New KAWS.

Everyone has their addictions. Mine is vinyl, and I can't get enough of it.

Over the past few months I have calmed down on my vinyl purchases in an attempt to focus my collection. As of late, I've been really into work by the artist KAWS. So much so that I've acquired a number of my favorite pieces by him.

Here are some of my my recent additions.


"KAWS Vader" - KAWS x Lucasfilm


"KAWS Pinocchio" - KAWS x Disney


"KAWS Hennessy" - KAWS x Hennessy VS Label

Custom KAWS Dunny.

Sorry about the recent bombardment of KAWS-related posts. Much like how young children go through their "cowboys and indians" phase, I'm going through my "KAWS" phase. I have some other projects and films in the works as well, but more details will come later.



One of Brian Donnelley's most sought after vinyl toys is his "companion" figure. The piece loosely resembles a zombified Mickey Mouse character with a skull for a head and X's for eyes. On eBay, KAWS Companions can go from anywhere between $1,000 to $1,500, so it's no surprise people love this design. One day, I hope to add one to my collection, but for the time being, the cost is way too much. But alas, there is a short term solution to feeding my KAWS appetite, a custom KAWS Dunny.

I've seen it done once before on Flickr, but in the black/white mono color scheme. So with the help of my girlfriend, who is a master of clay sculpting and detailed painting, we decided to make our own. We used multiple photos for reference and began sculpting the teeth, cross bones, and buttons. The next day we began primering and painting. A few hours of meticulous detailed painting and we were done. Jenny did a great job on all the little accents, including the iconic KAWS X's, which I think she got down perfectly.

So now, even though we don't have a real Companion to add to our collection, at least we have a 3" custom version. Because we had so much fun making the custom dunny, we plan to make the two other colorways (black and mono) in the next few weeks!

Below are some of the "making of" photos for our custom KAWS Dunny!





























And here he is in all his glory.





And here he is in our collection.

KAWS Fever.

I was afraid of this. When I was first introduced to the vinyl art toy scene, I could not believe people were spending well over one hundred dollars on what is essentially plastic. Now I am one of those people. It takes a lot for me to justify spending a good amount of money on an art toy, but every now and again that one toy comes along that I cannot pass on.



For the last few months, I've been a KAWS addict. I'm constantly checking eBay and Kidrobot Forums daily to see if anyone has posted a toy for a killer deal. Most of the time, the prices are too crazy, but on occasion someone posts a KAWS piece for a low price in order to move it fast. One afternoon, as I was checking eBay expecting to be disappointed yet again, I saw a deal that I could not believe. A KAWS stormtrooper going for half of what it normally does. I knew there had to be a catch, and there was. The toy had no box and had two small marks on the back of his head. For many die hard collectors, this was a major turn off. Everyone wants their toys to be in pristine shape. For me, I could live with the downsides of not having a box. Because I wasn't planning on displaying the stormtrooper backwards, the marks on the back of the head didn't concern me. I eagerly hit "buy it now" and that was that. I was now the proud owner of a KAWS stormtrooper.

The funny thing is, the first place I was introduced to the KAWS stormtrooper was actually on Rob Dyrdek's show Fantas Factory. This was well before my obsession with collecting vinyl toys.




A few weeks later, my girlfriend texted telling me that I got a box from Hong Kong! I still had two hours left of the class I was in, but all I could do was think about getting home and tearing apart my new package. Finally, I got home and was able to check this guy out. My first impression was that this piece is SMALL. From the pictures I had seen online, it appeared much bigger. It's still one of the biggest toys I owned, but I imagined it a few inches taller. Regardless, the sculpt of this piece was awesome. So much detail! The marks on the back of the head were barely noticeable. I quickly made room for my stormtrooper next to my KAWS Milo.



The next day, I decided to take some photos. This vinyl piece is easily my most prized toy in my collection. It could be my childhood obsession with Star Wars or simply the fact that the sculpt is very well done. Either way, I love my new STORMTROOPAAAA!

Big News in the Land of Vinyl.

Well, I should be writing my term paper, but a quick break on the internet has led to a mandatory blog entry.

First and foremost, coming up on March 24th, Kidrobot is releasing their first 8" Dunny of 2011. The Dunny will be by artist Huck Gee, and will be an alternative colorway to the 8" "Glow in the Dark" Skullhead released at SDCC 2010. I'm so excited for this release because, despite the fact it being a "Dunny," Huck went ahead and cut the ears off the traditional Dunny mold. This toy will no doubt stand apart from the many 8" Dunnys crowding my shelf. Another reason to love Huck is that he works locally out of his San Francisco studio and he drives a Subaru Impreza STI! The release is limited to 650 pieces worldwide, and there's no doubt in my mind they will sell out in hours. Good luck to everyone trying to snag a piece.



The other big news is the recently leaked Dunny Series 2011 series set to come out around summertime. I hate to say it, but Kidrobot and Dunnys are slowly losing their appeal to me. It just seems like so many variations are coming out too often, that the individual designs lose their attraction. In the next few weeks I plan to sell a lot of my 3" Dunnys in favor of larger, more limited edition toys on the market. There are a few 3"ers that I really enjoy, but for the future, I plan to only grab the designs that I really like as opposed to trying to collect a whole completed set. Needless to say, the leaked photos of the 2011 Dunny Series has some pretty sweet designs. I'll have to see them in person first, but their are definitely a few that catch my eye!

My Wallet Isn't Going to be too Happy.

I feel kind of weird making a blog post about a new toy release, but this is a big deal.

So as of recent, my new goal in vinyl collecting is to snag a coveted KAWS piece. For those that don't know, Brooklyn based artist, KAWS (aka Brian Donnelly) is a huge figure in the contemporary art and urban grafitti scene. He creates his art through several different mediums, spanning from canvas, to ads, to toys, and even to lightbulbs. The problem with my quest for a KAWS piece is the ridiculous prices that these toys are sold for in the secondary market (i.e. eBay, forums, etc.). The only way to really avoid spending an arm and a leg for a toy is buy it on the release day.


So, the word going around right now is that KAWS is set to release his next Bape collaboration toy on February 26th, 2011. In lieu of his popular "dissected companion" toy, KAWS has adapted the same concept to the iconic Bape character "Milo." This piece is half monkey, and half anatomical sculpt of the innards of the monkey, split right down the middle.


Even if I can manage to purchase one on release day from KAWS's site kawsone.com, the price still verges on the level of expensive. At 15,540 Yen, the toy will cost approximately $186.00 USD. If someone would have told me a year ago that I would even contemplate dropping this much cash on a piece of plastic, I would've called them crazy. After doing much research, the initial cost of this piece does not turn me off as much. Even though the figure is close to $200 with shipping, other KAWS pieces with the same initial price point go for upwards of $650 on the secondary market. I do not plan to sell the piece, but if times get rough, at least I can make my money back, plus more.

The only dilemma I'm facing right now is if I can live with getting only one, or if I should shoot for the whole set. Unfortunately for me, getting the whole set would probably mean eating Ramen and bread for the rest of the month. Because I have tax refunds coming to me in the next few weeks as well as some overdue payments for past work I've done, I may pull the trigger on all three. Only time will tell. I am honestly just stoked to get my first ever KAWS piece!

Here's a few more views of the figure.