In this installment of Puroresu Ramblings, I share my unreasonable purist opinions, this time, about articulation and mutli-part keshi minifigures.
I have tackled briefly in past posts about what makes a perfect keshi, and what strikes me weird now, I never once brought up the quality and craftsmanship of the sculpt itself. It's always been some manufacturing choice somewhere that makes it breaks it for me. I'll have to tackle that sometime in the future, but for right now, let's beat the old dead horse.
Classic keshi generally was sold as one chunk of plastic or rubber. They were single-mold figures and were often called 'slugs' in the industry. I suppose one could argue not much could be done, artistically, with something that had to be cast completely in one mold. With the addition of extra molds, extra pieces could be made for extra effect and depth, even articulation. I can see that, however, I'm from a position that wonders if it's a fundamental design flaw if you can't successfully made it in one piece. On the articulation front, I feel aiming to have your soft eraser-like figure bend and move around might be a bad idea. Selling the added bonus to kids might sound like a good idea to push product off shelves, but you'd have to imagine it wouldn't take long for joints like that break.
There are exceptions of course. Take October Toy's OTMFG Vince. It's a visually-stunning figure, with a rich design. Upon close examination, you can tell parts of him were assembled after the casting stage, but were superglued before claiming the product was complete. That's what I am ok with, but I see how others may feel too. I imagine some would rather keep their figure mint and on sprue. I'm just not one of those people.
To me, it's about replicating classic lines while making sure your product can endure the test of time as much as possible. I do have some multipart keshis in my collection. I do enjoy how much extra dimension they give, but they have all been superglued and I wonder what they would have been as slugs.
I have tackled briefly in past posts about what makes a perfect keshi, and what strikes me weird now, I never once brought up the quality and craftsmanship of the sculpt itself. It's always been some manufacturing choice somewhere that makes it breaks it for me. I'll have to tackle that sometime in the future, but for right now, let's beat the old dead horse.
Classic keshi generally was sold as one chunk of plastic or rubber. They were single-mold figures and were often called 'slugs' in the industry. I suppose one could argue not much could be done, artistically, with something that had to be cast completely in one mold. With the addition of extra molds, extra pieces could be made for extra effect and depth, even articulation. I can see that, however, I'm from a position that wonders if it's a fundamental design flaw if you can't successfully made it in one piece. On the articulation front, I feel aiming to have your soft eraser-like figure bend and move around might be a bad idea. Selling the added bonus to kids might sound like a good idea to push product off shelves, but you'd have to imagine it wouldn't take long for joints like that break.To me, it's about replicating classic lines while making sure your product can endure the test of time as much as possible. I do have some multipart keshis in my collection. I do enjoy how much extra dimension they give, but they have all been superglued and I wonder what they would have been as slugs.
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