Robert Fripp - g & soundscapes; Trey Gunn - bass & baritone g; Pat Mastelotto - Traps and Buttons), from the "Heaven and Earth" cd; Second track: "Mabo", by master didjeridu artist Stephen Kent from the "Landing" cd.]
Here are a couple of "stills" from the video:
Stock photos of the Fauna figures for sale at Super7:
Here are the links to the MTV Canada videos starring Nathan's Fauna:
