Tuesday, September 02, 2008

NEW UMEZU TOYS FROM ART STORM

Art Storm, the premier weirdo toy maker that was behind previous Junko Mizuno and Suehiro Maruo toys, has recently released a number of Kazuo Umezu toys on their site. In this post I've tried to collect all the details for the vinyl freaks out there!

First up, MAKOTO MUSHI soft vinyl figures:





Next up, Makoto-chan Series manga figures:


It appears to be a four figure set, including:
+ Makoto-chan


+ Pyonko-chan


+ Monta


+ Nei-chan


Perhaps, the strangest "figurine" of the bunch, a Makoto-chan tape measure and stapler!




Another from the Kazuo Umezu character series, The Goddess of Romance figurines designed by the Umezz:


In a different vein, they will be releasing in October a new Orochi figurine (in time for the movie's roadshow on September 20, 2008):




Finally, the biggest and wildest collection of Umezu-designed toys is a massive collection of Ultraman figures.
After a cursory read, it's not clear how this project originated, but it's up to a few dozen different figures. The canon of monsterly baddies in the Ultraman universe lends itself to Umezu's talents, to say the least. Some of my favorites here, with more at the link above:
Ultraman!


Barutan


Akiko


Dada







7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember you saying you wanted this transcript of Suehiro's poem awhile back
______
Mother, breasts, conception, last month of pregnancy, praying for easy delivery, painful delivery, stillbirth, hemorrhage, filth, midwife, pitiless hag, cropping, selling of own child, convention, superstition, Dog Spirit, curse, whisper, lie, paranoia, auditory hallucination, neurosis, insanity, isolation, confinement, basement, cell, prison, reformatory, orphanage, abandoned child, abandoned old men and women, missing woman, old legend of Toono, loner, hermit, bum, beggar, solitary death, prarie fire, will-o'-the-wisp, graveyard, cluster-amaryllis, offering, cake ant, lizard, viper, hornet, poisonous sting, syringe needle, drugs, morphine, strychnine, promin, opium, drug addiction, sanatorium, tuberculosis, nurse, white robe, hygiene, unsanitary, filthy, stench, body odor, heat rash, scabies, ringworm, pus, eye mucus, trachoma, cataract, eyepatch, bandage, mummy, offering, human sacrifice, regrettable death, grudge, ghost, evil spirit, malice, secession, echtoplasma, spiritualistic medium, shrine maiden, Japanese vodoo doll, little boy, big boy, nostalgia, loss of homeland, childhood, old age, afterlife, pilgrim's hymn, the invocation Namu Amida Butsu, the special practice of one million nenbutsu, death, lotus flower, transmigration, near death experience, immortality of the soul, funeral, black and white striped bunting for funeral, mourning dress, hearse, crematory, smoke, whirlpool, labyrinth, dizziness, acrophobia, claustrophobia, socialphobia, stuttering, deafness, blindness, night-blindness, malnutrition, hypoplasia, poliomyetis, crutches, crippled legs, bound feet, freak angel, peculiar disease, genetic inheritance, lineage, ancestor, clan, blood relative, incest, necrophilia, maggot, gutbucket, defecation, excreta, drainage, cave, stalagmite, darkness, moonless night, eclipse of the moon, crowd under the moon, Dogra Magra, Pseudo Amida Sutra

bryan reynolds said...

i love the Makoto-chan figures
having never read any Umezz, would Makoto-chan be a good start?
or Floating Classroom?

bryan reynolds said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ryan S said...

@anonymous: Holy shit! Thanks for taking the time to transcribe this... The introduction to PressPop/Last Gasp's collection The Art of Hideshi Hino. I will post this shortly--- leave your URL if you want me to link to your site(?). THANKS AGAINS!

@bryan: Umezu is a bit old-fashioned in some ways, but he's definitely required reading and extremely fun. Out of the stuff available in English I'd recommend Drifting Classroom, definitely. If you want to venture into the Japanese books, Baptism is a great, easy and utterly creepy read.

HAVE FUN!

Rumika said...

Have you ever seen Umezu's Ultraman manga? It's one of those things I've always wondered about. I'd be curious to see if these figures are based on the characters in his version or are just from Ultraman in general. I know next to nothing about Ultraman, so it would all be the same to me, but still. The black-and-white striped one makes me curious in particular.

John T said...

Those figures rule! I love the Ultraman bad-guys.

Scary Book series is great for one-shot Umezu.

Anonymous said...

I don't have a site you can link to but I have a deviantart:
http://smokebath.deviantart.com/
I kind of have a running comic on there
Glad you liked the transcription, I was worried you would think it was weird of me to give it to you so late