Review – Nagaremon Resin Toy

At San Diego Comic Con I had the good fortune to meet Aaron of uhoh Toys (website), a totally unplanned and unexpected encounter with the creator of the resin Bullhorn toy (review here) which earned my Best Resin Toy of 2009 award. While chatting with Aaron I spotted this pink Nagaremon resin toy and happily paid the $35 to take the toy home with me.

The Nagaremon was released last year at Designer Con (Nagaremon first mentioned here) and it’s a well-crafted and quite small resin toy that’s going to fit in wonderfully on my shelves. Actually, at the moment I’m displaying it with the two original Glyos Armodocs (Onell Design and the Franken Berry Blog (review here) and the Fungah Berry Version (review here) . . . that’s one burst of pink on an otherwise not-quite-pink set of shelves.

Sculpt

The 3-inch tall Nagaremon has a rough, fun sculpt that shows off the beast’s massive tusks and furry-like surface. This is not your “smooth as glass” sort of designer toy, which you likely know (if you’ve been reading battlegrip.com for a few years now) impresses me but I love when toys have a jagged and lived look. The only part of the toy’s sculpt that stands out and looks a little odd to me are those forehead horns, but my complaint with those is more how they look snapped off than that they’re even there. I would have rather seen smaller versions of the tusks — curved and pointed horns instead of the flared out nubs — but overall the design and sculpt makes me quite happy.

Articulated . . .

Resin pegs slip into holes in the body allowing the arms to swing up and down. It’s not a lot of articulation, but it’s enough for a small resin toy.

. . . and Painted

Cast in pink resin, the faint silver across the arms and feet, and the blast of silver on the chest and back, is a simple spray. I like the faint dusting of silver more than the bursts, but only because that light spray helped bring out the sculpted details. The eyes are also painted, and in general the paint is functional but not elaborate or spectacular. But neither does the paint detract from the toy, so in the end what’s here works and the toy looks cute and silly on the shelf. And that’s what we need when we’re dealing with monsters that aren’t meant to be terrifying beasts.

Closing Thoughts

It was a real treat to meet Aaron of uhoh Toys (website) and I was quite happy to support his toymaking habit by buying this small resin toy directly from him. And when it comes to one-off customs and shortrun resin toys what you’re doing is both collecting art and supporting artists. And as a fan of independent artists — regardless of their canvas of choice — it makes me feel good to jump in and provide whatever support that I can.

There aren’t any Nagaremon toys on the uhoh Toys webstore at the moment, but there are some other resin toys up so I suggest that if you like the Nagaremon’s look then you go over and see what else Aaron’s offering. There’s some neat designs just waiting to join your collection.

Philip Reed hasn’t reviewed many resin toys lately. He’ll have to fix that problem.