The second series named 『SHOCK』has been officially announced. We would like to take this opportunity to introduce this series a little bit more in detail.
In April this year, we released the first blind box series named 『RELAX』, a collaboration between POP MART × INSTINCTOY, and it was very well received.
For this second series, the original characters of INSTINCTOY gathered again! The main theme of the first 『RELAX』series was "to relax", where all characters are "taking a rest". For the 『SHOCK』series however, the theme was “surprise“ and the characters are shown in various situations in a “shocked” state.
The previous series was one that focused on the theme of "being relaxed and cute". However, in this work, all characters are designed with "a little poison and cuteness", which makes them more INSTINCTOY-like.
There are a total of 6 different characters included, plus a secret character. Each character is available in two colorways, making it a total of 14 different figures to collect.
This product is a blind box, which means that you do not know beforehand what figure is inside the box. However, one display box (12 single blind boxes/ display box) usually contains one of each character in each of their colorways except the secret one. Therefore, by purchasing 1 display box, you will be able to collect all the 12 basic characters.
(↓ POP MART's announcement image)
We will introduce each character and design theme along with the promotional image produced by POP MART. The images were created under the supervision of INSTINCTOY.
<Muckey>
The original character that was born in 2013 depicts the encounter between the bear “Muckey” and the mysterious flying monster “Fluffy”. There are various types of Fluffy, which are floating around. When they find a living being with comfortable looking fur, they infest the creature and merge into the hair and settle there. The “new” creature is characterized by being affected by the certain type of Fluffy and the color of the hair when it gets infested by Fluffy. The head of Muckey is movable and by lifting or tilting the head, Muckey’s facial expression changes, revealing its teeth. The arms can also be moved back and forth.
The Fantasia color is based on the image of "a fantasy world that only appears in a dream." It is one of the most popular colors of our INSTINCTOY original works, and we really wanted to include this color in this series. It is a color that has a complex painting process and is therefore very difficult to produce. However, thanks to POP MART's great expertise, the popular INSTINCTOY color can be beautifully reproduced on a "8 cm mini figure"!
The HALLOWEEN color shows Muckey being surprised by the appearance of the other participants of a Halloween party, even though he was dressed up himself. I will leave it to your imagination what kind of costumes the other participants were wearing to scare Muckey.
[Special focus on molding of SHOCK Series/Muckey]
In the first series "RELAX", Muckey was included for the first time as a mini figure. Based on the design concept "rest", we reproduced Muckey’s complex hair with adjustments during the modeling phase. In the "SHOCK" series however, we dared to model the hair based on the original (regular size) 3D data and completed a Muckey mini size figure of 8 cm in height.
Please have a look at how the mini figure was achieved by reducing the size of the original 21 cm & 13 cm Muckeys! And due to being the “Fanatsia” color version, the glow-in-the-dark effect looks amazing.
<CURIO>
This original character design is based on a cat and was first released in 2015. This work depicts the encounter with the mysterious “Erosion Monster” LIQUID. When both humans and animals are surprised, they return to their "original" state. So, for the SHOCK series, I designed this character by capturing the characteristic pose when a cat is being surprised. The upright fur appears to be liquid, and his partner LIQUID jumps on his back and is also surprised. The neck part has a ball joint structure that allows the neck to rotate.
Lucy, in pastel rainbow colors, is "looking at something strange” and is surprised by what she sees. Tilting the neck a little bit to the side makes a very cute and recommended pose for Lucy.
Louis, a black cat with white paws, is a stray cat and is surprised by a certain event that happened that day in the city. Since he often hides somewhere in the city, his partner LIQUID is in a stealth (transparent) state. Imagine what happened to them.
<SNOWY>
This original character was first released in 2015. This work depicts an encounter with the mysterious “Ice Erosion Monster” ICE LIQUID. Please do not miss the cute ICE LIQUID hidden underneath the bucket (separate part) on the snowman’s head. The neck can rotate, and both arms can move due to the ball joint structure.
“First Snow” expresses the surprise when seeing the amazing beauty of "Hatsuyuki" (first snow). Please feel free to display SNOWY with the palms facing up.
“The Ice” was designed based on the image of gliding on snowy mountains. You can enjoy the change of expression simply by placing the palms down and placing the body diagonally. Please pay attention to the ICE LIQUID that can be seen through a transparent bucket made of ice on SNOWY’s head.
＜GYAWO＞
GYAWO is an original character born in 2016. The design is based on a bear, but a different one to the bear Muckey. However, just as Muckey, it is a work depicting the encounter with the mysterious floating creature Fluffy. You can change the posing pattern of this character by moving the limbs and give him a surprised expression by slightly moving his tongue (fine movement/separate parts).
The “Zombie” color looks great, as GYAWO is infested by the “Horror Fluffy” and turned into a zombie. The walking style is possible due to the movable structure of the limbs! Even after turning into a zombie, this GYAWO is still cute.
Enjoy this classic ZOMBIE colorway from the original INSTINCTOY series, but this time as a mini figure. (↓ 2016-2019 releases/all sold out/out of stock)
The “Crazy” color shows the amazing appearance of GYAWO after being transformed by a Fluffy that loves flashy colors. By moving both feet, you can even let him sit down.
＜ICE VINCENT＞
This original character was first released in 2017. ICE VINCENT is a large monster whose body has been infested by multiple mysterious erosive creatures, named ICE LIQUID. For the SHOCK series, ICE VINCENT was designed not to be "surprised" but to be "shocked" by the encounter with ICE LIQUID. I was going for a powerful and intimidating look.
“THE ICE” is based on the image of a creature lurking in a cave in the ice world.
This is a very beautiful color that has a thin and subtle pearl coating, applied as a finishing touch on the transparent clear blue body. Despite being a mini-figure, the size of about 8 square centimeters looks very appealing.
“Silver Dragon” is based on the image of a world of crystals.
The neck angle has been designed symmetrically to the Vincent of the RELAX series, so that they can be displayed together. Please feel free to put them side by side.
＜Booo-Ma＞
This original character was designed as an image character of the INSTINCTOY BLOG, which was renewed in 2008. To commemorate its 10th year anniversary, this character came to life as a soft vinyl figure in 2017. It is the only INSTINCTOY original character that has no relationship with the “Erosion Monsters”. For the SHOCK series, I used the soft, mochi-like elasticity of the face to create a surprised look.
The “Pinky” color is based on the image of being “amazed” when you find something very cute. I recommend you to decorate this work with your favorite cute figures and things.
When you see something scary, you would think the character turns “pale”. The “Rainbow” color however is just the opposite. Being surprised, the colors changed to rainbow colors.
＜SECRET／THUNDER LIQUID＞
Last but not least, we will introduce the Secret character (rare color).
This new character came to life in 2020! The INSTINCTOY's original character has its origin in the mysterious world of the “Erosion Monsters”. Alongside the liquid “Erosion Monster” LIQUID, the “Ice Erosion Monster” ICE LIQUID and the “Flying Erosion Monster” Fluffy, the “Thunder Erosion Monster” THUNDER LIQUID was revealed this year as the 4th “Erosion Monster”. The concept of this character, which has the power to “electrify and shock”, was perfect for the SHOCK series. Therefore, I used it as the secret character.
Furthermore, the secret character always has a special presence and is very sought after. You can say that the secret character brings the real joy and excitement to a blind box series. In the previous RELAX series, the secret character ICE LIQUID was very well received. However, the chance to get one is only 1/144. It is a very rare pull and only one is mixed into one “master carton” (the master carton consists of 12 carton boxes of which each has 12 blind boxes).
Therefore, for this series, we asked POP MART to adjust the pull rate of the secret characters to 1/72 & 1/144. In other words, the secret characters are mixed into 3 out of the 12 display boxes within the master carton. With this adjustment, the pull rate for one of the secret characters is set to be 3 times higher than that of the previous RELAX series!
Electric Ball (pull rate 1/72) is a color that reflects the image of electricity. Indeed, this basic color can be called the masterpiece color of this character. This color is expressed in a hollow molded clear color that gives off the unique charm of soft vinyl. It is a perfect match for any character of the SHOCK series, so please line them up and display them together.
Electric Rainbow (pull rate 1/144) is also made of clear soft vinyl with bright rainbow coloring. For the SHOCK series, we gave each character a speech balloon to add an expression to their pose. For this color however, the speech balloon says "BINGO (big hit)"!! It is an extremely rare color with the lowest pull ratio in the series, so please enjoy the "hunt".
In both cases, clear molding is used to make these figures transparent, and they look very beautiful when exposed to light. We used crystals as eye parts.
The secret card also has a special specification! It has hologram coating.
[Introduction of glow-in-the-dark works]
For the SHOCK series, 7 out of the 14 different figures in total are G.I.D. We would like to introduce them here.
<SNOWY: First Snow/The Ice>
＜GYAWO ZOMBIE／MUCKEY HALLOWEEN／Booo-Ma Rainbow＞
＜MUCKEY Fantasia／CURIO Lucy＞
In accordance with the image of the character, blue and green G.I.D. colors are being used. Please see the G.I.D. effect of all 7 figures for yourself .
[Commitment to hollow molded soft vinyl]
The INSTINCTOY figures are mainly made of "hollow molded" soft vinyl, which has been used to produce Japanese "Kaiju figures" since the 1960s. It is flexible and difficult to break, so it is very easy to handle. In addition, molding with hollow vinyl creates unique transparency and nostalgia.
POP MART's blind box series is basically a mass-produced product with a total quantity of tens of thousands. Therefore, injection molding via a machine is used. By understanding our commitment to soft vinyl, we have managed to do the mass production with a very time-consuming molding method, using the craftsmen's manual work to do slush molding and rotation molding.
[Notice of price revision for the new series]
In the above, we have gone into much detail regarding the products. Also, due to using complex molding and painting methods and soft vinyl as the material, the production cost is relatively high compared to the average POPMART blind box. When POPMART’s blind boxes are usually sold for 59 Yuan (1,100 JPY including tax), the RELAX series is priced at 99 Yuan (1,760 JPY including tax). For this series, due to POP MART's corporate efforts to adjust the costs by utilizing the production experience of the RELAX series, the price will be 79 Yuan (1,408 yen including tax), which is a reduction of 20 Yuan compared to the RELAX series. We hope that this will help to spread the appeal of soft vinyl through INSTINCTOY's works to a bigger audience.
<SHOCK SERIES retail price>
Single box(1 piece) / 1,408 JPY including tax (1,280 JPY excluding tax)
display BOX (12 pieces) / 16,896 JPY including tax (15,360 JPY excluding tax)
[Notice regarding release date and sales method]
This product will be released on September 11th (Friday) 2020, as stated in the title. POPMART will offer this product from 10:00 local time (11:00 Japan time).
To align our release with the release in mainland China, we will open the online sales at the INSTINCTOY ONLINE SHOP (http://instinctoy.com) at the same time.
The release will take place at the same time at all retailers of POP MART products all over the world. Therefore, please contact your nearest retailer if you are interested in purchasing this product.
[SHOCK release celebration post # special giveaway event]
To celebrate the release of the POP MART × INSTINCTOY SHOCK series, INSTINCTOY will hold a giveaway event.
If you would like to join, all you need to do is to post images of the SHOCK series you purchased with the hashtag "#INSTINCTOYSHOCK" on social media (Facebook / Instagram / Twitter / weibo). By making a post, you will have the chance to be one of the winners of INSTINCTOY’s latest soft vinyl figure “BIG THUNDER LIQUID”, in the same colorways as the secret “THUNDER LIQUID” of the SHOCK series. We will give away 10 BIG THUNDER LIQUID “Electric Ball” and 10 BIG THUNDER LIQUID “Electric Rainbow” (one piece per winner in either color).
(※The image is just for reference. Please note that the giveaway product is only one piece of BIG THUNDER LIQUID (in either color) per winner. The SHOCK series’ secret THUNDER LIQUID are not included.)
The giveaway event starts on September 11th (Friday) 2020 and ends on October 18th (Sunday) 2020.
The winners will be announced on October 24th (Saturday) along with their prize and their account ID that posted the image on one or more of their social media websites. We plan to deliver the prizes to the winners in November.
The photo you post can be of any character from the "SHOCK series". There is no limit regarding the total number of posts, but only one item per account can be won. Please note that you cannot choose the color of the giveaway product.
In order to participate in the giveaway event, you can purchase SHOCK series blind boxes at any store, including stores directly managed by POP MART and stores in other countries around the world.
We are already looking forward to your participation, and we cannot wait to see to your unique and cute photo posts!
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