Cool Hunting

Happy Birthday Flowbots
Artist, tattooist and designer of one of the JK5) celebrates the birthday of his Flowbots next Friday, 17 November 2006, at ToyTokyo's Showroom NYC. In addition to revealing the introductory series of three-inch vinyl toys, produced in collaboration with Kidrobot, new paintings, drawings and sculpture created by JK5 exclusively for this event will be on display. JK5 says of the Flowbots—nine distinct characters with...

Things and Stuff @ KidRobot
Tara McPherson is having a solo exhibit at KidRobot on Thursday 6 July 2006 where she'll be showing some things and stuff. What? "things and stuff" not descriptive enough for you? Well for those of you unfamiliar with her work, I guess not. She'll be showing some new toys, comic cover paintings, drawings, posters, art prints, stationery sets, stickers, buttons, and (you guessed it!)...

CuteXdoom
CuteXdoom is a mod for the PC game Unreal Tournament 2003 that explores society's obsession with fabricated characters and all things cute, or kawaii. The goal of CuteXdoom is to become a member of the toy worshipping Yumi-Co cult and gain access to their temple by collecting enough toys to present as an offering to the robotic panda guru. (This sort of exploration of...

Take-G Wooden Robot Toys
Craftsman Takeji Nakagawa, aka "Take-G," doesn't simply make "toys." Rather, he creates tributes to childhood, nature and the future. The artisan crafts things like animals and futuristic robots out of four types of wood: keyaki (a Japanese tree of the genus Zelkova), teak, walnut and white ash. These four types of wood are joined through a traditional handicraft process called yosegi-mokuzougan (joined wooden block...

I Am Plastic
Creepy yet cute, artist-designed and utterly collectible, the designer toy phenomenon is an accurate barometer of currents in pop culture over the last several years. Kidrobot, the most familiar name in the movement, has literally wrote the book on the subject with this month's release of I Am Plastic, a new hardcover that visually traces the nearly decade-old niche culture. Divided into sections by...

Lonely Heart: The Art of Tara McPherson
Tara McPherson, 30, the Brooklyn-based artist known for her slightly surreal, melancholy-tinged work, is celebrating the recent release of her first book Lonely Heart: The Art of Tara McPherson with a book signing at KidRobot in New York City on Thursday, 12 July 2006. The 112-page book is lush with full color illustrations, paintings and the acclaimed rock posters she's made for the likes...