David Choe’s Chogeal wood figure from Ningyoushi and Upper Playground showed up today here at Vinyl Pulse. As you can imagine, we were pretty eager to open it up and check it out first hand. Our basic feeling is that it’s really cool. Read on for a few more comments or just hit the jump for an eyeful of pics.
Based on one of David’s original wood sculptures, the production Choegal stands 8” tall and tremendous posability thanks to spring joints in the arms (shoulder, elbow, and wrist). Quite a bit of time and attention was paid to the paint application which was done by hand in China based on David’s personal paint master. While we can’t really comment on the accuracy of the paint job without being able to compare them side by side in person, we’re pretty impressed – the figure definitely has a hand-crafted feel rather than a 1 of 1000 production piece (which it is).
The three painted faces accessible through a clever swivel feature via the nob on top add considerably to the offering. For some reason we find ourselves going back to the rainbow hued sad face over and over again.
Choegal is a very strong art toy offering at a rather reasonable $45. Art toys are often seen as an affordable way to collect the work of artists that might otherwise be out of reach for many – this is definitely the case here as David’s original paintings often sell for more than 40k. David Choe’s first original non-mini figure is compelling because it’s hand-painted, wood, and fun to play with and pose. We tend to think of art toys primarily in terms of vinyl figures, so it’s refreshing to see a relatively new approach and currently underused material breathe some energy into the genre and industry. A limited quantity of figures for the holiday season is available now from Ningyoushi.com – the full release will drop in the New year.
If you’re in LA, don’t miss David’s signing at Gr2 on Sawtelle tomorrow, December 23rd.
