Jermaine Rogers Veil Specimen 72 "I Think I Am Losing My Mind" 10-inch vinyl figure

Super stoked to announce the next available Jermaine Rogers vinyl figure: Veil Specimen 72 (aka "I Think I Am Losing My Mind"). $60 each, limited to 500 in this color, preorder yours here. Should be shipping to us soon.

February TEASERS from The Artpin Collection

The Artpin Collection is preparing for some cool releases this month and teased a bunch of designs for limited edition hard enamel pins by top of the line artists.  This month's releases will feature designs by Nathan Jurevicius, Martin Ontiveros, and Kozyndan, a great selection for all you avid art and pin collectors:

Nathan Jurevicius's Arianrhod will be released in two majestic colorways (edition of 75 only each).

Vampyramid by Martin Ontiveros is a winged demonic blood-sucking pyramid, and it's so metal.

Bunny Blossom will feature the iconic Ukiyo-e inspired design by Kozyndan, with the Sakura festivals just around the corner. Check out this cool video teaser (watch with the sound on)

All the designs will go for $12 a pop, with the release dates yet to be confirmed. Look out for these, as well as for earlier designs release by The Artpin Collection, at Rotofugi !

What is Sofubi? An eBay Buying Guide. Yeah, you read that right

Worth a blog post for several reasons:

1. There are now user-generated "Buying Guides" on eBay (I guess this is like Wikipedia for... eBay purchases?)
2. There's an article about sofubi that came up #1 (!!!) when you search Google for "sofubi" - try it yourself!
3. They mention Funko's Hikari figures, which I was what I was trying to edit on my site when I searched "sofubi" on Google

I noticed that some of my Hikari listings had the word "sofubi" in the title, which was an error on my part. Somehow one old Hikari listing on my site had the word sofubi, and I never dropped that word out. Sofubi, as I understand it, is a JAPANESE word that means soft vinyl. So when a Japanese person makes a soft vinyl figure, it's sofubi. They are Japanese, so they make the item in Japan. (Shout out to KaijuKornerAndy whose YouTube video was used in the Buyers Guide, by the way!) So I was editing products to remove that word as I don't want to misrepresent the Hikari products on my site.

More reasons this is interesting:

1. Writing a useful Buyer's Guide could get you to the coveted #1 spot on Google. If you nerd out on a certain category of toy, I recommend writing one of these guides on eBay.
2. Sofubi is interesting enough to the general public to have a guide written and published.
3. It's still being argued about whether sofubi can come from China when manufacturer uses same techniques and materials. I say NO, it's a different term for soft vinyl from China, but hey what the fuck do I know, I'm just a gaijin.
4. If you've never seen how the small Japanese mom & pop shops produce sofubi, watch the video. Super interesting

LEGO Mini AT-AT is where it's at.

Just about anyone that remembers the original Star Wars trilogy, will probably say that Empire was the best film out of the three, and had the monumental and incredible Hoth battle scene as more than likely the main reason it is considered as such.

Sure, there was great character development, the story was heading into amazing territory, but as a kid, I could never have imagined that these massive mechanical nightmares were masterfully stop motion animated by Phil Tippet and the crew at ILM. I always loved the Empire vehicles and the AT-AT is tied with the Speeder Bike for my favorite.

This build was a lot of fun, as all LEGO ones of course usually are, but I got a kick out of seeing how the LEGO designers had chibi-fied this particular design. The head moves up and down, and the legs have some decent posability to them. As a collector, whose studio space has collectable/toy space as a premium, these smaller sets are quickly becoming something I enjoy, not only building, but displaying.

Stats	Rating/Information
Items	Star Wars Microbuilders Set 75075
Made by	Lego
Rarity	Common.
Classification	Available at most retail.
Condition	New
Procured	Cargo Largo
Worth	$10
Investment	$6
Build Time	24 minutes.
Trivia & Fun Facts	The All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) was a four-legged combat walker used by the ground forces of the Galactic Empire. With the Imperial-class Star Destroyer and the TIE/ln space superiority starfighter, it was one of the most famous symbols of the Empire's military might..

- Mario, the Artisan Rogue

www.theartisanrogue.com