Grody Shogun!
Monsters! Ensorcelled Men! Yokai!
Grody Shogun consists of a strange collection of misshapen misfits, oddities and supernatural forces. Lovingly brought to our world from the sofubi netherworld by Luke Rook, every time I pick one of these guys up I am magically transported to the lazy Saturday afternoons of my childhood. The toys have a childlike innocence and homemade, rough hewn quality to them. They are blocky and sturdy and fun to paint!
The basic, unpainted Monster is my favorite. Lumpy and with mismatched limbs, this figure is very endearing to me. There were literally thousands of variations of the Monster, with several different interchangeable body, head and arm sculpts and colors. Monster is more than a toy, he's a way of life!
Ensorcelled Man is evocative of the pinheads from Todd Browning's Freaks. With a furry potbelly and ape-like mitts, En Man would be well at home in a circus sideshow or mad scientist's laboratory. The figure itself has crazy articulation in the arms and he can be posed in many interesting positions. He also has these weird fat pads on the tops of his feet. Personally I like this bizarre touch, when I play with him I pretend that's how he survives in the winter time while hibernating, by living off of the fat in his fat pads, quite like a camel does. That is what is so great about Grody Shogun; you can project whatever crazy back story you want into these characters, thus making it an even more enjoyable play experience! And by the way, if you don't play with your toys you should NOT be reading Super Vinyl Toy Review!
Strawberry Shortcake Monster! I paint my Grody guys with acrylics and cover them with Mod Podge. I use an old toothbrush for spatter effects. I have never used anything like Monster Kolor because, quite frankly, I am not very ambitious and quite cheap.
Oji San is a lazy yokai (a supernatural monster of Japanese folklore, as if you didn't know) who builds clockwork robots to collect spider webs for him for his own greedy consumption. This little guy has a helluva lot of charm! His bumpy head reminds me of The Elephant Man. His body kind of reminds me of a pineapple!
Poor Karakuri! All work and no play, collecting spider webs all day! The hard lines of this figure contrast the soft bumps on Oji San, which is cool because he's basically a robot version of his master!
Had there been toys like this when I was a child I would have gone bonkers ass bananas to get my hands on all of them. Each Grody Shogun piece has it's own unique personality, and is the farthest thing away from mass produced, mainstream action figures. When you look at all of the flaws and quality control issues in domestic figures (Mattel, Hasbro), how could you not swing this way, collecting toys made by people who love to make toys?! Sure, these guys are generally a little pricier than your average Star Wars figure, but you can see and feel the difference. I know it's kind of like comparing apples to oranges, but even in the vinyl collecting community I feel that Grody Shogun can't be beat. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good stuff out there (Secret Base, Gargamel, Le Merde, etc.), but there's nothing as distinctive or as innocently charming as GRODY SHOGUN!!!
