Background

Ryo Honda is a Japanese illustrator who just recently released his first figure - Kabakuro. The figure was launched at the tokyomade Design Festa booth.  The release coincided with the drop of Honda’s hand-illustrated black and white book – Kabakuro First Story.

A symbol of the father and son bond, this Japanese designed toy is a model of Kabakuro and his little son Shiro. The same characters that are featured in Ryo Honda's first picture book, Kabakuro First Story, also released at the Tokyo Design Festa.

Packaging

The figure is packaged within an illustrated cardboard box.  There are several drawings by Ryo Honda.  The drawings depict the characters posing for a photo.  Since there is no window pane, it’s probably not a displayable box.

The Figure

The Kabakuro figure is approximately 3 ½” tall and about 2 ¾” wide. While all of the descriptions I have read say that it’s made of a polystone material, it feels similar to a hard rotocast vinyl.

Kabakuro and his son Shiro are sculpted as one piece.  The figure is black and the white areas have been painted on.  The base of the figure states Kabakuro First Figurine Model designed by Ryo Honda and is signed by Honda.  (Although it’s a stamped signature and not an actual signature)

Our Opinion

Ryo Honda’s Kabakuro First Story is a very entertaining illustrated tale about a father and his son.  When it comes to the figure…it has a lot of potential.  I don’t like how the two characters are sculpted together as one figure.  It’s always difficult to paint really tight lines on a figure that is sculpted like this (especially when one character is all white and the other is all black).  I would have loved seeing the two characters sold separately.  But, overall, it’s a pretty good replication of Ryo Honda’s original artwork.

You can pick one up at the following:

Tokyomade: $30.00

Kabakuro Grades:

Quality: 7/10
Paint: 6/10
Durability: 9/10
Hype: 7/10
Fun Factor: 7/10
Value: 7/10
Overall: 7.2/10

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