Google has kept a loose eye on their Android mascot, applying a creative commons license to the little guy, allowing artists and fans to go wild with their creations… I’ve seen little bits of schwag here and there, but nothing compares to the complete set of awesomeness that Andrew Bell cooked up…

One of the secret projects that has been keeping me busy lately. I teamed up with some friends at Android™ to bring their mascot to “life”. Head on over to the Dyzplastic production blog for details![Andrew Bell's Blog]

Created in collaboration with Google and Android Andrew Bell, and produced by Dyzplastic Production, this is the first official blind box series featuring everyone’s favorite open source mascot.  Series 1 features 12 different designs in a case of 16 and each vinyl figure stands just 3″ tall. There’s no word on pricing or exactly when these will drop, but a splash page on the Dead Zebra site shows “02:10:20:10″ which leads me to believe they go on sale at DZ on the tenth of February.

DKE Toys are the wholesale distributor for the series, one of Hero Design’s sources for vinyl crack; I should be able to sweet talk them into ordering a case or three.

Happy Thanksgiving. I’m spending it glued to the couch doing nothing. I can barely stand to type, as it is. Regardless, I thought it kind to alert you to a couple sweet Black Friday Deals..

First off, my buddy Yosiell from ProjectDetonate is dropping this sweet new limited giclee print, entitled  “sleep now for tomorrow may not come.” Based off of a revised old painting, the print is limited to 30 and is printed on Ultra Premium Matte paper (192 gsm). Dimensions, 13″ x 19.” It will be available at the ProjectDetonate shop for $35.00 shipped within the US (intl orders add $7.00). They are hand signed and numbered with certificate of authenticity. Print Drops tomorrow at 11am EST

Next up, KidRobot’s Black Friday Toy is this gnarly sweet Squirrel named Nutter. Fully custom figure designed by Kronk, this 6″ figure will be available at KidRobot Shops like Hero Design at Noon.

Hero Design is having their own Black Friday deals as well. Get all four posters from the Buffalo Art Print Series for $80, and save $40! Or you can buy each print individually and get $5 off. A shitton more good deals at Hero so if yer in Buffalo get down to 93 Allen at Noon Tomorrow, see you there.

The Yummy Breakfast Keychains were my first blindbox craze. I saw them at Hero Design (93 Allen St, Buffalo, NY) and started collecting them all. I had nearly every one of them, then suddenly… Hero sold out. I managed to cope, and the collection remained unfinished, on display at Angel’s store, Sai One (818 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo NY). People would come into Sai One and want to buy my collection, and Angel would send them to Hero to buy them. When Hero Design sold out, people kept going there looking for more until Beth asked me to kindly not send people to Hero with false hopes of the Yummy Breakfast series.

FALSE HOPES NO MOAR!

Hero Design is finally back in stock after over a year of  whining and begging from everyone all over. The supply is limited so get there now if you want to pick up the set. They are blindbox, but the duplicates will make excellent stocking stuffers this Christmas.

Walking into Target today with my rec group, I was greeted by  heavily branded Halloween signage pushing Skelanimals, a new Target exclusive deal. Immediately I was all “OMG, Simone Legno got another deal with Target to do the whole Halloween display! Way to go!” Something wasn’t right, however, as I took a deeper look at the displays and toys, and shirt, and all the other exhaustive merch with Skelanimals emblazed. These didn’t seem exactly Tokidoki, and so I thought that Simone was contracted to design a new line for Halloween, apart from his Tokidoki line. A little bit of research, and I found nothing to show Simone had any involvement with the Skelanimals brand.

It appears the Skelanimals brand, featuring playful skeletony characters in black, was the brainchild of Mitchell Bernal, not Simone Legno. Skelanimals was created in 2005, as was the Tokidoki brand, both in Los Angeles. I’m inclined to believe that Simone was the originator, as he has an arsenal of characters in his brand, and I believe his designs to be straight from his Asian culture loving fabulously gay mind.

Above is an example of Simone’s “Til Death do Us Part” line, featuring Adios, Ciao Ciao, Skelatrino, and Skelatrina. I own every fucking one of these in vinyl; they are so cute.

In the above image, we have a Skelanimals character on the left, and Tokidoki’s Skeletrino. Notice the black fill, white skull, and fangs. Lame.

Art thievery happens all the time, too often (Hot Topic is a major thief), but what irritates me the most is that a few months ago, the same cardboard mod, signage display, every placement of product from Skelanimals, was Simone Legno’s Tokidoki back to school line for Target. Why couldn’t Target give the Halloween contract to Simone? Did he want too much money? If so, did Target say “fuck you then” and went to a cheaper imitation? Simone is a valuable contributor to the vinyl/art/fashion scene, Skelanimals is a tweenage-cute-dead-thing line licensed by a company named Art Impressions Media Group Inc. A quick look at their site and their other brands appear to be conceptual imitations of several other design trends.

I’m pissed enough at the Skelanimals brand, but I’m more pissed at Target for tossing aside a designer, and adding on another line that blatantly borrows concepts from another line that Target carries. Maybe this is why a lot of artists are wary about going mainstream retail, they always get fucked over.

I really want to be wrong about this, I really want someone to tell me Simone has a part in this, that Target didn’t know (HA!) and that this is a big misunderstanding. I don’t think I’ll get that comment.

Karl Lagerfeld is probably one of my absolute favorite fashion designers. He’s a dirty old man, but he dresses like a fucking rock-star. No doubt, Simone Legno was the perfect artist to turn The Karl into a mini fig.

Sold only at Colette, the Mini Karl is limited to 100pcs and sells for € 129.00 each. Goes on sale soon.  I. Fuckin. Want.

I’ve always wanted to paint a kaiju. I think the airbrushed style of Eastern vinyl is just tops, and I wanted a stab at my own. I decided my first foray would be on this marvelous new figure from the Lake Monsters Series, Chris Ryniak’s Big Muscamoot.

Since the story goes that these monsters hail from the Great Lakes, I figured my custom would have to be from Lake Erie. colors were easy to decide, but I haven’t airbrushed since I was making Star Wars and El Camino models as a kid with my dad. I even dragged out the old airbrush kit that I used almost 10 years ago. I think it went pretty well, but I may invest in a decent-er airbrush, any suggestions on a good model? I hear Badger is pretty good.

I’ll have more pics up on the flickr soon.

I’ve always wanted to own an unpainted Kaiju. There is something about the naked glisten of vinyl that’s just tops. Rotofugi + Squibbles Ink held a lottery to sell off some of their SDCC Lake Monsters Big Muscamoot release and I got pulled for the Orange Factory Reject Unpainted model. Apparently, they had some manufacturing issues with their factory and some of the Orange figures didn’t come out so perfect. Thats ok, I think I’m gonna make a Lake Erie custom.

Goddammit. Every time I say no more Dunnys, Kidrobot drops a hot new lineup. Officially Launching September 10th, is the Kidrobot Dunny Series 2009!
Artists in this series include Amanda Visell, Andrew Bell, Amy Ruppel, Brandt Peters, Dalek, Devilrobots, Gary Taxali, Mori Chack, Huck Gee, Jeremyville, Kozik, Kronk, Luke Chueh, Mad, Pon, MR. Shane Jessup, Shawnimal, SupaKitch, Travis Cain, and Thomas Han.

Your chance to snap up the whole set comes a day early when you hit up an Official Trading Party the night before, at a Kidrobot store, or official retailer.

If you live in Buffalo, or Western NY, then your shop to go to is Hero Design Studio and Boutique. Even if you live in the good ole Canada, come on down to  93 Allen st, in Buffalo, NY, for a crazy night of toy unleashment. Trade new toys, old toys, con Mark, get conned by me, and win sweet prizes from Mark and Beth.  Last year, I nabbed the entire Series 5 in one night, and I only made one little kid cry.

The party starts at six, and ends around 9 or so. If you live elsewhere, scroll to the bottom to find the location for an Official Trading Party near you.

I can’t go into Hero and think I won’t buy anything, especially when such a bad ass series like Futurama just dropped from the KidRobot heavens.  And while I glimsped a peek at one of the chases (Slurms McKenzie), the jury was still out on what the second chase was. Today’s meander into Hero and Design Studio and Boutique was fortuitous; I snagged the second chase, who is none other than Sal.

I feel pretty gangster, but a litle bummed that Hermes or Proffessor Farnswuth, or Kiff didn’t make the series. Maybe there will be a second series… I can think of 12 more characters I want to see. For now, I’ve managed to snag Sal….

Morbo the Annihilator…

Nibbler  ( I love the chicken but his Dark Matter Poo would have been the most awesome of accessories)…

And Phillip J. Fry.Sal is pretty sweet lookin, love his Bachelor Chow (pretty detailed graphic).

I’ve got full size pics on flickr. Check it.

Matt Groening teams up once again with Kidrobot to release his less mainstream, but just as awesome, Futurama characters in to vinyl. 12 three inch characters, two blindboxes, $8.99 (or something like that) at Hero Design studio and other Kidrobot retailers. Like right now. Mark and Beth totally let me get in after hours and get a peak at em, and I scooped up a few to start a collection I plan on finishing. I was really waiting for this series, well that and the new series of Futurama on Fox…. can’t wait for that either.