I am honored to be among this exquisite group of artists celebrating the 10th anniversary of Ilanena Hoshina. Really honored because this whole project went through in less than two weeks. Ilanena-sama showed a preview image of one of the custom toys on twitter and I told him that I would have enjoyed participating (thinking that 2 weeks was not enough time anyway to be invited and well, usually invitations are closed this shortly before the opening).

But what I did not expect was his reply. He asked me for my address and within one week I received a box with his Dai Kaiju Card Monsters. I already knew what I wanted to do but when I started working on Monday evening I wasn’t successful. I gave up early and it took me a second attempt the next evening to finally come up with the results that I had envisioned.

Inspired by cutaway anatomy drawings of kaiju monsters I wanted to do something similar, yet, also different from what Jason Freeny is already quite well known for. Then I remembered having seen sheet plastinations in an article about Gunter von Hagen and knew that this would be what I wanted to try to recreate. I have to admit that by creations below are not really plastinations in the literal sense. With the little time I had (deadline is next weeks Monday!) I also did not have the time to sculpt proper organs. Hence, the approximate result of a fake plastination. Yet, I am really happy with the results.

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Ilanena Hoshina: website, flickr, twitter
Wikipedia: Plastination

And, already well documented on this blog but finally the official announcement. The custom run of 7 Night Gamers will be available for purchase soon.

Each 6 1/2″ high vinyl figure is customized by Daniel hand sculpting and painting his unique vision of the original Night Gamer. Features include, altered head with multiple glass eyes, an internal color changing motion activated LED unit and a unique plush toy animal suit. These are signed by Daniel on the base of the feet.

The edition will be offered via the Plaseebo web-shop on Monday January 24th for $375. each. plaseebo.net

The new year has brought many changes. I am not self-employed any more and I am now working full time as a Senior Visual Designer Sourcebits. So, now making custom toys and my own sculptures has become a hobby once more. Despite having a lot less time to invest in this area it has also freed me from the need to put out anything for the pure sake of surviving.

What you see above is my most recent creation. I usually have a tendency to go overboard with details and it was a nice change to try to reduce an already heavily textured toy to minimalistic doll-like features while still keeping the original proportions.

Alien Argus Adelheid has a little backstory: Despite her eyeless face Adelheid was born gifted. Since her birth she seemed aware of more than any other human around her. Her parents named her Adelheid because despite her upsetting looks, she was of very gentle and noble nature. Everyone else called her “Alien Argus” because once you had met her you left with the impression that she had seen everything. Your past and your future, your very being. Adelheid met an early and unfortunate end when she was lynched by scared group of villagers blaming her for the death of the mayor’s child which she had predicted earlier. Her parents never had any children thereafter.

Oh, and she has pants for every day of the week:

Customized version of Mark Nagata‘s Alien Argus toy. Made from soft vinyl doll parts, Apoxie Sculpt, acrylics and fabric (the doll’s original dress) and internal impact activated color-changing LED. Stands ca. 27cm tall.

Available for purchase at the upcoming “Alien Argus Custom Show” at LA’s Toy Art Gallery.

Mama, Papa, look!

A short little video of the LEDs in action. It gives you an impression of what it looks like but it is mere approximation to the actual experience.

The soundtrack is from Eliot Lipp’s album “City Synthesis”.