>>9035512Some people would argue a lot of blind box vinyl figures aren't "Sofubi" at all, though thats a somewhat nebulous point. Often they're called "Collector Vinyl Figures" or something like that and are differentiated from "Sofubi" in many stores. Mostly because "Collector Vinyl figures" tend to focus on more cute and clean designs while "sofubi" are often grotesque, mosterous, and less cleanly painted.
Anyways, Vinyl figures tend to be cheaper, smaller, and often blindboxed with their rarity coming from predetermined seed rates. Sort of like pokemon cards or something. They're more common, though saying they're "lower grade" wouldn't be completely correct since the rare ones often go for as much or more than many sofubi figures. They're generally not considered as "Artsy" though because they're further disconnected from the creator than sofubi tend to be.
They are generally quite cleanly painted, because its automated in most cases, but often the paint apps are limited and you'll never get anything like hand painted stuff. VAG is a good example: Clean, but simple, and obviously automated.
VAG are cheap because they're produced in higher numbers than many of the other blind boxed figures, more like normal "Gacha". Something like Unbox Industries "Who Goes There?" series is probably the closest to "Real" sofubi that the blindboxes get. They're unpainted but their designs are from major artists and you can get the whole set by buying a case instead of an individual box. In otherwords they don't really have the seeded rarities: each case has 1 of everything +2 case pieces in different colors.
