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Nov 30, 2005
Bedtime for Toby
Ever wonder what Toby does when night falls? Well, you might just find out at the Bedtime for Toby show, which features new paintings by Gary Baseman . The show will open on December 2nd at 6:30 p.m. at the Second street Gallery in Charlottesville, VA. There will also be a mini-retrospective of Baseman Vinyl. This will be the first Baseman show in the Mid-Atlantic Region; the reach of pervasive art grows and grows. With the show running through to January
28, 2006, make sure you find the chance to swing by and check out the
pieces.
Second Street Gallery
115 Second Street SE
Charlottesville, VA 22902
434.977.7284
Mike Burnett and Chris Ryniak: Hand-made Customs for Buck Eyed Fury (12.02.05)
The upcoming Buck Eyed Fury opening this Friday December 2nd at the Showroom NYC features original artwork and hand-made toys by Mike Burnett and Chris Ryniak. Mike and Chris decided to swap and customize each other's hand made toys. Here are the cool results. Chris took Mike's wood toy and lobsterized it complete with his trademark 3D sculpey mouth and teeth! Not to be outdone, Mike decided to civilize Chris's creepy Midwestern by merging it with one of his well-dressed wood toys. Check out these customs and other art work at the show this Friday.
Nov 29, 2005
Nada from Madame Edgar
Nada designed by Mélanie Baillairgé and produced by Madame Edgar (Montreal) stands pretty much in a circle of its own. This 11-inch tall female vinyl figure sans clothes pushing a grocery cart filled with fruit and a dose of social commentary sits squarely on the art side of designer toys. Mélanie Baillairgé's "trash barbie doll" has 5 points of articulation, comes with a grocery cart, 3 oranges and a melon and will be available this spring for an estimated $45-65 Canadian. Nada comes in two colorways: Natural (Green with hair -500 pieces) and Dull Gray (Grey without hair - 250 pieces). A world tour for Nada is planned upon release stopping at Madame Edgar in Montreal, Magic Pony in Toronto, LA, NY and possibly europe. Since we love "behind the scenes" peeks at toy development, here are a select few shots of Nada's journey to 3D. Thanks to Mélanie Baillairgé for all the images.
Brandon Sopinsky @ Alpha Cult (12.10.05)
Spacebitz
Brandon Sopinsky, the creator of the Wabbitz characters and soon-to-be toys, has a solo show on Saturday December 10th at the recently opened Alpha Cult in Long Beach, CA. The show will feature Wabbitz artwork, prints, and the unveiling of the Wabbitz toy prototypes. Brandon's taking the first steps to making his Wabbitz vision a reality, come by and check it out! Also, be sure to check out his new website, grenadegarden.com, and the very cool t-shirts available there.
Royallyfuckedup (limited edition print)
Bwana Spoons - Jessie's Palace at Wootini (12.09.2005)
Bwana Spoons, the original Rainbow Master, brings his unique whimsical style to Wootini for his solo show entitled Jessie's Palace opening on Friday December 9th from 7pm to midnight. Unlike many shows, this one has a background story that ties together the various pieces:
One day Jessie the Wanderer woke up on the beach with way too much sand in his ears, and said "I don't wanna wander no more." So he set out on a mini-quest to find some land and build some proper shelter. From this came Jessie's Palace.
Bwana plans to work up to the last minute conjuring up his artistic magic. The show will feature new paintings, tiny sculptures, piles of drift-wood and t-shirts. The Bwana Spoons x Wootini t-shirts come in four different colorways and feature Jessie, the newly settled wanderer. Francine and I are big Bwana Spoons fans and can't wait to see every nook and cranny of Jessie's Palace.
Bwana Spoons x Wootini Tee (4 colorways)
Wootini
The Historic Carr Mill Mall
200 North Greensboro St.
Carrboro, NC 27510
Mitsubishi Zinger Qees from the World's Largest Vending Machine
Yup, it's another promo toy ;-) This time Mitsubishi is kicking off their Asia-only SUV crossover vehicle, the Zinger, with a series of 4 3-inch Qees and an 8-inch Qee from Toy2R. The designs are pretty straightforward and likely to be of interest mostly to completists or other hard-core Qee collectors. What is cool is how one goes about getting these. From November 18th to November 30th at the New York New York shopping mall in Taipei, Taiwan people can spend 50NT (about $1.50) to get a capsule from what's billed as the World's Largest Vending machine. For that rather small fee, the machine will spit out one of 4 regular sized qees or potentially the 8-inch blue Qee. Now, that sounds like fun. Oh and the proceeds go to a children's charity. Why can't we have such wonky things here in the US?
Nov 28, 2005
10-inch DIY Trexi
In addition to the dope designer 10-inch Trexis coming soon from Play Imaginative, they have also announced a 10-inch blank DIY 10-inch Trexi that comes with a smaller blank 3" Trexi which fits inside the larger figure. The packaging is simple yet effective; free the Trexis! Dropping in late December, this should add some spice to the larger scale DIY/customs scene with a new shape full of possibilities enhanced by the fig inside a fig feature.
Jesse Hernandez's Labbit
For the recent Munny show, Jesse Hernandez brought us his Aztec Dragon
custom Munny which was just an amazing piece of work. Jesse once again wows us with another custom, a 10
inch Labbit titled Labbit De Los Muertos, which will be available at
the up coming Vinyl Exchange show in Orange County on December 3rd.
Check out the bone tattoo and those hypnotizing eyes which keep you staring at this deadly creature.
Nov 26, 2005
Joe Ledbetter's Fire-Cats are about to drop!
Fire-Cat, the second Joe Ledbetter toy from Wheaty Wheat Studios is about to roar onto shelves! Wheaty Wheat took delivery yesterday and both the regular red version (400 pieces) and the blue ice-cat edition (100 pieces) should be in collector's hands within days. While I love Mr. Bunny, I love Fire-Cat even more. I really love the 2.5D flame as it really emphasizes the 2D in 3D look. In addition, Fire Cat is slightly larger and IMO bigger toys rock. Finally, I'm a sucker for little details and the three tweaked hairs on top of Fire-Cat's dome are fantastic.
Wondering why Fire-Cat lagged behind Mr. Bunny? Part of the answer is that the original version had a very large and pronounced circular rotocast "vent" smack dab in the middle of Fire-Cat's back. The production version has been redesigned with an extra flat piece attached to the back to cover the vent. The result is an almost completely smooth and flat rear. While I would have been happy with either version, I'm glad WWS took the time to redesign the figure.
JLed's Mr. Bunny Triplets
Joe Ledbetter's Mr. Bunny vinyl figures from Wheaty Wheat Studios have made a huge splash on the scene. The ultra-limited (50 pieces) black/yellow KR exclusive Lava Bunny sold out immediately. The regular edition Yellow Mr. Bunny (400 pieces) has been completely distributed to retailers and is pretty hard to come by for retail price. The coveted blue Sno Bunny edition (just 100 pieces) should be available any day now from retailers.
These figures are an excellent representation of Joe Ledbetter's
unique 2D drawing style. JLed's signature character has made the jump
to 3D as one of the most unique designer toys available today. Wheaty
Wheat is quite proud of the JLed series toys and rightfully so. The
design of these toys is meticulous right down to the metal inserts in
Mr. Bunny's ears to prevent droopiness. Beyond the figure, the
packaging is sweet. The box panels contain 3 amazing JLed
illustrations including a nice yin/yang pair - one featuring a dolphin
and the other featuring a ravenous shark.
Many collectors are frustated about the relatively small edition sizes for Mr. Bunny. Wheaty Wheat decided on the print runs back when JLed was not the mega star that he is today. Believe it or not, there was some question as to how well these would sell due to their very unique design. Hindsight is 20/20, but the end result is an extremely desirable and highly sought after piece. No doubt about it!
Melto-Fu from Meltdown Comics
To celebrate Meltdown Comics & Collectibles' 10th Anniversary, Mel the Logo Man, which was first created in 1996 for Meltdown by Oscar nominated cartoonist extraordinaire Dan Clowes, is brought to "life" by artists across the globe. Sculpted by the mysterious Japanese sculptor Monster5. Designed by To-Fu Oyoko creators, Devilrobots. Brought to you by Meltdown Comics & Collectibles. Standing at 8 inches tall, the Melto-Fu is a collaborative work years in making. He is available in 2 versions, green and translucent blue both retailing at $40 each. The edition size for the green is 700 and the blue is 300, which we have been told is running out fast. These playful little fellows stand solidly on 3 feet, balancing their oblique squarish heads on a ball joint. Their heads and arms are articulated and move with easy without any hesitation, which makes them very poseable. The overall design of the toy and box gives them a 1960s feel, something you might have long forgotten you had packed away in the basement. But you don't have to go in search for them anymore, just hit Meltdown's website and snag a couple.
Save Huck Gee Limited Edition MAD*L
Save Huck! As many of you know, Huck Gee is facing deportation (read more about his situation). Want to help raise money for Huck's legal defense? Why not buy a limited edition (50 pieces only) Save Huck MAD*L directly from Wheatywheat.com (soon)? MAD and Wheaty Wheat studios will donate one hundred percent of the proceeds from this figure to Huck's defense fund. Props to MAD and WWS for their generosity and their speed in putting this special project together.
Nov 25, 2005
Tim Biksup Holiday Party at Bispop (12.10.05)
The Pink Drink - Tim Biskup
Blow, Bird, Blow - Tim Biskup
Tim Biskup's 2nd annual holiday party is Saturday December 10th from 5 to 8PM at his Bispop Gallery located in the Johnson Motors store in Pasadena, CA. Two brand new prints, The Pink Drink and Blow, Bird, Blow will be available at the party. In addition, Tim's been saving up some holiday themed paintings and a few more entries in his Jackson 500 mini-painting collection for this event.
The Pink Drink is the companion piece to Hazel's Field which was released at last year's Bispop holiday party. The combination giclee and serigraph print and will be limited to 50 signed and numbered pieces. Since this print is in high demand, a lottery will be held to determine who will have the opportunity to purchase The Pink Drink. Tickets will be distributed at the event with the drawing taking place at 7 PM. So if you're interested in the print, get there before 7! This print is quite cool -- Ghonner, Helper, and a lovely Hazel all in a very dense classic Biskup arrangement. Full of whimsy, it's likely a must buy for Biskup collectors.
Blow, Bird, Blow is a 6-color serigraph limited to 150 signed and numbered prints. It will be free to anyone who purchases $500 or more of Bispop merchandise.
Bispop Gallery: The Tim Biskup Store
(located inside of Johnson Motors)
36 W. Colorado Blvd.
#7 Mills Place Alley
Pasadena, CA. 91105
(626) 796-5666
"TEQUILA REVEALED" PART 23
LA Release Party Flier
Muttpop is working HARD to make the debut of the Tequila figure a success. In addition to ensuring that the Tequila figures will be on U.S. shores in time for the event, Muttpop is currently creating the following:
TEQUILA MINI-ZINE: This 32 page limited edition mini magazine revisits the various stages of the Tequila Vinyl Figure's production, spotlights the many faces of Muttpop, and includes a 12 page Luchadores 5 comic.
GICLEE PRINT SET: Muttpop is making 50 prints of Tequila and 2 other characters co-created by Gobi and Jerry Frissen.
T-SHIRTS: There will be limited edition Tequila t-shirts (pink & baby blue for the ladies, brown for the gentlemen) available at the debut events.
Below you will find sample pages from the mini-zine and the final designs for the prints, t-shirts, and promotional postcards
The SAN FRANCISCO Tequila Release Party on FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9TH from 7-10pm will be held at:
THE SUPER7 STORE
1630 POST STREET
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
The LOS ANGELES Tequila Release Party on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10TH from 7-10pm will be held at:
MELTDOWN COMICS & COLLECTIBLES
7522 SUNSET BOULEVARD
LOS ANGELES, CA
Ok, peeps!!! This is what you all have been waiting for, the release parties for Tequila. And you know what that means...Tequila, loads of promo stuff, booz, music, art/toy people...just great fun!!! Make sure you swing by for all the action and for those out of reach, stay tune for pics of the parties!!!!
Check back next week for ACTUAL photos of the Debut Party Product.
Giclee Print
T-shirt Design
Mini-zine
SF Release Party Flier
Nov 24, 2005
VP100K Event
Update: The VP100k custom CP giveway hasn't started yet. Entries will be accepted once we have all the customs (sometime around December 15th). Previews of the customs will start soon. Sorry for any confusion.
Happy Thanksgiving! We have a lot to be thankful for. First and foremost, we're thankful to you. You're what makes Vinyl Pulse tick. We do this because it's fun and it's fun knowing that people find it useful and worthwhile :-) From early April to now, we've gone from 0 to 100k+ visitors and that's thanks to you. How should we thank you? A giveaway of course! Only this time, we have two sweet ones for you.
We've hinted at the first giveaway but here's the lowdown. Customs. We love customs. We write about customs all the time on VP. Give away customs? I thought that was a cool but impossible idea. Francine said let's do it and ran with it. So... We're stoked to announce on this day of thanks that we'll soon be giving away seven custom Cre8tive Peeples done by some of the top people in the game! It's our way of thanking you, the loyal VP reader! Plus we'll be giving away a three-pack of blank Cre8tive Peeples: Red, White and Black. Thanks to By George for donating the Cre8tive Peeples figures -- without them this giveaway wouldn't have happened. If you're looking for an original DIY fig give the Cre8tive Peeples a look! They come in White, Red and Black with several more colors on the horizon.
The giveaway features custom Cre8tive Peeples by:
- Doktor A
- Elizabeth Ito
- MAD
- PhuEk
- Nakanari
- Sket One
- Tyson Summers
Pretty nice lineup IMO :-) Thanks to all the artists who supported us by generously donating their talents to this giveaway. The giveaway will start shortly after we receive all seven customs from the artists (around December 15th). And all you'll have to do to have a chance at winning one of the sweet customs is submit a comment with your email address to the giveaway thread. More info when when the giveaway starts. We'll be running pics of the customs shortly.
The other giveaway? Tequila goodness in spades! Props to Muttpop for putting this together for us!
Details on this giveway shortly.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! We love ya :-)
Flying Objects By Tristan Eaton
Tristan Eaton of Thunderdog is bringing you new works inspired by Flying Objects. The show opens on December 9th from 7-10 pm at McCaig Welles Gallery and it runs through December 30th. Base on the flier, we are in for a treat!!! If you are in the Brooklyn area, make sure you swing by for a night of toys, paintings, and just good old fun!!!
McCaig Welles Gallery
129 Roebling Street, Suite B
Brooklyn, NY 11211.
718.384.8729.
Nov 23, 2005
Humbug Dunny
Updated: Added picture of the white edition, pricing, edition size and rarity info :-)
Just in time for the Holidays, comes Frank Kozik's 3" Humbug Dunny from Kidrobot bundled up for winter and puffing on a nice candy cane. This one is chillin' -- such a nice twist on his previous Smorkin' designs. You can have your holiday cheers or is that jeers from this blind-boxed treat for $9.95 each with 1:10 being the rarer green edition and the bulk being the white humbug. Edition size is a total of 1000 pieces. According to the KR newsletter, this one will be released on Friday November 25th. Should be quite collectable especially the green one. Humbug will fly off the shelves. Thanks to TB for the picture.
Friends With You: Cloud City at MOCA Northern Miami
The talented, fun-loving and just plain crazy Friends With You have their first museum installation at the brand-new MOCA Northern Miami Goldman Warehouse called Cloud City. Cloud City is described as an interactive playground for all ages and runs from December 1st thru January 29th, 2006. In addition to the installation, Friends With You will be performing live on December 1 to the 4th from 12 pm to 5 pm , and Saturday, January 14 at 7 pm. There will also be an exclusive MOCA Friends with You toy :-) Sounds like a blast -- definitely one of a kind experience. If you're lucky enough be down in Florida -- check it out.
Jim Koch: El Kashat
People just can't get enough of the twisted madness that is Jim Koch. So here's his latest custom MunDunny El Kashat - A super fez, loon. This twisted lodgeman is down right scary, check out those teeth. This one's great -- Jim's paint work on the face is really nice and there's loads of details from the fez to the cigarette to the ?troll? hair. Jim created El Kashat for the Vinyl Exchange designer toy and custom show event happening Saturday December 3rd from 9am to 1pm at the Embassy Suites in Garden Grove, CA. Oh one last thing, Jim's overhauled jimkoch.com so give it a second look!
Embassy Suites
11767 Harbor Boulevard
Garden Grove, CA 92840
Exclusive Clear Blue Skuttle for Touma's mixi-bang! Show (12.10.05)
Ooh... Touma's Skuttle! Clear Blue Skuttle! This one is exclusive to the Touma! Touma! Touma! show at mixi-bang! in Pasadena on Saturday, December 10th. Limited? 50 pieces. Price is still to be determined. Thanks to Ken from One up for the info and pics.
Jeremey Gibbs: Qee on the War Path
Jeremy Gibbs is the master of Qee customization. Hands down. End of story. He sent along pics of his latest hand-done custom camo wonder and I just couldn't help myself... must post. This one has slightly more of a darker tone than his previous Knuckle Bear IMO. The detailed camo mixed with the plain body works well and is kinda creepy IMO. Looks like a hunter to me...out for all sorts of well armed and armored beasts judging by his arsenal. I'm blown away by the fluidity of the camo scarf head-gear -- looks like it would flap in the wind! Oh, that reminds me -- while camo is all the rage, it's apparently darn expensive to use on production pieces because of all the paint apps required.
Faces @ Toy2R World Tour NY at Stephan Weiss Studio
So as well all know, Toy2R had an amazing World Tour stop in NY this past weekend at the Stephan Weiss Studio. We've received great pics from Sket One, Raymond Choy and Purple Walrus of this event and we're finally putting them up :-) This was a glitzy event and quite a few artists and notables turned out. Check out Voltaire -- spiffy indeed!
MCA
Angel Devil
Raymond Choy and Angel Devil
Sket One, Raymond Choy
????!
Continue reading "Faces @ Toy2R World Tour NY at Stephan Weiss Studio"
Nov 22, 2005
Giga Brain's Sin&Wombat
Just a quick post to show you Giga Brain's special edition of Sin&Wombat's garbage monstrous beast ゴミラ, which is making an appearance at the World Characters Convention in Tokyo next month. Boy, don't I wish I can get my hands on one of these...hummmm...maybe I can??? (brain wheel is turning...turning.....)
Huck Gee's Don'yoku 8" Dunny drops on 12.01.2005
Huck Gee's 8" Don'yoku (aka "Tattoo") Dunny from Kidrobot is based on his 20" one-off piece done for the 2004 Dunny Show and is limited to 2000 pieces. As is the Yakuza tradition, Don'yoku sports some serious tattoos. The massive rear tattoo is quite intrictate and was almost certainly a challenge to print. After a year or so of wondering if this piece would ever be produced, it's here! It drops on 12.01 and to celebrate there's a release party + Huck Gee signing at Kidrobot San Francisco that same Thursday from 6-8 PM! Thanks to Merryl and TB from Kidrobot for the pics.
Kidrobot
1512 Haight St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
415.487.9000