Tag Archive for 'Toys'

Exhibitionism

Published
by
Electric Pig
on June 30, 2008
in Art, Photography and Toys
. 0 Comments

This weekend, Eri and I realised that about 3 separate exhibitions that we had meant to see for ages were all ending, and with an impending hangover on Sunday, Saturday was the only day we had free. So, five exhibitions in a day then...

First up was the double Moriyama Daido exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. The exhibition, in two parts was a retrospective of his work in one gallery and then large prints of his Hawaii series in the second. I found that his photos generally got more interesting the older they were. I found a lot of the exhibition a little confusing and realised that I don't really have any idea what made certain shots "good" or not, but a lot of the older ones, particularly the Light and Shadow series, were beautiful.

I wasn't as impressed by the Hawaii series. Some of them are quite nice, but on the whole I find Moriyama's style doesn't work as well outside Japan. I found some of the Buenos Aires ones a little dry for the same reason, although Eri said she liked the Buenos Aires ones most of all, and, being a lot more artistically inclined than me, she could well be right.

After Moriyama, we went down to the basement of the museum for the World Press Photo 2008 exhibition. I enjoyed this far more than the Moriyama. I prefer photojournalism to "art" photos, so this was always going to be far more suited to me. Some of the shots on display here were awe-inspiringly good. I think the photo below is probably the one I liked most; there is a very strange and ominous atmosphere to the position of the men in it that I really love. Click to see some of the other highlights.

After the photos were went to Omotesando for Eri's Blythe Once Upon A Wonder World Exhibition and Beauty Contest. Eri has come out recently as a bit of a Blythe fan, despite hating herself for doing so. Girls and women who like Blythe in Japan have a (deserved) reputation as being on the verge of the goth-loli cosplay kind of scene that Eri loathes, but nonetheless, she finds herself liking the doll itself. I can't really complain, considering my own interest in toys though. The Blythe exhibition was properly wierd. There were six areas where Blythe dolls had been dressed up in costumes to represent characters in Fairy Stories (Little Red Riding Hood etc), and then in the middle of the room were are hoardes of Blythes all in costumes designed by international fashion houses. Serious looking women were walking round with voting ballots choosing the costumes they liked best. There's a big gala event in July to crown the winner...which just kind of beggars belief. (Photo by Bubujojo)

Last was the yearly Medicom Exhibition in the Parco Art Gallery in Shibuya. I thought the gallery space itself was a little less nicely designed than in previous years, and there seemed less on display too. The highlights for me were the (much lauded) wooden Bearbricks, the new Star Wars figures, and the Mick Jagger doll. I didn't win a prize this year though, which somewhat ruined the event for me.

Super Festival 46

Published
by
Electric Pig
on May 1, 2008
in Toys and Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

I don't really know why April 29th, the former "Green Day" holiday, has been renamed "Showa Day". I thought it could have been thanks to the negative associations with the diet-punk band of the same name, but then that doesn't really explain why it would be renamed in honour of a war criminal ex-emperor. According to various reports, the change (which had completely flown over my head when it took place in 2005), was meant to encourage reflection on the turbulent period of the Showa Emperor's (Hirohito as he is known in my head), rule. I imagine that the right-wingers wouldn't be too unhappy that another concession has been made to their goose-stepping, pencil moustache-wearing lunacy either. Apparantly, "Green Day" has been moved to May 4th, and "People's Day", has now been abolished. So, in the end it seems rather fitting that an Emperor that did so much to aid the suffering of his people has once again manage to barge his way, at their expense, into the spotlight.

This Omnipotent-Fascist-Ruler Day Showa Day, Eri and I went to Super Festival 46! Super Festival 46!! was a chance for Eri to see a live performance by Kazuo Umezu, her favourite manga artist and all-round lunatic. He actually lives a road away from me, and we see him almost every day, walking to and from his latest project, the much-protested-against-by-small-minded-neighbours red and white striped house he is constructing near the park. He was scheduled to perform some of his songs and would be selling some hard-to-find Umezz-goods, which Eri was dying to buy. I was a little worried by the thought of being at a 6 hour live performance and question/answer session in Japanese with an octogenarian mad-man (as Eri described the event), but was happy to go as payment for numerous things she has gone to with me in th past. The event was in Ueno at the science museum.

Except that it wasn't. Eri had glanced at the flyer which said blah, blah, science museum, blah, blah、importantaddressdetails, blah, blah, blah, and had presumed that the science museum mentioned was the huge National Museum of Nature and Science in the Ueno Park museum complex. We got to Ueno, left the station from the wrong exit, and walked about a mile in the hot sun (me with a streaming cold), up the hill to the right exit and had a look at the park & museum map. The science museum was there, except that it was National Museum of Nature and Science and not the Science Museum Tokyo, where the event was being held. After checking the flyer, we realised that the actual event was in Kudanshita, about 30 minutes away by two trains.

When we finally got to the museum, I found out (to my utter dismay), that it was a good, old-fashioned toy fair, with loads of old and new toys, figures, comics and props and most amazingly of all, a meet and greet with ADMIRAL CRIX MADINE of Star Wars fame!!!1111 Oh, and we were also too late for the appearance by Umezu. Still, I met the Admiral, forgot to get a photo with him, bought 5 Star Wars Kubricks for 1000円 (bargain), and met some famous Japanese Manga people that I hadn't heard of. Eri did manage to buy a lot of Umezz-goods so was not too sad at not meeting him. I just wished I had known about it earlier as I would have been able to (finally) meet an Ewok. Oh well, the quest continues.

A Tour of World Heritage Sites in Lego

Published
by
Electric Pig
on February 11, 2008
in Art and Toys
. 2 Comments

Eri and I took a lovely tour of some of the world's most famous places today, via the miracle of Lego. This exhibition at the Parco gallery in Shibuya is, predictably, wonderful. We managed to visit the Taj Mahal (amazing), St Basil's Cathedral (also very good), and even Machu Pichu (totally pointless - the ruins could have been anywhere without the mountains in the background). It was interesting to see the Palace of Westminster, and to realise I have no idea about what it looks like apart from the bit around Big Ben!　Perhaps the best thing though, was the piece by artist/writer/TV pervert pundit, Lily Franky, who did a version of the Leaning Tower at Pisa being attacked by Oden Kun and his friends. An inspirational exhibit overall and made me want to go out and start making Lego guns and penises again like the good-ol'days.

Tokyo Toy Tour: Day 1 - Shibuya

Published
by
Electric Pig
on January 5, 2008
in Tokyo Toy Tour
. 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a book called Tokyo Underground, a guide to toy and design culture in Tokyo. It's basically a Tokyo guidebook, but only concerned with toy stores. I've decided to check out every store in the book quite a few of which (shamefully), I have never been to, in my own little Tokyo Toy Tour. I'm also going to try to check out a few others in the same areas that I know about but weren't in the book for some reason. Today was the first day of my toy tour...Shibuya. The toy stores in Shibuya have, in my opinion, gone downhill a bit recently since the closure of one of my favourite stores (the name of which I forget), about a year ago. The first store I tried to hit up from the guide was the Shibuya branch of Hobbit, but either the map in the book wasn't good enough, or I was too stoopid to find it, or it's gone. Having checked out the internet a bit, I realise that I was too retarded to find it, AND the map was wrong. Bit of a disappointment really as it was the first stop of the day and on of the stores that I don't think I have ever been to. Anyway, next on the list was Blister, which I know pretty well, so at least wasn't a problem finding. On the way I went into Loft, which used to stock some decent toys and was one of the better places to find Monsterism and a few other lines, but they have also slacked off a bit recently and didn't have much apart from a big Mario Statue which wasn't for sale anyway. Blister was pretty empty considering it was sale time and they also had Fukubukuros on sale, in Star Wars, Spiderman 3 and "Cute" varieties, but you could see inside the bags where the staples had broken and the Star Wars stuff didn't look too promising for 3000円. Upstairs in their designer toy section they had some nice Kubricks on display, but have got rid of the massive museum-like unit that had the entire collection of Star Wars Kubrick with all the chase editions that used to be in there. They also were patrolling round the isles trying to stop me from taking any photos, but I managed to squeeze off a few shots. From Blister I went to the basement of the Shibuya Parco to check out their design book store and the Delfonics store. They had some nice looking old cameras in Delfonics, but all I ended up buying were these magnets from the book store. From Parco I went to Tokyu Hands, which is more of a hardware store than a toy store, although, like Loft, they have a "variety goods" section, which usually has a few good bits in it. Today they had a very disturbing display of Sonny Angel mini figures, and some cool little match stick keitai straps. I also got the.best.present evah for my friend back home too, which I have been looking for for a while. Next on the Tokyo Underground list was Project 1/6, the official Medicom store. I can't believe I have never known about the store before, but it's a gold mine of Medicom special editions and Kaiju toys. In here I picked up a Metal Gear Solid 20th Anniversary Kubrick figure. In a blind selection, I got the original Metal Gear Solid Snake, the second rarest at only 16.6% (I knew that omikuji was talking shit!). They were also a bit militant about not taking photos, and the store was too small to get any sly ones so I only have the ones from outside. Last on the list was Mandarake, which I had also presumed was a misreading of Mandrake, but according to my girlfriend I am wrong. They had signs all over the store about not taking photos too. I really don't understand why all these shops are so concerned with people not taking photos. The stores are set up pretty much as museums, and any photos that would be taken would surely help to promote the stores, but I guess that would remove some of the mystery. I did manage to take a few pictures, but had the aperture on my camera all wrong so they didn't really come out. Not sure if I missed any other stores around Shibuya...I think I got the main ones. There's a couple which are kind of on the border with Harajuku, but I'm gonna check those out when I go there.