I figure that between Mike Jones and I, we probably log about 40 hours + a week looking on eBay. Thus I see fit to start a new category on the ever evolving Bloglin.
Last night I was searching “Puppet”, and this bad boy came up. Indiana Jones Burnt Nazi Soldier Puppet fr/ ROLA Item number: 270255987209. As fans of the original Indiana Jones series, this auction is awesome enough just upon first glance. Burnt Nazi prop dolls from Raiders of the Lost Ark… how can you go wrong with an item like that? However, after taking a closer look at the item description I realized that this wasn’t just a generic prop doll, instead it was a 12″ Kenner Han Solo doll, custom modified by ILM. Why buy a MacBook Pro when you could cop this bad boy?!
This past week I had the pleasure to meet one of my favorite artists, Carlos Enriquez. Carlos is a Venezuelan artist whose hand-painted fiberglass figures are the perfect mix of fine art sculpture and sick twisted Kaiju.
I was introduced to Carlos by my friend (and Mishka collaborator) Lamour Supreme. We met him and his wife Daniella at Toy Tokyo and then went over to Kenka for some drinks and dinner. I tried to get our friend Henrik to eat the Bull Penis from the menu but unfortunately it didn’t come in a child’s portion.
After dinner and getting to know one another, we went back to the apartment where Carlos & his wife were staying at so we could see a few of his newer pieces that he had brought with him. I had seen a couple of his pieces online, and when I saw them in person the Kaiju Invades NYC show last month, I was blown away and I couldn’t wait to see more!
Needless to say I was floored again! Getting to see The Mushroom Carousel in person was truly amazing! The details, the colors, the weirdness, it was great! The colors of the paint totally reflect differently depending on the kind of light hitting it. If I had $3500 I would have bought it from him in a nanosecond. Another of my favorites was The Vagina Brain. Check out the video below of Lamour Supreme asking Carlos about the meaning and inspiration behind The Vagina Brain.
Carlos later showed us a DVD with some of his up and coming work. One of the photos was of a 14 foot Kaiju that he carved out of wood, and then used the carving to make a mold of a just finished a 1/1 fourteen foot fiberglass Kaiju. You can check out some photos of him making the mold in his myspace gallery. He told us it was going to take him 1 month to paint it. I guess that was going to be his next project as soon as he got back to Venezuela. I am sure he will send us some pictures as soon as he is finished with it.
Check out Cyco Simon greeting all of his new found fans! Now that he’s had his coming out party, Simon’s gotta get ready for some big, big things!
Vinyl-Pulse has done a fantastic re-cap of last weekends Kaiju Inavdes NYC show that we were a part of. Head over there for photos of most of the custom Kaiju from the event!
This Saturday, April 19th We proudly invite you to the opening reception for Kaiju Invades NYC. Hosted at Toy Tokyo’s The Showroom NYC Gallery and orchestrated by Don ‘Datadub’ Kratzer from Fig Lab and Lorne ‘m3kcomp’ Colon, this exhibition will feature custom pieces from top Japanese and American toy designers who have been influenced by the Kaiju culture of strange beasts.
Attendees should expect to see exclusive toys from artists like Blobpus, Real X Head, Gargamel, Tim Biskup, David Horvath, Bwana Spoons, Pushead and LeMerde.
We will also be collaborating with friend & artist Lamour Supreme on a custom piece and limited edition shirt for the show. Definitely the place to check out after the New York Comic Con.
Kaiju for those unfamiliar is a Japanese word that means “strange beast,” but often is translated into English as “monster.” Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu, one of the most popular forms of Japanese entertainment, which utilized special effects and puppetry. The most famous kaiju is Godzilla. Other well-known kaiju characters include Mothra, Anguirus, Rodan, King Kong, Gamera and King Ghidorah.
Hmmmm… I wonder what this could be that’s ready to say hello to the world? Come to the show and say hello to Cyco Simon!
Toy Tokyo Showroom Gallery
Saturday, April 19th
8pm-11pm
117 2nd Ave. 2nd Floor
East Village, NYC
I’m a total Ducktales fan boy, even though it’s been two decades since the show first aired. I suppose at this point that I really don’t have a choice about liking it since Uncle Scrooge indelibly spans the length of my forearm, but that’s not really the point of this post. Apparently someone constructed this scale model of Scrooge’s vault back in ‘02/’03, using blueprints created by Don Rosa and Dan Shane, and now you can see the fruits of his labors on Flickr. This model is really pretty fucking sick in my opinion, and I kind of wish we had it here at the office.
We are very proud to announce that this Saturday, March 8th from 6-10pm we will have the official opening party for the JK5 Capsule collection at our Pop-Up shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn! We spent a lot of time and love in creating this collection and now we want you all to come and celebrate with us at the Pop-Up Shop which will be totally JK5ified! This will be the first time the ENTIRE JK5 Collection will be available together in one place! Plus we’ll have DJs, refreshments and even a brand new T-shirt!
We pressed a very limited run of these Boba Mop JK5 x Mishka Logo tees just for the opening. What Joseph did with our logo is just beautiful! We wanted to put out a shirt that just showed it’s elegant and simple beauty as a counter to the collage filled one in the regular capsule collection. We will have a very limited amount of these to give out at the opening and some on sale at the Pop-Up Shop.
And the piece de resistance of the opening is that we got Suckadelic to pull away from his hectic schedule and create a Kreactivader action figure just for this opening! It’s got custom JK5 Capsule Collection packaging and real pencils for hands! These bad boys come in blue and magenta but unfortunately they ridiculously limited to 16 total pieces (8 per color); And worse yet is everyone calling dibs on one already! But we will have some for sale at the Pop-Up shop to all you toy fetishists and Suckadelic collectors out there.
JK5 & The Sucklord spent some time crafting this unique totally new imagining of the Kreactivader which perfectly en capsules not only Joseph’s work, but Suckadelic’s. Now this isn’t the first time JK5 & The Sucklord have worked together way back in 2003 the two put on what was probably the greatest art show in the history of the original Alife space on Orchard St. It was utter insanity! We’re really honored to do something with Suckadelic as that show was such an inspiration to us.
Head over to the Suckadelic site and get familiar with not only his toys & art, but his amazing Mix CDs! Sample heavy audio assemblages focusing on Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or just Super-Villians in general. It’s like a Sci-Fi audio acid trip.
But Suckadelic doesn’t stop there, as he’s also part of the Original Villain Network! head over to their site and check out the many hilarious episodes posted.
JK5 Opening Party @ The Mishka Pop-Up Shop
Saturday, March 8th. 6-10pm
218 Bedford Avenue (entrance on N. 5 th)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
L Train to Bedford Ave
I am a Huge fan of the BlobPus! Hell I even a JK5 version of it tattooed on my arm.
Our friend Lamour Supreme sent me a preview from the Wonder Festival 2008. I have to say that I’m pretty fucking excited! Plus, I think the name of this little guy is Priest of Darkness or something crazy like that!
This guys artwork is totally insane! I have been following his work on a few of the toy blogs for quite some time now and all I can say is I want one! I actually grabbed this photo and the text from a blog that I check on the regular, Omni-Monster!!!…If you are looking for anything and everything Kaiju, this is the site to check!
The process of how these figures are made are pretty amazing. I found this description that was taken from a quote by Mark Nagata of Max Toy Company.
“Carlos goes thru a rather hand intensive process on each figure. First each is carved in wood, than special molds are made, and from those fiberglass copies are made. [The figures that were offered at the Toy Karma show at Rotofugi in Chicago] only have 6-8 unique versions. After the raw casting is pulled, each one must be sanded down and patched up if needed. Once done each is primed for paint. Now the magic begins… very expensive auto paint with glitter in it is used to hand paint each figure. No two figures are the same… each has a subtle “fade” in it’s painting… something that no photo can pick up… much like a low rider car, these figures simply glow in the sun! Since these figures are so limited the cost is not cheap. These are not toys or even customs.. but rather fine art, think Murakami or dare I say Warhol in approach. … After each run is done the molds are destroyed and will never be released again.”
I originally found this quote on a differnt article that Omni Monster had done on Carlos. Check it out HERE!
Overall, pretty impressive! Click HERE to see the original post from Omni Monster!!!
Johnny Ryan is one of my favorite comic artists. My work area is littered with his prints and original comic pages. Thanks to Yevgeniy’s blog on Slam X Hype I see that Span of Sunset is making Loady McGee and Sinus O’Gynus vinyl figures! Exactly like the ones pictured on the cover of Angry Youth Comix #13 (pictured above)
Johnny Ryan writes and illustrates the funniest, dirtiest and most offensive comics around. He’s basically what you always wanted the comics in Mad Magazine to be, but never were. Check out his work in his sort of regularly put out Angry Youth Comix, or in the pages of Vice where he does regular illustrations as well as contributing the Blecky Yuckerella comic strip every month.
Now that I’m running a business I really get to see how distracting having the Internet is on the work day and getting work done on schedule! I’ve been on both ends of things and thankfully over the years been able to curb my usage and control goofing off on the internet so that it didn’t effect my work. Unfortunately not everyone is able or ready to do that, especially as younger and younger people enter the workforce having been on the internet most of their lives. Business really can’t just up and suspend the internet at this point, because it’s crucial.
On that note… Six Japanese Agriculture Ministry employees were reprimanded after an internal probe found they spent work hours contributing to Wikipedia on topics unrelated to farm issues, 408 total entries — including 260 entries about cartoon robots.
This statement given by a Japanese Ministry official, basically sums it all up: “The Agriculture Ministry is not in charge of Gundam!” Hahaha!
Here´s two different pieces for the Super 7 Halloween Monster Mash custom art and toy show. The first one is done by the great LeMerde and the second one is from the Plaseebo man himself Bob Conge. Pics from Toybot Studios. Head over there to check out more wiicked customs for the show!
