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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Le Merde and Cometdebris recently collaborated on a small batch of custom Tokoji Seijin figures. “Both of us added paint, Le Merde added a little resin,” writes Koji. Four figures will go on sale on May 23rd, at 5 PM PST (May 24th, 9 AM Japan Time) for $200 each here. Figures come packaged with [...]
Continue reading...Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Saturday was the Le Merde “We Are Brothers II” Show at Super7. After spending the last several weeks crying like a baby that I couldn’t attend the first “We Are Brothers Show” at Thrashout, I was pretty stoked the hear that Mike was conveniently coming back to San Francisco for another show at Super 7. I’m [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, April 14, 2009
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If you’re outside of Japan, you probably missed Le Merde’s We Are Brothers show. (But you had no excuse to miss Gordon’s great coverage of it here.) On May 2nd, Le Merde brings the Brothers to the Bay. The Super7 show will be a “showcase of of the colorful characters that inhabit the world of [...]
Continue reading...Monday, April 13, 2009
Following quite the fever pitch, Red Hot Robot opened its doors for the Resin Collective, and the red dots started flying. Store owner Jason Kiningham was way ahead of the curve curating this show, which featured standout work from today and tomorrow's hottest resin designers. Even a local Phoenix rag covered the show, re-interpreting Jason's "lowbro" lingo as "way cooler than that boring museum crap" in their article, Anti-Toy Story. Those familiar red (sold) dots were quickly adhered to Cris Rose's Rotund's Romp, Cris and Okkle's Happy Joy Bot, Le Merde's Vanfar, Hello, Brute's Danny, Makkinoso's Evil Spike, WeKillYou's William Palerne and pretty much all pieces by Arbito and 2Petalrose. The dotting continued into the night, as fans circled around the display and marveled at the diversity of the medium.
Continue reading...Friday, April 3, 2009
Here it is…dripping with translucent bloody carnage: Le Merde’s entry into Gallery1988’s Idiot Box. The 12-inch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle is a mix of resin and paint and it’ll set you back $450. To purchase, please call the gallery at (323) 937-7088.
Continue reading...Thursday, April 2, 2009
LA’s Munky King just put up the fantastic results of their DIY Pushers Show, based on the popular ‘Pusher’ figure by Thomas Han, released in a blank DIY form back in August. The show included custom Pushers by Joe Shea, Nathan Spoor, Elizabeth Ito, Marka27, Kii Arens, Racecar13, Axis, Brandt Peters, Dave Pressler, Paintmonster, Luke [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, March 24, 2009
During yesterday’s segment, we profiled designer toy companies for our report on blind boxes. Today, it's all about the end users of blind boxes: the fans. Toy fans echo the diversity of the toys. We enjoy different aesthetics and buying styles. Some people care about edition size; some don't. Some fans like vinyl; some prefer resin. But all of us are a little crazy. We're in an economic recession, and we're buying toys. Let's look at what toy fans want and the possible ways of getting it.
Continue reading...Monday, March 23, 2009
Le Merde’s “We Are Brothers” show at Gargamel’s flagship shop, Thrash Out, in Koenji, Tokyo was a great event. Hosted by the affable Gargamel staff along with Le Merde. Koji Harmon was handling most of the translation duties but really they were hardly needed with this enthusiastic crowd. Lots of broken but understandable English was [...]
Continue reading...Friday, March 20, 2009
LA’s Munky King will be presenting its first group show of 2009 with their DIY Pushers Show, based on the popular ‘Pusher’ figure by Thomas Han, released in a blank DIY form back in August. The show is scheduled to include a huge array of top-notch artists, including (but not limited to) Joe Shea, Nathan [...]
Continue reading...Friday, March 13, 2009
This weekend, Giant Robot reclaims the “zodiac” from California’s Zodiac Killer and brings it all back home in the form of a group art show in Los Angeles. The Year of the Ox show celebrates the year 4707 on the lunar calendar. Pieces will include illustration, oils, pencils, prints, watercolor, sculpture, and other media “all [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, March 12, 2009
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Le Merde has released photos of the factory test shots for his upcoming Bangal Price figure. He reports that the first figure will be a different colorway released at the “We are Brothers” show at Thrash Out in Japan on Saturday, March 21st. The figure was sculpted by Kiyoka of Gargamel and is a Le [...]
Continue reading...Friday, March 6, 2009
WOW. I repeat: WOW. Beginning April 11th, Red Hot Robot is hosting an unbelievable group show of resin toys. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to say this about a group show of this size before, but I’m proud to say I’ve written a little something about every artist on this roster. So either [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Have you ever wondered how Le Merde makes his figures? When it came to the Portland artist’s Mossy & Glossy show at GRNY, Giant Robot’s Eric Nakamura said: “I have no idea how he makes these and they look effortless and just right. They fit the style, even though they may not be perfectly molded. [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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Le Merde’s latest show “Bruised, Beaten and Blackened” opens on Saturday, February 14th at Giant Robot in LA. The show’s title, “Bruised, Beaten and Blackened,” is all about his “characters mixing it up.” Says Le Merde, “My world of characters are mostly in 2 camps. The fans of the band ZEU and the fans of [...]
Continue reading...Friday, December 19, 2008
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Le Merde did this custom Kaws 5 Years Later piece on commission. Always interesting to see the reworkings of this classic and coveted vinyl. From Le Merde’s blog.
Continue reading...Tuesday, December 9, 2008
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Some of the many artists involved include: Gary Baseman, Tim and Tigerlily Biskup, Matt Furie, David Horvath, James Kochalka, Travis Lampe, Nikki McClure, Jesse Reklaw, Souther Salazar, Bwana Spoons, Deth P. Sun, Jeremy Tinder, APAK! Bigfoot, Buff Monster, Cupco and Le Merde.
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...Monday, November 17, 2008
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Forget London Fog, this is the windbreaker to buy, have and wear. And to be worn with pride. The Cloudman Windbreaker by Nike features an imprinted image by the one and only Le Merde! You’ll want to wear it even if there is no wind blowing in the atmosphere. Yeah, it’s pretty rad. The image that’s featured [...]
Continue reading...Thursday, November 6, 2008
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You know, when I hear a toy’s release numbers are low figures like six hundred, sixty or even six, I think to myself, ‘wow, that’s a limited edition release!.’ But this new Le Merde x Dead Presidents custom release? The number is two. Customizer supreme Matt Walker of Dead Presidents takes pinstriping to a whole new [...]
Continue reading...Friday, October 24, 2008
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From a Grass Hut in Portland, OR to an auction house in New York, NY, the faces of western kaiju have beards. The Phillips de Pury auction will present a generous selection of Grass Hut pieces, including figures by Martin Ontiveros, Bwana Spoons and Scrappers x Gargamel, Mike Le Merde. The toys are a [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Le Merde is wishing you a happy early Halloween. Following his successful show at Rotofugi (wherein a multitude of hand-painted resin Burgerbuns, Hollis Prices and Le Turds sold out at $200 a piece), the Grass Hut artist also known as Mike will drop the “other” Halloween colorway of his Pottery Lightfoot figure. This Pottery Lightfoot [...]
Continue reading...Friday, October 10, 2008
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Yeah, you might be looking at the stock market and thinking “game over”, but buck up instead go and visit the Game Over show at Giant Robot in San Francisco. Game Over is a “group show that pays homage to the massive influence and continuous evolution of videogames. The impact and inspiration of videogames will [...]
Continue reading...Monday, September 29, 2008
Fresno’s Letter Pressed just announced they’ve added Portland’s Le Merde to their Artist Series. Le Merde’s print (coming soon) will be #21 in the series, following Dan Goodsell’s print. Letter Pressed is a small California outfit dedicated to bringing you “simple, modern” cards. The letterpress process leaves an indentation filled with ink just below the [...]
Continue reading...Friday, September 26, 2008
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On October 3rd, a nice friendly collaboration takes place in the Hut On An Island. Hut on An Island is a great meeting of the artist minds of the folks of Grass Hut and the Islands Fold Artists. The show opens on Friday the 3rd at 6 pm and includes such artists as Bwana Spoons, [...]
Continue reading...Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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Yeah, October is still a little far off, but when you’re trying to outline your toy and art calendar, it’s best to plan ahead. So, mark this date down. October 10th . Not because it’s Mario Lopez, Bai Ling and Brett Favre’s birthdays (thank you Wikipedia!) but because it’s the opening of “Vanfar and Boko [...]
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Thursday, May 14, 2009
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