ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

As we approach April 18th at SF’s Super7 shop, the imagery of Japanese monstrosities is becoming increasingly prevalent and perverted from their already perverse origins, and that’s a pretty awesome thing.

Take, for example, this trio of pseudo-kaiju from El Maz. Their deliciously flecked colors, their glossy exteriors, and of course, their many tentacles. It’s hardly a secret which one of these guys is my favorite. Even if the Doku is such a killer shape to begin with, the tentacles steal my heart every time. The scars I have from repeated de-heartings are epic, and somehow, still less painful than the bills.

Tan-Ki’s recurring eye theme & great blues are starting to look familiar, but even this pair are so aesthetically diverse that it’s hard to relegate him to any one visual theme. [ED NOTE: This piece will not be in the "It Came From Skullbrain" show on April 18th.]

Leecifer’s Black Lagoon Boy speaks for himself. In gurgles and moans. He’s employing a certainly painterly roughness in his work that seems really rare, making it even more beautiful to see.

Finally, Hellopike’s “Zagoran, the Devourer of the Innocent” kinda makes my kidneys explode, as will most things with a clear belly full of plastic babies. Is it horrible that I used to carry around pockets of these babies in high school, desecrate them creatively and leave them as surprises for the unsuspecting? Philly’s Hellopike has the right idea.

Kaiju have never been more exciting to watch as they get filtered through the weird aesthetics of more-pop-than-pop culture.