VinylJapanese Toys by William Miller

VINYL JAPANESE TOYS


Other distinguished creators of urban vinyl figures is the Japanese designer Takashi Murakami whose, has been exhibited in top art galleries such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo as well as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Famous throughout the art world Murakami's work is always much in demand.

A Chicago collector, Stefan Edis reportedly paid a record $567,500 for Murakami's 1996 Miss ko2, a life-size fibreglass cartoon figure. And Francois Pinault the famous Chriistie's auction house owner paid around $1.5 million for Tongarikun, another fibreglass figure standig some 30 feet tall it is said. together with 4 other mushroom figurettes, featured at the Rockefeller Center.

In May 2008, My Lonesome Cowboy (1998), sold for $15.2 million at a Sotheby's auction.

Urban vinyl toy figures are primarily designed by musicians, DJs, illustrators, and graffiti artists from urban areas in Asia (especially Japan and Hong Kong), the United States and Europe.

Urban vinyl toy figures are meant to represent popular youth and hip-hop cultutre in both Asia and America,encompassing hip-hop artists and others of a similar genre.

Another unique feature is that a VInyl Japanes toy may be designed by a single artist, including the body, clothing, accessories and paint applications, or artists may colloborate by individually creating each separate element like the actual scuplture, painting and clothing accessories.

Some pieces are notably a collaborative effort, with sometimes as many as 12 different artists contributing to the final design.

Vinyl toys produced in either Japan, Asia or Australia are deemed as Japanes or Eastern Vinyl, or Western Vinyl, encompassing pieces which are designed and produced in North America, South America, or Europe.

Collector's avidly seek out these Vinyl Japanese Toys as sometimes rare pieces can fetchr hundreds if not thousand of dollars making them much sought-after.

These extremely collectible Japanese vinyl toys are produced as limited editions and are therefore proving to be extremely attractive to the savvy collector.