#playingwith: BREADCAT Vinyl BoxCat by Rato Kim x Unbox Industries
Today we have a look at a “BREADCAT” vinyl collectible - designed by South Korean toy-artist Rato Kim, produced and made by Hong Kong’s Unbox Industries. Available at the recent weekend’s Singapore Toy, Games & Comic Con (Sept 9-10), this is a standard / regular version released not too long ago (along with Peach and Sakura BreadCats), while there is the event-exclusive Flowerbread Cat to be had via HorNest online now. Rato Kim was also in town for it’s launch at STGCC too!
For folks unfamiliar with “BOXCAT” - It is essentially the combination of a “CAT” in “BOX” form - a deceptively “simple” concept, that is both charmingly familiar and whimsical … and cats “love” boxes too, don’t they? The fab part of its genesis was, “BoxCat” was created by Rato Kim as part of a design class requirement!
”… I needed to create a design as a subject for my technical class, so I remembered my favorite cat. I like cats very much (but I cannot own one now), so I thought of having my very “own cat”.
The cats we know like “boxes”, right? So I molded the box, while the cat was expressed in clay. The cat inside the box was expressed as if it were trapped in a box. That was the beginning of BOXCAT." - shared Rato Kim (Read her full interview HERE).
BOXCAT made it’s public debut at Art Toy Culture in 2015, and in a couple of years, it has exploded into the toy-scene, gaining popularity internationally and has seen her hand-painted resin figures in multiple conventions! Fast forward to July this year, Unbox debuted them for sale at “Unbox & Friends in Shanghai”, having first teased fans earlier in Thailand 2 months prior!
I had first fallen in toy-love with Rato’s RESIN BreadCat when I featured it on the blog, and it remains a toy-grail for me … this sofvi BreadCat however, reminds me of that toy-desire, and I am okay with that.
Sized 2-inches tall (5.3cm tall x 4.3cm wide) and come polybagged with header card (Art by Rato Kim), the figure itself retailed at SG$40 in STGCC, and you can currently purchase all three flavours of BreadCat sofvi direct from Rato herself via her online store!
The figure comes with zero articulation and a soft-edged printing of the “eyes” and “mouth” on the BoxCat and is frankly more evocative than a “crisp sharp” print would aesthetically be, IMHO. The pink cheek blush - seen in person and in-hand - really helped push the “adorability”-factor up a notch, giving the otherwise still piece of toy a whiff of “life”, methinks! That content chill look on it's face, and blushed cheeks you want to pitch (forgetting it's "just a toy" in the first place), is a pretty funny and priceless feeling for an inanimate object hahaha ... And that “X” bumbum? *silent-man-squeal*
Whether you are cradling it in your hands, or having it popped out of the kitchen toaster (Please do not do that though, I cannot guarantee is the vinyl will not melt if toaster is actually turned ON, okay? :p), you cannot deny it’s cuteness! *another-silent-man-squeal*
And with the new BoxCat flavours to come, AND a new “DinoCat” vinyl figure form to come, folks-n-fans will sure to be hankering for MORE!
Cheers :)
Andy TOYSREVIL
(Thanks again for the awesomeness Choon Mong!)
