Courtesy of Kid Robot, set yours up here.

Congrats to our pal Shawn for the inclusion of his design the 2009 Dunny series from Kid Robot.  Awesomeness!

From Kid Robot:

DUNNY SERIES 2009

Get ready for Dunny editions of Devilrobot’s To-Fu Head Son and Mori Chack’s Gloomy Bear, plus a new bunch of wild figures equipped with the necessary accessories to wreak havoc on your collection. Keep an eye out for 2 chases that slipped into the line-up, plus Golden Tickets redeemable for an elusive 3-inch Dunny by the NYC-based artist, Pon.

Join us for our Dunny Series 2009 Trading & Pre-Release Parties on September 9 at all Kidrobot stores and select retailers. Celebrate the release of the series, meet fellow collectors, get your trade on, and win awesome prizes!

Dropping September 10, these 3-inch figures will be available at Kidrobot stores, kidrobot.com, and select retailers for $7.95 each.

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.

Direct Youtube Link

Last month, Hell came to Chicago, courtesy of Frank Kozik and Rotofugi.  Nerd City was at the show and had the chance to have a brief chat with Mr. Kozik, himself.

Your recent Hell Comes to Chicago show at Rotofugi was a shift back to more 2-D/ painting-type work from the extensive amount of toy design that you had been doing for quite a while before that. What is the transition between these two mediums like for you, artistically?

Not much…I always draw and paint analog, and do all the packaging layouts for the toys, so it is always a mix.

How do you feel about the emerging philosophy that the designer toy is a small piece of art?

Personally I feel its quite important..basically ‘underground’ pop sculpture..before this its always been either 2d , film, audio or live performance. the sculpture thing is novel.

Political icons like Mao and Ho Chi Minh appear throughout your work. What is your fascination with these figures and what do you feel they represent?

Just look at it as my ’self help’ manual. all those dudes went from zero to a hundred in record time.

Punk imagery is another recurring theme in your work and you obviously spent years making music posters/ prints. How does music continue to influence your art and what are you listening to at the moment?

Music has almost no effect on the current toy design. I mostly listen to nothing at work. I like no noise.

What’s on the horizon for you, artistically?

More of the same, forever.

Thanks, Frank!

Tonight is the opening of the show that Max and I have been looking forward to for nearly a year.  One of our all time fav.’s, Frank Kozik, will be showing a set of all new paintings and other goodies statring tonight.  The opening is from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Frank will be doing a signing from 7 until 8:30.

I shouldn’t have to tell you that you need to be there.  The openings at Rotofugi are always a great time and this promises to be one of the events of the year.  Our friend, Revise CMW, will be djing and, of course, Nerd City will be there in full force.

So excited!

Frank Kozik is set to release a new set of figures, called the Big Mongers. The toys range from 3 1/2 to 6 inches, and will come in two styles, plain and smorkin’. The smorkin’ figures have a giant cigarette in their mouths and will be totally interchangeable with the mouth accessories that come with the 5″ Smorkin’ Labbits.

I think I need Magistrate Wu.  They’re available on June 18th from Kidrobot.

Nerd City favorite Frank Kozik has a new toy out from Toy2r, Toyer Z.

From Qee4All.com:

Hovering somewhere outside our known universe stands the protector - TOYER Z. This new figure from Frank Kozik takes the classic TOY2R mascot, the TOYER, and transforms it into a figure that looks back to the age of classic giant robot defenders. This one comes in the form of a 10 inch vinyl figure as shown at this year’s Toy Fair.

Of course every great defender has a nemesis and the same is true for TOYER Z. Waiting in the dark is the sinister TOYER ENEMY, counting the days until he drops from the sky to battle our hero. For now, the skies are safe and TOYER Z stands…waiting.

For ordering information - contact info@toy2rusa.com or EMPIRE DISTRIBUTION.

The Vader Project has a new home.  Once again, the coolest artists from around the world are contributing customized, life-sized Darth Vader helmets.  This time, the show is taking up residence at The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Shawnimal’s Vader:

From The Warhol:

The Vader Project

Date:

Feb 28, 2009 daily until May 3, 2009

Time:
All Day

Cost:
Free with Admission

This exhibition includes 100 works by contemporary international artists utilizing 1:1 scale authentic prop replicas of the Darth Vader helmet used in the Star Wars films. Each helmet was a blank canvas for the artist to paint, design, and customize. These iconic helmets of the notorious movie villain were created by some of the biggest names in today’s pop surrealist and underground art scene including Shag, Peter Kuper, Attaboy, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Dalek, Paul Frank, Ron English, Jeff Soto, Frank Kozik, Wade Lageose, Joe Ledbetter, Alex Pardee, Suckadelic, Cameron Tiede, Michelle Valigura, Sunich, Mister Cartoon, Marc Ecko, Amanda Visell, and many more. The Vader Project was curated by Dov Kelemer and Sarah Jo Marks of DKE Toys, one of the largest designer vinyl and art-toy distributors in the world.

In addition to The Warhol’s grouping of these iconic helmets, approximately 15 works will be on view at The Carnegie Science Center during the duration of the exhibition.

Image: Alex Pardee, K.I.A. (detail), 2007

© 2009 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved.

This Nov. 27, from Kid Robot, $300 will get you 20″ of murderous, bloody, banana-wielding bunny.  From the mind of Frank Kozik, this large scale Dunny is limited to 500 pieces.  There would be no better way to express your thankfulness for such a bountiful autumn harvest than to buy one of these (just like the Pilgrims used to!).

Check out this sweet yellow version of the Ludwig Van bust by Frank Kozik.  This colorway is exclusive to our friends @ Rotofugi and is available October 1st with a $200 price tag.  Sexy.

Image stolen from ToysREvil.

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Toys Are Us: A Revolution in Plastic is a film about the designer toy explosion featuring interviews with such icons as Frank Kozik and Brian Flynn. The director’s cut dvd release also features the bonus short films Toymaking 101 and An Ancient Vinyl History.
Peep the trailer:

Direct Youtube Link
Pick up the dvd here.
Read ToysREvil’s review/ interview with the director here.

A.Okay Official now has Frank Kozik’s Big Bob Slug. Pretty sweet.

The SDCC exclusives are so awesome this year! Here’s one that Frank Kozik has done with Strangekiss’s 7″ Zog figure.

Ben and Max talk Hulk, the new Jeff Koons exhibit at the MCA in Chicago, and ‘rasslin, with professional backyard wrestler Darwin “F’in” Smith, in a particularly racially-charged episode of Nerd City.  So sit down and listen, you might learn something.  The more you know…(boo boo be boop).

Pictures and links after the break…

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We talk about him on the show.

80’s Properties

• He-Man
• The Fifth Turtle
• MastersCast
• Thundercats
• Thundercast
• Branded in the 80’s
• Grayskull Museum
• Cereal: Geek
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Artists

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Beer Sites

• The Brewing Network
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Tech Sites

The Legion of Doom

Miscellaneous Nerdiness