May 17, 2002 CURRENT RUMBLE ot so long ago, Roger Harkavy uncovered the nimble fingers of Singaporan Eric Chan and his mind-bending robot wire art. Now, Eric has unleashed his portfolio...in the form of AvantGrade Creations and all that is bendable and beautiful. AvantGrade features a dozen of Eric's finest "wire art pieces," a bit of personal history, and his obsession with Kikaida. A note on background, and a bit of contributing history to the 'degees of separation' conspiracy in the global ToyBoxDX community: Roger saw Eric pawning a fine piece of Ultraman Baltan-Seijin hardware on an unbeloved auction site. Roger doesn't bite Baltan, but instead bemoans the absence of a Gaiking Bazoler. Roger is bereft. Barren, Roger launches email to Eric, beseeches for a bent Baz. Benevolent Eric abandons his plans for sleep. Soon, Roger bumps into postal package: air Baz, and it's not a shoe. Roger is beside himself in awe. Bazoler art! Unbelievable! Eric, humble, belittles himself. "Aww, shucks, it's nothing, hur!" Soon, a Rumble preaches the art, the genius: Behold Eric Chan! I was so impressed that I wound up the 26KPS dial-up and sent some smoke signals surface speed to Eric. My note read, "You can handle an easy mini-Bazoler, but what can you do for a giant Gombesu of Kyodain live-action infamy??" "Huh, Kyodain?" was the official response. After an exchange of photos and a lengthy justification (OK, I may be the only person who watches AND likes Kyodain...) of my fave character, Eric went to work. I was amazed when, less than 48 hours later, Eric shot back some preliminary pictures of a near-completed head and upper torso. The man works fast! And he's a full-time engineering student! Surprisingly not, Eric admitted that sleep lost out in the war against wire. We corresponded for several days on finer details of Gombesu: 3 versus 4 prongs on the arms, points of articulation, color scheme....and Eric guided me with him through the bulk of the design process. Mighty cool stuff! Days before my venture to Guatemala, Gummy was finished and ready to fly! I "wired" the money to Singapore, and upon my return, I eyed a big box from Singapore Post, begging to be opened. The contents are priceless: a ten-inch tall Kyodain Gombesu, complete with a beautiful B/W sketch of my newest Kyodain piece and a certificate/letter of authenticity that reads, "Congratulations! You are the proud owner of Wire Gonbesu...." Eric followed with careful assembly and maintenance instructions.... A week ago, I received a follow up email message from Mr. Chan, who had recently opened AvantGrade Creations. And now I bid you adieu, and beg that you visit Eric's site. His work is indescribable, and as he states on the site, "I prefer people not to refer my works as art or sculptures as I'm a toy collector and started everything out of passion for toys, not art. Thus I like to call them figurines. Postscript: I'll be requesting a Groizer figurine next. Get your order in soon. I have a feeling Eric won't be sleeping for a while...  RUMBLE INDEX  |  CURRENT RUMBLE