:Chocoolate Bearbrick 100%

Hong Kong fashion brand :Chocoolate (yes, it’s spelt with two ‘O’s and a colon in front), in celebrating their 4th Anniversary, released a limited edition boxset containing a 4th Anniversary tee, a CD and a 100% Bearbrick!

:Chocoolate has been one of the successful fashion brands in Hong Kong. Their fashion direction is mostly casual as their target age group are young adults.

 

 

In a place like Hong Kong where everyone is fashion conscious, they have done what other fashion brands couldn’t do. Their prices are kept low and affordable, they maintain a certain level of quality and style, and they have constant collaboration with other fashion labels, characters and themes.

Their crossovers with other labels include, but not limited to: Snoopy, FCUK (French Connection U.K.), Mini-Cooper, Hello Kitty, A Bathing Ape (where long queues were formed for the ‘CHOCOOLAPE’ line), 30mething, Jaws: The Movie, The Beatles, Coca-Cola, Oswald: The Lucky Rabbit, b + ab, Burger King, Y’saccs, DC Comics…. to name a few...

The latest crossover was with Finnish cartoon character ‘Moomin’ and out recently is a four-way collaboration between :Chocoolate, 30mething, Fingercroxx and AAAA (4A).

:Chocoolate’s pattern design mostly revolves around stripes, polka dots and checkers so this is what they have applied in this unique Bearbrick design.

  

Striped-pattern on its right arm, polka dots on its right leg, a checkered left leg, flocked material on its left arm and two ears, electroplated hands and their colon-within-a-circle pattern on the Bearbrick’s head. Last but not least, their 4th anniversary logo on the chest. Wow!! Love their recycled box design as well.

Featured Bearbrick:
- :Chocoolate 4th Anniversary Bearbrick 100%

Spawn Bearbrick 100%

 

 

I followed Spawn for quite a while. The art by artist and creator Todd McFarlane was simply amazing. The character was dark and mysterious, just like Batman.

Spawn was a must-read comic book back then for me. It was something new, I was an avid follower and I had to get that comic every month.

 

 

The 90’s was the decade Image Comics was born. All the while it was the Big Two in the comic book industry: DC Comics and Marvel. Millions of people know Superman, Batman, Spiderman, The X-Men, etc. 

 

 

Comic book artists and writers had to work for them and had very little space when creating new characters. When they did create a new character, the rights would belong to the Big Two. That was when a group of artists got fed up and got together to form Image Comics.

In Image Comics, they had more freedom. They could create any character they wish and the rights would belong to the creator. One of the characters created was Spawn. While other artists created tons of different characters, Todd McFarlane concentrated only on Spawn and the characters around Spawn.

He spent lots of effort turning Spawn into a household name. Spawn action figures came out with the sculpting so detailed (and unbelievable, at that time) that they became one of the most sought after toys. I was a Spawn collector too until I noticed Bearbricks.. hehe..

Eventually, I stopped following comic books but the first 25 issues of Spawn would always be in my personal collection.

Featured Bearbrick:
- Spawn Bearbrick 100%

Bearbrick Speaker System 400% (for iPod / iPhone)

Got this just a few days ago and was I excited! I don’t own an iPhone (I love my Xperia X10!) but I have an iPod Touch. I never thought of buying a speaker system for my iPod Touch until I saw previews of this speaker system a few months ago. It’s a Bearbrick after all!

Medicom and British-owned speaker brand Radius (manufactured by Monitor Audio) teamed up to create this Bearbrick 400% Speaker System for the iPod/iPhone. Two colors are available: black or white and I decided to have the black one.

This 400% Bearbrick itself is the speaker where the sound comes out from both its ears. The Bearbrick has to be seated for the dock to be assembled between its legs. At the back, the 3.5mm jack from the dock connects to the Bearbrick and the USB to the computer.

The (+) and (-) bear-shaped buttons at the front are volume controls. The LED stays red when the iPod is charging and turns to blue when it’s fully charged.

No adaptor is included and the Bearbrick doesn’t run on batteries so the USB has to be connected for its power supply. This is a major disappointment because I thought I could display this Bearbrick and play my iPod songs anywhere. Now that I need to connect it to my computer, I rather just play the songs directly from my iTunes.

 

I looked back at my collection and I remember I had another iPod accessory from Medicom. This is the ‘iKub (for iPod)’. This is just a white/silver 400% Kubrick with a holder placed between its arms for the iPod classic (the one with the scroll wheel.. remember this one?).

I don’t really know why I bought this Kubrick that time because I never had an iPod classic.. haha.. But hey, this device started the digital age of music and the iPod revolution.

Featured Bearbrick and Kubrick:
- Bearbrick Speaker System 400% Black (for iPod/iPhone)
- iKub for iPod 400%

Project 1/6 10th Anniversary Bearbrick 400%

This black and white monotone 400% Bearbrick is to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Project 1/6.

Project 1/6 is Medicom Toy’s official retail store. Located in Shibuya, Tokyo, it’s a place I always visit every time I’m in Tokyo. 

  

Funny thing is that I can’t seem to buy anything from this store. Maybe I’m always there at a wrong time after all the exclusives have been sold out. After all, there are other places in Tokyo for Bearbrick hunting and at a much cheaper price too. 

If you wanna go Bearbrick or toy hunting, Akihabara is one of the best places to go. Akihabara is well-known for electrical and computer products but there are a lot of toy stores as well. And they are all hidden.

Don’t expect toy stores to be along the main road. Most of them are at the side roads and in upper levels of a lot of buildings.

Exit Akihabara station at the main exit and the upper three levels of the two buildings in front of you are full of toys and collectibles (Well, this was last year. Don’t know if the buildings are still there now.). 

You’ll also come across some stores selling second hand toys and find lots of bargains.

 

I really wanna to go back to Tokyo again but with the Japanese Yen appreciating to a record high, Bearbricks in Hong Kong are much cheaper… haha…

 

Featured Bearbrick:
- Project 1/6 10th Anniversary Bearbrick 400%

Halloween Bearbrick

Trick or Treat!! Halloween’s here so here are my Halloween Bearbricks.

2010 Halloween Bearbrick (with LED) 100%
 

Just got it last week! The first Bearbrick with a light-up LED. Press its head and its belly lights up. What I don’t like is that it’s a push-and-release switch. Release it and it turns off. So it can’t be turned on continuously. I guess the guys at Medicom don’t want the battery to drain quickly or it heats up if pressed for a long time.

I do like the colors and the bat eyes and bat belly though. I think the paint on the head is glow-in-the-dark paint, too. Spooky…

  

2009 Halloween Bearbrick 400%

(Flocked and Glow-In-The-Dark)
 

This Bearbrick has its pumpkin head flocked in orange color and the body flocked in black dripping down its legs. The ‘Trick or Treat’ on its body is printed in black behind a glow-in-the-dark plastic.

The remaining parts that are not flocked (the eyes, mouth, hands and legs) are also glow-in-the-dark plastic so the overall figure glows eerily in darkness.

 

2008 Dr. Romanelli Halloween Bearbrick 400%
 

This, to me, is one of the best-looking Bearbricks. This all-clear plastic design by Dr. Romanelli has its inner anatomy painted on the front and back with bloody veins running all over…

The ‘Dr.’ actually stands for Darren. L.A. fashion designer Darren Romanelli. His fashion is built on the concept of ‘personalization’. 

 

He reworks and customizes pieces into a new shape keeping the item vintage, at the same time making it new to a younger generation. His jackets are kinda cool! 

He started off with Medicom with the ‘SF’ Bearbrick in Series 14. More Bearbricks from him coming soon this Christmas. Will update once I have them.

 

2007 Halloween Green Pumpkin Bearbrick 400%
 

This is a green re-paint of the first Halloween Bearbrick made way back in 2001 (see below).

 

2001 Halloween Orange Pumpkin Bearbrick 400%
 

The first Halloween-themed 400% Bearbrick. This Bearbrick is one of the earlier generations with a poor design. 

This 400% has a smooth movement in its arms and legs compared to a kind of ratchet (click, click, click) movement that the Bearbricks now have. Because of this smooth movement, the legs spread apart easily. When the Bearbrick stands, both feet could not touch the ground. So it actually stands on one leg.

 

There are a few other first generation 400% Bearbricks with this problem and I tend to avoid buying them.

Anyway, Happy Halloween to all!!

 

Featured Bearbricks:
- 2010 Halloween Bearbrick 100% (with LED)
- 2009 Halloween Bearbrick 400% (flocked and glow-in-the-dark)
- 2008 Dr. Romanelli Halloween Bearbrick 400%
- 2007 Halloween Bearbrick 400% (green)
- 2001 Halloween Bearbrick 400% (orange)
- Bearbrick SF (Dr. Romanelli) from Series 14

Shoko Nakagawa Bearbrick 400%

A few blogs down was the Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Bearbrick. Since it’s the month of October, I might as well continue with the Pink Revolution.

Who's that girl? She's Shoko Nakagawa. You can always expect two things when you tell a Japanese gal to design a Bearbrick. One: There’s always a heart symbol somewhere. Two: It has to be cute.

 

 

Give Japanese multitalented popstar Shoko Nakagawa a Bearbrick to design and here’s what you get: An adorable pink-striped cat bearbrick with hearts on its ears.

Shoko Nakagawa 中川翔子 (also known as Shokotan) is a Japanese cutie. She’s an illustrator, manga cartoonist, actress, voice actress, model, TV presenter and singer. In short, a Japanese idol. She has also just directed her first short film “Nanase Futatabi Prologue” last month. She likes cosplay and loves cats a lot so I guess this bearbrick is inspired by her cats.

Her Bearbrick cat design was featured as ‘Cute’ in Series 19 last December. Several months later, this was enlarged to a 400% size.

Some of her CD releases (source: Amazon Japan ).

Join her Facebook Community Page if you want to know more about her!.. hehehe.. 

Featured Bearbricks:

- Bearbrick Cute (Shokotan) from Series 19

- Shoko Nakagawa Bearbrick 400%

(Shoko Nakagawa pics source: www.last.fm)

(Background Art by the talented Taiwanese artist Chen Shu Fen. I have quite a number of her artbooks cos she draws the sweetest Chinese girls around. Google her to see her scans.)