August 9, 2002: Welcome to Toycon 2002.  The semi-regular harvest celebration where Hong Kong’s most celebrated figure artists congregate to show their latest crop of finely-crafted vinyl.This time around, the show is simply entitled “Toycon 2002,” but shares the space, layout, exhibitors and attendees of the “Plug-In Toycon Special” of last April and December of 2001.  

For those unfamiliar, these shows are part commercial exhibition, part gallery show, and part swap meet.  It is my understanding that the Toycon shows initially started as a place for Hong Kong’s numerous toy dealers to hawk their wares and blow-out dead stock, and has gradually changed into a showcase for the new breed of Hong Kong figure artists over the last few years.  If it’s not the birthplace, Toycon is the nursery school of urban vinyl.

I am glad to see so many familiar faces and booths:  Michael Lau, Toy2R, Brothersfree, Pal Wong, Spanky (all the way from Nagoya, Japan), Jason Siu and more.  I’m even more happy that there are a lot of people exhibiting this time around who are totally new to Toycon or weren’t able to set up a booth in April:  Hot Toys, PWF, Hyperchild, Whazzup, Destroyism and more.  Eric So is supposed to make some sort of appearance, but I didn’t see him today.  

Hundreds of hard-core attendees kept up the tradition of arriving hours early to get the best place in line (I learned my lesson last time around and showed up an hour after doors opened).  Their enthusiasm was tested this morning, as it rained consistently from early in the am until well after the show began.  Once the doors opened, the faithful had the honor of immediately cuing-up again for the mid-afternoon opening of the crazysmiles booth or their Toycon 02 Be@rbrick exclusive ration.  

Inside, several “blocks” of maybe a total of 40 booths, two main aisles and a small stage along the back wall.  Once past the ticket collector, the first booths I saw were Toy2R, PWF, Jason Siu & Co.  Glancing to the left, I spotted Michael Lau’s crazysmiles booth in it’s traditional roped-off and bouncer-guarded corner of honor, directly adjacent to the VIP lounge.  It was hard to miss with the scores of fans waiting patiently in line in front of it.

In April, the crazysmiles color theme was horizontal green and white stripes which also adorned the packaging of Michael Lau’s first release that day: Lamdog Soccer edition.  Today, the booth was a simple matte black.  I must admit that I felt pretty clever when my hunch that the Michael’s first offering today would come in a black box proved to be accurate.  Enter “the bear,” aka cc16.

Those of you who have been following Michael Lau’s work will know that he has been focusing on his second series of crazychildren rotocast figures  this year.  “mr. a,” “mr. b” and “mr. woo c”  were released in late January, followed by “the pig” in April (at Plug In Toys) and “cc King” just last month.  “the bear” follows the aesthetic of it’s buddies:  a rough sculpting, minimal detail and less articulation than Michael’s previous work.  Of all of this “alphabet” series of crazychildren, the bear most resembles the pig.  It is roughly the same size (about four inches tall/long), has more of a cute appeal, and is available in an array of colors in a blind, random assortment – known here as “lucky draw.”

The bear is unique among the alphabets in a few ways, however.  First, the bear has a face!  

Yep, different eyes, nose and a mouth line drawings adorn each of the 13 variants. Those of you who are big fans of the pixilation found on the other alphabets shouldn’t despair – the bear’s got pixilated privates (after all, this is a family show... uh, sort of).  It also has a little leather sash around it’s neck, a crazy smiles tag about the waist and articulated head, arms, waste and ... pixilation.  Overall, the bear looks a lot like a large, pleasantly-chunky version of  a Be@rbrick or Qee mini-figure.

The hippest and most unique feature of the bear is that it is the first crazychild to serve the practical function of desk accessory.  Okay, so maybe you have a whole gaggle of crazychildren decorating your monitor, shelves and desktop, but do they do anything other than distract you and create envy among your co-workers?  Well, this guy does.  Turn the bear around and you will find a handy 2003 calendar printed on it’s back.  One month per bear (12 designs) plus the bonus bear painted in a motif resembling cc king’s cardboard throne.  Very cool.

Of course, since these are “lucky draw,” you will need a lot of luck to to gather a whole year’s worth.  Since these will be the most affordable crazychildren to date, you might not have to take out a bank loan to do so.

Stay tuned for an upcoming report about the really amazing offerings from Toy2R in a few hours (after I get some more sleep – transpacific jetlag ain’t no joke), and lots more coverage tomorrow.

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