I just received an email from Fuei Shokai (腐影商会) with a bit more information about their Slender Man release:

The first figure from Fuei Shokai, released at Super Festival 57, is their interpretation of Slender Man.  Slender Man is present in American urban legends, but their interpretation draws from an older version.

This iteration of Slender Man is based on an 18th century German poem Erlkönig; literally translated as “alder king.”  The main character of the poem finds himself lost in the woods.  His death marks his transformation into Slender Man.

This is where the paths of the urban legend of Slender Man and the poem cross.  Slender Man wanders the dark in search of children.  He is invisible to adults, but children are able to see him.  He may also appear in children’s dreams.  Slender Man is responsible for child abductions that are typically written off as runaways.

Next week, Fuei Shokai plans to release a new deluxe version.  For now, the first release can be purchased in the US exclusively from Lulubell Toys.

In honor of it’s 8th anniversary as a store, Star Case in Koenji debuted their first foray into soft vinyl.  Space Black Robot (宇宙ブラックロボ) is a pretty awesome toy that combines some recognizable characteristics with an interesting aesthetic.  Overall, it’s a nice toy, and appropriately, quickly sold out.  Good news, though.  The next release will happen towards the end of November/early December.  When asked if Star Case would take international orders, I was told that as long as customers can figure out the shopping system in Japanese, they can pay via Paypal.  Star Case’s online store can be found here.

At TOKYO CULTuART, on the 3rd floor of the BEAMS shop in Harajuku, Hajime Sorayama had a small show of paintings.  The gallery set aside a private room in the middle of room, where they hung the paintings.  These paintings were much less robot inspired than his other work, and instead focused entirely on sexuality.  The 10 or so large paintings were his own work, in his very detailed style, painted over shunga-styled backgrounds.  Sadly, due to the adult nature of the paintings, they enforced a strict No Photography policy.  The art space is interesting, and thanks to BEAMS and M1号 regular releases together, there were a number of toys lining the walls.

At the Logos Gallery in Parco, Dehara had a decently sized solo show with tons of new nendo characters.  While the Dehara Empire includes tons of things, from mentaiko tissue box covers to vinyl toys, it’s his clay sculptures that really stole the show.  They also showcased his new panchira cellphone straps that he did with Kitan Club.  The gallery wasn’t huge, but it was packed with stuff, and a lot of it was brand new.