Review – Monsterforge’s Kawaiiju Roklon

Toy customizer and artist Monsterforge (blog, Twitter) recently dove into toy manufacturing with his Kawaiiju series (first mentioned here). A run of 30+ clay toys — each a unique design — the Kawaiiju were priced at $25/each and took a few days to sellout. Based on the responses of those who scored one (or more, in some instances) of these toys I fully expect the second wave to sellout even faster.

Packaging

Like oOMoSOo’s Snot Beasts (review here), each one of the Kawaiiju toys was packed with a customized, hand-illustrated header card. This is a level of insanity that’s to be respected and appreciated . . . just be sure to back away slowly if you ever encounter one of these mad artists in person. After all, the last thing you want to do is get any of that crazy on you.

Roklon Space Stone Beast Attack with Deadly Eye Beam

Or, to make this easier on us all, Roklon. These were blind-bagged toys so there was no telling which of the different designs was going to reach my house, so opening the bag and discovering Roklon was a surprise. I know that some people dislike blind toys, but when it’s hand-crafted custom toys it’s tough to go wrong with blind-packaging. And Roklon here is cute as hell, standing about 1.5-inches tall and covered in a stone-like surface that clearly shows that Monsterforge sunk a lot of effort into the toy’s sculpt.

And as you can see, the toy was not only sculpted but it was then painted. Layers of paint — I suspect a wash followed by drybrush work — give the toy depth and highlight the sculpt. I’m not sure if the eyes were painted or sculpted out of white clay, but either way they really pop off of the toy, the bright white contrasting nicely with the toy’s body coloring.

And More Art!

And as if hand-crafting every toy and creating unique headers for each one wasn’t enough, Monsterforge also tossed in original art cards with each toy. Damn, he must have sunk hours of time into every single design. I take back the insane comment and replace it with “completely off his rocker!” The original artwork is a tiny touch, but it really turns the first Kawaiiju release into something that deserves to be remembered. I don’t know how Monsterforge is going to top this wave but I do know that I’m happy to sit back and watch his crazy when wave two comes out.

I just hope he properly archived all of these toys and illustrations, because these need to be online where people can enjoy them.

Closing Thoughts

If you look at this as a toy then it’s a ridiculous, over-priced piece. After all, $25 for a 1.5-inch tall toy without any articulation is really expensive. But when you look at it as artwork — and factor in the original artwork that’s packed with the toy — $25 is a great price. The Kawaiiju clay toy series was a great way to get a pile of different designs on the market, even if it means that fans are going to have to trade amongst themselves to try to track down exactly the piece that they want.

This isn’t for everyone, but for those toy lovers who are into art — and especially those who love owning original art — the Kawaiiju release was a fun event that resulted in a small batch of neat collectibles. While I would have rather seen these released as resin toys — that way more people could enjoy the toys — what we got worked and really showed off Monsterforge’s skills.

For tons of photos — and discussion all of the way from pre-release to post-release — see this thread at the October Toys forum. It’s neat to see everyone’s responses to the toys . . . and it’s even more fun to watch as people start posting pics of the toys they scored in the drop.

Congrats, Monsterforge! Now stop reading this and get back to work on the second wave of Kawaiiju toys!

Philip Reed thinks he should be sneaky and toss this guy into a mold and then ship Monsterforge some resin copies. Oh, wait. Posting that thought online means there’s no sneak left at all. Damn.