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Tomohiro Yasui is an artist known for his papercraft Kami-Robo robots which he has been making for the past 35 years, but also for his analog and digital illustrations and designs, professional wrestling masks, kigurumi costumes, and original crafts made of paper, felt, resin and all manner of materials and recycled parts.
His art has been featured in high school art textbooks and his Kami-Robo have been included in the MoMA design store's lineup.
He also makes original figures, and as anyone following his Twitter account (@kami_robo_yasui) surely knows, when he's left to his own devices, he has been known to express his creativity by taking cheap toys and fashioning them into action figures which can actually be moved and posed.
Rubber duckie, you're so fine...
On February 21st, in a Tweet which has nearly 220,000 likes and 62,000 retweets at the time of writing, Yasui revealed his latest figure making use of a simple toy which is probably recognized around the world:
"I took seven 'PukaPuka Ahiru' (floaty duck) [brand] rubber duckies I bought from the 100-yen thrift shop, cut them up into small pieces, connected them with wire and made a fully-movable doll (figure)."
With permission from Tomohiro Yasui (@kami_robo_yasui)
Ernie would be shocked to see what happened to his rubber duckie...
With permission from Tomohiro Yasui (@kami_robo_yasui)
The structure of this rubber duckie action hero definitely has something robot-like to it, not surprising considering Yasui's penchant for robot creations which finds expression in his Kami-Robo papercraft.
With permission from Tomohiro Yasui (@kami_robo_yasui)
With permission from Tomohiro Yasui (@kami_robo_yasui)
Reactions to this epic figure were swift and numerous, with many readers finding parallels in other fictional worlds:
"Is this a new Marvel hero?"
"It looked to me like Gold Experience (from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure)."
"Anyway you look at it, it's a Gold Cloth from Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac."
"I borrowed this picture... That explains my feeling of déjà vu!"
Go figure
This is not the first time Yasui has made well-designed figures out of cheap toys. For example, take a look at the hero he made out of a plastic hammer:
And earlier this month, to celebrate Setsubun, the Japanese holiday when demons are cast out by throwing beans, he made one out of a demon mask he bought at a 100-yen thrift shop:
The world of Tomohiro Yasui
If you'd like to see more of Yasui's amazing creations, you can follow him on Twitter or visit his websites to learn more about his Kami-Robo creations or his other handiwork at Yasui Kobo.