Fig-lab Presents the Millenial Monsters Series!

Fig-lab presents the Millennial Monsters Series

Since the dawn of this new millennium an outstanding number of Japanese Character creators have emerged whose primary medium of expression is Japanese Vinyl. The Japanese vinyl figure has a 40 year legacy which attests to its integrity and durability as an artistic medium. In our on-demand fast turnaround post-modern world, the means of production have been made available to independent artists who can now create smaller runs than demanded by the tool and die mentality of the previous century. This further evidenced by the increasing number of creators worldwide who crossing over from the mass produced milieu of the factory back to the province of the craftsmen of Japan's vinyl trade.

Millennial Monsters will be a series of exclusive releases from Fig-lab of recent original Japanese vinyl figures in a signature color way. Many of the figures chosen for the series have been sculpted and painted by the artists themselves. All are self-financed labors of love. The objective of the series to highlight some of these outstanding creators, producers and their endearing characters. In addition to the releases themselves, effort will be made to showcase the the backstories of the characters, a history of the figure and an insight to the creative process of each artist.

The first three releases from the series will be available in San Diego at the Onell Design/GFS2009 booth (#4937)



Destudon Mini by Touma and Monstock

Destudon must destroy Tokyo in order to save it. Neither hero nor villian, his motivations are inscrutable to us hapless humans.

Destudon was designed by character designer powerhouse Touma and produced by Monstock , an unconventional independent label that independently releases vinyl toys with several Japanese artists including Hariken and Nezrange.

The Destudon mini sculpt epitomizes the Japanese skill at Deforme, distorting the proportions of the head and the body creating a pleasing overall harmony while still retaining the essence of the character. I also find that this sculpt is strikes an exceptional balance between the clean line character design of Touma's style while integrating the traditional rough textures one associates with Japanese vinyl Kaiju. All the figures have been hand painted by Monstock.