About the project

It's become somewhat of a yearly tradition, a new figurine design competition came and went. If you've never heard of / participated in any of the past two, the 'rules' were fairly simple, and the same as previous years except for the figurine that was used. You were allowed to decorate the little blank figurine any way you see fit, add things, take away things..etc. As long as you didnt totally deface it to the point it no longer looks like the original base model. Artists were given two options, you could buy your own blank Raffy. OR you can 'compete' for a few blank ones that we were supplying people with. The advantage of buying your own is that you are welcome to have it sent back if you win or not. Roughly 2 months after the project went underway, we find ourselves at the end. As usual, the craft and creativity exhibited by the participants was mind boggling and very inspiring. Here's the photos of the results, see ya next year!

Photos

Winners

It was definately a tough competition to judge, as we were all torn on what exactly makes a piece better than another. Nonetheless, we had to come to some sort of agreement and we did so.

In regards to the prizes, I felt that they should in some way include a figurine of some sort, be it one designed by a professional vinyl figurine designer or something to continue inspiring further exploration by its winners.

The first place prize was a giant 12-inch Toby HK Holy MD Figurine by well-known artist Toby HK. It has a limited edition of 200 and the fact that the figurine had a world champion belt seemed like a fitting prize for our winner.

The second place prize comes from the wildly popular Gloomy Bear series of vinyl toys. Created by Mori Chack, the Gloomy Bear 5-inch: Threat Edition came with its own little pedestal so it also seemed fitting of a runner-up prize

The third place prize was a White Edition 7-inch Munny from KidRobot. This has become somewhat of a staple prize, the Munny allowed the artist to continue to create.

Wrap-up

We absolutely were blown away by the amount of detail in LegolaSS' Mindchamber Raffy. I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical when i saw the initial concept sketches of how exactly someone would be able to make a Mindchamber figurine out of a four-legged Raffy. But low and behold, LegolaSS was able to do it. The creative use of the shape of the Raffy and the impecable attention to detail was what swooned us. Great Work!

In second place was Captain-Ben with his Bloody Mess Raffy. This was a contraversial pick because some people felt this was the best one. Captain-Ben, literally tore open the back of this poor Raffy and stuffed him and sewed him back up. The attention to detail was great, the drips and 'sloppiness' of the spatter is perfectly in line with the twisted sense of humor that the whole thing evokes. The rivets and string keeping the figurine together were a refreshing addition to the figure while still keeping the whole thing faithful to the Raffy's shape.

The third place winner was W-P-S' Macog Raffy. Where does one start really, this is one of the most disturbing pieces and one of those you have to look and hold it in your hand to really appreciate it. We're still not totally sure just what materials were used, but man we hope W-P-S can seek some good medical help. I think the fact that this one just stood out in approach, and materials and craft was what drew us to this piece.

All in all, this was another great project. I'm sure I can speak for Tom when I say that we are really proud of everyones work and cant wait to show it off to people on Pico Day! Thank you and see you next year!