First Stephan Le Podd

Here's a shot of my first Stephan Le Podd by Doktor A. I had difficulty finding the right setting to shoot this guy.

My heartiest congratulations to the good Dok on his debut toys. And truth be told, nothing compares to his sculpts / customs... that is if you own one to actually compare. ;)


And here are some teaser shots from his upcoming show, I'll have to find out more.

Retropolis today

Today we shall see the opening of Doktor A's Retropolis at Rivet Gallery. The preview was released about a week ago saw some fantastic works and I would say particularly the paintings.

As per my previous post here from last week, I was eyeing the Mr. Head painting. Unfortunately, I was preoccupied with work and never had time to go around making a call on it.

Thus, it has now gone to somebody else, nothing to it.

Wait till you place your eyes on the two sculpts. You will drop your jaw. They are there, just waiting for somebody to pick them up, for a premium. Overall, it's a top-quality presentation.

*edit 08/06
You may view the show pieces here.

Dok A upcoming solo

It was good seeing the Dok at the RGG show on Saturday in Manchester, particularly if you tell him you were one of the guys who commissioned him previously. He would go on and tell you the sort of trouble your piece had given him, jokingly. :)

"Your Dumb Luck keeps falling over" , "I was staring at him for quite some time to get ideas".

We were shown the Mechtorians from his camera, they look fantastic. I was thinking of enticing him to do me another custom, but I scrapped the idea knowing that he wouldn't fall for that. That was when I realized the Mr. Head I purchased did not have a turn key, as the one in the Dok's camera has. I went through the box it came in and found it lying there - forgotten. Geez...

Sneakpeak of his upcoming solo show, Retropolis

I am sure this is most likely a large version of Stephen Le Pod?

Doktor A Mr Head

Infinite thanks to Anna for securing (don't like the word mule) Doktor A's resin hand-painted Mr. Head from MINDstyle's booth at NYCC (blogged). She is absolutely super.

Considering its run of 10 pieces, flown from England to NYCC and back, I am extremely happy about possessing one. So this is X/10.

Not knowing yet how the Mr. Head in the mass-produced series will be, I would assume this resin one has much more weight to it. It reminds me of a Soul of Chogokin (SOC) , notably for its diecast metal and good weighty feel in your palms. And of course, the details to this are brilliant. Hopefully they are evident in my above shots.

Wouldn't mind a Stephen LePod to go with. *gulps*

good stuff from NYCC

In my opinion, MINDstyle takes the pie as the company with the best releases for this year. I hope it is not too early to proclaim that. Of course, they deserve it when big name artists such as Kathie Olivas and Doktor A are having their debut figures made by them. It is a win-win situation, good quality produce = growing list of artists, particularly big name artists.

So far, I've mentioned this year's NYCC's releases that impress me. Not surprisingly, most of them are by Mindstyle. Big kudos to them.

image courtesy of toysrevil

image courtesy of Vinyl Pulse

Doktor A's Mr. Head and Stephen Le Pod (as mentioned here) are looking pretty good. With that limited number and price tag, I wonder whether they got sold out on day one. The blue Stephen are even harder to acquire, apparently. A fellow boardmember managed to secure a piece of Mr. Head on my behalf, in which I am deeply grateful. I think these would look mighty impressive in person. Particularly these are hand-painted resins, anything hand-painted by this artist will look brilliant and should not be compared with the production series which follows later.

I am finally able to see Kathie Olivas's Scavengers (as mentioned briefly here) in the above shot. They look absolutely gorgeous in their own right. Definitely look different in terms of finishes but the colours are pretty much there. There seems to be quite a few of them, I wonder how I would anticipate them in person, each piece. It will be some time before they reach our shores, just maybe in time for Kathie's debut show in the UK next month (mentioned here), in which we can expect special colourways of the Scavenger series.

Found some shots of the individual Scavengers via Tomopop.

image courtesy of Vinyl Pulse

I always anticipate just about anything released by Tokyoplastic, in hope of their continuation of their line of figures introduced in their animations. Fret not, next in line is the above Koguma. It's a classic piece if you're familiar with their animations, since this was featured a long while back. However, I am having mixed feelings about it being a toy since the bulk of it is the seat. More like a... modern miniature furniture? Not too sure about the character just lying on it.

Good stuff this year.

uber limited Mechtorians

MINDstyle just reeased news of two of Doktor A's Mechtorians, uber limited to 10 pieces each. They are Mr. Head and Stephen LePod. Mr. Head will be made available at Mindstyle's booth at NYCC on April 18th whilst Stephen is only available to "Art Toys Society" members only.

I know nothing of the said ATS club. I am giving it some faith and hope that a samaritan will be able to pick a Mr. Head for me, though it seems almost impossible.

More info at MINDstyle

Doktor A production pieces

Congratulations to the good Doktor A on his first production pieces, the Mechtorians. It's about time, Dok!

Steampunk-style willl always be my favourite type of custom.

• Left: Humbert Threadneedle, the Accountant
• Right: Sir Shilling Copperpenny, the Head Banker

The photo is of the prototype resins, painted by Doktor A himself.

More information to come...