Hey fam,
For those who might not know, we’ve tried to recreate 4 characters in The Journey to the West novel many times. But embarrassingly, none of the attempt succeeded in the past 2 years…
Till this day!
In the previous attempt awhile ago, we think we’ve finally reached what we aim for. But with all the overthinking, the project was dead after all. Just till recently, after deciding to make a move to do the keycap display – basically trying to turn artisan keycaps into figures – Journey to The West was revived!!!
Even though they’re going to the West, the novel is actually not popular in Western countries. But for us Asian, it plays a big role in our childhood, the Millennials and even early of Gen Z. The time when there were no YouTube, or cable TV, Hollywood movies were rarely played in the country. Every summer break, we used to look forward to seeing Tang Monk and his disciples fought against the demons and overcome 81 challenges on the way. Every time we watched, we knew exactly what was going to happen and what came next. But it never stopped us from being excited to see Wukong with his 72 powerful spells, or laughing at Pigsy’s big belly and laziness. Or feeling angry because Tang Monk was too blind to see the evils disguised as normal people.
There were dramas, emotional times when they hated each other, and later on realized that they cannot be separated. Seeing our heroes going through their ups and downs, had inspired many of us to be brave and be a hero in real life. And we are not an exception, while working on this set, it has brought out the feeling that we somehow just relived our childhood.
Behind the Scene
In case you don’t know, Wukong (full name: Sun Wukong) was the first disciple of Tang Monk. As the first joiner, he was considered as the most senior brother, as well as the most powerful. Then came Pigsy and Sandy was the last. Pigsy and Sany used to be in the heavenly kingdom, high ranks between the Gods. However, both of them made big mistakes and were exiled to Earth. Having relatively powerful skills and background, they were chosen to escort Tang Monk to the West.
Throughout many attempts to give them a perfect expression, we have encountered many dilemmas. A few versions of each hero have been created, as you can see from our sculpting videos on Youtube: Pi013 Studio. In the end, we have decided that they should have a rather calm or normal expressions. Because 1st of all, they are brothers. 2nd of all, after 81 challenges during the journey , things are rather chill now. Lastly, we leave it to your imagination.
We will share more details for each characters and their designs on both Instagram and Discord. Stay tuned!
A New Journey Ahead
The sculpting process was really enjoyable too!!! We can finally somehow bring the life into our childhood hero. Giving them a new look, inspired by the Japanese culture that we have read in Mangas and other sources.
We hope that this new perspective, of our Journey to the West, will bring new possibilities for us as well as other sculptors to express new ideas. Especially, when we’re trying the ability to put our artisan keycaps on a key display to from a proper figure.
Thank you for reading. Feel free to drop us any comment or question on the set, we’ll love to hear from you.
Picaps