Digirama
The term “digirama” comes from the Japanese portmanteau word for “digital diorama.” Making a toy digirama involves taking a photograph of a toy and digitally compositing it into a new background to cool, amusing or surreal effect.
The best digiramas require time, patience, planning, photography skills, Photoshop (or equivalent) skills, an appreciation of lighting and a whole lot of artistic ability. Perhaps understandably, toy fans who do digiramas on a regular basis seem to burn out quickly. We can only thank them for leaving us with memorable imagery. Never have toys appeared so vivid, so beautiful, so majestic.
Here are some fine examples …
Tamaki’s Little Treasure.
One of the oldest Japanese digirama sites still coming up with neat digirama. (The older archives.)
Omopura.
The site hasn’t been updated in over a year but the archives remain amazing. Be sure to see this remarkable sequence showing a cheap, bland figure turned into a work of art.
WalkerMachine.
These properly capture the sense of awe and wonder a super robot or titanic mecha would evoke. (More.)
J. Thomas Tantiangco.
Fanmode has featured this Flickr user a lot over the past few weeks and given his prolific output, we expect he’ll continue to feature heavily.
Edward Lee.
Someone buy this man a Flickr Pro account.
Dion.
The DC Direct figures look unnatural and awkward in digiramas featuring action poses but when simply standing still, superheroes (and supervillains) rarely looked more heroic (or villainous).
Hock.
A lot of cool 1/6-scale digiramas here.
Flickr: Toy Digirama group.
There are a lot of “wow” moments to be had browsing the pool.
Toy links
Empress Flame.
A Lego MOC inspired by Five Star Stories.
Minicomic.
“I had an idea about redoing old comic covers with Minimates. This is a recreation of The Incredible Hulk #181, first appearance of Wolverine.”
Dai-Cyber.
A multi-vehicle Assemble Borg combining fanmode by moromisox. (Click on the image for a better look.)
Astral Armour Professor X.
This glennwebman69 custom will blow your mind. (See also.)
Kamen Rider Sasword.
It’s good to see Killing Monkey is still coming up with fantastic S.I.C.-style customs.
Balder the Brave.
A custom from the pages of The Mighty Thor.
The Onion reviews Toy Monster.
“… clearly a hatchet job that favors some targets over others.”
Designing dolls.
“Perceived value sells! Don’t skimp on the quality of materials that you use.”