Category: Daily

Awhile ago, Maihiro got invited to be apart of a Dunny mini series.

We received their official template and they allowed us to design our signature Spiki on it. Here’s the concept for the Spiki Dunny.

Here is the control art for the design, there were 2 versions of the design, both of which were rejected. They then asked me to send in more designs, which we declined to do because we believed that our approach was what worked best for our brand.

However, a few weeks later, Kidrobot reached out to us and told us we were chosen to be in the 2012 series and that our design would be 1 of 50 ration, which means that for every 50 boxes, there would only be one chance to get the Spiki Dunny.

Working with Kidrobot has always been very professional and we always receive quick responses from them.

Here’s the updated sculpture.

The process includes a lot of back and forth each time something is added.

We tried to match the scarf to our original Spiki design.

After that, we received the pad print sample with the details.

Here is the testing sample for the scarf.

We showed them the crawl detail from the hand painted Dunny.

Here is the final Spiki sample for approval.

Kidrobot also promoted the series with a trading party so I was able to fly to L.A. and met some awesome friends and supporters who stopped by the event. Pictures from the event to come.

 

Some of the other artists, I’ve known for a very long time.

We had artist proof sets that sold out on our website in less than a few minutes. Thank you to everyone who purchased them.

Each set came with a print and custom made Shurikens and samurai sword.

 

This was such a fun project. We learned a lot from working with a big client like Kidrobot.

I was really happy with how everything turned out. It was a dream come true.

I hope we can work with them again in the future. Stay tuned for the next post for the Dunny trading party in L.A.

 

 

Edited by Larnna Thompson

My wife and I are super excited for our first baby to arrive this year!

We decided to have a baby shower with some of our close friends and family.

I want to thank my sister-in-law for helping us plan and set up everything.

Also, a special thanks to La Zucre Cake Boutique for making our cake.

I finally got to meet little Alana (my friend, Mike’s daughter).

My good buddy, David, came all the way here from Panama City.

I made some of the food.

My sis from work, Nijji came too.

Katherine and Jason

Thank you to Alex and Hobbe for coming and helping out.

Thanks for coming, Gigi.

My friend, Dave.

My friend, Mike, who has always supported my work since the first day we met. We have done so many projects together and he owns one of the biggest Maihiro paintings in town.

Mama Gigi

Dave has been a longtime friend of mine, since I starting designing toys. We met at a local show called, FX Show, and became great friends. He’s such an awesome dude.

My editor and good friend, Larnna, and her family came too. She helps me with building the new website and takes care of my social media channels.

Thank you to everyone for coming. We are so glad we have such wonderful friends and family.

 

Photo Credit: Alex Li

 

 

 

Edited by Larnna Thompson

I was very excited to get an invite to Kidrobot’s HQ for a grand opening at their Miami South Beach store.

This event was released with the Huck Gee skull dunny that Kidrobot also asked me to customize which was a 20-inch dunny for store display.

The 20-inch blank dunny platform was never released to the public but as an artist customizing it for them, I had exclusive access to it.

This is the package I received from Kidrobot.

This is after I customized it.

Thank you to Dave, who helped me make the Shuriken.

We made it to the store.

I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out and looked on display!

 

 

Edited by Larnna Thompson

I’ve been a huge fan of  IKEA for a long time! I love the furniture designs they offer at a reasonable price.

But I loved them even more when they started incorporating an art series.

The fourth series of the IKEA Art Event continues to make art affordable for everyone while exploring the imaginative world connected to figurines.

They came up with the idea to invite a bunch of different artists that are typically familiar to most people by way of designer toys.

For this year’s limited-edition series of the IKEA Art Event, IKEA invited artists from Indonesia, and several other countries, which included our friends: Arkiv Vilmansa, Coarse, James Jarvis, Joe Ledbetter, Junko Mizuno, Ludvig Löfgren, Michael Lau, and Nathan Jurevicius to the Målerås glass factory in southern Sweden to create contemporary glass figurines.

Each design is a unique creation from each artist. The price and quality are exceptional!

 

Ludvig Löfgren

Coarse

Joe Ledbetter

Arkiv Vilmansa

James Jarvis

Junko Mizuno

Michael Lau

Nathan Jurevicius

I was able to pick up some of the figurines. Thank you to Jody, who came with me to film our adventure and help capture this event.

I got an extra one for my friend, Victor.

The products are fun and worth it. They can be used as home decor or added to a toy collection. Hopefully, in the future, we will see more of this type of project from IKEA.

You can check out my video on my Youtube channel.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdB6CsULyRs”]

 

Edited by Larnna P. Thompson

First off, I want to thank Alex and Hobbe for help me out with my first documentary project.

This project has been a dream of mine for a very long time and Alex made it happen.

This was my very first time experiencing the film production process. Every single detail was carefully handled, from selecting the location to creating the story concept.

Every idea was explained to me. A story board was created to plan out every clip they needed to shoot. The inspiration for the documentary were sci-fi and urban films.

Alex filmed everything and Hobbes directed, making sure the frames were positioned correctly.

They told me what the next step and transition would be for every shot.

 

The whole production and experience has given me a new found respect for everything that goes into the movie-making process. I can’t wait for you all to see it!

 

Photographer: Jason Cordoba/@jcordobaphotos

Photot credits : Alex li

 

Edited by Larnna Thompson

Thanks @milozama for inviting me to customize one of her figures.

This set of customs was part of the Miloza booth at the Taipei Toy Festival.

Miloza also approached me to create a special print for the event.

This is the display.

Mr. Thunder Bear and Ms. Skully.

 

I was so happy with how this custom came out. I really enjoyed this project.

I was excited to find out that Mr. Thunder Bear and Ms. Skully were sold to a private collector and that they will be well taken care of.

I hope to work with Miloza again in the future.

 

 

Edited by Larnna Thompson

 

 

 

This has been on my long list of things that I’ve wanted to do — start my own personal site, talking about my journey and my favorite things.

Thank you to Oscar for making this project happen.

I’ve always been really into toys, dreaming about creating toys based on my childhood memories, and I’ve been extremely fortunate to have been able to accomplish this goal.

I appreciate all the opportunities I’ve had, to meet a lot of new people and local talent. Many of whom inspired me to continue to pursue my passion.

Maihiro has always been part of my philosophy and allows me to meet with a lot of great people who contribute their love and support. We’ve come this far because our number one goal is to create something what we love.

There are so many people I want to thank: John, Dave, Jonathan, Larnna, Jason, Mike, Oscar, Aaron, T.J., and Andy Hung.

Our goal is to produce some exciting content and support our friends and local businesses.

We hope you’ll join us on this journey. Cheers!

 

– Tony

 

 

Edited by Larnna Thompson