ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

This weekend, Toy2R made its first American appearance by taking over DBA in Brooklyn, New York. Though I wasn’t able to make it Friday night, which was when Toy2R threw a “slamming” launch party to celebrate their US invasion–I was able to make the trip on Sunday evening.

It’s quite clear from our numerous posts about Toy2R, that here at ToyCyte, we’re big fans–Jeremy being the biggest fan of us all, but I digress. Thanks to this post we knew Toy2R’s temporary pop-up in Brooklyn would be around for 10 days. Upon arriving at DBA, I was greeted by one of 3 owners–Gardy StFleur who was waiting outside the shop. It turns out I arrived to the shop while a music video was being filmed. I won’t disclose whose video, but nonetheless it was very interesting to witness the process of a music video in the making.

While we waited for the music video to wrap-up, I caught up with Gardy about how the sneakers/lifestyle shop and Toy2R, got together. He informed me that one of his other business partners, Kevin, had worked with Toy2R before. To be quite honest, after talking to Gardy about his own designer toy collection, which includes pieces from Kaws to Michael Lau, it only made sense that they would play host to Toy2R’s pop-up.

Once the music video wrapped up, I entered the shop to find rows of sneakers and toys! It was quite dangerous letting me step into such a shop, since I have a passion for both. Most of the pieces that were on display were created by Frank Kozik and included: The People’s Soldiers 8″ qees with anarchy dog companions, Dr. Bomb in various colorways, his Anarchy qees in various shapes and sizes and his newly released Merry Mini Bomb Gold and Silver Set!

Some of the other pieces that were available at the shop included some I haven’t seen sold at retail in a while, more specifically: Huck Gee’s Mama’s Boy GID qee. Other artists available for retail were: Gary Baseman’s qees, Joe Ledbetter’s Yeti Smash, Meomi’s LeSportsac qee, two Circus Punks Devil EggQ, Kid666’s piece and the newly released Olympics inspired 2.5″ qees and mini 1.5″ metallic qees.

The piece that caught my attention the most though, was a piece from Kozik, that occurred by accident. Gardy, very enthusiastically headed to the back of the shop and returned with what seemed to be another 8″ Redrum qee from Kozik. This 8″ qee had something different from all the rest though, it had a different expression. Gardy explained that there was a factory mistake and it seems it was the only GID 8″ Redrum qee that was produced that was clearly not for sale.

All in all, the trip to Brooklyn was well worth it. I made some purchases for myself, including Kozik’s Merry Mini Bomb set, and Gardy was nice enough to hook me up with some goodies. Take a look through all the photos to see the sweet setup.

Related posts

• Toy2R Brings Copious Kozik to VTN
• San Diego Comic-Con Exclusives Part 1
• Vinyl Toy Network Winter 2008: The ToyCyte Round-up
• Toy2R Bombs Brooklyn, Potamus Pops Up!
• Toy2R at VTN Winter 08