It all starts when actor Ryan Kwok, star of the Chogokin Warrior t.v. Show, is recruited to become the real deal, when Lord Kazra escapes his eternal prison and begins enacting his vengeance on all the Chogokin Warriors, past, present, future, and across universes. Armed with his army of loyal giant sized monsters, Lord Kazra wreaks havoc across cities and worlds. Unwilling to back down, Chogokin Warrior summons his Star Braver, a giant mecha of advanced alien technology, to fight back and strike down these Kaiju.
After losing a family member back in mid 2019, I was shown that life is too short to be wasted in an unhappy job and wondering the what if. I quit my day job of retail management and went on a soul searching journey to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I started to make enamel pins of things i was a fandom of, but I wasn’t feeling too passionate about it, Sotheby’s search continued. Always knowing it was going to be a creative path, I never could dial in the direction though.
A friend later that year invited me out to Designer Con 2019, hoping something there would inspire me. That is when I learned what Sofubi was for the first time. I remember most certainly as a child i definitely had some sofubi, but never knew there was a culture of it. Now i know. And as an adult have found this profound appreciation for it. I walked around the show and saw so many awesome indie toy makers and their awesome designs. I finally found what I wanted to do.
Coming back from DCon 2019, I jumped into brainstorming what type of character I wanted to create. My deep rooted love for Power Rangers, Kamen Rider, Ultraman, Gridman, all of the tokusatsu genre, sparked Chogokin Warrior, my very own henshin hero. Early 2020, I finish the design, and came across Kent from DoomCo Designs to do the 3d modeling as I do not have that skill, and of course he knocks it out of the park. I then send it off to the factory to be produced, but we all know what happens next. Covid hits and Chogokin Warrior gets delayed.
As the world shut down and now I’m a sitting duck for most of 2020. I decided to keep designing characters and just do a line up of toys for later down the road. With all this time though, i actually used it wisely and taught my self how to 3d model. So now I’m 3d modeling my designs and getting them ready for the future.
Early 2021, factories begin to open back up. I finally receive my Chogokin Warrior sofubi. They turned out awesome. I was excited! Given there were no conventions happening and I am such a new artist to the scene, sales weren’t strong, but that’s ok. It was expected. I kept on trucking along. I decide to put into production my next design, with was a shark Kaiju called Sharakong.
Most of 2021, was still kind of a lull as shows still had not yet returned, but then Designer Con 2021 gets announced, and I line up my release of Sharkakong with it. It was very surreal being there tabling, since i had told myself back in 2019, i would return with my own toy, and i sure did. Still being a relatively unknown, Sharkakong does do a little better than Sharkakong did. Slowly word starts to get out a little about my work. At the time leading up to the show, I had come up with a mecha design, which would be the giant robot, Chogokin Warrior would pilot to fight Kaiju. Thus Star Braver was born. I figured I would 3d print a prototype for display at Designer Con. Though Sharakong was doing better than Chogokin warrior, The Star Braver prototype was getting a lot of attention. Kept getting asked when that was going to be release. There was no immediate plan as i had my next Chogokin Warrior v2 sofubi scheduled for production.
Last show of the year for me was Emerald City Comic Con. Both my sofubi figures are doing even better. Surely more people are discovering me. I once again, have the Star Braver prototype on display at the table, and again it gets a lot of attention. Everyone asking when its releasing. Okay fine, I’m convinced. Time to fast track this project. Which brings us to the kickstarter. Having nearly exhausted all my personal funds for the first 3 soft vinyl figures of mine, I was definitely going to need the help of everyone out there on this one. We are finally nearing the launch and I’m hoping the word gets out. There are tons of rewards, ranging from $15 to $1300. Pins and stickers, to posters, early bird pricing on the blanks and paint versions of Star Braver as well as retailer wholesale packages and 1 of 1 artist custom painted ones, with Mark Nagata, Neil Ewing, SERP93666, Chris Hillseth (Ragna Squad), and Brandon Leech (Motley Miscreations) participating.
A new 3 inch Chogokin Warrior sofubi will be included in all the tiers with Star Braver, or as a standalone reward.
