Review – RealXHead/Onell Design Pheyaos Man

Line: Glyos * Manufacturer: Onell Design and Real X Head * Year: 2010

The Real X Head/Onell Design vinyl toy, Pheyaos (review here and second review here), is no longer all alone. Pheyaos Man is here, and this 8-inch tall vinyl toy may very well be the last piece that seals my doom and has me collecting toys by Real X Head. Even though he’s not the most articulated toy I’ve seen — especially for the size — everything that made Pheyaos so neat is multiplied by spectacular to create a toy that is a more dangerous introduction to Japanese vinyl toys than any other single piece I’ve ever touched.

The First Thing that Grabs Me is the Paint

Pheyaos (both versions) had a great paint job with base colors, airbrush work, and black paint wipes (not a wash, but the paint is applied fairly thick and then wiped off with a rag or cloth), but the paint applications on Pheyaos Man takes it even further down the path of . . . well, wow is too small of a word to describe how the painted toy looks in person. These photos don’t even come close to giving you the feel . . . but once you look these over you should hit the review at CollectionDX for even more pictures. No two Pheyaos Man toys are identical, which happens when toys are painted by an artist and not on an assembly line, but the basic concepts are the same and all of the photos do a decent job of giving you an idea of why I love the paint. It’s a blend of rough and stylish, and the overall effect is exactly the sort of thing I’d love to be able to do.

Not very likely to happen, though, since I haven’t spent decades working at painting vinyl toys. And that’s what we get here, as the review at CollectionDX tells us:

“The whole package comes together under the masterful paintwork of Goto-san, Mori’s figure painter, who has been working in the industry since Bullmark started releasing kaiju vinyls back in the late 1960’s.”

I sure as hell hope that there are people out there experimenting and mastering this style of painting toys, because it would be sad if the style vanished as age claims master painters and toy artists. I mean, guys like Matt Walker of DeadPresidents (website, Twitter) do amazing work with an airbrush, but the work doesn’t combine the airbrush work with the paint wipes that I love on this Pheyaos Man toy.

The Paint is Bringing Out a Great Toy Design

Blending Pheyden and Chaos — the same idea we saw with Pheyaos but in a different way — this 8-inch tall Pheyaos Man sculpt is smooth and rough all at the same time. What I mean is that the individual surfaces have been sanded down but there are a lot of detailed areas that we don’t see on vinyl toys like the Mythos Buddies (review here), Kano’s Boba DEF (review here), and Combat-R Zero (review here). Take a look at the photos and look closely at Pheyaos Man’s head. You see how there are several deep lines combined with the smooth bumps across the top of the head? In a lot of vinyl toys that would have been one smooth dome, but not here. Here we get a look that’s a lot more organic and animalistic and less machined.

$60 and He’s Already Gone

As you already know, Pheyaos Man was manufactured in Japan which automatically makes it an expensive toy. With super short runs (runs of 30 to 50 aren’t all that uncommon for single colorways) this is definitely a collectible and not a toy, but unsurprisingly Matt Doughty (Onell Design) released this at a price lower than most RealXHead toys sell for in the US. Hitting the CollectionDX review again:

“According to the Glyos Transmissions Blog, the Pheyaos Man is going to retail for $60, and will be limited. ‘Normal’ Adult Real X Head releases imported from Japan by local retailers retail for $80, so right off the bat we’re benefiting from the close relationship that has developed between Real X Head and Onell Design.”

Pheyaos Man sold out in minutes. What we’ve got here is a toy that’s appealing to two different groups of collectors, and the speed of sell out is probably only going to increase as the fan base for both lines continues to grow.

So is he worth $60? That really depends on what you love to collect. Hardcore action figure fans who live for articulation and comic-accurate sculpts are going to be unhappy with Pheyaos Man because he only has six points of articulation and isn’t part of a comic series. Designer toy fans, though, who love artistic and unusual styles, will be overjoyed with a toy of Pheyaos Man’s size for $60. He feels bigger in your hands than he looks online, and though he’s smaller and more expensive than Atomic Mushroom’s Combat-R Zero vinyl toy (review here the paint is a lot more detailed and there are fewer of these in existence.

Basically, I can’t say whether or not Pheyaos Man is worth $60 to you, but if he pops up again in another colorway and I get the chance I’ll happily pay $60 for a second one. To be completely open I have to admit that I didn’t buy this toy — Matt was kind enough to ship Pheyaos Man to me as a gift — but I’m already thinking about buying myself a RealXHead toy. This thing is painted with some sort of vinyl-addictive paint and I’ve got the fever for some cool companion toys. I’m sure An Encyclopedia of Kaiju (mentioned here) hasn’t helped, but it’s holding and playing with this toy that has me wanting more. And, for me, that makes this a great toy.

Philip Reed loves Pheyaos Man’s scarf. It’s a simple extra, but it looks cool and gives the toy character that you don’t get with most designer toys; Philip has several 12-inch scale action figures with cloth accessories but not many vinyl toys that wear cloth pieces. Philip is also a sucker.