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.)

KAWS Bearbrick and ‘Passing Through’

These are my KAWS Bearbrick collection. I only have four 400% size and the 200% size die-cast chogokin. It’s funny that I don’t have even one 100% size.

 

The Bearbrick KAWS Chompers (the blue one) was one of the first bearbricks I ever bought. That time I didn't know anything about KAWS. I didn’t know much about Bearbricks either. I thought the design was cool and it looked like a cat… haha.. The ‘X X’ eyes were kinda neat too and now, those ‘X X’ eyes are a trademark of KAWS works.

 

For those who don’t know KAWS, he’s Brian Donelly and based in New York City. He started out as a graffiti artist, working on advertisements on bus stops and billboards. As he became more and more popular, his work started to grow all over the world.

After, he started designing vinyl toys and gained recognition amongst toy collectors for his style and genre. He created his character ‘Companion’ with the iconic ‘X X’ eyes under his ‘OriginalFake’ brand.

Recently, KAWS was in Hong Kong to promote his huge 5-meter Companion character  displayed outdoors at Harbour City at TST as part of his ‘Passing Through’ exhibition. Here are some pics that I took.

 

 

Every toy collector knows collecting KAWS merchandise can burn a hole in your pocket. His toys are produced limited in numbers and not many people would spend that amount of money on a piece of plastic. Though I’m not a die-hard KAWS collector (I’m glad I’m not or else I would go bankrupt!), I admire his work a lot.

As a Bearbrick collector, one KAWS item on my wish list is his 400% brown Bearbrick made of wood (though there is a black version too), currently going at US$1000+ at the secondary market. This piece to me is a true collectible item.

 

Featured Bearbricks:

- KAWS Chompers (avex a-nation) Bearbrick 400% (blue)

- KAWS Companion OriginalFake Bearbrick 400% (red)

- KAWS Companion OriginalFake Bearbrick 400% (grey)

- KAWS Companion OriginalFake Bearbrick 400% (black)

- KAWS Companion OriginalFake Bearbrick 200% Chogokin

Headquarter X Seher One Bearbrick 400%+100%

In May 2010, celebrating the 5th anniversary of their store, Headquarter teamed up with Mexican urban artist Seher One for this amazing Bearbrick 400%+100% set, designed with impressive graphics.

I didn’t know about Seher One until I bought this bearbrick set and researched him on the Internet. His graphics are spontaneous and really damn powerful.

 

Seher One (David Pinon Hernandez) is from Mexico City and has pure talent. His art shows intoxicating movement and fluidity, with sharp and vivid colors. It’s like a mixture of fantasy and horror. His incredible imagination makes him unique and stand out from other graffiti artists.

 Check out some of his works. (source: SEHER ONE)

    

I would like to see more of his art out there. Another team-up with Medicom for more bearbrick designs? Maybe as an Artist in an upcoming Series? I’m already a big fan.

Featured Bearbrick:
- Headquarter X Seher One Bearbrick 400%+100% Set

The Beatles Bearbrick

A week and a day ago on Saturday, October 9, was John Lennon’s 70th birthday. And there were birthday celebrations around the globe. Who wouldn’t forget such a musical legend?

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were The Beatles. Also known as the Fab Four. They were formed in 1960 in Liverpool, England and became one of the most successful bands in music. I don’t think I need to say more. The rest is music history.

In 1968, an animated feature film ‘Yellow Submarine’ was released based on the music of The Beatles. And based on this film, you have The Beatles Yellow Submarine Bearbrick Set.

 

What I like about this set is the packing. The box is designed like a submarine and you have the Fab Four looking out the round windows.

The bearbricks are also designed just like the costumes the Fab Four are wearing in the film.

Another Beatles Bearbrick Set is the ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’, based on their eighth album release in 1967. On this album cover, you will see images of items and several celebrities.

As for the Beatles themselves, they are dressed in marching band attire:

- Ringo Starr is in magenta,
- John Lennon in yellow,
- Paul McCartney in blue, and
- George Harrison in orange.


 

I do not know if Medicom noticed a big, big flaw in the packaging of this Bearbrick set. On the packing, there is a spelling mistake. Instead of 'Hearts', it is spelled 'Heats'. So you get ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heats Club Band’.

We also have a 400% and 100% The Beatles Bearbrick in black with their logo on the front and a green apple on the back.

What’s this green apple? The green apple is actually ‘Apple Records’. ‘Apple Records’ is a record label founded by the Beatles in 1968. 

When the Beatles broke up in 1970, each of them went on with their solo careers. John Lennon became a peace activist and wrote songs that are anti-war, like ‘Give Peace A Chance’ and ‘Imagine’.

Sadly, in December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot and killed in New York City. He is an absolute legend and will never be forgotten.

 

Featured Bearbricks:
- The Beatles ‘Yellow Submarine’ Bearbrick Set 100%
- The Beatles ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ Bearbrick Set 100%
- The Beatles ‘Apple Records’ 400% and 100% Bearbrick Set