Want a quick look at what the fellas over at
Secret Base have in store for their upcoming
Toy Art Gallery, first West Coast art exhibition?!?! Well I am glad you asked, because above is just a taste of what will be available this coming Saturday, July 7th! "
JAPANESE DEVIL" features - a Secret Base Retrospective from the collection of Carl Kent-Smith, the debut of “Karakasa Obake“, new toy designed by Hiroshi of THREE TIDES TATTOO and co-produced by Toy Art Gallery, exclusive Editions of "Ganji-Obake Dog", "Salvation Ink", "1/1 Skull Head", original art and limited edition prints by Hiroshi and Usugrow, as well as exclusive limited edition apparel... this show is going to be insane!!! "
JAPANESE DEVIL" opens on Saturday, July 7th at 7-10PM with line tickets being given out starting at 12 Noon. The show runs from July 7th through July 28th, 2012 at
Toy Art Gallery, 7571 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, CA 90046. Any exclusive merchandise that does not sell out opening night will be available from the
TAG online store starting Sunday, July 8th.
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Marka27 just announced that he will be releasing the "Silver" edition of his 8" HALF-DEAD BIC BUDDY during the opening of his solo show "Neo Indigenous" in L.A. at
Crewest Gallery this Saturday, July 7th! This is the final version of this trifecta of half-dead lucha's and it's only limited to
140 pieces world wide! These will be up for grabs with a
retail price of $60... and for this version, his skull head and skull arm are made of clear tinted vinyl... SWEET! Marka27 will be present to sign your Half Dead Buddy, so don't miss out!
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Brent Nolasco has been working very diligently on a whole handful of custom pieces for SDCC 2012 this year! Unfortunately for us, he will not be attending... but good news for him as his wife is about due with a new child... that being said, it did not slow him down any, and above is just a sample! A 10" MAD*L titled "Dusk to Dawn", "The arc of time" custom 16" Coarse Oops, "Fevers and Dreams" a custom 7" Coarse Oops, a rad 7" Squadt titled "Growth to decay"... plus many more! All of these will be sold exclusively at the Dragatomi booth #4935... so be sure to swing by to see them all in person, better yet... buy one!
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Continuing to release awesome gig posters for the ongoing Blink-182 tour,
Frank Kozik shares with us today his latest in a string of exclusives. This piece was completed for the Milan show and it measures 22.5" x 35" and is a 5-color silkscreen print! These can be picked up at the show... in the "Red" version pictured to the left... Frank also mentions that he will have a limited amount of the "Blue" version that you see above up for grabs via his online store
HERE this Thursday, July 5th!
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Want more SDCC 2012 news... well we got it! After our last post
HERE from
Bigfoot showcasing his recently released "Forest Warlord" vinyl figure, we just got word from
Kuso Vinyl that they have a SDCC exclusive colorway of this beast! Dubbed the "
Kamikaze" edition, this 11" tall figure features a really cool gray, silver, black and red color scheme... making this massive figure look quite formidable! It's limited to 100 pieces only worldwide and will retail for $95 each. This can be picked up at the Kuso Vinyl booth #4937 during SDCC where Bigfoot will be signing on Saturday, from 2pm to 4pm... get it!
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Along with all the amazing releases, panels, and shows at SDCC 2012 this year, the folks over at Giant Robot decided to do something a little bit different as they teamed up with
David Horvath, creator of UglyDolls, and asked artist
Luke Chueh to curate a group custom toy show that will be on display during the convention that features customs on a ton of different UglyDoll figures! So, what artists can you expect to see pieces from, well:
Luke Chueh, J*Ryu, Angry Woebots, David Horvath, Yukinori Dehara, John "Spanky" Stokes, 64 Colors, Miso, A Little Stranger, Mari Inukai, DrilOne, Leecifer, Kano, Scott Tolleson, and
Julie West! As you can see from the above flyer, and from our previous post
HERE...
Leecifer put his own spin on this platform turning him into "Batman"... and pictured to the left is Holly aka
A Little Stranger's sea creature inspired figure... beautiful. More will be popping up very shortly, so keep your eyes peeled... better yet, if you plan on attending the con, stop by booth #1729 to see them all in person!
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A wee bit ago
we teased the release of Banksy's "Smiley Copper" as an action figure by
2bitHACK, which now seems to have come to fruition… officially titled "Banksy Bootleg: Officer 619," this action figure with custom bubble packaging is just too much. I've got to admit, my favorite part is the alteration of KAWS's "OriginalFake" logo into "UnOriginalFake"… that made me laugh quite a bit. Limited to an edition of 10 copies, these figures will be on sale Saturday, July 14th at the 2012
San Diego Comic-Con if 2bitHACK can find a way to do so (since he doesn't have a table or booth); otherwise they will placed into
his online web shop at some point over the weekend. These humorous and hand-painted resin figures will retail for $45 each.
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Making his final appearance at SDCC 2012 in a rad GLOW IN THE DARK edition, Ragnar saved his best "Pepper" figure for last! Limited to
100 pieces and
retailing for $40, this little guy comes with a few accents of pink and black... a killer combination if you ask me! With a somewhat confused look on his skull face, Pepper holds two smaller objects (1 in each hand). As with the other Pepper's released in the past, the hat is removable and the base is also a separate piece. For those who didn't know, every Pepper released has not only had a different color to him but also a different skull for the hat, different arms and different accessories. GID Pepper will be available at the 3DRetro/Kozik booth #4724 as well as Ragnar's booth.
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Continuing to build his army of resin kaiju releases,
Peter Kato has teamed up with
Giant Robot to present some wonderful exclusive to the 2012
San Diego Comic-Con crowd. Pictured above are the 20 copies of "Turtle Tetsujin" that Kato has cast in Sea-Foam Green resin especially for Giant Robot, with the company's Big Boss Robot icon emblazoned upon his chest. Each piece is accentuated with gold leaf and clear green paint, making these ultra-limited pieces a steal at $20 each from Giant Robot's SDCC Booth #1729.
But all the other Peter Kato sculpts aren't being left behind… nope, good ol' FrightBite, Kawako & Man-Nie will also be present in their brand new "Tasty Rainbow" edition. Each figure in this run will be limited to only 5 pieces with a price tag of a mere $10. Oh, and did I mention that you'll get a free Peter Kato x Giant Robot pin with each purchase? 'Cause guess what, you do…
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This past weekend saw the main release of the
Most Wanted Series 3, the blind boxed series of custom 3" Dunnys that sold out in less than a minute… Did you miss out? Not confident you'll get one of the designs you've been lusting after? Well, fear not, as
Igor Ventura,
Luihz Unreal and
Sergio Mancini have announced Artist Proof (AP) copies of their pieces from the collection. Priced at only $50 above the asking price of a blind boxed piece, these are a steal for the rabid collector. As an added bonus, Ventura's "Pyromaniac Puppet" AP (pictured above) even comes with an additional gas tank accessory not included with the blind boxed version.
Each of these APs comes in a signed box with the artist card and will be released through the
Red Mutuca online shop with a price of $150 each. Both the Ventura and Unreal APs are limited to only one copy, while there be five of Mancini's design (above right) up for grabs!
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At this year's
ToyCon in the Philippines, John Eugene Atendido Avila — also known as
JeAA — entered a variety of highly detailed
threeA customs under the R.A.D.C.O.M. (Recycled And Developed COllected Materials) banner into their Toy Design Contest. After the jump, there is a GIANT slideshow with detailed pictures of these fantastic pieces... so click through to view the goods!
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The first officially announced
Sucklord exclusive for the 2012
San Diego Comic-Con is the above pictured Suckator figure, entitled "The Toy Whose Name We Cannot Speak." Based on the classic
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe mold, this 5-inch-tall resin figure with attached base and sans packaging will be made in an edition of only 9 copies for $150 each. Where will they be? Exclusive to the
DKE Toys Booth (#4728). Now, why did we say "first officially announced" above…
As you can see above, Sucklord has also been pumping out various colorways of the resin version of his Dunny Series 2012 case exclusive (like
the ones seen at the Kidrobot New York signing, which we originally mistook for APs). He claims he'll be selling these only directly in-person to people — or, as he puts it, "no booth #outthetrunk" — and assuming price holds they will be $40 each. Now we've already seen
the teaser for his "Gay Enterprise" figure, which we assume will also be a DKE Booth exclusive, and now he's also showing art for "Roddimus Pride," a jestful take on the
Transformers style. This "Gay Energon" figure will be a DKE exclusive as well, with price and quantity yet to be announced.
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Well look what we have here... another exclusive drop for SDCC and I am really stoked for this one! Breaking from his normal argyle, glass wearing, nerd type figures, artist
Scott Tolleson shares with us today "
Deadbeet"!!! Sculpted by George Gaspar of
October Toys, this beauty
stands 7.5” tall and features articulation at both his arms and legs... you can even twist his top around if you feel inclined to do so. This is Scott's first figure made in Japan, so it's 100% sofubi... so nice! This first variety of the Deadbeet is “Early Blue”, and he will be available at San Diego Comic-Con via booth #4836. This run is
limited to only 20 pieces and will retail for
just $60 a piece... and word has it that more varieties are growing in the garden as we speak!
As you can see, Scott also sent along the header card art that harkens back to old time seed packages... gotta love that illustration, and how can you not notice his little root-peen :-) hahaha... classic! Seeing as there are only 20 of these available, I can only imagine that they will sell very fast, so best of luck in snaggin one!
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Back in January of 2012, we posted up
HERE and
HERE the tease and reveal of a massive 4' tall fibergalss "Panda King" from of
Aaron Martin aka Angry Woebots... and just recently, Woes took another trip down to
Vinyl on Vinyl in the Philippines and hand painted all those beasts that you see above! These are actually up for grabs now, and any interested parties should contact the folks down at VOV via their website
HERE.
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Who remembers hitting buttons frantically on the
Street Fighter arcade games?? ME, and yes I said the arcade game. Anyone who is a fan of
Street fighter and is feeling nostalgic should check out this little co-lab.
Capcom and
Kineda have joined forces to design these stylized warrior tees representing
Ryu, Ken, E. Honda, Chun-Li, Blanka, Guile, Zangief, Dhalsim, Balrog, Sagat, Vega and
M.Bison. WHOA. The shirts are available in the Kineda
online store for $36 and are available now. KNOCK OUT!!!!
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If you are new to this column, it is truly meant to be read from the beginning to the most recent.
Please start with the first installment, "What are Designer Toys?"
Do you see that outline above, the one with the question mark in it? That, gentle reader, is the base form of a
Dunny, arguably the most-popular and highest selling Designer Toy on the market. Much like the Munny (which we previously discussed), the Dunny was created by
Tristan Eaton and
Paul Budnitz, the latter of which began the
Kidrobot company that releases both vinyl figures. Unlike the Munny, though, the Dunny isn't a blank canvas for artists to express themselves on; Dunnys are typically sold blind boxed and are always decorated with an artist's design pre-placed upon it. Hit the jump to continue reading for the full explanation…
As opposed to customs, which are hand-decorated by the artist, Dunnys are initially sold with a pre-established design that has been produced on the vinyl form at the manufacturing level. This isn't to say that custom Dunnys don't exist — as they most certainly do, artists love to take these production pieces and rework them into a original piece of three-dimensional art — but Kidrobot does not sell them this way.
As you can see from the above grouping of rather recently released Dunnys, the base form with those iconic bunny ears is one of the very few standard elements in the production. Each design is mass produced and can be anything from a paint scheme that transforms the platform into something new to a massively resculpted version that is barely recognizable as a Dunny anymore.
The majority of production Dunnys are 3-inches in height and released in blind boxed series a couple of times per year, resulting in 40+ new Dunny designs being produced in a twelve month period. There are also special limited edition Dunnys produced, usually in heights of 8" or 20" but also in the 3" version; though you know exactly what you are buying with these versions.
Since a blind boxed 3" Dunny typically costs under $10 brand new and, with each series, Kidrobot employs some of the best designers in the industry to craft the style of the releases, it's not hard to understand why these widely available figures are so popular and tend to be the "jumping on point" for most collectors in this industry.
Next Week: What does Kaiju mean and what is it?
Designer toys used in the example set are (L-R):
"Ken the Mysterious Tigrrr" dunny designed by Squink and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2011
"Birro the Clown" dunny designed by Chauskoskis and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2012
"Zombie Union (Local 743) Striker" dunny designed by Huck Gee and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2011
"Ashigaru (Red Armour)" dunny designed by Jon-Paul Kaiser and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2012
"Gay Empire, Suckadelic Overmaster Supreme" dunny designed by Sucklord and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2012
"Zombie Biker (Green Version)" dunny designed by MAD and manufactured by Kidrobot, 2011
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If you've been paying attention then you know that Richard "UME Toys" Page is celebrating Halloween a little early this year… like in July. To celebrate this 'Halloween in July' event, Page will be releasing a bevy of new creepy but cute resin cast critters on Friday the 13th:
Say hello to Hugo Shortpants – a Pumpkin too nice to make a pie from. Then there’s Belemey the wise cracking fez-wearing brain box and last but no means least Russell Bone – he may have no body but he’s never lonely. We are not stopping with these chaps keep your eyes open for special edition Jason the ghost and Martin Longbottom, flocked versions of the chaps along with the all new ‘Hugo’ fridge magnets.
I know, I know, that's lots of cool new releases, but you want to know about the freebie… The UME Toys Prize Pack! As
detailed on his website, all you have to do to enter is:
- Like the UME Toys Facebook Page.
- Follow the UME Toys Twitter Feed.
- And then send out a tweet that says (you can just cut-and-paste the following):
I’m in it to win it @umetoys Halloween in July competition #halloweeninjuly
That's it. Really, it's that easy.
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On Thursday, July 5th from 6PM to 10PM,
Spoke Art Gallery (816 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94109) will open it's
newest exhibition featuring art by
DoubleParlour and
Jonas Lofgren. In addition, a limited selection of original sketches by
Luke Chueh will be available for viewing to support the opening night signing by Chueh of his "Bearing the Unbearable" book in-store! To make the event even more special, Spoke Art will be releasing an exclusive limited edition print set for the exhibition. So swing on by and check it out, the show will remain hung for viewing until July 26th, 2012.
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Call his artistic sensibility what you will, whether you prefer Outsider Art or Art Brut, but the rough hewn style of Italy's
Bruscolino certainly has a slimy quality to it. The bulging eyes he seems fond of remind me of the classic 'googly eyes' one sticks on things to anthropomorphize the inanimate in youth, which — I must admit — I find distracting. On the above left are two "Large Snails," which are customized Mega Munny arms; and while the execution might not be to my personal preference, I do have to give creativity credit for this concept. The custom MonQee on the right has strangely sculpted elements on the form that make me think of burnt skin that's healed over, which I'm not sure was the desired effect. The title of the custom MonQee is "Puppy" and, if I understand correctly, it was customized live during the "
Crack Festival."
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That's right folks... the time has finally come, and after the huge success that was OMFG Series 1, and the out pouring of support and interest from the community, the Kickstarter for
Series 2 is now live and is ready to meet any pledge level you can afford! It's another batch of great artists, making some cool figures for you to play with and display!
OMFG! Series 2 consists of five figures including:
- Puke Knight designed and sculpted by Jared DeCosta (aka redjarojam) from Massachusetts
- Shirtle designed by Kenjitron from Hawaii and sculpted by George Gaspar from Los Angeles
- Cry-Borg designed by Andrew Scribner (aka RuFuS) from Rhode Island
- Cuddlehard designed and sculpted by turboPISTOLA from Tennessee
- Grimm Gourd concept by ScruffyNerfHrdr from Kansas, designed by Charles Marsh (aka Monsterforge) from South Carolina, and sculpted by Mike Fleming Jr (aka M-Flem-Jr) from Colorado
It's really cool to see all of the designs emerge, and there are some really strong ones in this series. Keep in mind, that all of them had to get the most votes, and there were something like 400+ submissions that went into voting... so the strong survived, and now it's your turn to support this awesome artist driven, crowd funded project! I know I am in for a few sets... how about you? Head on over
HERE now and put your money where your mouth is!
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Paul Vincett... the man behind the very awesome
Stitches & Glue Monster Workshop has been keeping kinda quiet.. and each time he does this, I know that he will emerge with all kinds of news regarding his creations... and that is exactly what we are going to report on today. Their Monster Taxidermy department has been busy sourcing some of the finest monsters to create, and turn into rare, exquisite rugs to adorn your home. Measuring a whopping 30" x 40", you can choose your favorite color to match your interior... there is "
Teal", "
Gray Stripe", "
Red", and "
Brown Stripe"... all of which are super limited, and have enough personality to burst out their seams!!!! Are you ready to adopt one... well, head on over
HERE and give these fantastic monsters a good home!
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