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#ROADKILL by twelveDot x Pobber: Seen @ #STGCC2015 + Interview

Revealed in full and seen on display at the Pobber Toys booth at the recent Singaporew Toy, Games & Comic Convention (#STGCC2015) was South Korean designer Hyunseung Rim AKA twelveDot's ROADKILL art collectible, to be produced by Pobber, and I was both blown away and intrigued by the aesthetics! I had an online chat with Faye Kim (wife of twelveDot and uber-proficient English-speaker) and as well bugged Jake Lee, Owner of Pobber!

Let's jump straight into it, shall we? :)

@twelvedot x @pobbertoys #ROADKILL revealed at #STGCC #TOYSREVILatSTGCC

A photo posted by TOYSREVIL (@toysrevil) on


TOYSREVIL: Before we go into the concept of Roadkill, let's talk a little bit about it's obvious SIZE … Is the figure shown at STGCC the final size of the production piece? It looked massive! And as well would make an interesting conversation piece in a curated space, as well as in a toy display, IMHO!
FAYE KIM: "The Roadkill shown at STGCC is the actual factory sample of the finalized design so the size will be the same. We have more versions in the works that might have different shapes and sizes but have yet to finalize designs. However I am quite confident that the collectors who like the first version will also fall for the next ones to come out along the road."

TOYSREVIL: "Come out along the road" = good one! The design aesthetic is not something fans of APO Frogs might be used to seeing, but for folks following twelveDot's exhibition shows would be able to recognize, as well this seems a highly stylized form as well … how did the form came about, and why the decision to do such a piece for a production release, with Pobber?
FAYE KIM: "twelveDot had been wanting to do a piece focusing on the issue of roadkills for quite some time but was worried that the design in his head might be a bit hard to realize in a mass production piece as our plant already had so much trouble producing our seemingly simpler APO Frogs.

When we saw the quality of Pobber's Bad Ass series and 3Balls we were quite astonished and when Jake approached us with a collab suggestion twelveDot immediately thought of his Roadkill project. It was a match made in heaven and we are extremely happy with the way the collab worked out."

TOYSREVIL: Could you share with us the design concept and aim(s) for Roadkill?
FAYE KIM: "Roadkill features a horn frog stylized as a menacing sleek sports car in a typical twelveDot-ish turn of tables; just as the Apocalypse Frogs and APO Frogs tell the story of frogs ironically surviving a human-induced apocalypse by evolving into a human-like form, the horn frog takes on the shape of the car that takes its life, and seems to threaten us humans with its demeanor and headlight glare. Through the piece, twelveDot wants people to know that we unawarely kill too many frogs each spring."

TOYSREVIL: Time to put you in the hot-seat, Jake! Any release plans for now? Different colorways? Or just the gloss black? This is a huge piece! (Besides Gary's STAG, of course). How tall exactly?
JAKE LEE: "Roadkill will be released in Spring 2016. It measures over 9 inches in height and we look at it as continuing our Art Sculpture series. No other colourways planned at the moment but the collaboration has been so enjoyable and we have talked broadly about working on a range of projects."
FAYE KIM: "We plan on releasing the Roadkill piece in spring next year, just as the actual roadkill season starts as frogs emerge from hibernation. Specific dates have yet to be finalized."
TOYSREVIL: I am extremely intrigued with this piece, as it is by far the most "abstract" / "stylistic" character piece in Pobber's catalog. What are your thoughts and intentions for this, Jake?
JAKE LEE: "You are right that it is by far the most stylistic piece we have done and we couldn't be happier with the response we got at STGCC.  We wish to highlight the problem of Roadkill through this piece. I did a search and found that up to 95% of roadkill are frogs and other amphibians. Yet very few people ever think of protecting frogs."

TOYSREVIL: Production queries aside, is this a creative direction twelveDot is taking now, Faye? Or are we witness to diverging paths set upon by himself many moons ago?
FAYE KIM: "twelveDot, in my firsthand view of his work as a totally non creative person , doesn't seem to have a clear creative direction or roadmap and instead just designs and makes whatever he wants to add to his personal collection, be it frogs or bunnies or any type of form. Although many now consider him the frog-loving nature-crusading geek of the art toy world, he actually does not like to confine himself to frogs hehehehehe.

He has several new projects in the works that he won't let me talk about or trust me enough to take pics in fear of leaks, but I can tell you that you may be surprised with the species diversity of the art toys to roll out over the next several months. But, no worries, he also has plenty amphibians for all the frog lover fans as well."

TOYSREVIL: Variety is the spice of toylife, methinks, and I cannot wait to see what else twelveDot has up his sleeves … I'd also take this opportunity to mention: I'd LOVE the APO Frog in black! Thanks muchly!!! And I didn't know the White APOs on display around Roadkill in STGCC were for sale too! Would've made an uber schweet B+W combo hahahaha

FAYE KIM: "The rubber version frog we gave you is an example of what drives twelveDot's business admin/marketing major wife crazy. He fell in love with his own creation and refuses to sell them and instead hoards them away in his studio and giving just a few to closest friends although many have asking to buy the frogs!"

TOYSREVIL: *Smiles-with-tongue-sticking-out*
FAYE KIM: "It’s been so hard to tell people asking for previous versions that we have none available for sale, but after months of cajoling twelveDot finally gave up a small portion of his secret stash so we are bringing a few along with us to Taipei for TTF in October along with a couple new APO Frog versions from our new collection! So those who missed out on our last year version, you can tell them to come to TTF next month :)"


FAYE KIM: "The white ones we showcased alongside the Roadkill piece at stgcc was actually the white Ghost frog from our Ghost of Fallen Frogs set which were sold last year. They were set up to symbolize the ghosts of frogs killed by cars, ie roadkills~! We had many come up to us asking if we were releasing new white frogs, not realizing they were from our previous series."

TOYSREVIL: What's next for Twelvedot? Any new APO Frogs coming down the line soon? A lot of folks are perhaps more familiar with the APO Frogs … the Monster Dot version I previously featured looked rad!

FAYE KIM: "…I love the new colorways and new looks although still not allowed to leak any details! Just bursting to tell you all about our new frogs but will have to wait until next month!! We will also be offering twelveDot’s Playboy piece for the first time at TTF so looking forward to seeing the first market reaction to twelveDot’s non-froggy pieces!!!"

[ Above screengrab of twelveDot's Playboy collectible from this video promo ]

twelveDot @ 12dotstudio.com / Facebook / IG @twelvedot
Pobber Toys @ pobber.com / Facebook / IG @pobbertoys Twitter @pobbertoys
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