Artist Spotlight: Grody Shogun, Luke Rook and the Fine Art of the Sofubi Mashup
Some sofubi makers chase perfect paint and pretty monsters. Luke Rook went the other way. Grody Shogun is baby heads on dog bodies, wolfman parts on the wrong torso, ponies with too many eyes. It should not work. It absolutely works. We keep one of the deepest Grody Shogun walls anywhere, so this week we are giving Luke the full spotlight treatment.
Fair warning: nothing here stays in stock long. Grody runs are small, the mashups are one offs, and the cheap stuff moves first.
Who Is Luke Rook?
Luke Rook is an American toy maker who has been living and working in Tokyo for a long time, tied to Lulubell Toys from the early days. Around 2011 he started Grody Shogun as his own outlet, and the pitch was simple: he does just about everything himself. Sculpts the piece, makes the wax for the molds, pulls the soft vinyl, paints it, bags it. One guy, start to finish, out of a little studio in Koenji.
The first Grody releases were Oji-san and Karakuri, and Karakuri was sculpted straight off the Oji-san wax. That tells you everything about how Luke works. Nothing is precious. Waxes get recut, parts get swapped, heads end up on bodies they were never meant for. Early on he even ran a mix and match monster line with 4 bodies, 6 arms and 6 heads, so no two figures had to come out the same. That mashup DNA is still the whole brand fifteen years later, and it is why collectors either shrug at Grody or own forty of them.
Piece of the Week
Justin Ishmael Brown x Green Galligantus
The Galligantus is the big one. Justin Ishmael designed it as an officially licensed Famous Monsters of Filmland piece, pulled from Ron Cobb’s 1968 Yearbook cover, and Luke produced the figure in Japan. Two headed giant, real deal Japanese vinyl. The whole backstory is worth a read.
This one is light green vinyl with layered brown and green paint, and the layering is exceptional even by custom standards. Possibly painted by Creature Bazaar based on social media references. Pictures do not do it justice. Loose, no packaging, like new condition.
$499 In stock View →
The Grody Way: Fresh Weirdness in the Shop
Grody bags land at the shop all the time, and the newest wave is classic Luke. Clear vinyl, glow vinyl, minimal paint, maximum strange.
Two Legs and a Head
The name is the spec sheet. Clear yellow head, glow in the dark legs, a bit of paint for the eyes only. This is the mashup instinct boiled all the way down: skip the body entirely. Just landed this week. New in bag with header.
$78 In stock View →
Starry Eyed Big Headed Baby
Clear vinyl with just the eyes painted, and a smaller fleshy kewpie doll sealed inside it. A toy inside a toy. Very cool in hand. New in bag with header. There is also an empty version for $165 if you like your babies hollow.
$189 In stock View →
Clear x Glow Claw Machine Randy
Clear and glow in the dark vinyl painted up as shown, with a little claw machine on the left hand. Randy went to the arcade and never came back. Very cool. New in bag with header.
$135 In stock View →
Glowing Galligantus Baby Monster
The Galligantus story continues in baby form. Glow in the dark vinyl with blue, purple, pink and more paint. Sweet, oh so sweet, sofubi from Luke. Loose, no packaging, like new condition.
$99 In stock View →
VF Blue on Glow Ojisan Nug
Oji-san was one of the very first Grody Shogun releases, so this is a piece of brand history. Glow vinyl with blue, purple and orange paint, and it really pops under blacklight. Signed VF on the bottom of the foot. Loose, no packaging, like new condition.
$68 In stock View →
Monster Parts: The Mashup Wall
Luke’s old mix and match line lives on in these. Wolfman heads, Frankenstein bolts, Dracula collars, all swapped across mixed color parts like a monster junkyard. Unpainted or nearly unpainted, so the vinyl mix does the talking.
All three are loose with header only, like new. At $74 each these are the easiest way into real Grody weirdness, and monster parts figures are exactly what people picture when they hear the name.
Collabs Done Right
Half the fun of Grody Shogun is who Luke teams up with. His mashups pull in sculpts and parts from all over the scene.
Grody Shogun x Jetturre Silver Shimmer Francois Le Grand
Slightly silvery lame vinyl with darker lines of lame running through it, mostly in the feet. Big, strange, outstanding in hand. The Jetturre collabs do not show up often, and the lame vinyl makes this one a shelf centerpiece.
$349 In stock View →
Clear Green Mummy Seagool
Great collab between Grody Shogun and Paul Kaiju on PK’s Seagool sculpt. Clear vinyl with green, fleshy browns, black and more paint. The mummy wrap paint over clear vinyl is a great look. Loose, like new condition.
$79 In stock View →
Fermented Celery Juice Moloch Man
Red vinyl with greens, gold and more paint. A DCon 2014 release, so this one has been floating around the scene for over a decade and still looks nasty in the best way. Loose, no packaging, like new condition. Also dig the Shikaruna Kabuki collab at $79 if hybrid pieces are your thing.
$129 In stock View →
The Pony Wall
Yes, Grody Shogun makes ponies. No, they are not for kids. Black vinyl, extra eyes, death metal paint. The ponies are a whole collecting lane on their own.
The Norwegian Death Pony has DSKI initials on the feet. There is also a Pink Baby Pony with a mohawk at $54 if you want the cute one. Relatively speaking.
Grody Under $50
This is the best cheap-entry brand in the shop, period. Real hand made Japanese vinyl for less than a blind box haul:
- Glow in Dark Sleeping Death, $18. Pure unpainted glow vinyl. Charge it up and let it haunt the shelf.
- Unpainted Teal Roly Poly Man Head, $22. Head only. That is the point.
- Painted Green Fifi Head, $24. Extra eyes scattered around the surface.
- Drippy Trippy Frankie Head, $34. Yellow vinyl, splattered drips, no two alike.
- Painted Glow Wolfman Head by Luke, $38. Signed by Luke on the side flashing.
- Red Painted Grouse, $39. Great underrated vinyl.
- Painted Boob Bear, $39. Classic Grody irreverence, painted in a realistic style we have not seen before.
- Stone Cold Cthulhu Lurker, $39. Compact but full of tentacled personality. New in bag with header.
- Red Headed Baby Bird, $39. Oddball even by Grody standards.
- Undead Zombie with Owl Head, $44. A Dracula head with an owl on top. Sure, why not.
- Golden WTF, $48. Dog body, baby head, gold vinyl. The name checks out.
Sold Out / The Grail Shelf
Proof of where Grody prices go once the bags are gone. These have all sold through the shop:
- Skinner x ISH Custom Galligantus, $745
- Justin Ishmael x Blobpus Type A Galligantus, $649
- Grody Shogun x James Groman Neon Pink Dieceratops, $599
- Grody Shogun x PicoPico Green Headed Death BoBo, $565
- Grody Shogun x Justin Ishmael Galligantus 1968 FM Cover Edition, $329
- Splurrt x Grody Shogun BamBam Monster Custom Mash Up, $299
That is the Grody Shogun story: one guy in Koenji cutting waxes, swapping heads, and keeping sofubi weird for fifteen years. Follow Luke at @grodyshogun, then go dig through the full Grody Shogun collection before the good stuff walks. FUN!
