Love Movement is an art show using vinyl toys to deliver universally understood messages about love. American, Japanese and European artists were given blank versions of toys designed by recently married artists, Shin and Nao. The finished works will be exhibited at Superfrog Gallery in San Francisco with an opening reception on December 11th. Shin, Nao and many of the other artists involved in the show will be in attendance

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Our friend, Lost At E Minor contributor, Ron English has a bunch of awesome new figures out for this year’s Comic Con, including Figment (Dead Artist), Telegrinnie, T-Rex Grin, and POPaganda Minis.

Lost At E Minor contributor, and renowned street artist Shepard Fairey, has launched his first new limited edition vinyl figure in eleven years — Mr Spray — based on one of his 2004 street art creations which, in turn, was a spoof on the ‘advertising character design of the 1950s’.

The original New York porthole into Japanese Kyju and vinyl toy culture, Toy Tokyo is back with a new East Village storefront showcase for cutting-edge designer sculpture. Along with other luminaries such as Kid Robot, Toy Tokyo has filled the void between the comic book shop and the art gallery with some of the most intriguingly beautiful and affordable art ever created.

First there was the Michelle Obama action toy, now comes this unpainted six-inch tall customizable Barack Obama action figure which you can really believe in. Yes, you can!

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Odd, simple and surreal, these toys are really more accessible art objects. Sporting bit of a Keith Haring meets Murakami attitude, Buff’s toys fill any remaining generational gap between aging hipsters and their hyper plugged-in progeny. My wife and I collect Buff’s stuff, as do my two children.

Vinyl Toys are fun. In fact, they actually get more fun and collectible the older you get, an excusable way to relive those toy collection hobbies of our misspent childhoods. But where to start? Here are five Vinyl Toys that we think should feature prominently in your collections: The Nathan Jurevicius Vinyl Toys are original little creations from Melbourne that are proving immensely popular. We especially like the eyes on his creations. This Glow in the Dark Vinyl Toy below is called the Kaiju TriPus and looks amazing. Oh, and it glows in the dark, too. Go figure!


Attack of the Thundermutts!
From Thunderdog come these crazy little creatures.

The Bunny Breakthrough
It’s not a bunny, it’s an astrolapin, whatever the hell that is. I want one. Do you want one? I do. I said that, didn’t I? Can you please buy me one?

Evil Apes
Don’t they look cute? Who’d think they’re evil! Toy2R have a whole lot of other similarly freaky, scary, cute collections as well. Check them out.

Standing approximately six inches tall and with two points of articulation, Peskimo’s Monster Burp is sculpted separately, comes with a removable translucent Monster, is limited to just 800 pieces.

These awesome vinyl toys by Japanese designer Tsuchiya Shobu come in a series of three — Bone, Mummy, and Mosquito — and stand around ten inches tall. Each character comes with their own skateboard in a full color, and somewhat psychedelic, window box. Bodacious!

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The Society of Illustrators of New York is hosting a lecture by Paul Budnitz — founder of Kid Robot [store pictured above] — and Mark Graham — the founder of ilovedust — on Wednesday night. Subjects to be discussed include toy design, animation and motion graphics, and how it all starts with illustration. The event will be moderated by Brooklyn-based illustrator, Fernanda Cohen.

I’m no vinyl toy aficionado. Sure, I like them and I have a few on the shelf, but I’m hardly obsessive. I am, however, pretty sure I want every one of these Buuts Buuts Uamou figures. London-based artist Ayako Takagi is the creator of the comic Uamou From Another Planet, and Buuts Buuts Uamou is an alien who explores the galaxy and befriends a ghost. It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity. Her site is great and the photo section is worth a visit.

Marka27′s new Killa Instinct figure will be released soon by BIC Industries. Marka called upon his years of experience as a graffiti writer to create a toy that reflected the ‘all-consuming pursuit of widespread urban exposure’. Of the figure he says, ‘Killa Instinct is set to destroy anyone or anything that gets in his way of desire for domination through the means of getting up, with his Killa Styles, burners, tags, throwups, by any means necessary’.

Sun-Min Kim and David Horvath, who brought you the very cute Ugly Dolls, have just released their new vinyl figure set, Mothman vs Flatwoods Monster: Super Market Toys Play Set. A play on those little farm animals and army men you find at the supermarket, the Mothman play set includes two 3.5 inch figures, field fence, and oak tree modeled after eye witness reports to this strange event which took place in West Virginia.

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God save the Queen. Oh, and Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, Steve Jones and Paul Cook too. This much anticipated Set B of the Sex Pistols Collectors Kubrick Set is by those geniuses at MediCom Toy Inc. You can feel Pretty Vacant yourself by picking one up from Gentle Giant.

It was good to catch the Kaiju Invades NYC exhibition of custom monster figures from America and Japan, which ran recently at New York’s Showroom Gallery, and showcased some wonderfully inventive creations.

January 26 was the release date of The Vivisect Playset mini-toy figure series produced by STRANGEco’s. The Vivisect Playset features mini-figures by artists Anthony Ausgang, Luke Chueh, Peter Gronquist, Thomas Han, Joe Ledbetter, Greg Simkins and Amanda Visell. Quite a lineup! The concept is based on an annual group art show, curated by Luke Cheuh and hosted by Gallery 1988 in San Francisco, which focuses on the dissection and reconstruction of animals to demonstrate human emotion. [see also the plush toys of Beck Wheeler]