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One of the most unsung creators to have influenced the Japanese toy and street scene is Take-shit. While die-hard toy heads may recognize Take-shit's contributions to both the late '90s street toy explosion in Japan as well as vintage kaiju toy collecting, his affect on the toy and street fashion world at large is both subtle and vastly more profound than he is given credit for. In our interview for
Toypunks Vol. 2, we discuss his role as a musician in the band Cocobat, his life as a gifted amateur shoot-fighter and his lifelong love of toys--both as creator and collector. As many reading this post may know, Take-shit's marriage of two of his passions--Big Daddy Roth's Rat Fink and Japanese soft vinyl toys--led to his unwitting creation of a new toy subgenre: the Fight Figure. Many boutique companies have followed in Take-shit's footsteps, creating hundreds of toys in the likeness of the Fink-shit, his first original figure. We discuss this with him in our interview, among many other topics ranging from his favorite American characters to what collecting truly means to him. Please look forward to this interview in
Toypunks Vol. 2! Thank you very much, Takeshi!
During nonstop shooting and interviewing in Tokyo for Toypunks Vol. 2 this fall, we had the distinct honor of visiting the legendary Hikaru Iwanaga, creator of Bounty Hunter brand (and star of Toypunks Vol. 1), at the influential punk party, London Nite, which has taken place at Tokyo's Club Wire for the past two decades. Hikaru was the DJ for the evening and played a killer set as we filmed, photographed and cut loose from a breakneck pace. It was awesome to see Hikaru again, and we thank him for his time and graciousness, as well as Club Wire for the opportunity to film. Hiddy Kinoshita of Secret Base was our guide to the club, just as he was for many of our shoots during this trip. The night was mad fun! We hope that you enjoy the pics and video stills. Expect more radness in Vol. 2!
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