Recently at the Patchimon Summit in Japan, BLObPUS released a new mini figure called "Kaijin" BLObPUS which means humanoid. I thought it was pretty cool and didn't think much of it's origin until one of the guys in this Skullbrain thread said they made a toy out of him!
It turns out this guy is Lance Head, good buddy of the BLObPUS master collector and artist, Paul Kaiju and the guy who made this seriously insane BLObPUS costume which was posted on Skullbrain several months ago.
We knew there was at least some kind of influence on BLObPUS cause in one of the flyers, it actually shows a picture of Lance on the bottom left!!!
Curious about the connection, I emailed Lance for the details on this really cool double reverse homage! Lance's wife Becky is a serious doll collector and was invited to the Volk's (maker of Super Dollie) Halloween party last year. Lance wasn't all that excited about the doll party, but wanted to surprise his buddy Paul Kaiju who is also serious about dolls, by coming to costume party wearing a BLObPUS costume. Paul turned Lance (and yours truly) onto BLObPUS so it would be the best and least expected surprise!
Lance reflects, I got to work on it right away lots of foam and hot glue and paint. I initially wanted to do an entire suit of the Blobpus but time was really tight. I remembered Paul talking about the hand puppet in the past so I managed to get him to send me some pictures of it without giving away the secret. It was perfect. It was the Halloween theme. It was a body suit. And I knew I could do it in the amount of time I had left. I made and handed out business cards with the url to http://blog.goo.ne.jp/blobpus-mm/ to Mr. Shigeta the President of Volks and his staff. You know, some reference to have for them. They were all very curious about my costume and I'm not sure but I think one of the young men seemed recognize the Blobpus.
It was a great day, though I spent a lot of time sitting at the table because the headgear was actually very cumbersome due to some very thick latex paint I used to build up the surface of the foam. But it was worth it to see Paul's expression when I surprised him in the hotel while wearing it. Now that was a cool moment.
Lance doesn't really know if his costume influenced BLObPUS, but by the looks of the flyer and the fact that Lance's picture from the Halloween Party was on BLObPUS' blog back in October, I think it's safe to assume that he did!
Just like any other kid I've loved Japanese monsters and heroes since I could turn on a television but only recently have I started buying the vinyl toys. The possibility that I may have influenced the Kaijin Blobpus... I just can't believe it. It's got to be a coincidence. Haha... I'm all a flutter.
That's awesome Lance! Now we all want toys to be made in our likeness!
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