massive reference post pt2

hi ok so this is where i'll be discussing some anime series and some doll stuff oh and furniture lol because it was too much to fit everything into the last post. I also get these questions a lot but it ranges from "what are you watching right now" to "what anime should I watch?" and the honest answer is I watch too much anime. I’ve numbered everything to correlate with the images so I hope that makes more sense.

1. I just finished re-watching Steins;Gate which is about time travelling and… 2009 4chan memes tbh. It’s slow and will put you to sleep for the first 10 episodes but gets fucked up in the second half. I saw this in highschool but it’s been 10 years so I figured a rewatch would be good for me. There is a gachapon item in the series called an Upa that I've recently become obsessed with... They come in all different colors, silver being the rarest. It's not a super important item but has become the mascot for the show in many ways. The silver ones sell online for $500!! I don't own an upa so I stole this pic off the internet.

 I'm also re-watching Attack on Titan because the 4th and final season is finally airing and I don't want to miss it!!! I am the most passive anime viewer because I'll have it playing on my laptop to the left while I work on my PC on the right... I'm really good at multitasking for better or for worse. For this season, I'm currently watching Jujutsu Kaisen. It debuted in 2018 on Shonen Jump, the most famous weekly shonen manga magazine in Japan, which means story-wise it was good enough to place next to other great series. It premiered as an anime just last month. The budget so far for the production  is high, given every fighting sequence blows me away. Since I saw the anime first, I'm going to resist reading the manga so I can be excited every Friday for new episodes! It's promising so far :)

2-3. I also purchased this game from VideoGamesNY which is in the East Village from the PSP section for $10 called Tokobots. I really only play PuzzleFighter and Tokobots (which I will be done with soon). It's like a cute pikmin-styled game with little puzzles and an alright story. I honestly just love the design of the Tokobots.

4-5. I finally achieved my dream goal... I finally own a proper (re-casted) 1/3 scale ball jointed doll. The one I had posted a few months ago was actually a mechanical one, that is cheap (~$30) but this one is a proper resin made jointed doll with string holding it all together. It's not a real real real one because just like in my childhood days, they still cost $800+ but this is a recast I got myself for xmas for only $180. I've already started designing some clothes for her which I will document next month. 

My review of her is that she's pretty much perfect for that pricepoint. I understand she's basically a Chinese knock-off but as far as knock-offs go.... she's very well made. For those of you interested, this is the exact link of where I got her and this is the hehebjd shop where she's from. They offer different bodies, heads, and skin colors. Shipping took about 3 weeks! 

The scale I got was 1/3 aka 60cm or 2 feet (yes she's huge) but if you're interested in a slightly smaller scale such as 1/4 or ~40cm or 1.5 feet, I recommend oueneifs store. They have a massive selection of 1/4 scale dolls. I can also vouch that this seller makes really high quality re-casts. Also, 1/4 scale is significantly cheaper... around $80-120. If the scale stuff is confusing, it might help to know Barbie is 1/6 scale for reference.

I originally purchased a 1/4 scale (from oueneifs) but decided to sell it immediately and save up for a 1/3 scale. The reason for this is I wanted a larger canvas to create more detailed clothes. I dream of having a doll runway... and there's plenty of people who already have! 

There are actually 2 designers who have created runways this year on 1/3 scale dolls: Dior and Walter van Beirendonck. It must be nice to have an entire team! I'll still try...

6-8. Some drawings I did on Xmas :) One is Rem cosplaying Ulala from Space Channel 5 and the other one is supposed to be me... as an astronaut I guess. I also re-drew my mask print as a happy design (I know... it would make such a fire all-over print). Getting better at copics!

9-11. Dom and I have recently become obsessed with this pretty flamboyant but sick designer named Karim Rashid. We had a priceless experience however because after purchasing this book online, we realized damn we are never going to own one of his furniture pieces given they cost a fortune. About a week later I’m just lurking the local craigslist and I FIND A COUCH by him for like 1k, which if you understand furniture prices, is a STEAL.. 

We pull up on the guy who had listed it and it turned out to be a design studio that’s been in SoHo for 25 years. The designer had attended Pratt in the 90s and STUDIED under Karim Rashid… and went on to build his website. To compensate the designer, Karim offered him cash or couch and he took the couch. Karim told him it was a prototype and to this day, we have no idea if it ever went into production… so it may be the only one in existence!!! After talking to him for about an hour about our careers, he was happy it was going to us. We even showed him it was in the book! I would say it was nothing short of destiny hehe~

Turns out the couch was too big... so we had to hire a couch doctor to disassemble the entire thing and put it back together. When we took it apart, we confirmed it was really a 1 of 1 prototype model... I'm very tempted to message Karim Rashid since he lives in NY and tell him I'm a fan but I'm too shy...
After taking a couch apart and putting it back together, my love of building things from wood was re-ignited and it is taking all of my willpower to suppress my urge to create furniture from scratch.

I'm really happy I get to sit down and write all these posts out about what's been going on in my life that's inspired me so much. I get a ton of questions almost every day about it but Patreon gives me a organized way to catalogue all this information. I appreciate ya'll for valuing the time it takes to research things and share information. I'm truly honored. I hope that everyone had a good 2020 and I wish you all a happy new year!