i mentioned the 'capybara invasion' before. .. . here's the photoagain, and a link to the website. also a photo of a REAL capybara for reference. they also sell shirts with giant robots yelling 'STOP THE DIOXIN!!' (lower right corner of the picture....)

capybaras are the world's largest rodent. they resemble huge furry peanuts and are about as mobile. the Capybara character has a rose draped around his neck for added pathos.

if you're like me, and you often sit around saying, "I really want a 8 pound Stick Insect made from the same substance of Rodin's THE THINKER" . . . your best bet is Mr. Hayakawa!! because, dig this: not all the cute characters are cute cartoons or fluffy nuigurumi (stuffed animals). Mr. Hayakawa has , for years, been making these excellent Metal animals. everything from men, insects, fish, insects, plankton, hell, what HASN'T he made? His website is easy to read, and use, and there are LOTS of photographs, much better than mine. then this happened:

does anyone have a title for this sculpture? email me!

if no ideas come to mind, just keep watching the hands.

hokani: i've forgotten to announce the winner of the MESSED UP SEARCH STRING contest.

it's 'G-RATED KIDS BONDAGE' by a whopping 2 votes to 1.

in your face, SLOPPY WOOKIE RETIRED POOP!!

DECORATIONS CHARACTER DESIGN STUDIO

DECORATIONS is at least 3 people, who specialize in smooshing together pop icons to make new, or at least horribly mutated, pop icons. for instance, THIS GUY:

or this guy:

(note how the tiny figures conducting the ceremony are ALSO Kewpie Dolls, wearing little Satanic Kewpie Hoods over their grotesquely swollen Kewpie Heads)

and of course who could live without KEWPIE ULTRAMAN???

their website is pretty big, with all kinds OTHER kewpie mutants on it. um. and stuff. just go there.

inko's dolls

Ok, it's time for another new kind of character. not all japanese characters are bronze stick insects or dead pandas, or even google-eyed anime-lookin' drawings. some are google-eyed, anime-lookin' DOLLS. these aren't your barbie dolls. . . these are hand-made, one-of-a-kind designer dolls up to 3 feet high! there's a whole SUBCULTURE of middle aged hipster women that somehow missed the Yaoi boat and wound up making creepy gothic dolls and getting really good at it. but i almost get the impression that these totally intricate, 500-points-of-articulation dolls aren't even the main attraction for these women. . .they just make the dolls because they need SOMETHING to wear the MILLIONS OF LITTLE DOLL-SIZED GOTHIC ACCESSORIES that they REALLY love making.

Inko's website is a good place to start learning about these dolls. it's not super-gothy, it's not super-elfy, or super-creepy. it's just middle of the road creepy. and easy to navigate as well: simply click on the japanese word that you don't know what it means! and you'll go somewhere!!

another doll site, this time more on the Elf-In-The-Mystic-Forest side of things, is DOLLHOUSE NOAH. it's in english, but on the other hand there is poetry. i myself could only find 2 pictures there sufficiently amazing to steal, but you're welcome to go there and poke around looking for more. . .

normally i don't show things like this, but hey! a woman made it! which makes it totally pc. in your face, dolls that look exactly the same made by evil men!!!

on to CUTE CHARACTERS FOUR?

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