Living The Kaiju-Dream with Kirkland Jue and his Toybot Studios Campus Edition Pop Soda
electric with a metallic blue jacket and clear luscious pink , accented with silver, green and gold spray, the 6"-er tall vinyl kaiju that is the Toybot Studios' Campus Edition Pop Soda; literally pops out of the computer-screen. limited to only 54 pcs = 34 will be made available in the U.S. at Super7 (@ US$70-per), while 20 total are bound for Japan; for Kaiju Taro and Popsoda :)
bridging the intangible gap between the aesthetics of eastern-kaiju and western-designer vinyl spirit (IMHO), the figure is a labour of love and passion for Toybot Studios' Kirkland Jue and i had the good fortune to have a wee chat with the intrepid toy-photographer, kaiju-lover and customizer, about the genesis of the Campus Edition Pop Soda ~ /// CLICK HERE TO READ
TOYSREVIL: first off, mondo-congrats on the figure, Kirkland! now how did the figure come about? what was the genesis in it's conception and eventual creation?
KIRKLAND JUE: The figure itself was designed by Katsura Mori of the wildly popular and very sought after RealxHead for the guys over at Popsoda which is an online store in Japan. When the clear pink version came out a while ago, I decided to customize it. The response was pretty good....better than most of my other customs, so the colorway seemed to resonate with the collectors.
TOYSREVIL: what inspired you to customize your Japanese toys in the first place?
KIRKLAND JUE: When I first started collecting Japanese vinyl, I went to a show at Super 7 featuring the legendary Paul Kaiju. I didn't know anything about these kinds of toys but I knew that I loved the way Paul painted them. I was drawn to customs immediately because there were always times when I liked the toy, but I wanted it in a different color. (usually blue and/or purple). Customizers like LASH, Locomoco, Comet Debris, H. Lee Porter to this day are an enormous source of inspiration!!
TOYSREVIL: inspiration, indeed! please describe to us your ToybotStudios-version of the Pop Soda figure? (especially to kaiju-noobs like me LOL)
KIRKLAND JUE: It's called the "Campus Edition". The figure is wearing a varsity jacket so it reminded me of high school. I un-consciously painted it blue (of course) to match my high school varsity jacket at John Marshall High in Los Angeles. (www.johnmarshallhs.org) Pretty geeky, but one of my highlights in high school was our team winning the LA All-City Tennis Championships in 1984 (geez, i'm dating myself).
TOYSREVIL: how was the experience of hand-coloring the individual pieces? describe your process please?
KIRKLAND JUE: I mixed all the colors on the Popsoda using a metallic, pearlescent paint. The green on the face and the blue on the back of the helmet are actually color changing paints like you might see on those import cars. When you lay them on top of the clear pink, it has this crazy pearlescent, shiny, yet translucent quality that I think looks pretty cool. You can't really tell from the pics, but there is metallic blue star garland inside the head and down the right arm. It kinda looks like these crazy star-shaped alien blood veins. When you hold the head up to a light, it looks insane...
TOYSREVIL: awesome detail dude, IMHO - describe the header-card as well. what's the story of it's conception?
KIRKLAND JUE: oh, the header card is the best part of the whole package! I'm a big fan of one of the resident artists of Super7 named Josh Herobolsheimer - he does these awesome water color paintings that are unbelievable. He's done a couple of header cards for Super 7 before so I knew I wanted to ask him to do the Popsoda one as well. I always thought it was a shame to confine his artwork to this teeny header card that is 5.5" x 2.5" so I thought why not feature Josh's artwork on entire backside of the package? The intent is that it's really a mini print that you can cut off from the header card and frame on your wall! It's like a figure + a mini print!! I think it came out pretty rad.
KIRKLAND JUE: The other slightly interesting part on the header card is that on the front, it has a picture of John Marshall High. I think it's one of the most beautiful high schools around and has been featured in movies like "Grease" and music videos like Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher". The backside above Josh's artwork is a picture of one of the yards at JMHS and is the view from where we used to actually hang out during lunch! lol!!
[Josh & Kirkland @ Campus Edition Pop Soda launch @ Super7]
TOYSREVIL: how was the feeling of seeing your (colorway) design come to life?
KIRKLAND JUE: I really just painted a bunch of figures that were already beautifully designed and produced. I give Mori and Popsoda full credit for making it easy to make an already wonderful figure.....different and hopefully interesting as well. But to take something and make it totally different and then share it with the collectors is an awesome feeling. It's very gratifying. I think the most surreal part was walking into Super 7 this morning and seeing my "custom" bagged with header card on the counter along side all the other Japanese toys I love and have purchased so often. Then to come back home and go to the Super 7 website and see it for sale online was unreal. I took a few screen shots....hahahaha!
TOYSREVIL: (i have this naive dream to have my own line of collaboration figures one fine toy-day LOL) how do you feel about your first ever TBS-figure, dude?
KIRKLAND JUE: I feel great. It was a ton of work, but worth it. I'm so inspired by all the independent toy producers out there that have really done something unique. They took an idea, a sketch, an illustration and made it into a 3D toy. I think all of us (including me and you) want to someday make a toy that is completely our own. I would say just go for it!
And this figure would not have been possible without help and guidance from Taro at Kaiju-Taro, Brian and Josh from Super7, Frank Kozik, RealxHead and of course, the crazy guys at Popsoda. Thank you for taking a chance on an unknown like me!
TOYSREVIL: aaahhh the sweet taste of a dream made reality ... dude, is there literally only 54 pieces made? why is that?
KIRKLAND JUE: The run size was supposed to be 60, but now it's 54 - with 34 for the U.S. (available at Super 7) and 20 total bound for Japan for Kaiju-Taro and Popsoda. I messed up 6 figures, but am thinking about stripping them and re-painting them with different colors. One of the guys on the board today, Uberboy suggested that I do your iconic high school characters like the "Stoner" or "Punk Rocker" dudes we remember so fondly.
TOYSREVIL: cool idea - heck, it'll 6 one-of-a-kind-customs, yeh? how cool would that be? what's up next for you Kirkland? any future collabos we should be looking out for?
KIRKLAND JUE: I have a couple of other projects in the works that are potentially really, really cool. Don't worry Andy, you will be amongst the first to learn about it!!! Aside from that, I have a ton of customs I want to paint for my own collection.
TOYSREVIL: you rawk Kirkland! looking forward to them goodies LOL - in closing, tell us about yourself, Who Is Kirkland Jue and What Is Toybot Studios all about?
KIRKLAND JUE: I work for Microsoft in San Francisco. It's a great place to work with tons of great people to work with. I love my job. toybot studios began just over 2 years ago as a blog to post pictures of Japanese toys. I have a passion for toy photography as well so it seemed like a good idea to write a bit about Japanese toys and post up my toy photography at the same time. As you know with toysrevil, it's a labor of love. Your blog rocks Andy and I check it several times a day! toybot studios in the future? I dunno. I would love to do more collaborations with other toy producers and maybe some day get a toy of my very own produced. My real problem is that I cannot design or draw to save my life. I would love to do some kind of vinyl mech. Like you, i'm terribly excited about Robert De Castro's Combat-R Zero. I think if I ever did a mech, I would want to do something smaller in the 5"-6" tall range.
Thanks Andy. I'm really honored to be interviewed for toysrevil!!!
TOYSREVIL: cheers for the kind words, Kirkland! the honor is mine :) and thanks for your time and trouble for this interview - hoping to see more of your works in the near future, buddy! (meanwhile i'll still be staking out your kickass-blog for my kaiju-fix!) and have a a fab Christmas to come!
- peep more Campus Edition Pop Soda as well as Kirkland's customs on toybot studios
- all images via toybot studios' flickr-album
bridging the intangible gap between the aesthetics of eastern-kaiju and western-designer vinyl spirit (IMHO), the figure is a labour of love and passion for Toybot Studios' Kirkland Jue and i had the good fortune to have a wee chat with the intrepid toy-photographer, kaiju-lover and customizer, about the genesis of the Campus Edition Pop Soda ~ /// CLICK HERE TO READ
TOYSREVIL: first off, mondo-congrats on the figure, Kirkland! now how did the figure come about? what was the genesis in it's conception and eventual creation?
KIRKLAND JUE: The figure itself was designed by Katsura Mori of the wildly popular and very sought after RealxHead for the guys over at Popsoda which is an online store in Japan. When the clear pink version came out a while ago, I decided to customize it. The response was pretty good....better than most of my other customs, so the colorway seemed to resonate with the collectors.
TOYSREVIL: what inspired you to customize your Japanese toys in the first place?
KIRKLAND JUE: When I first started collecting Japanese vinyl, I went to a show at Super 7 featuring the legendary Paul Kaiju. I didn't know anything about these kinds of toys but I knew that I loved the way Paul painted them. I was drawn to customs immediately because there were always times when I liked the toy, but I wanted it in a different color. (usually blue and/or purple). Customizers like LASH, Locomoco, Comet Debris, H. Lee Porter to this day are an enormous source of inspiration!!
TOYSREVIL: inspiration, indeed! please describe to us your ToybotStudios-version of the Pop Soda figure? (especially to kaiju-noobs like me LOL)
KIRKLAND JUE: It's called the "Campus Edition". The figure is wearing a varsity jacket so it reminded me of high school. I un-consciously painted it blue (of course) to match my high school varsity jacket at John Marshall High in Los Angeles. (www.johnmarshallhs.org) Pretty geeky, but one of my highlights in high school was our team winning the LA All-City Tennis Championships in 1984 (geez, i'm dating myself).
TOYSREVIL: how was the experience of hand-coloring the individual pieces? describe your process please?
KIRKLAND JUE: I mixed all the colors on the Popsoda using a metallic, pearlescent paint. The green on the face and the blue on the back of the helmet are actually color changing paints like you might see on those import cars. When you lay them on top of the clear pink, it has this crazy pearlescent, shiny, yet translucent quality that I think looks pretty cool. You can't really tell from the pics, but there is metallic blue star garland inside the head and down the right arm. It kinda looks like these crazy star-shaped alien blood veins. When you hold the head up to a light, it looks insane...
TOYSREVIL: awesome detail dude, IMHO - describe the header-card as well. what's the story of it's conception?
KIRKLAND JUE: oh, the header card is the best part of the whole package! I'm a big fan of one of the resident artists of Super7 named Josh Herobolsheimer - he does these awesome water color paintings that are unbelievable. He's done a couple of header cards for Super 7 before so I knew I wanted to ask him to do the Popsoda one as well. I always thought it was a shame to confine his artwork to this teeny header card that is 5.5" x 2.5" so I thought why not feature Josh's artwork on entire backside of the package? The intent is that it's really a mini print that you can cut off from the header card and frame on your wall! It's like a figure + a mini print!! I think it came out pretty rad.
KIRKLAND JUE: The other slightly interesting part on the header card is that on the front, it has a picture of John Marshall High. I think it's one of the most beautiful high schools around and has been featured in movies like "Grease" and music videos like Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher". The backside above Josh's artwork is a picture of one of the yards at JMHS and is the view from where we used to actually hang out during lunch! lol!!
[Josh & Kirkland @ Campus Edition Pop Soda launch @ Super7]
TOYSREVIL: how was the feeling of seeing your (colorway) design come to life?
KIRKLAND JUE: I really just painted a bunch of figures that were already beautifully designed and produced. I give Mori and Popsoda full credit for making it easy to make an already wonderful figure.....different and hopefully interesting as well. But to take something and make it totally different and then share it with the collectors is an awesome feeling. It's very gratifying. I think the most surreal part was walking into Super 7 this morning and seeing my "custom" bagged with header card on the counter along side all the other Japanese toys I love and have purchased so often. Then to come back home and go to the Super 7 website and see it for sale online was unreal. I took a few screen shots....hahahaha! TOYSREVIL: (i have this naive dream to have my own line of collaboration figures one fine toy-day LOL) how do you feel about your first ever TBS-figure, dude?
KIRKLAND JUE: I feel great. It was a ton of work, but worth it. I'm so inspired by all the independent toy producers out there that have really done something unique. They took an idea, a sketch, an illustration and made it into a 3D toy. I think all of us (including me and you) want to someday make a toy that is completely our own. I would say just go for it!
And this figure would not have been possible without help and guidance from Taro at Kaiju-Taro, Brian and Josh from Super7, Frank Kozik, RealxHead and of course, the crazy guys at Popsoda. Thank you for taking a chance on an unknown like me!
TOYSREVIL: aaahhh the sweet taste of a dream made reality ... dude, is there literally only 54 pieces made? why is that?
KIRKLAND JUE: The run size was supposed to be 60, but now it's 54 - with 34 for the U.S. (available at Super 7) and 20 total bound for Japan for Kaiju-Taro and Popsoda. I messed up 6 figures, but am thinking about stripping them and re-painting them with different colors. One of the guys on the board today, Uberboy suggested that I do your iconic high school characters like the "Stoner" or "Punk Rocker" dudes we remember so fondly.
TOYSREVIL: cool idea - heck, it'll 6 one-of-a-kind-customs, yeh? how cool would that be? what's up next for you Kirkland? any future collabos we should be looking out for?
KIRKLAND JUE: I have a couple of other projects in the works that are potentially really, really cool. Don't worry Andy, you will be amongst the first to learn about it!!! Aside from that, I have a ton of customs I want to paint for my own collection.
TOYSREVIL: you rawk Kirkland! looking forward to them goodies LOL - in closing, tell us about yourself, Who Is Kirkland Jue and What Is Toybot Studios all about?KIRKLAND JUE: I work for Microsoft in San Francisco. It's a great place to work with tons of great people to work with. I love my job. toybot studios began just over 2 years ago as a blog to post pictures of Japanese toys. I have a passion for toy photography as well so it seemed like a good idea to write a bit about Japanese toys and post up my toy photography at the same time. As you know with toysrevil, it's a labor of love. Your blog rocks Andy and I check it several times a day! toybot studios in the future? I dunno. I would love to do more collaborations with other toy producers and maybe some day get a toy of my very own produced. My real problem is that I cannot design or draw to save my life. I would love to do some kind of vinyl mech. Like you, i'm terribly excited about Robert De Castro's Combat-R Zero. I think if I ever did a mech, I would want to do something smaller in the 5"-6" tall range.
Thanks Andy. I'm really honored to be interviewed for toysrevil!!!
TOYSREVIL: cheers for the kind words, Kirkland! the honor is mine :) and thanks for your time and trouble for this interview - hoping to see more of your works in the near future, buddy! (meanwhile i'll still be staking out your kickass-blog for my kaiju-fix!) and have a a fab Christmas to come!
- peep more Campus Edition Pop Soda as well as Kirkland's customs on toybot studios
- all images via toybot studios' flickr-album
