Kaiju for Japan Earthquake Relief Fundraiser

If you follow The Blot on Twitter then you’re probably already aware of Kaiju for Japan, an awesome fundraiser organized by artist extraordinaire Troy Stith to help raise money for Japan after the horrible devastation of last week. If you’re like me, you can’t get the blight of the Japanese people out of your mind and want to know what you can do to help! Well, here’s an opportunity for the entire toy community to come together and help raise funds, which will be donated to the Red Cross.

As Troy put it, “I also know that some of you have probably already donated to the Red Cross Earthquake/Tsunami relief fund, but I thought we toy makers could help out as well. Seeing that many of our favorite characters and toys come from and or have been inspired by Japanese influences.” Troy’s looking to get as many customs as possible from creators from around the world to sell off for a large donation to the relief fund. If you’re interested in donating, you can email Troy at troystith@hotmail.com. The deadline for contributions is Thursday, April 14th.

If you’re not an artist, just a collector like me, don’t worry! We can play our part too. After all of the custom figures are collected (almost 60 artists have already pledged custom figures), the sale will go live (most likely on Friday, April 22nd). That’s when we can all purchase/bid on these awesome custom figures and help raise money for our fellow toy lovers in Japan. More info to come as we get closer to the on sale date of Kaiju for Japan.

C2E2 Exclusive “Han Shot First” Plush Star Wars Blaster by Steff Bomb

Chicago artist Steff Bomb will be at C2E2, Chicago's premiere pop culture convention, this weekend to release her brand new plush, the “Han Shot First” Handmade Plush Blaster. How cool is this toy!?! Now you too can be Han Solo and reenact everyone’s favorite scene from Star Wars at the Mos Eisley Cantina, well at least until George Lucas ruined it in his Special Edition release.

This C2E2 Exclusive will be available at the Nerd City booth #1026 on Saturday, March 19th, from 2pm - 3pm. The Plush Blaster will sell for $50 each, has a limited edition run size of only 15 pieces and comes with a sweet holster. So stop by the Nerd City booth this Saturday to meet Steff Bomb and get your hands on this awesome plush toy!

[O8STACLES] Custom Toy Series by Ryan the Wheelbarrow

The Blot’s got to say, the more I see of Ryan the Wheelbarrow’s “we_rd art” on vinyl toys the more I’ve come to love his unique, abstract style. Since 2002, he has been adapting 2 low end forms of typographic communications (screen print and sign shops) to produce an art practice of organic typographic abstraction on whatever canvas or object he can find. The longer you look at these weird little things the more interesting they begin to look.

Flash forward to 2011 and you can see the evolution of The Wheelbarrow’s style in his newest custom toy series entitled [O8STACLES]. This custom series will include a 13 piece 3" DUNNY blind-boxed series with one lucky box including a matching 1.5" Labbit (each blind box retails for $55).

Along with the 13 blind boxes, [O8STACLES] will also include three sets of 8"/3" Dunny sets ($300 each) and a 5”/1.5" Labbit pack, which will retail for $160. Each [O8STACLES] custom vinyl figure was created with screen printed acrylic on vinyl stickers and comes packaged in a unique screen printed box. [O8STACLES] launches this Monday, March 21st, at 9am EDT in Ryan the Wheelbarrow’s online store.

Obey Giant “Berlin Tower” Screen Print by Shepard Fairey

While I don’t know this for sure, The Blot assumes “Berlin Tower” is the second screen print in Obey Giant’s new “Art In The Streets” series. However, there’s no mention of this on the Fairey’s website or credit given for the photo it’s based on. Either way, it’s a nice print but not one I would necessarily want to hang on my walls. I do like the prominent placement of the Giant paster in the center of the image though.

“Berlin Tower” by Shepard Fairey is an 18”x24″ screen print, comes signed and numbered by the artist, and has a limited edition run size of 450 pieces. This is the second Obey Giant print from the “Art In The Streets” art show, and will retail for $45 each. This print goes sale at a random time this Thursday, March 17th, at the Obey Giant online store.