nykioto the kid hobo by nvc crew for san diego comic convention 2008
After their success at NYCC with their Ishikawa The Roller Warrior - NVC Crew is set to launch a brand new sculpt at the coming San Diego Comic Convention with NYKIOTO The Kid Hobo! The social-awarenesss-inspired resin figure stands aproximatively 6" -7'' tall and will come handpainted by NVC and housed in handmade recycled wooden boxes in a limit of only 5 pieces! (Price undetermined) - slated to launch at ToyQube Booth#4837 (exact date & time TBC) ... meanwhile CLICK THRU for a chat with Dr. Bao of NVC Crew about Nykioto's creation :)
TOYSREVIL: So right after the success of Ishikawa at NYCC, you guys launch into a brand new sculpt / design? How did it all start?
DR BAO: So Spive and I were talking a little bit about how the launch of Ishikawa was at NYCC - By the way, I think it was big success since all were gone before we even showed it to the public!
But, even with the success of the launch we knew that Ishikawa was successful but only for a certain type of collector, I mean, we know the kind of people that like Ishikawa and it was obviously more for a male crowd! Even if we met a woman who truly loved it, it would have been just too late because none was available!
So how can we reach more people - and I don't mean necessary more people - but a larger public, something that anyone can appreciate ... And to us, it was obvious that we will / should stay away from our big bad boy dude!
So I had a project that I wanted to do for a while but it just never happen... And this project has to do with something more emotional with simple shapes and maybe something with a message behind it too ... and that it has to do with kids and urban style life poverty, etc....
So how can we bring that street urban style life into a figure but without using the same idea as other artists, with stuff like spray cans etc ... and that's how my idea of exploring the idea of making a hobo!!!!! Usually, when we refer to hobo, we usually think of old homeless person.....but hey there are also kids that are homeless and that live in the
street ... There is no age barrier to homelessness and poverty ... and I saw this when I traveled to Vietnam a few years ago where I saw these little kid without money ... So that was our starting point...A Kid Hobo!!!!
And what characterizes this kid hobo is that he doesn't have money, and this is represent by his old trench coat with stitches etc ... But what's also special about this kid is that even if he's very poor, he still has nice shoes on his feet!!!! You know the latest trendy and perfectly clean kicks in his feet!!!!!!!
But how come he has such nice shoes and he's a hobo??!!! The explanation is that he's one of these "sweatshop kid" that works for big shoes company!!!!!!!
DR BAO: And you would probably understand the message behind this right?? Even though he doesn't have much money to live, he still have nice shoes because major shoes company where he's working for give them free to him ...
TOYSREVIL: Free or perhaps those which fail the quality-test :p
DR BAO: So this is like - "look at me, I'm a hobo but receives these nice fresh sneakers free because it cost nothing to produce for the companies ... but you guys (lets' say in North America) are spending plenty of money to buy them!!!!" ... And this truly represent the sneaker freaker phenomenom!!!
Nykioto is one those cheap labor kid that is been exploited by shoes companies...
TOYSREVIL: that's heavy, dude...
DR BAO: And finally, to stay in the urban art and expression, we make this kid a street performer....and because I'm a ukulele player in real life, I made a tribute to the instrument by making the character carry one in his back. And again we just try to explore other stuff other than spray can and stuff like that. And I think street performer is something quite cool that is not been explore by others.
TOYSREVIL: ala Street Buskers - did you know in Singapore, you'd need a permit to street-busk? LOL ... sorry, I digress... what I've always liked about NVC Crew-works are your attention to "details"...
DR BAO: But there's one detail we wanted to incorporate in the figure. Even if the theme is kind of dark Spive and I are positives guy and we express it by making the kid crossing his fingers to show that there's still hope in everything and better days can always occur.
TOYSREVIL: Hoping and wishing for better days and a decent life worth living ... Is there any significance to the name "Nikioto"?
DR BAO: I think that if you analyze it well you will understand how we twist his name ... well you will recognize a few words we use ... Nykioto - something like Nike - ioto (kyoto), I think you understand ... also, "The Kid Hobo" - doesn't it sound like something else???!!!! Kid R........!!! hahahahaha
TOYSREVIL: *snigger*
DR BAO: Anyway, as you can see we had plenty of pleasure in my car when we conceptualize all this character and I think the result is quite interesting, and again different from what people do ... I mean, I think we simply push things further in the way we think. I think it's quite a daring project since the theme we expore here is totally different from what people are used to in the toy designer industry where all is more based on the pop culture theme... But you already know that we do things that people don't, so it's just NVC's way of thinking.
TOYSREVIL: Keep on rawking it, Dao & Spive! Now down to the figures' descriptions and availability! Lay it on me buddy!
DR BAO: So this figure is aproximatively 6" -7'' tall and will be in resin and handpainted of course ... All handcasted and produce by us.
As you can see, we decide to go a kind of blue for the head and face for the character, what we wanted to do was to find a color that would be more universal rather to go with something realistic and identify a particular ethnic culture or whatever ... I think the blue color just gives that kind of "alien" look that fits well with the shapes of the head and the ears.
TOYSREVIL: Good call, IMHO.
DR BAO: As for the clothes, you will notice that when it came to choosing the colors for the whole figure, I had in mind that I had to choose some kind of neutral colors for the shirt and vest, so I can use any funky colors for the tie and then match these colors to the colors of the shoes. The concept is matching the tie with the shoes ... and I think the effect works quite well......
Also I think it shows too that even if we're doing a figure based on poverty and homeless, we still keep that pop culture and "fashion" influence into it, by doing stuff like matching the tie with shoes, and doing shoes pattern and colors that are very actual and trendy ... It's like we worked on a non pop culture influence theme that no one else in
the toy industry did but at the same time, we still show that we know the funky trends and styles...you know what I mean...
TOYSREVIL: Also to not alienate pop culture from your creations, becoz this is more than just a literal translation and/or adaptation of a social observation ...
DR BAO: As you probably noticed, the way I paint the shoes and the rest of the figure is also different..... ....If you look carefully, you will see that the shoes are painted flat with no shadings into it...only straight colors apply
on the shoes.....and for the rest of the figure, it's painted a little thrash with a lot of shadings...
And I did this intentionally to make it fit with the concept of the figure - It's like, I'm a hobo kid that have to play music and do paintings in the street to try to find money ... I have old and all worn out clothes but I have very nice and clean pair of shoes, because I'm one of these "sweat shop kid" working for major shoes companies that exploit people ...
The shoes are also gloss finished compare to the rest of the body that have a kind of satin finish.....
DR BAO: You will also see that in the left pocket of the vest, we added a paintbrush!!! And what we wanted to do was to create a true street artist ala old school, and not going with the all new icons of street art tools such as spray cans, etc... Straight from the basics!!
Also, you have to look at the ukulele that we did - I think this is something that look quite realistic for it size - it even has strings on it!!!!!! hahahaaha!!!!!!
And don't forget those crossed fingers that are very important since it shows tha there's hope for everything ... and we have to believe in it ...
TOYSREVIL: How many Nykiotos are you guys making?
DR BAO: Ok, so I have 5 copies of these figures for SDCC.
DR BAO: And what's cool about going indy is we can do whatever we want - like for the 5 copies, you will notice that I did 3 different colors schemes version ... since I just find cool the kind of matches I can create with the colors that I use, so people just don't know which version of the shoes they get ... It's like real collectors shoes, they are limited edition kicks!!!! hahahahahahah!!!!! To complete our concept of cheap labor and stuff like that, we decide to put the figures into wood crates!!!!!!!
TOYSREVIL: Blind-Wooden-boxed Nykiotos! LOL
DR BAO: We used recycle wood panels that we found in the street and then make some wooden crates out of them ... And what's cool is that it really look that those crappy wooden crates that are used to ship stuff.
DR BAO: The idea was to do like - "In the 21th century, we can now even ship cheap labors in woods crates and then make them work for you" ... So I think going indy can be very cool since we can do whatever we want and in the way we want....and the different shoes version and wooden crates boxes are just among examples ...
TOYSREVIL: Where at San Diego Comic Convention can folks find these 5 Nykiotos?
DR BAO: The five copies will be available at ToyQube at SDCC - They are a kind of "pre-official-lauch" of the figure since we're planning on making a more official launch later ... and as expected it will be extreme limited
figures ...
TOYSREVIL: Watch out for the Army Of Nykiotos, folks!
