The Snowboarder's Journal - frequency 17.2
ACTION-FIGURE DUDE
Words: Kenji Kato, Photos: Koichi Sato 2019-10-21 19:39:40
If you’re a child of the ’80s, chances are you played with action figures in your childhood. Spider-Man, Batman, Marvel Legends, Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Star Wars—you took your heroes everywhere and scripted stories of their triumph.
Koichi Sato’s heroes are snowboarders. Hailing from Gunma on the Japanese island of Honshu, he’s been riding since the ’80s. Then, four years ago, Koichi was having a hard time finding a chance to go riding—you know, one of those seasons. One day, he made an eight-inch-tall doll with metal wire to play with a miniature snowboard.
“I made it so you could picture your riding,” Sato says, “and twist its upper body and bend its knees. I used to work as an engineer and love radio-controlled cars, so I applied that knowledge and made the face and body with sculpting putty. I cut rubber sheets to make all their joints flexible besides their fingers and feet. Somehow, people loved it. It slowly became popular among local shredders as well as some well-known snowboarders like [Gentemstick owner and designer] Taro Tamai. I started getting orders for the snowboard action figures from friends of friends, and they introduced them to other friends. Now some of my friend call me the ‘actio- figure dude.’”
Koichi, whose work can be seen on Instagram at @ks.powderking, now makes everything from miniature splitboards with an actual interface system including pins, clips and heel risers, to smartphone gimbals and fishing rods and reels. The attention to detail shows in the time commitment. “It takes about 50 hours to make one,” Sato says. “After I finish working my day job, I spend a few hours per day sculpting and painting. I can make almost any type of gear, I think. I’ve made collapsible trekking poles that work like the real ones even. It’s a straightforward process, it just takes time.”
And since Sato can build nearly anything, he made a miniaturized version of his own snowboard hero, Craig Kelly. Combined with a 1/12 scale radio-controlled snowcat, Sato says, “It’s so rad that I can go catboarding with Craig any time.”
But Sato won’t be mass-producing his snowboard action figures anytime soon. He only makes them for clients he meets in person and charges them around $400. “Since it takes so long to make one, I’d rather meet and talk to clients,” Sato says. “If it breaks, I want to fix it.”
These aren’t disposable Mattel-made child’s toys. They’re timeless tiny sculptures built to make grown adults feel like kids again—another way to connect to your snowboard dreams.
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ACTION-FIGURE DUDE
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