To-Fu Oyako cooking along

BEAN CURD might be tasteless, but you have to give it credit for being healthy – and for inspiring To-Fu Oyako, a manga series from a design team in Tokyo called Devilrobots. Siam Centre has 100 To-Fu Oyako collectibles in exhibit on its Idea Avenue. 

Graphic designers Shinichiro Kitai, Kenji Saito, Seiko Kato, Yoshizo Yoshimura and Takeshi Ikegami got together as Devilrobots in 1997 and come up with Web pages and audiovisuals as well as illustrations and amusing characters. 

To-Fu Oyako – the name means “tofu family” – debuted 15 years ago as the winning entry in a Character King design competition. Drawn with appealing simplicity, the central figure is a wad of soft tofu with a square head, tiny red nose and a smile that suggests a jittery loneliness.

Kitai, the president and art director at Devilrobots, has been a geek about drawing since childhood. “I worked in graphic design at an advertising agency and a record label in Osaka, but it was often limiting and I felt stressed. I wanted to design my own products.”

Devilrobots quickly proved popular, participating in an IDN magazine designer conference in Hong Kong in 2002 and taking its work on the road to Taiwan and around Southeast Asia. To-Fu has turned up in various poses in ads for Adidas, Uniqlo, HTC, Disney, Samsung, Sony, Levi’s, Canon, Nike, Coca-Cola and many other firms.

The To-Fu collectibles, including toys, are a hit with kids and art lovers in Japan. There are more than 300 items, from key chains to straps for your phone and a figure called Kubrick.

“Every new design is meant to be a member of the family or a friend for To-Fu,” Kitai says. “We’ve actually created 500 other characters, but only use 100 in our work. I get my inspiration from everything I see on television – the ads, the music, letters of the alphabet in various languages.”

He was in Bangkok last year for a workshop at the Japan Foundation, but this is Devilrobots’ first show here, and it’s quite a show. To-Fu Oyako has brought along Evilrob and the Pumpkin King, and the complete set of To-Fu Kubrick, from the first edition to the latest, Arto-Fu. Evilrob, a collaboration with Medicom Toys, transforms into other figures – Kubrick, 400% Kubrick, Be@rbrick amd Terminal Mortal Vinyl.

Suzuki Solio and 1/6 Project are limited editions and would make great gifts, though pricey. Clay To-Fu is a handmade model Kitai used to test characters’ head sizes. Bandai produced Chogokin To-Fu Oyako in 2008, and 36 silver-coated To-Fus with black heads appeared for Devilrobots’ 10th anniversary. 

The DR X BB To-Fu Okan, Musuko and Evilrob collection was made in collaboration with Lego’s Nicholas Foo. The series features Okan, the mother, released in 2010, a mock-up of Musuko, the son, coming out next year, and the original Lego brick Evilrob that Foo gave the Devilrobots team as a token of friendship.

The small toys are just as intriguing – box and capsule figures, miniatures and more, some of which are prototypes that never went on sale. And a replica of Kitai’s workroom has been set up, full of his sketches and teeming with creativity, You can see how some of the characters developed.

A temporary Devilrobots shop on the second floor has more toys and accessories. Apple To-Fu figures, five kinds of anime USBs, the mother and DIY figures and Evilrob in vinyl join a Spongebob Squarepants To-Fu and even Dental Pro To-Fu toothbrushes.

And, best of all, there are 10 To-Fu Oyako Absolute Siam figures, each hand-painted by Kitai, plus Happy Halloween T-shirts with To-Fu sporting a pumpkin head.