From the back streets of 1960s Tokyo to gallery walls in Paris and New York, kaiju and sofubi have travelled further than any monster ever imagined. ViciousFun is where that journey lands — the largest single marketplace for authentic Japanese soft vinyl on the planet.
Sofubi (ソフビ) — short for “soft vinyl” — began when Marusan Shoten released the first Godzilla figure in 1966, kicking off a golden era of hand-cast, brightly painted rubber monsters made to look like the creatures tearing apart Tokyo on Saturday afternoon television. Bullmark, Popy, and Takatoku Toys followed, producing Ultraman enemies, Kamen Rider villains, and every kaiju from the Showa era library. These first-generation figures are among the most sought-after collectibles in the world today.
The 1990s brought sofubi’s second life. Artists and streetwear brands in Ura-Harajuku began commissioning small-batch figures rooted in kaiju aesthetics but filtered through punk, tattoo, and Lowbrow art culture. Secret Base, Gargamel, and Itokin Park turned the medium into artist’s canvas. By the 2000s, the movement had gone global: Max Toy Co. brought the kaiju sensibility to California, while companies like M1-Go and B-Club kept vintage nostalgia alive with faithful reproductions and exclusive colorway runs.
What makes sofubi worth collecting? It comes down to three things: material, scarcity, and culture. Sofubi is hand-cast from soft PVC in small runs — sometimes as few as 10 to 50 pieces — then spray-painted by human hands using airbrushed layers and hand-applied wash effects. No two pieces are identical. A figure sold only at Wonder Festival in Tokyo, only available via lottery, then resurfacing five years later on ViciousFun — that is the typical story of how rare pieces travel.
At ViciousFun you’ll find figures spanning the entire spectrum: unpainted blanks ideal for custom work, vintage Bullmark and Marusan pieces in collector-grade condition, modern limited runs from active Japanese studios, and the artist proof colorways that never made it into general circulation. Whether you collect by character (Godzilla, Ultraman, Hedorah), by manufacturer (M1-Go, Gargamel, Max Toy Co.), or by era (Showa, Heisei, designer), this is the deepest sofubi inventory you will find outside of Japan.
Browse the full catalog below. New pieces are listed continuously — follow ViciousFun on social for drop announcements.
