I am sad to announce that we are retiring our ArmaBenders armature kits. Tetsu Kawamura and I had collaborated over seventeen + years to bring top notch armatures to stop motion enthusiasts! ArmaBenders in my opinion were the best armatures for hobbyist, and I am proud to have been able to work together.
Tetsu, who resides in Japan, put a lot of thought into his armatures. The goal was always to make the kits both affordable, customizable and built to a high degree of precision. During his earliest phases of creating kits, Tetsu initially named his new armatures StopMate. They were made using only a drill press!
Later, Tetsu would consulted with the famous Jim Danforth for advice on how to improve on what he already made. This was exciting because Jim was one of the foremost figures during the golden age of stop motion. Not long after this Tetsu would grow his machine shop with better tools and materials.
Tetsu ended up creating a final kit design that was lighter in weight (through the use of aluminum parts) and easier to customize. You can see the evolution of the kits here, there were many versions before settling on the ArmaBenders 2 kits: http://www.modelanimation.com/stopmate.html
Tetsu did not just make armature kits, he also worked with many artists, film makers, schools and even animation festivals. He truly loves the art form and has given back a lot to the community. One of his last big projects to work on was with Yamiken Studios on a film called Junk Head. You can see some behind the scenes videos of that project here: https://www.youtube.com/@YAMIKENSTUDIO/videos
In 2020, we also both got to work with the famous filmmaker Peter Jackson, supplying him with a multitude of various stop motion joints. During Covid, Peter was not able to work on big productions. In his NZ home he started created Ray Harryhausen replica puppets to animate for fun. At that time, he wanted strong joints in a number of sizes so he could make a variety of puppets at different scales. Peter really appreciated Tetsu's joints and praised them for their strength and light weight.
Tetsu decided in mid-2024 that he would like to retire making the kits, it was a very long run and understandable, especially as he got more custom work. So with that, thank you Tetsu for such an enjoyable working relationship!
Today, Tetsu is working on big projects for studios so his time is limited in creating armatures for a wider audience. If you were supplied with one of his armature kits and would like to write him to share your experience, you can do so at: puppetmaster@modelanimation.com You can also visit his website here: http://www.modelanimation.com/