Dec 04, 2018
Tristan Eaton — ‘Dead Press’ Print Retrospective at Wynwood Arcade (12.5–12.9)
For this year’s Art Basel Miami weekend, Tristan Eaton will open Dead Press, a 20-year art print retrospective, from December 5th to the 9th at Wynwood Arcade. The pop-up exhibition starts off with a signing for Eaton’s Paintings art book ($750 published by CASS on Wednesday (12.5) from 3 to 6 PM. The first fifty to purchase the book will receive a free ‘Kiss My Assassin’ poster. The retrospective will also feature several new print releases including two brand-new XL-sized 3D prints — October March and a Geisha-based one. Dead Press will also serve as the launch of the artist’s new Trouble large-format ‘zine.
Tristan Eaton || Dead Press
December 5th – 9th 2018 (12 – 6 PM)
Wynwood Arcade
50 NW 24th St.
Miami, FL 33127
Dec 12, 2006
More Gumliens
Here's a peek at more toy characters from Gumliens.
It is always refreshing to see new toy characters in the market.
However, news is slow coming as to how to get your hands on one of these.
You will know as soon as we know. Stay tuned. Click through for more pics ;-)
Dec 11, 2006
Gumliens @ Design Festa
Design Festa is a character design exhibition held twice a year in Japan and at the more recent show, Gumliens,
featured a handful of their one-offs character toys. These toys
sold out quickly and from the looks of things, they could very well create their own line of original figures.
Nov 28, 2006
Operation Fragmentation (12.16.06)
Operation Fragmentation brings together 20+ artists to customize both 9" blank Nade figures produced by Jamungo as well as accompanying military ammunition cases. Operation Fragmentation opens on December 16 from 7 to 9 PM at the newly opened Bar of Modern Art (BoMA), a recently renovated church which now serves as unique art gallery venue for the city of Columbus, Ohio. Sensing a need for increased awareness of the designer toy movement within the Columbus area, curator Laura Kuenzli invited a select group of artists to showcase the meidum through their creativity and innovation. Want to see more? Here's another clever teaser.
Participating Artists -
Angie
Mason, Annie
Owens, Bobby Dixon, Colin
Christian, Dave
Burke, Doktor
A, Giant Japanese Monster,
Bad!, Grant Fuhst, Jenna
Colby (Soopajdelux), Jim
Koch, Kathie
Olivas, Mark
Nagata, Mat Eaton (AZK), Michelle
Steele, Mike
Maas, Naoto
Hattori, Stone, Todd
Cameron, Tyson
McAdoo, VanBeater & Ferg (Jamungo) and Walter King
Bar of Modern Art
583 East Broad Street
Columbus, Ohio 43216
Nov 22, 2006
Vinyl Toys Network: Holiday Toy & Art Show (12.10.06)
'Tis the Season to be jolly!!!....fa...la..la...oh...whatever!!! Yes, it is that time of the year but for vinyl toy fans, every season is a good time to make a few additions to our collections. The Vinyl Toys Network, an alliance of toy companies and retailers, is gearing up for the holidsay season with a 1-day vinyl toy and art show. On December 10th, 2006 at the Pasadena Convention Center, you will break the bank and open up your home to as many homeless toys as possible. Let your holiday season get off to a bright and merry start!!
Pasadena Convention Center
300 E. Green St., Room 211
Pasadena, Ca 91101
Nov 19, 2006
Touma's mini exhibition III: Maocats (11.20.06)
Touma's mini exhibition III opening tomorrow (11.20.06) @ Fewmany in Japan stars his newest figure Maocat. In addition to the clear blue Maocats, Touma has created two small series of custom MacCats -- 10 Lucha Libre Maocats with resin masks, and 31 Mike Maocats each with different brown and black spray patterns. Check out all the Maocats over @ Fewmany's exhibition page. Based on past exhibitions, we believe Fewmany is accepting overseas orders -- email [email protected] for inquiries.
Nov 05, 2006
Seen: Return of the Knuckle Bear (11.3.06)
A year after his first show at mixi-bang!, Touma made his return to the store on Saturday (11.4.06) for Return of the Knuckle Bear featuring several exclusives and hand-painted customs. Turnout for the show was pretty heavy with a line for most of the night as folks waited for Touma to sign their newly acquired toys. Three toy exclusives were available at the show -- bone GID 6" Knuckle Bear, Black Mao Cat, and a clear blue Skuttle Alpha. The new knuckle bear looks pretty fierce in dark colors including the Bone GID exclusive. Mao Cat made his US debut at the show with the black exclusive and several very nice customs. A nice giclee Knuckle Bear print, a sharp GID Bone shirt, and a Return of the Knuckle Bear show poster rounded out the show exclusives.
Touma also brought several customs including 5 really nice brown and tan Mao Cats, 6 Mao Cats with removable wrestling style resin-masks, and several beautiful metallic 6" Knuckle Bear customs. The metallic KB's really need to be seen in person to be really appreciated -- rather tough to capture with a camera ;-) There were also several hybrid pieces consisting of a 2.5d painting with a Knuckle Bear relief silhouette. All of these one-off pieces were reasonably affordable (hovering around $200) giving fans a great opportunity of owning a Touma original.
All in all, the opening was a great night of toys and art with a rare chance to meet Touma in the US. Several well-known artists also made the trip out to mixi-bang! to welcome Touma back to California including Simone Legno (tokidoki), Joe Ledbetter, and Ben (Nanospores). Fans made the most of this opportunity having them sketch and sign their various toys from the new clear orange Sluggonadon to Mozzarella. Many people stuck around to the the tail end of the show for the raffle which included rare Knuckle Bear Capsule Toys, show t-shirts, and Touma art books.
mixi-bang!
36 W. Colorado Blvd. #5
Pasadena, CA 90015
626.507.8095
Oct 27, 2006
Munny Shot (03.04.07)
Born out of a desire to see a huge smashing custom show in the UK, Ryan Coyle of Iksentrik has worked closely with Kidrobot on Munny Shot -- a monster of a Munny show to be held in Bristol, UK on March 4th 2007. Munny Shot is organized as a contest with prizes for the top entires and a charity auction of show pieces to benefit Baggator which works to assist wayward Bristol youth. If you'd like to participate in Munny Shot, please drop some e-mail to [email protected]. Vinyl Pulse is proud to be a media sponsor of Munny Shot.
Oct 24, 2006
Touma - Return of the Knuckle Bear @ mixi-bang! (11.04.06)
One year after his last solo show, Touma is returning to LA ;-) Return of the Knuckle Bear featuring limited-edition exclusive figures, customs, and a signing by Touma opens on Saturday November 4th from 7 PM @ mixi-bang! in Pasadena, CA.
mixi-bang!
36 W. Colorado Blvd. #5
Pasadena, CA 90015
626.507.8095
Oct 21, 2006
Fitzsu Grand Prix - Custom Cars for Charity
The Fitzsu Grand Prix is an art charity project featuring PLAYSAM Streamliner toy cars customized by 33 top international designers. Participating designers including Michael Graves, Syd Mead, Tim Biskup, Dalek and Touma, have each taken the original PLAYSAM Streamliner designed by Ulf Hanses in 1984 as a starting point for their own artistic intrepretations. Organized by the Fitzsu Society, a retailer tabletop and home acessories, the Fitzsu Grand Prix will benefit the World Childhood Foundation by donating all net proceeds of the eBay auctions for the one-of-a-kind custom toy cars. Check out all the eBay auctions now as they end shortly (Monday, October 23rd @ 1PM Pacific).
Images via fitzsu.com.
Oct 16, 2006
Seen: Graphic Contents Custom Qee Show @ mixi-bang! (10.14.06)
A decent-sized crowd outside was more than matched by a much larger-crowd inside mixi-bang this past Saturday (10.14.06) for the opening of the Graphic Contents Custom Qee show. No wonder. The show brought together some of the top minds in the print and motion graphic design biz to work their magic on Qees. Most of these designers had never seen a Qee, and this unfamiliarity paid off and how. What's the path to innovation and wild design?
One answer is to throw budgets to the wind and fire up the rapid-prototyping machines to fabricate mind-blowing 3D additions. Extopolis' installation like piece featuring two Qees joined by an undulating wave is a sight to see. As are the two very different Logan pieces -- one a wild cosmic warrior and the other a surreal black "skier". While these pieces are costly to produce ($1500 - $3000 apparently), it's great to see folks trying new approaches that open up the possible to the raw imagination.
Other design houses explored the limits of the possible with largely unused surface treatments from laser etching to the use of highly-reflective safety material mixed into the base coat for a luminous experience. Others found their own unique way of pushing art forward. From fabricating a wire-mesh Qee (dodemo),to creating a custom gimp suit (Buck LA), to going traditional with beads (Tennant McKay).
All in all this was a great show -- one of the best in recent memory. Fresh. Innovative. Maybe new eyes and new minds really do help to jump start things ;-) If you live in SoCal and missed the show, go check it out. Graphic Contents runs through November 3rd, 2006.
Wanna see more? Click below for the full post with the complete gallery.
mixi-bang!
36 W. Colorado Blvd. #5
Pasadena, CA 90015
626.507.8095
Oct 15, 2006
Seen: Peanut Butter and Jellyfish @ Uberbot (10.14.06)
October 14, 2006: Überbot, Winter Park's designer toy and comic Utopia,
celebrated it's first birthday by playing host to the first gallery exhibition of a groundbreaking design studio. The unified creative forces of local artists Jorge and Kelly Aponte, Dave Quiles, Julius Santiago, Spider, Oni and Nakanari, now known as Me Llamo Jellyfish, made their debut with an arsenal of artwork in numerous forms.
"We want to explore and use as much media as we can," says Nakanari of the studio, which he spearheaded. And explore they have. The walls and display cases of Überbot were crammed with prints, vinyl, Boblbee bags, skate decks, canvas, PSP plates, plush and spray cans. Nakanari's Munny contrbution to Rooted Movement was on display as were four custom Boblbee bags by Quiles,Santiago, Nakanari and Kelly Aponte which will be auctioned off on eBay to benefit local charity The Mustard Seed.
Thirty-minutes into the show, artists were still adding pieces to an already prolific display. Invited guests and well-informed fans poured in as the growing crowds beckoned passers by of every age. More than a few parents were seen lifting their kids up for a better view of the cool toy designs. Artists were busy autographing pieces, answering questions and chatting with fans. As an added attraction, Nakanari sketched Munnys and signed his B.B. Birdy creations. Good conversatioon, great art and tastey peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were enjoyed by all. The artists, however, could not escape the fate of all who claim the spotlight... the interview.
When asked what one thing they hoped to achieve through the Me Llamo Jellyfish collaboration, the answers were as diverse as the art. From Dave, Julius and Nakanari's desire to push creative boundaries and grow as artists, Jorge's quest for the preservation of the jellyfish and Spider's plan to blow up the moon, the future endeavors of Me Llamo Jellyfish will be worth following.
Text and photography by Jim Carchidi
For more information on the eBay auction and the artists go to:
To see all of Jim's pics of the opening, click below to the full post.
Oct 14, 2006
Buck Qees @ Graphic Contents (10.14.06)
Top print and motion graphics design houses were asked to turn their skills and talent to customizing 8" Qees for the Graphic Contents show which opens tonight (10.14.06) from 7 - 10 PM @ mixi-bang! Here are the two Qees designed by Buck from their LA and NY divisions. Love the custom gimp suit that Buck Los Angeles dreamed up.
mixi-bang!
36 W. Colorado Blvd. #5
Pasadena, CA 90015
626.507.8095
Oct 12, 2006
Pics: Opening of the Double Dutch Custom Trexi Show (10.05.06)
Double Dutch featuring 10-inch custom Trexis from a lineup of Holland's top artists opened last Thursday (10.05.06) at Outland Records. Thanks to the show organizers, Trexi Nederland, we have pics of the opening and the pieces for you. It's definitely nice to see some variety in platforms used for custom shows ;-)
Click below for all the pics in the full post.
Oct 10, 2006
Psycho Zliks Launch Party @ Madame X (10.13.06)
Andrew Bell is celebrating Friday the 13th (10.13.06) in style with a launch party for his Dead Zebra Variant Psycho Zliks @ Madame X in NYC. Drop by between 9 PM and Midnight to enjoy the psychotic vinyl creatures in the velvet-lined red-light lounge.
For this launch event, a handful of Psycho Zliks sets + limited editions prints will be available for $100. This is your chance to be the first one on your block to get one of the total 69 sets. For those that like to live on the edge they will also be available online the day after. The prints will be available individually $20 each. To top it off, Andrew's going BIG with a 19" Zliks sculpture which can be yours for $500. The launch items (except the 19" sculpture) will be sold on a cash-only basis. Make sure to hit the ATM before you make your way over there ;-)
So be sure to drop by Madame X from 9 PM - Midnight on Friday the 13th for the Psycho Zliks, drinks, original art raffles, and free T-shirts and stickers.
Madame X (Upstairs)
94 West Houston (@ LaGuardia)
New York, NY 10012
212.539.0808
Oct 03, 2006
Graphic Contents Custom Qee Show @ mixi-bang! (10.14.06)
Graphic Contents is a custom 8" Qee show (Toy2R) with a twist -- the show participants are top design houses in the print and motion graphics fields (full list on the flier above) rather than postbrow and urban artists. The payoff of this concept should be a fresh aesthetic from talented folks who have mastered print or motion graphics but have yet to tackle the challenge of customing vinyl figures. Graphic Contents opens on Saturday, October 14th from 7 to 10 PM at mixi-bang! in Pasadena, California and continues through November 3rd.
mixi-bang!
36 W. Colorado Blvd. #5
Pasadena, CA 90015
626.507.8095
As a sweet bonus for Vinyl Pulse readers, show co-sponsor, 5Inch, is sponsoring a giveaway for one set of 50 of their silk-screened CD-Rs (50 different designs). Bored with burning your precious data to hum-drum plain-jane vanilla discs? No more. To win just write a comment on this post and be sure to enter your real email address when prompted to do so. The winner will be chosen by random draw. Deadline to enter is Friday, October the 13th @ 8:00 PM Pacific.
1. Enter by leaving a comment in this thread only.
2. One entry per person, multiple entries will disqualify you.
3. Contest ends on October 13th, 2006 @ 8:00 PM Pacifc.
4. Shipping is covered within the Continental USA. Shipping anywhere else is paid by winner.
5. Winner will be notified by email and must respond within 72 hours of notification.
Oct 02, 2006
Yeast Infection (10.06.06)
Yeast Infection, curated by El Maz, is an online custom show and auction featuring customized vintage Pillsbury Doughboy figures. A lineup of talented artists took the original soft vinyl figure of the commercial icon released in 1971 and let their imagination and skill run wild. All of the pieces will be auctioned on eBay staring on October 6th and will run for seven days. This is a breath of fresh air for vinyl customs from the creative choice of "platform" to the imaginative results. It's also another sweet example of a show organized by the Kidrobot Messageboard community.
Props to El Maz for the curation and all of the participating artists:
Motorbot • Doktor A • Upso • Jaguar Nono aka Josh Novak • Apina • El Maz • Ratcrtur • Mimic • Leecifer • LASH • Lynnxe • Jason Jacenko (Atomika) • KID9 • ooo000ooo • Ness • David Wagner (lgbdog1) • Rebelwookie • Scott Francis (mssrvalmont)
• Paul Kaiju• Mindblowin02 • Pavid • Kathie Olivas • Christine Heitmueller (Navynails)
• Dear Earthling • Andrew Bell • DragonCypher • Jigga7 • bilbetsovic • Desecration • puppetbrain • drilone • bucky lastard • trio of Spooky AMD, HideousBoi and IdleChimp for October Toys.
Be sure to click below to see more Yeast Infection pieces.
Sep 28, 2006
Cameron Tiede's Cheshire Cat
We always expect sweet customs from Cameron Tiede. Here's a peek at a Cheshire Cat vinyl (Span of Sunset x Disney) he painted in his usual vibrant colors and vivid details for the We're All Mad Here show at Gallery 1988 which opens on October 7th. Be sure to mark your calendar.
Gallery 1988
7020 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
323.937.7088
Sep 24, 2006
Double Dutch - 10" Custom Trexi Show (10.05.06)
Double Dutch, a 10-inch custom Trexi Tour showcasing Dutch artists and designers, opens on October 5th at Outland Records in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and then travels to 3 other venues in the country. Thanks to Trexi Nederlands, the show organizers, we have sneak peeks of pieces by Erwin Weber (based on his Series 1 Trexi), Sjors Trimbach, and Collin van der Sluijs. Double Dutch will be on display through the end of '06 so if you live in the Netherlands, don't miss this rare opportunity.
Sep 20, 2006
NVC's Boom Bap Cheshire Cast
The upcoming We're All Mad Here Show at Gallery 1998 (10.07.06) will feature nearly 100 customized Cheshire Cat vinyl figure produced by Span of Sunset. NVC - Dr. Bao and Spive, spent quite a while conceptualizing their piece. Their Boom Bap Cheshire Cat started with the basic concept of a hip cat, an urban music lover and really got rolling once Bao realized he could turn the cat's tail into a gramaphone.
Once the music theme was cemented, the next step was to add working speakers. The cat will accept any standard plug device - CD, ipod, etc ;-) NVC always seems to pour everything they have creatively into a custom and this one is a perfect example -- they created the custom and then really went off adding, adding, and adding... a brick wall diaorama complete with trash can and a vinyl record carrier complete with a stack of miniature vinyl LP's including an Alice in Wonderland record as a tie-in.
Serious props to NVC for a sick piece. If you're in the LA area, come out for the show to check out all the pieces and chat with Bao who'll be making the trip down from Canada.
Sep 19, 2006
Peanut Butter & Jellyfish @ Uberbot (10.14.06)
Überbot will celebrate its one year anniversary with Peanut Butter and Jellyfish on October 14th, featuring the art of the newly formed Me Llamo Jellyfish Studios. The show will feature canvases, skate decks, vinyl toys and more from studio artists Kelly Aponte, Dave Quiles, Julius Santiago and the founder, Nakanari. Among the custom toy pieces will be several 9" Blow Up Dolls produced by show sponsor Jamungo. Beyond the numerous custom items for sale at the show, Me Lllamo Jelly Fish has customized 4 Bolbee bags which will be auctioned off on eBay a week after the show to beneift the Mustard Seed furniture and clothing bank.
Come out to the opening on Saturday, October 14th from 7 to 11 PM at Überbot to enjoy the art and the festivities which include complimentary refreshments and complimentary live figure customization by Nakanari.
Überbot
480 N. Orlando Avenue Suite 126
Winter Park, Florida 32789
407.788.UBER
Sep 14, 2006
More from International Kaohsiung Arttoys Exhibition
The International Kaohsiung Arttoys Exhibition (9.9 -10.06) in southern Taiwan showcases the very best in asian designer toys primarily from Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. We previously featured some brief coverage of the show but we're back to show you the full scope of the show and the range of companies participating. Thanks to Pixie, Tim Tsui, and Raymond Choy of Toy2R for the great pictures of the toys, the scene and the creators.
See all 50 pics after the jump
Sep 13, 2006
Show Coverage: International Kaohsiung Arttoys Exhibition (09.09 - 10.22)
Designer toys are definitely on the upswing in Taiwan. Where Taipei has the Taipei Toy Festival, the smaller southern city of Kaoshiung has The International Kaohsiung Arttoys Exhibition which opened this past Saturday and appears to be sponsored partly by the government (sweet use of tax dollars). GaryThinking (Honey B) sent us these pics from the show which include some custom Honey B's and a shot of Devilrobots' Smery, stinky tofu figure, in plush and vinyl/plastic. We'll definitely try to track down more info on Smery.
Click below to see the show pics.
Sep 12, 2006
Show Coverage: Altered States @ Rotofugi (09.09.06)
Altered States featuring toy customs and art from Sket One, Tweeqim, and Jeremy Gibbs opened this past Saturday (09.09.06) @ Rotofugi in Chicago. The pieces ranging from Sket's Four Shogun Wariors to Tweeqim's Firecat and Tedankhanum TT to J. Gibbs' camo kb's show why and how each of these artists earned a reputation as hardcore skilled customizer. Thanks to Sket One, m500 and Brian Morris we have some pics of the pieces and the after party for you to enjoy. Rotofugi will be putting all the available pieces from the show online complete with turnaround pics at the end of this week -- so keep an eye out for that. Also, if you're in Chicago (how could you miss it !?!), then drop by the gallery as the show runs through October 15th.
Click Below for the Full Post w/ Pics.
Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery
1953 W. Chicago Ave.
Chicago, IL 60622
312.491.9501
We're All Mad Here - The Cheshire Cat Show @ Gallery 1988 (10.07.06)
"We're All Mad Here" celebrating the beloved Cheshire Cat character from Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland opens on October 7th from 7 to 10 PM @ Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight and continues through October 13th. The show will feature 100 artist customized versions of the Cheshire Cat vinyl figure recently released by Span of Sunset. In addition, several artists will contribute canvas pieces featuring the mischevious feline. With 100 figures, this will be one of the largest custom shows in the LA area this year, so don't miss it!
Gallery 1988
7020 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
323.937.7088