Tomopop Review: Munky King x Luke Chueh's Black in White

3:00 PM on 08.30.2010   |   Call Niero

Luke Chueh is an artist whose work I adore. The cute animals and ridiculous situations they're portrayed in are just so moving to see and it's amazing to see his unique work transferred into vinyl form. When I first started collecting, one of the rarer pieces that I had wanted were his Possessed sets featuring bears that were controlled by little demons that have joysticks. Sadly, these pieces were a few years old and long sold out by the time I began collecting and they were too far out of my price range for me to even consider.

Thankfully, I saw that Munky King and Luke Chueh were working on bringing another of his paintings to the vinyl form, Black in White. About a year later and here he is! A dastardly little homicidal bunny ready to haunt your dreams. Was he worth the wait and does he match the level of quality the Possessed figures have? Hit the jump to find out!

Let's get things started, shall we? Come in and have a seat. I've been expecting you. Let me turn on some lights.

Ah, that's better. Here you can see some original art that the piece was based on. While not the original painting, this art made specifically for the box is a nice introduction to the piece this is. This is also the only thing printed on the whole box for the most part save for a few markings on the bottom and really shrouds the piece in a nice bit of mystery while letting you know exactly what it is.

The back of the box is a lot more bland than the front. Featuring the logos for Munky King and Luke Chueh as well as links to their websites, that's all the information you get about this guy. If you're lucky enough to be able to attend a signing for this piece, you'll also get a nice sketch of the bunny by Luke that takes some empty space and livens it up.

I was able to pick this piece up at San Diego Comic Con, and if you are planning on going to Luke's signing for this at Munky King later this month, you'll have to do something special to receive a sketch from Luke - you'll have to sketch for him as well! Called the sketch for sketch, Luke will only sketch for you if you sketch for him as well, which is a great idea and really lets the fans experience the pressure that these artists have to go under all the time.

Once you open the box, you're greeted by a nice hard plastic casing housing Black in White, his second head, and his knife. This is pretty standard packaging, so let's get him out of there and put him together.

Once he's taken out of his box and his knife is place in his hand, he immediately gets a lot more threatening. With his mask of sorts next to him, he looks like he's ready to go out and go on a killing spree. Both Black in White and his mask head stand very well and have great balance. From the front, he is a very threatening figure and looks like he'll come at you or whoever else may be lurking in your collection.

Black in White's back is fairly plain, but works very well. The only real detail is the tail that's sculpted into the vinyl that pops out a little bit. While there isn't much to look at here, that's something I like more than dislike; it provides for great silhouettes when photographed from the back and adds to his creepiness.

Black in White has a great face. The yellow eyes really contrast from the black vinyl and his nose and mouth walk the lines between cute and scary incredibly well. The only paint on the whole figure also appears here in the yellow in the eyes and is very well executed with perfect lines and no overlap at all. As you can also see in this picture, Black in White has moveable arms and what looks to be a working zipper on that fuzzy bodysuit of his. Let's see what that does...

As you can see here, the zipper on his suit actually works and can be adjusted to any height your heart desires. Underneath there's nothing but more black vinyl, but the contrast with the white of the suit works so well that I've chosen to display him slightly unzippered to show that off. The zipper itself also doesn't seem cheap and is incredibly easy to slide up and down and I have no fears of it breaking any time soon.

Black in White's lone accessory, seen here, is his knife. The knife is firmly held by his paw and slides in with relative ease. The knife itself is made of plastic and has a matte silver paint applied to it. As a result of the paint, the knife isn't very shiny, but it will glisten in the right light if that's what you're after. While being a bit simplistic, I feel like if this were shiny, it would detract from the piece as a whole though as it would put the emphasis on the knife instead of allowing the viewer to choose what to focus on.

In regards to areas to focus on, one area that really stands out are the bunny ears on the top of his head. With one ear straight up and the other flopping over, it really adds quite a bit of attitude to this piece as well as some motion. The ears are very well sculpted and has just enough in the folds in the way of detail to show off a tad while still meshing in well with the simplicity of the rest of the piece.

If you're more a fan of floppy fuzzy ears, you can opt to use Black in White's mask instead. The ears here are not sculpted underneath and are very floppy and poseable. The mask as a whole is incredibly spooky and adds a lot of extra scariness to this figure as well. Why does he need a mask? What kind of killer is this bunny?

If you want to swap their heads, it's as simple as pulling up on one and placing the other on. Let's see what he looks like in full killing mode with his mask on.

Ta-da! I must admit, the first time I realized that the heads were indeed swappable and I put this head on, it scared the daylights out of me. The simple mask with the black eye holes is just so striking that it feels like he's going to come alive a la Chucky and come after you.

The last thing to look at on Black in White are the feet. They feature the same logos that we saw on the back of the box, but they also have one other interesting characteristic: they're covered in plastic. At first I had no clue why they were, but then I realized that not only does it hold his bodysuit close to his body and past the bottoms of his feet, it greatly aids in having him stand. By pressing a tad when placing him, it smooths out the plastic and creates a bit of suction between Black in White and whatever you're placing him on.

Well, did Black in White live up to my expectations? Oh hell yes! I actually didn't really know what to expect from this piece, but once I saw him in the glass case at San Diego Comic Con, I knew I had to have him, and once I got him out of his box, I adored him immediately. The swapping of the heads, the zipper on the suit, the knife, and the poseable arms make this one figure that you can always pick up and do something different with and he offers a wide variety of display options.

If you want Black in White for yourself, who stands about 8" tall or so by the way, you're in luck! This original edition of 800, which first debuted at San Diego Comic Con, will be up for sale on Munky King's website on this Wednesday, September 1st and I assume he'll be the same price he was at Comic Con, $100. Considering just how much detail is in this piece, he is well worth that price, and if you're in the LA area, definitely try to make it to Luke's signing later in September as he's one of the nicest artists I've met. Be sure to check out the gallery for even more pictures and if you do decide to purchase one of these, watch your back, he's one killhappy little guy.