An Interview with Rich | Lash
Can you give us a little background about yourself?
I am just the average guy. I pretty much wake up and it's all about toys until I hit the pillow. I even have my dinner table situated so that I face my to the cabinets. Hold up, this is the average guy right?
How did you first get into Kaiju?
Through a buy at Toy Tokyo. I used to collect Western Toys, mainly Kaws. But once I had a few Japanese Toys in hand it was a wrap!
When did you start doing commission work?
I don't know really, it just sort of happened. I used to buy stuffs, acetone and repaint them. After doing so many I think people started to want something that I hadn't done yet. I really did a ton of RxH customs, actually thats all I really wanted to paint being as it was my favorite toy company. So if you liked what I was doing but didn't collect RxH, you would just ask me, I think it just kept up.
What are your influences?
I have so many painted toys. But I think my main vision is the look and feel of the 70's Choppers and Hotrods. I just love anything bright, metallic and sparkly.
But on any given day, it could be anything. I live in a pretty good area for artist in New Heaven. There's a lot of us. I actually just got in to my cituss artist directory.
How many RxH figures do you own and what was the most expensive one that you purchased?
I would say I have a good 50 or more. But I really like the older stuff more than anything. The newer stuff is great, but I liked the less masked stuff more. I would say my most expensive one would be the 1st Mutant Evil, the yellow one with green and purple spray. I LOVE him. "O" and my clear pink Booska Mutant Head, yeah, the Mutant Head is probably my favorite..... . I think.... my mind changes daily.
What else do you collect?
Right now, I am focusing on the larger sized figures. The cruder the better!
Any updates on the MVH figure?
Plenty progress, but I think after the last head shot update. I am going to hold off on any more images and wait until it's in the vinyl and painted stage before you see him again. I have given a lot of images away. I never get to see any progress of these figures that I collect and wanted to show people out there the process and what goes into getting a toy made. But right now, I think I have shown enough for you guys to get the feel. So for now, it's all locked down here at MVH. I want to let you guys forget about this for the next month or so, so that you will be surprised when he hits.
Can you give me a brief descriptions of the custom Mutant Head you did?
This one came out great! As I started it was definitely one of those paint apps that I knew was gonna look amazing when it's finished. I usually know what colors I will be using but keep little details to change as I go for fun. Usually, when I plan it out too much, I tend to over think it and ruin the fun.
There really is no inspiration behind the visual wise, but when I was painting him I was also painting the mutant evil I did for Ryan which was a bit darker in design. So I think he is so bright as he is the Yang to Ryans Yin. It came out great...!
To Rich: Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview and an amazing job on the Mutant Head!
