4 Million Visits -- Thanks to You

When we started Vinyl Pulse nearly four years ago (April '05) , we had one goal -- create a toy blog that we wanted to read.  Recently we logged our four millionth visitor.  It's hard to believe we've averaged more than a million visits a year and it's all thanks to you, our loyal readers.  We're working on some special treats for our Fourth Anniversary, stay tuned.

Permalink|

Seen: Bispop Holiday ‘08 Party

Tim Biskup held  the fifth Annual Bispop Holiday Party earlier this afternoon @ the Bispop store located inside Johnson Motors in Pasadena.  A nice broad selection of goodies tempted fans and collectors.

On the toy side, the highlight was Tim’s reimagined version of T9G’s Rangeas. In addition to the clear pink production Rangeas, Tim offered up several sweet hand-painted customs of the new figure.  One eagle-eyed collector noticed several previously unseen base colorways of the new toy – so far we know there’s Yellow (released in Japan), Green (used in customs), Red (also seen in customs), Clear Yellow, and GID.

While the focus was on Tim’s Rangeas, he also found time to create customs of several of his previous Kaiju inspired creatures including Dragamel, Alpha Gaichou, and of course the large Pollard.

Tim unveiled several previously unseen paintings for the show including a large number of new Jackson 500 micro-paintings which ran the gamut from his older style to his newer approach and also offered a middle ground.  We shot some pics but you definitely want to check these out in person – many are excellent.  In addition to the smaller paintings there were a few standout larger pieces including the one of Dragmel (originally painted but not shown in his Paris show as the size did not mesh well with the show project theme).

Tim also dropped "Liquid Vampire Wedding" -- a hand-colored monochromatic serigraph.  Each one features different colors and is quite nice.

Quite a few artists dropped in to chat with Tim throughout the event  and at least one couldn’t resist doing a little toy shopping.  Seen throughout the day were Touma, Tristan Eaton, Amanda Visell, Michelle Valigura, and Joe Ledbetter. 

While it would have seemed somewhat absurd about a month ago – the center of the toy universe beats in Pasadena during this holiday season.  VTN is next weekend and two weekends after that, Bwana Spoons will present a very special release in you guessed it -- Pasadena.

Click through to enjoy a full gallery of sights from this year's Bispop Holiday Party.

Continue reading "Seen: Bispop Holiday ‘08 Party"

Shows | Permalink|

Seen: Touma @ mixi-bang ! (11.29.08)

Each winter since it opened, mixi-bang! has welcomed Japanese artist Touma for a solo exhibition featuring hard-to-get exclusive figures, customs and more.  Last night, Touma opened his ‘08 show with several new figures including a mixi-bang! exclusive Bone GID edition of his brand-new Beak Falcon figure, clear blue editions of Kazu (mad and normal) and Mao Cat, three large hard-to-get Destodons, and the recently released Knuckle Bear Guardians.  On the custom side of life, he presented a massive army of one-off and super limited (ed. of 3) Mao Cats and Kazus.

While Touma offered several one-off special figures, the best customs of the show were tantalizingly not for sale.  As a few collectors pointed out, his four custom Mao Cats painted in  gorgeous swirling  metallic/prismatic designs were truly incredible.  Had these been available, they would have been sold immediately. Check out closeups of the purple/blue and green/yellow customs after the jump  to get an idea of Touma’s paint wizardry.

As a fun tradition, Touma typically signs and sketches for fans wearing a luchador style mask of one of his many characters.  As we entered tonight we expected to see the familiar Knuckle Bear mask – but instead he was rocking something much more sinister : a jet black Goon mask.  Wicked. 

Touma was kind enough to oblige our current fascination with quick spur-of-the-moment videos.  We asked him to talk about his newest figure Beak Falcon.  Caught off guard and put on the spot, he  briefly introduced the figure  as the newest creature in his Knuckle series.  Touma + Japanese + Goon Mask – watch it (above). 

If you missed the show, go check it out. Out of town ?  mixi-bang! has the Beak Falcon and Guardian Knuckles up now in their web shop and will make the other figures available shortly.  Click through for plenty of pics of the opening.

mixi-bang!
36 W. colorado blvd. #5 (Mills Alley)
Pasadena, CA 91105
626.507.8095

Continue reading "Seen: Touma @ mixi-bang ! (11.29.08)"

Shows | Permalink|