Hey! So today I’m going to be writing about Sofubi. I, myself am not so familiar with Sofubi, but for this article I got to research and dive a little deeper into the world. Before writing this article, I thought colourful, Japanese, monster (or kaiju) toys. This leads me to the first question I will answer with the fruits of all my research:
What is Sofubi? ソフビ
The word itself ‘Sofubi’ actually refers to the material they are made of a shortened version of the Japanese words for ‘soft vinyl’. They are known for being made in extremely high quality and tend to be made in small batches rather than on a large production line. It seems the original soft vinyl toys were based on 60’s and 70’s characters, monsters like Godzilla and these eventually inspired and led to the vast array of Sofubi that are available today! Well I kind of answered the question previously, but I hope to be a little more specific with this question:
Who makes Sofubi?
Initially sofubi were made in a small scale in Japan, run by one or two staff members and traditionally produced! – Check this video out :
This is by KaijuKornerAndy on Youtube, which is a great insight into one of these traditional operations. Now a much more diverse array of artists produce sofubi ! Some may believe that sofubi not made in japan is not sofubi, but that is for you to decide.
Large brands have their own Sofubi lines like Medicom and even Funko (with their hikari line). Again it’s down to you to decide if this goes against the nature of Sofubi or not, we would love to hear your opinions on the subject! As you can see there is a lot of licensed Sofubi now from Marvel to Star Wars!
Companies such as InstincToy have their own well known Sofubi characters such as Muckey:
There are now an awesome array of artists that currently produce their own lines of Sofubi! Here’s a sample platter (not that there aren’t a tonne more amazing artists out there) in no particular order:
Candie Bolton, who creates not just Sofubi but a tonne of other art! Heres a cool Sofubi piece by Toysbian & Candie Bolton, be sure to check out her site for more.
Also, if you are heading to Toycon UK 2017 this year, Bolton will be there as a guest with The Toy Chronicle with some exclusives!
Rampage Toys is his site, check these out! Designed by Tru Tek & then sculpted by Rich Page – gotta love a bit of collab action!
Paul Kaiju is a very popular Sofubi creator with his own range of original characters which you can check out at the site. This is, as I said a sample platter! But there are a huge number of great new artists out there! If you are a Sofubi artist yourself, please do reach out to us! I myself am still quite new to Sofubi, so would love to learn more!
Another article to check out about Sofubi here.