Just finished watching a documentary called Toypunks, now what could that be?
Well the name suggests 50% Toys and 50% Punk and thats exactly what it is about, filled with interviews with noneother than the Bounty Hunter founder himself Hikaru Iwanaga, Frank Kozik and Secret Base founder Hiddy and some more.

You will get some insight into how urban vinyl came about and what was considered the first “design toy”.

Also inspiration for older and current design toys and the collectability of “UV” is explained well in this documentary.

They are currently producing the second volume and you can check out their production blog right here.

Chrishimself

German magazine STERN made this video about urban vinyl also known as “designer toys” for better understanding.
Urban vinyl is usually made in limited numbers and seen as a piece of art like a sculpture for example.
The market is still kinda “unknown” but prices can go up to a few thousand euro already for highly limited “toys”.

Some of the designers for urban vinyl are KAWS, Usugrow and Pushead.
I recently won an urban vinyl figurine by Secret Base designed by Pushead while I was in Tokyo, I heard it’s  highly limited of which (if I remember right) 10 were given out in a raffle if you buy something worth 5000 yen in the Secret Base store in Tokyo.  A rumor says that they made those out of some leftover glow in the dark vinyl ;).

They had to take a polaroid picture of every winner to place it on the store shelf, if you happen to be in Tokyo check out the Secret Base store and look for the polaroids and say “Hey I know the guy from RUNFFM.COM” ^^; .

I really dig the design it has so many details and it glows orange in the dark ! ;).

In the video Selim Varol shows his huge urban vinyl collection, the video says he has the biggest collection in europe so far. Selim Varol is best known for the book Toy Giants which you might have seen in one or the other bookstore already.

Unfortunately the video is only in german and without subtitles but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Chrishimself

Hey,

I also arrived in Tokyo yesterday, so I thought I could share some early pics with you (after the jump). There are many things that irritate me here, but my first complete day in this city was really great.

The first shot is from my bus trip from the airport, as the city made a great visual impact.

Christian shooting for his documentary.

In the morning, we went to the Kaminarimon temple to get also a look at Japanese culture.

BOOYAA!!!

Don’t fuck with RUNFFM!

Comme des Garçons store in Omotesando with nice styles and a nice front!

While we were walking randomly through the streets, this sign caught my eyes. This brand Aristrist is selling many things with “geborene Kämpfer” (German for ‘born fighters’) printed on them.

We were still randomly walking around in Shibuya (near Omotesando hills) as we came by the alife store. On the front it says “Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way”. True dat.
After that we also got by the Bounty Hounter and Secret Base stores. We bought some shirts there and Chris got very lucky in the Secret Base store, but we’ll save that one for a later post.

Also, we went to XLARGE store.

Then it was time to get something to eat.

Air Yeezys… WTF!!! I still regret touching them somehow.

At the HMV store I bought me the BAPE autumn 2009 catalogue, that comes with a BAPE bag, and also the new Mya album, which was playing in the store while we were there. I don’t think it’s yet available in Germany.

Me walking around in the neighbourhood of our hostel.

Right now, we discuss the New Balance White Pigeon release tommorow with some other guys at the hostel, who wanna join us.
We’ll keep you posted for what’s going on there.

Andi / @IAMGANDINO

]]> http://www.runffm.com/2009/08/tokyo-2/feed/ 0 http://www.runffm.com/2009/07/secret-base-x-ghostbusters/ http://www.runffm.com/2009/07/secret-base-x-ghostbusters/#comments Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:30:58 +0000 chrishimself http://www.runffm.com/?p=1390

The Ghostbusters seem everywhere right now, a new videogame, a new movie(!?),  BAPE collabos and this recent collabo with vinyl toy giant Secret Base from Japan.

Availible in two different styles via Kinetics Japan.