Mighty Jaxx recently released the new Bleu Edition of Nikopicto’s Hug the Killer Resin. This latest colorway of the cheerful cosmic bug is cast in glossy tiffany blue resin and is available now from MightyJaxx.com for $50 (+ s/h).
Last year, South African rap stars Die Antwoord worked with Japanese toy brand Good Smile on their first art toy, Evil Boy. A cute figure with a rather naughty twist, Evil Boy’s fits right into the band’s defiant music and identity. Following up on the first two colorways – red and black, is the new ‘Greeny’ edition. Limited to 96 pieces, Evil Boy ‘Greeny’ is available from Upper Playground for $75 (+ s/h).
Shawn Smith (of Shawnimals Fame), has just launched a Kickstarter to campaign to fund Resketch, an innovative sketch book. Resketch stands apart from regular, standard-issue sketchbooks by encouraging creativity through spontaneity in an eco friendly manner. Each new page offers a potential surprise, a discovery.
The Resketch concept starts with the inclusion of numerous paper types – white copy paper, colored paper, thick, textured gray paper, sticker paper, as well as sheets with funky patterns or a piece of a map and more, randomly ordered throughout the book. Keeping with the random order concept, Resketch books also feature specially printed ‘Creative Prompts’ – pages which give you a little start to inspire you to draw something different than you might otherwise have considered. Each book will have about 10 Creative Prompt pages waiting to be discovered and used to spark ideas. To top it-off, each 7 x 9” coil bound Resketch book (85-100 pages) is eco-friendly. The paper is reused or stock that would otherwise go wasted, and the Eco-coil binding is 100% recycled, post-consumer waste.
The initial goal of the project is to raise $16,950 in order to produce a run of 1000 Resketch books including 700 regular editions ($25 backer level) and 300 special editions ($50 backer level) featuring silk-screened covers from ten talented artists – Tara McPherson, Scott C., Jon Burgerman, Camilla d’Errico, Jay Ryan, Matthew Hoffman, Laura Berger, blUtt, Revise CMW and Shawn Smith himself. Intrigued? Head on over to the Resketch Kickstarter page for all the info and reward levels.
Recalling the hot summer days spent enjoying the ginormous red, blue and white rocket shaped popsicles, Nathan Hamill is about to release his new Curiosity Pomp Bomb edition resin figures. Limited to 5 pieces, the 5” figure features a translucent red resin head/neck while the lower body/ship is opaque white and blue to fill out the tasty visual treat. Sculpted by Julie B and produced by Oni Productions, The Pop Bomb Curiosity drops on Friday (5.24) @ 12 PM CDT for $80 at Comicpalooza in Houston and online via Nathan’s web shop.
Now, that’s pretty. This wild colorway is Taipei-based Wingrow Gallery’s exclusive edition of Martin Hsu’s Dragon Boy. Featuring colors drawn from Chinese Folk art, this new edition debuted at this past weekend’s Young Art Taipei international exhibition alongside two life-size fiberglass Dragon Boys in both the OG and Wingrow colorways. If you’re not in Taipei at the moment, Martin has 20 APs which he plans to release online and @ SDCC. To call dibs (pre-sale list), drop him a line at info[at]martinhsu[dot]com.
A little over a week ago, Toy Art Gallery presented two exhibitions -- ‘Mark Ryden’s YHWH Custom Group Show’ and a special one-night exhibition of Japanese artist Choco Moo’s black + white drawings. Here’s an overview of both shows with plenty of opening night pics after the jump.
The YHWH exhibit asked a diverse group of artists to re-interpret and customize Mark Ryden’s first and only vinyl art toy to-date, his interpretation of God. With minimal surface area, most of which is curved, customizing the YHWH offers unique challenges. A few artists including Mikie Graham, Scott Hove, DrilOne, and J*Ryu chose to re-make the figure with their sculptural touches, while Julie B combined her sculpting and casting skills to create two pairs of brightly-colored undulating YHWH’s twisted around one another. Many others focused on personalizing Ryden’s vision by presenting it in different color combinations, and in some cases adding patterns to the elongated shape. A few took up the gauntlet of painting or drawing across the piece including Mia, Lola, Mark Dean Veca, and David Flores.
Sean Christopher’s piece stood out through the restrained use of symbols and imagery to offer an elegant, fleshed-out interpretation of a God that is at once a supreme being (crown) with the power of creation (plants sprouting from its body), yet limited in its power to prevent suffering (blood red tears). For his own contribution to the exhibition, Mark Ryden presented a giant 6-foot wood version of the toy’s original packaging. For pricing and availability, please see the online YHWH show catalog.
In the rear of the gallery, TAG presented the black + white drawings of Japanese Artist Choco Moo who is best known for her fashion collaborations merging art and apparel. Her art is fun, humorous, sarcastic and defiant. Pieces ranged from cute, doodle style characters to more detailed interpretations of iconic pop culture ranging from Marge Simpson and The Mask to Louis Armstrong and Tupac Shakur. To see all of Choco Moo’s pieces along with pricing and availability, head on over to TAG’s online catalog of her exhibition.
For those of you who have been following Huck Gee’s Kickstarter campaign for his upcoming game “Battle Tails” with Nom Games, you wouldn’t be surprised to know that it has exceeded its goal. Meaning, it’s onto the stretch goals! Those would include things such as special codes for backers, single player kingdom mode, a new clan, and player vs. player modes.
Huck has also unveiled the full 11” x 17” map of Kinausu and is up for grabs for all you backers! All you have to do is add an additional $60 to backer amount. They are limited to only 100 pieces and all come signed and numbered by Huck.
Also be sure to check out some of the rough sketches for the game, including the Huck version, as well as a number of Q-Bert character designs. Be sure to also pick and vote for your favorite DJ Qbert version in the comments HERE.
We hope Monday’s treating you well. To help get your week off to a strong start, we’ve teamed up with the cool folks over at Vinyl Riot on a fun giveaway. Vinyl Riot has generously agreed to provide one of each of its exclusive Dudebox DIY figures (Hau, Scratch and Ted) to the lucky winner – a total of 3 vinyl toys. To enter the contest we’re asking you to help spread the word about the contest on both instagram and on facebook. For instagram, please follow @vinylriottoys and post the giveaway image (above) to instagram with the hashtag #vinylriot. On facebook, visit the Vinyl Pulse fan page and ‘like’ the contest image. Enter before 8 PM PDT on Monday May 27th 2013 for a chance to win the three Dudebox DIY toys!
Giveaway Rules
1. To enter complete the instagram and facebook tasks as stated above.
2. Deadline to enter is Monday, May 27th 2013 @ 8 PM PDT.
3. One randomly chosen winner receive all three of Vinyl Riot’s exclusive Dudebox DIY toys.
4. Winner must respond to our notification within 72 hours.
UK newcomer Arts Unknown is following up their first round of toys from Frank Kozik, Gary Baseman and Doktor A with a new colorway of each figure. First up there’s the ‘Classic’ edition of Frank Kozik’s William, Reginald and Henry (above) featuring a mono treatment (150 pieces, ~$106 + s/h). Next up there’s the new Blue edition of Gary Baseman’s Slugilicious (100 pieces, ~$99 + s/h). Finally, there’s the previously blogged about Midnight Tryst Bella Dellamere from Doktor A available exclusively from Collect & Destroy (250 pcs, ~$99 + s/h). All three new colorways are available for pre-order now and should ship within 6 to 8 weeks.
In addition to the trio of new colorways, Arts Unknown is working on several new vinyl figures including a new piece from Doktor A, as well as pieces from Alto (Chris Dobson) who’s been making waves with his resin pieces and Chris Ryniak.
Back in December we brought you word of the upcoming MiniCel project from Rotobox and Kuso Vinyl, essentially a smaller (4”) and cuter version of the original Fahrenheit / Celsius figures. At the time all we had to show was an unpainted proto. So we’re pretty excited that Rotobox has posted a shot of painted protos of Mini Celsisus and Mini Fahrenheit. Looking good! Maybe we’ll see these first editions in San Diego ?
There’s more to MiniCel than smaller versions of Rotobox’s OG vinyl. With its simplified head and body, MiniCel is well-suited as a platform figure even more than its bigger brother was. So it makes perfect sense that Kuso is planning DIY MiniCel versions. We also wouldn’t be surprised to see MiniCel move beyond its Fahrenheit DNA in the future.
