Wondercon Resin Showcase on Sale Tonight!

>>>Click HERE to go to the Wondercon Resin Showcase <<<

Head’s up! We’ll be putting the remaining pieces from the Wondercon Resin Showcase online tonight. Lots of work is still available, and you can check out the prices here. Ranging from $15-$200, there’s something for everybody. I’ve said this before, and I’ll keep saying it: resin toys are an awesome way for people like me (and maybe you, too) to own original works of art. Some of these artists are established and others are still emerging, but either way, you are supporting independent artists, which should, theoretically, make you feel warm and fuzzy.

I don’t have the exact time yet, and believe me, I’m not doing that to you to be a tease. We’re working hard to ship out orders from Wondercon weekend currently. Check back maybe sometime in between Community and 30 Rock PST tonight? Sooner if possible!

I’ll update this blog post with a direct link when it becomes available. And if you want up-to-the-minute news of the drop, please follow us on Twitter. Thanks for your patience. Your wait will be worth it when you adopt these toys!

P.S. If you’re wondering why we’ve all got the Wondercon SARS, this was our view from our booth all day Saturday. Utter gridlock. Or, as I like to say, “We were completely cockblocked by Nickelodeon.”

Blog Love for Wondercon Resin Showcase

We had a blast at Wondercon, and we’re still recovering. We made a lot of friends and showed the Wondercon world an art form that was (mostly) news to them. Here’s a special shout-out to the bloggers who stopped by our booth or wrote about the Wondercon Resin Showcase from miles away. Spencer Hibert’s Goo Goo Ghandis even got singled-out for some press. Click the images to read the stories. Thanks for the coverage; we really appreciate your support!

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Wondercon Resin Showcase Photos and Prices

The Wondercon Resin Showcase intrigued and allured visitors to Neon Monster’s booth at the convention from April 2nd to April 4th. It’s safe to say we introduced a lot of new people to the concept of resin toy art. Thanks to everybody who came through to support the show, those of you who kept me on my toes by asking questions, the bloggers who wrote nice things and especially you wonderful people who took a little piece of the WRS home with you. The remaining figures are awaiting adoptive aesthetes at Neon Monster HQ at 901 Castro in San Francisco and the online shop. It’s going to take us a little time to recover from the Wondercon carnage, so WE’LL notify YOU through the blog, Twitter and Facebook when the figures are available and ready for you. Stay tuned, OK? [Note: This is not a catalog of what IS available, but rather the art that WAS available for the show. Don't worry: plenty of figures are still in the mix. We will update you when we've put them online!]

ARBITO (USA)

Arbito’s art tells the visual tale of a ragtag band of hippie vagabonds on a pop-psychedelic trip. With his resin figures, form and style meet vibrant, colorful, unique characters. His work has been shown in solo and group shows around the world, as well as at the Phillips de Pury Auction and Art Basel. He shares a studio in the Pacific Northwest with The Hobo, Seeker, Sammy, Patty Power and his wife, Snaggs.

1. Patty Power “Pink Special Sauce Edition” (resin, 6″ tall, 1/1) – $175
2. Sammy “Glow in the Dark Edition” (resin, 6″ tall, 1/1) – $150
3. Seeker “Purple with GID Body Edition” (resin, 8″ tall, 1/1) – $175
4. Seeker “Pink with GID Head Edition” (resin, 8″ tall, 1/1) – $175

BWANA SPOONS (USA)

Bwana Spoons is a painter and self-professed “half Jack of many trades.” His paint-soaked, rainbow-spewing characters exist in a special world where vampire bats play drums and then sit down for a knitting circle. Bwana started the Grass Hut Collective in Portland, and he still skateboards.

1. Pocket Killer (3″ tall, 1/1) – $100
2. Gary the Nerdasaurus 1 (resin, 4.5″ long, 1/1) – $100
3. Gary the Nerdasaurus 2 (resin, 4.5″ long, 1/1) – $100
4. Gary the Nerdasaurus 3 (resin, 4.5″ long, 1/1) – $100

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Bwana Spoons for Wondercon Resin Showcase

Bwana Spoons arrived fashionably late to the Wondercon Resin Showcase, but we’d been saving his seat so all was cool.  Keeping in mind the Neon Monster colors, he “pinkified” four toys for the show. Blogs Bwana: “I heart painting Pocket Killers.” That’s nice, but sorry kids, if your name isn’t Angie, you’re SOL on that pink PK. While the Killer sold at Wondercon today, we’ve still got three iterations of Gary the Nerdasaurus as seen below. Each resin piece is about 4.5 inches long and is priced at $100. We’ll be offering these (and the other remaining work from Wondercon) for sale online later this week, so stay tuned to all your favorite social media channels for the alert.

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Cris Rose for Wondercon Resin Showcase

With less than 24 hours to go until the doors of the Moscone Center open, I’m pleased to present our final Wondercon Resin Showcase preview: Cris Rose. News of the Londoner’s resin work first arrived in my inbox over a weekend in 2008, and by that Monday, two things had occurred: Runcible Edition A had sold out in 3 minutes and I was an immediate fan (and later, a friend).

I’ve had many opportunities to write about Cris’ robots (and even a special sorta-collab), but with as little bias as possible, I’d like to put out there the Bots Cris created for Neon Monster are some of his absolute finest. Rummage and Rumble are his newest original robots, and Edition B features a “pretty” palette of pink and silver-grey. I’ve elected to put the “pretty” in quotes, because with Cris, it’s not about classic good looks. Cris sees beauty in decay. He enjoys the creative challenge of making new objects look old and repurposing old objects into new art.

We will have an edition of 5 Rummages and 5 Rumbles (available separately or as a set) at Wondercon (Booth 944). Cris takes great photos, but you’ve got to try to come out and see these in person. He had me in 2D (probably due to the inclusion of copious Jelly Bellys), but seeing them in three dimensions was all the more sweeter. Naturally, being me, I had to ask him about ants:

The tube is sealed top and bottom with a healthy amount of superglue, so  if ants get in, they fucking well deserve that candy!! If they do tho, it’ll just be part of the natural decay of the artwork and should be embraced as I feel it would do nothing to hurt the look and feel of him

Spencer Hibert for Wondercon Resin Showcase

The last of the art for our Wondercon Resin Showcase is trickling in, and yesterday’s mail brought two boxes from desert-dwelling Spencer Hibert. The postman gave us a sheepish shrug as he handed off one box that hit the ground like a muted pachinko parlor. No worries though! Rumbling around within were 100 mini-Miigiis in vending machine capsules that Spencer sent for us to give away at the booth. Sweet!

Let me tell you a little about what you’re seeing here. The Goo Goo Ghandi is Spencer’s pop art interpretation of a classic smoggy Japanese monster. The pieces are rotocast resin, which means they’re hollow and light–unusual in solid, heavy resinland. The Goo Goo Ghandis look like blown glass sculptures and feel like soft vinyl toys (”sofubi,” if you will). In other words, both sides of the art vs. toys debate should be dropping their collective jaws at these.

“I like to paint with plastic sometimes,” said Spencer about the unpainted GGG figures.  “And I wanted this first run to be all clear anyways, ‘cuz it kind of goes with the character.” The pictures are great, but I’ve seen these in person, and let me tell you: they don’t “need” paint.

We’ve got 4 Goo Goo Ghandis, the first pieces in a clear series of 25. The manpower behind each GGG is about 4-5 hours, FYI, and they come in cool sealed paint can packaging with a separate branded base. The GGGs will be priced at $100 each. We’ve also got two 7-inch tall customized resin Miigii’s with drip helmets. (One of them is filled with pink plastic mini-Miigiis.) They come in boxes with stickers and a book, and they feature hand-drawn images and text by Spencer for $100 each. And last but not least, we’ve got 10 customized plastic mini-Miigiis in blind boxes. Each of these tinies has been painted and signed by Spencer. They also include a DIY mini-Miigii and stickers, and they’ll be priced at $15 each.

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Hello, Brute for Wondercon Resin Showcase

I’ve been waiting to post news of the Wondercon Resin Showcase figures until they’re actually in hand, but well, these guys are in transit, and I just couldn’t wait. Hello, Brute (aka Jon Knox and the hardest artist to input as a Wordpress tag, FYI) is sending us a brand new hand-paint of Pepper, his FIRST painted version of Dillon (previously seen as unpainted “heartyeyes“) and a couple of mini-figures, too! I’ve had the pleasure of watching Jon’s characters grow (figuratively and literally–the latest pieces are 9 inches tall!), and I think you are all going to be stoked when you see these. I mean, check out Dillon’s cuffed pants and green shoes. The figures in the Hello, Brute stable stand out, not just because of size, but due to Jon’s characterization and use of color. I’m guessing these are going to get snapped up quickly at the Moscone Center…

We’ll have more pictures to show you when the figures arrive, but in case you miss it: Jon will have more new figures for his Teen Dream solo show at Rotofugi from April 9th – 25th. We appreciate him taking the time to send a few our way for Wondercon!

Sergey Safonov’s Moon Wanderers for Wondercon Resin Showcase

We weren’t sure Sergey Safonov’s Moon Wanderers would arrive on our shores in time for Wondercon, but here they are, and they are terrific. Sergey’s figures are some of the best kept secrets (no more!) of character-driven toy art collectors. His Gooma characters, who tell a story, briefly appeared in 3D form several years back and were immediately snapped up. Just shy of a year to the date I’d initially written about Moon Fox, a mysterious Moon Wanderer appeared in my mailbox. Great figure here, and judging from the amount of people Wish Listing this guy on Rotocasted, there’s clearly a call for a production run. Just saying.

Moon foxes are mysterious sleeping floating creatures met by Gooma on his way to deep north. They float with the moon light and exist only at the night part of the world.

The Moon Fox stands out, not just in our Wondercon Resin Showcase, but in general in the current toy art scene, as a simple design, gentle and whimsical, more like an actual favorite childhood book than the youth culture nostalgia that influences many vinyl toys.

How does it get better than a Moon Fox? Well, for those of you, who like me, favor felines, you get a Moon Cat:

Moon Cats were met by Gooma on their way back from deep north. Same as Moon Foxes, they float with the moon light and exist only at the night part of the world.

Want to see the last figure revealed…? Read the rest of this entry »

Arbito for Wondercon Resin Showcase

In a collective, there’s bound to be different opinions on just about everything, but when it comes to the work of Seattle-based Arbito, all of the Neon Monsters are in a full-fledged fandom agreement. We love when he has a show in San Francisco (like last month), and when we can’t find his figures locally, we try to take them with us (like his exclusives for F-Factory as part of Art Basel). Is it his color palette, his characters or his sheer skill at creating seamless, bubble-free, striking art objects? Stanley Kaplan would probably tell us to pick all of the above on that one, and he’s right. Even the die-hard vinyl elitists seem to appreciate Jesse Hibert’s resin-crafts.

With his busy schedule, we’re honored Arbito took the time to make these four figures for Neon Monster’s Wondercon Resin Showcase. We’ve got a pink and orange Seeker, a purple and green Seeker, a blue and orange Sammy and a green Patty Power complete with pink condiment drips. Fantastic stuff here! Jesse always takes great photos (not an easy task with clear toys, take my word for it) but if you’re on the fence about these, all you need (IMO) is to see these in person, and you’ll be a believer. All four pieces will be offered for sale at booths 944 & 946 beginning April 2nd. Hope to see you there!

2PetalRose for Wondercon Resin Showcase

Liam and Ben Scriven, collectively known as 2PetalRose, took our request to make a Graff King in a Neon Monster colorway to a whole ‘nother level. The UK brothers, whose Boids (Android Birds), Kombat Kings and Graff Kings are coveted among resin toy collectors, completely meshed Mitch with their aesthetic. Liam made a Graff King called Kidshifty, featuring Neon Monster wall art, pink paint-dripped spraycan, hand-sewn trucker cap, baseball bat and mask accessories and some of the cleanest paint you’ll see on any custom figure around. Not to be outdone, Ben created the NeoRose Punk by actually casting nodes (!!!) on top of the 2PR platform. Naturally, the colorway is awesomesauce, but check out the detailed wall art too. Clearly, steady hands run in this family. The NeoRose Punk figure comes with a mini record album that sends the message: Never mind the Sex Pistols or Kidrobot’s Kidpunk 16, here’s 2PetalRose! Indeed!

There was an internal discussion that almost saw these two figures taken off the Wondercon roster and hoarded at Neon Monster HQ instead, but it was overruled by the spirit of sharing these with the world. (Damn spirit.) We can’t wait for you to see these in person. Outstanding job, fellas, as I’ve come to expect. These two figures will be offered for sale as part of our Wondercon Resin Showcase beginning April 2nd. You might want to bookmark the 2PetalRose shop too: figures come and go really quick, so don’t sleep!

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