ToyCyte sale!
We've slashed our prices for a lot of our toys to make room for more customs! Go get some amazing deals today at our store !
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In honor of their tenth anniversary, UP's first ever "thank you" sale begins today. The sale is good for 50% off on everything in stock at their retail stores and website. With shirts, hoodies, hats, socks, books, toys and housewares by Sam Flores, Jeremy Fish, Estevan Oriol, David Choe and Alex Pardee, there's never a better time to stretch your dollar. We're talking mugs for $6, shirts for $12, New Era caps for $22.50 and hoodies for $30.
Continue reading...Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Jeremy Fish’s latest solo show recreates a San Francisco saloon from the 1850s at FIFTY24SF. The exhibit includes a repurposed 100 year old redwood fence, 500 pounds of solid wood from Indonesia and enough saw dust to take a little piece of the show with you via your sneakers when you leave. It’s been a [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, December 18, 2008
Upper Playground keeps knocking it out of the park with their array of housewares and lifestyle goods. Even in an economy where art toys can seem gratuitous, it’s harder to deny the practical application of a shirt, pillow or drinking mug. On that last note, UP has released their new glassware collection, including a stein, [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, December 4, 2008
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FIFTY24SF Gallery opens a show tonight featuring works by Jeremy Fish and Miss Van. Jeremy Fish’s show, Ghosts of the Barbary Coast, celebrates the individuals that chased their dreams all the way to San Francisco during the California Gold Rush. In exploring the city he admires, and has called home for the last 15 years, [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, November 26, 2008
I've been expounding the virtues of Letter Pressed for a while. Their Artist Series reads like a Who's Who of the vinyl toy community: Joe Ledbetter, Jon Burgerman, Nathan Jurevicius, Bwana Spoons... In theory, every one of us should own something letterpressed. In practice, as with paint colors and Venetian blinds, you need to see a sample. I'm holding some such items. While I want my words to convey the elegance of the paper and the clean, vibrant impression of the art, you need to touch these for yourself. To that end, Letter Pressed's Mark Begley will provide one lucky reader with a pack of hand-numbered Cool It letterpressed cards by Le Merde. To win it...
Continue reading...Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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Upper Playground always has these great free catalogs in their shops that are cut more like paperback novels than anything Lillian Vernon. I’ve been saving them because it’s handy to have the artist bios/statements and view each designer’s range and watch how they (and the company) have evolved. To commemorate its upcoming 10-Year Anniversary, Upper [...]
Continue reading...Friday, November 14, 2008
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The long awaited Teddy Troops Series 3 from adFunture is finally here! With a total of 12 designs to collect, the Troops are coming to you in a 25-blind-boxes per display case manner. A basic set of 10 variants can be found in every display case for those who are not interested in cracking cases [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, October 30, 2008
Upper Playground and superFishal have done it again. First there was the Barbary Coast line of upscale duds and gear, and now here’s the ultimate in big-eared lowbrow toy-based toppers. It would be an understatement to say the there has never been a New Era as awesome as Jeremy Fish’s Bunny Head. There’s [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, October 14, 2008
I was just wearing my Upper Playground Bunny Busters (Jeremy Fish’s Bunny Skull x Ghost Busters) t-shirt to an event yesterday, and my girlfriend teased me about my wardrobe seeming to consist solely of black shirts with cartoon critters on them. Well, thanks to Upper Playground and Superfishal, I can continue to sport the [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, August 28, 2008
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Remember Jeremy Fish’s Barry the Beaver? Lisa from Upper Playground just sent me this video shot on location with Jeremy Fish at Good Vibrations in San Francisco. How awesome and awkward is it when two women comment to Jeremy that they’ll think of him when they’re using the vibrator? You can still get a Barry [...]
Continue reading...Monday, July 14, 2008
“His own art wasn’t enough anymore. Art itself wasn’t enough anymore. But he knew it was the answer…he needed a little help.” You can hit the jump and watch a stop motion animation primer on The Art Army or you can first read through as I pick Mike Leavitt’s brain. Mike makes art. Interactive art. [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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There’s only room for a certain amount of favored toys on my desk. While some of the mini-figures rotate (Qees, Dunnys, a Trexi or Fatcap here and there), a Kaws NYC bus stop and Jeremy Fish’s Get Small Series Bunnyskull (above right) are a part of the permanent tabletop collection. The bus stop is [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, June 3, 2008
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Fresh off the success of his recent Barry The Beaver vibrator signing, Jeremy Fish is embarking on a solo show, Seasons of Change, at New York’s Joshua Liner Gallery. As written up in Juxtapoz: Jeremy Fish pulls inspiration from a grab bag of folk and pop-culture sources, including Balinese fairy tales, Goth jewelry, children’s book illustration, tattoo [...]
Continue reading...Friday, May 30, 2008
OK so the title and subject of this post rival the title of this post and the content of this post for keeping my ego as a legitimate journalist in check. That said, props to Jeremy Fish for putting out a truly new platform (adult) toy: The Barry The Beaver vibrator. This unique collaboration [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, May 22, 2008
Skid row is cleaning up. San Fran based retail giant Upper Playground along with Estevan Oriol (photographer/director) and Mister Cartoon (artist) will be injecting Los Angeles’s seedy downtown area with four “one of a kind retail establishments”. They’ll be apparel pieces galore as well as the finest of fine art – urban style of course. [...]
Continue reading...Monday, May 5, 2008
No, I’m actually not talking about guys with goggles, girls with wings or the faux-fur werewolf who were all temporary citizens of this weekend’s Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA. I’m referring to some of the indie designers who were showing their character(s) in the Craft Zone (next to the “Diet Coke and Mentos fountain“). First [...]
Continue reading...Friday, May 2, 2008
I always love getting word about a new local show that I can basically walk to. From Alex Pardee’s blog: My face feels like its melting. Not because i have been drinking Deathklok riffs for breakfast. And not because I decided to bob for apples in the Toxic Avenger’s piss. Sometimes…you just wake up, and your [...]
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Monday, January 12, 2009
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