Hello there! I'm CJ, the artist and creator behind the original Cosplay Onigiri here at The Onigiri Stand. My claim to fame is my Cosplay Onigiri characters, which are riceballs who have dressed up as anime and video game characters. :) These little guys pop up in a variety of mediums, but our primary product is hard enamel pins. We also carry acrylic charms, vinyl sticker sheets, reusable sticker books, high quality prints, and lanyards. Soon, we are hoping to expand to plushies as well!
My artwork focuses on mostly fanart of anime and video game series, however I make it a point to balance ultra-popular series with niche loves to make sure that there's something for everyone. Too, I have begun expanding my original art designs. Currently these include my Yokai characters and Pride onigiri, but DnD-style adventuring onigiri and Kaiju-style creatures are coming soon!
Below are some examples of my products as well as my physical stand which I use for artist alleys and markets. :) Toward the bottom, you'll also see some examples of my process in terms of making the designs themselves. :) If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to my email (theonigiristand@gmail.com) or message me on Instagram (@theonigiristand). Thanks for considering us for your event! :)
The Stand
8' booth set-up from Otakon 2025
6' booth set-up from Megacon 2026
Me (left) and my husband Russ (right) at Otakon 2026
Welcome to The Stand! Our display is generally a 4'x6' set up, plus a little extra for the pop-up characters on the roofs. The Stand is composed of square, interlocking, modular wire-frames and is covered with foam-board panels that are decorated with woodgrain poster prints and display signs. A high quality woodgrain tablecloth plus the Japanese-style roof toppers on the columns solidifies our visual as a Japanese-style food cart.
Because our set up is so modular, we can easily shift styles depending on the venue and needs of the show. For smaller markets and outdoor shows, we use a "pared down" style that swaps the columns for standing boards to make set-up and browsing a breeze.
Market set-up for small local market in Spring 2026
Hard Enamel Pins
My primary product is hard enamel pins. We have a wide array of designs, ranging from popular sets to more obscure single pins. All the pins are designed to go together, in the Cosplay Onigiri series. So the base size of a pin is 1.25" tall--Armstrong and Kirby are the best examples there. But characters with more hair, clothes, giant robot bits, etc., will be a little bigger.
Several designs feature special effects, such as Dark Shadow's glitter, Link's glowing tattoo, and or Gear 5 Luffy's pearlescent smoke. Additionally, there are some mini pins like our fan favorite Hamtaro or the Kanto Starters, as well as jumbo pins like EVA-01 or the Haku Dragon. And soon, our line of Super Jumbos will expand beyond the Moving Castle to include massive and articulate designs like Shenron and the Dragon Balls.
Generally, a regular sized pin is $15 and mini pins are $12. Deals include a solid discount for buying two or more, as well as a "Bento Deal" which nabs you some extra goodies with a purchase of four or more pins. And eagle-eyed readers may have noticed our gachapon as well--more on that later!!
Here's a closer look at some of the pins, as well as their backer cards:
Vinyl Sticker Sheets
One of our secondary products are our new Vinyl Sticker Sheets. We have begun phasing out individual stickers to solidify our portfolio and give customers more bang for their buck. These sheets are designed around either full series (like Fruits Basket) or themes (like video games or "mages"). With so many designs in our cache, this was the best way to give even the most obscure character some love!
These stickers are water-proof, weather-proof, and UV resistant. My manufacturer recommends indoor use, but I have had several returning customers express how well my stickers hold up to the Florida sun--better than most car decals, they claim! One customer has had one of my InuYasha stickers on her car for over two years and it's still going strong!
The sticker sheets $8 each or 2 for $12.
Reusable Sticker Book
Everyone knows that the hardest part of buying a sticker is figuring out where to put it! One of our most popular products, the Reusable Sticker Book is here to help!
These spiral bound notebooks contain 50 sheets (100 pages) made of sticker-release paper (the kind of slick, waxy paper stickers normally come on). These pages allow you to place a sticker down and then peel it up again with ease, and with no damage to the sticker or its stickiness! These books are perfect for people with sticker anxiety (like me...) who just can't decided on where to put a sticker permanently. They also provide a great place to store and collect your stickers without just tossing them in a drawer.
We have a stock of about 12 designs that we rotate depending on the show's interests with several more on the way! The books are A5 size and priced at $20 each.
Below are some close-ups:
^ My personal book with stickers from some of my favorite creators. :)
Acrylic Charms
The right hand side of the booth is dedicated to our Acrylic Charms These will feature a rotating cast of characters, again with an eye on a good array of genres, shows, and popularity. They are made of clear acrylic with an epoxy coating on the front to give it a little body. They come with a green clip (obviously ;) ) and are 2" by their longest side. These are priced at $8 each, or 2 for $15
Below are some close-ups:
Premium Art Prints
Recently, we have entered the realm of print art with our "Menu Icon" prints! This (massive) art book includes a print for our entire catalog--well over 200 designs! They are displayed in the book as thumbnails to keep it from being overwhelming, but there's a lot to see.
Each print is 6x6 inches and printed on professional grade, high-quality paper. The designs are meant to mimic a classic Chinese Take-Out menu tiles.
The text on the top left reads "The Onigiri Stand" in kanji, while the top right stamp is the kanji for my name, like a signature stamp. The text below the image is unique to each print, and features a descriptor, catch-phrase, or little easter egg relevant to the character. For example, Hamtaro's text here translates to "sunflower seeds", his favorite snack!
When booth space allows, we like to include our "Menu Board" which showcases a selection of prints that fall into "restaurant-themed" categories. The designs rotate each day, and it's always fun to see who pops up!
Below are some more examples of the physical prints:
The B-Grade Gachapon
First and foremost, this is NOT A GAME OF CHANCE. Each ball is guaranteed to have a pin inside--and some have two! The gachapon is full of what's called "B-Grades." As pins are hand-made, there are always some in the batch with minor imperfections.
Whenever pins come in from the manufacturer, I "grade" each and every one personally, and organize them as A-Grades (practically perfect pins that go on cards and are sold at full price), B-Grades (those with minor imperfections and are discounted into the Gacha), and C-Grades (damaged pins or pins with errors that are not sold).
Each "spin" in the Gacha is $10 (so $5 cheaper than a regular pin), and gets you one random pin. The machine is full of silver and gold balls at a 50:50 ratio. If you get a gold ball, you are able to trade for any pin you want off of the trading board--which includes many sold-out designs! It makes it a fun and interactive experience for customers. And, frankly, even if someone gets a silver ball and doesn't want their pin, I let them trade anyway. ;) It's more about the experience!
Check out our ever-expanding Trade Board!!
The Gacha has always been a staple of the Stand and remains a fan favorite. Due to traveling restrictions, the Gacha typically only appears at shows local to Florida.
The Process
In a world of AI "art", it's becoming more and more important to validate artists' process to help keep artist alley a place for actual art. I've been doing these designs since 2007 and have always done them by hand.
All of my art begins with traditional methods. Each design starts as a pencil sketch to block out the design.
Then the design gets fine-tuned, still with pencil, until I solidify a strong vision.
The design is then hard-lined and shaded so that I have a really solid idea of the final composition.
From there, it's off to the computer where I vector everything by hand (down to the pixel!!) to have a perfectly clean vector that is transferable to any product and my manufacturers.
And that's how our little onigiri babies are made! <3 If you would like any videos demonstrating the process, you are welcome to. Since I do everything on my laptop (I never learned the tablet magic ;~; ), I cannot provide "speed paints", but I'm happy to do anything to prove that these are all done by me, by hand. :)
Thank you again for reviewing my portfolio. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to my email (theonigiristand@gmail.com) or message me on Instagram (@theonigiristand). Thanks for considering us for your event, and we hope to hear from you soon! :)