Scene: When Hell Freezes Over from IHCS on Vimeo.

Last Friday MyPlasticHeart, located in downtown New York, hosted their first show of the year: When Hell Freezes Over. The show featured 15 customized Cranston Fellows Jr., created by Lou Pimentel. We were personally excited for this show, because we’ve witnessed the journey of Cranston’s creation. We instantly fell in love CFjr, and really didn’t expect to fall in love with any of the customs since the original is so damn great.

Well, we were proven so wrong. I suppose since the 15 invited artists were already working with a great platform, they really just went above and beyond. In an effort to make you feel more present at the shows we attend with our videos– we not only caught up with Lou before the show– but caught up with kaNO during the show. It was pretty awesome and laid-back and you get to witness some of the craziness that goes on during an MPH show. Hit the jump to see pictures from the event, and my favorite customs!

If you watched my v-blog then you’ll know that the Mr. surprised me with an amazing gift. He commissioned PodgyPanda (creator of Mini Saki, Grim and Megaroo) to customize my very first 8″ dunny!

Not only is it a custom dunny, but it features mini Saki (me) along with the L4D cast. =D If you didn’t know, I am a huge fan of L4D– it seriously changed the way I game. I’m not claiming to be an expert (although I did play the 1st one all the way through on expert with an awesome crew)– but it defeated my fear of sucking and FPS (first-person shooters) games. And now, Podgy has created a zombie doodle madness.

You can see more photos in the slideshow– but I just want to once more give a big shout-out to both my wonderful Mr. and Podgypanda for making this happen.

If you took 10 minutes out of your day to watch my latest vlog (video blog spelled the lazy way), then you know that this weekend, we stopped by the opening night of Kidrobot’s Munnyworld exhibition. Before I keep going, I want to thank the Mr. for putting together video in the fastest turn-around pace ever. =D

This weekend is looking to be a great one so far, we have the upcoming opening of Leontine Greenberg and Scott Campbell at MyPlasticHeart, but Kidrobot’s MunnyWorld Custom Show will also be held this weekend and the line-up is looking AMAZING!!!

We’ll be there tomorrow and hopefully will be able to film on the premises and maybe do on the spot interviews? Hopefully. We will definitely take pictures and share them with you ASAP. BTW, I get to see Tesse tomorrow. Woot-woot!!

Pinkghost
1888 Polk Street
Hollywood, FL 33020

This weekend, Julie West will be invading Florida for her solo show at PinkGhost. I am so damn jealous of the Floridians this week, because I was honestly trying my best to fly out to this show and support both Julie and PinkGhost. Sadly, if any of you follow me on twitter, money is tight, and I wasn’t able to schedule the trip. =( Pictures will simply have to suffice for now.

Julie will be showcasing new canvas works along with some prints and customs. I already spotted a 20″ dunny that I wish I could afford. If you were luckier than I, and are in the area, you should really make it a point to stop by PinkGhost and support not only Julie and her works, but PinkGhost. I heart them. <3

For the HD version click here.

On Friday May 8th, 2009– the Mr. and myself traveled the annoying haul to ToyQube, I say annoying because I hate the 7 train, we normally take the LIRR which costs more, but less people and less time consuming makes everything a win/win situation. Anyway, we rarely arrive to places on time, but I’m really glad we made it to ToyQube at the beginning which allowed for the film above created by my Mr. [GrimSanto].

ToyQube was having a Kicktoys ‘BEit Dude’ release party and custom show. The BEit Dude (retailing at $18.99) is supposed to be the platform vinyl that’s easy to customize and friendly to newcomers. I have to admit that I wasn’t, and to a certain degree am still not, sold on this figure. It keeps reminding me of those funky picture frames I find at a gift shop, that sounds a little more harsh than I want it to. One thing for sure, is that this DIY platform piece is definitely very different from a Munny, Dunny or Madl.

One of the reason’s I wasn’t ‘feeling’ this piece is because I was having a hard time envisioning a custom. I thought the figure was very limiting and I really just wouldn’t know where to begin. The custom show on Friday, however, really served it’s purpose. I was able to see that the real problem I was having was a lack of creativity, because the participating artists did an amazing job showcasing its potential. Check out the video above, and hit the jump to check out my favorite pieces, along with a flickr slideshow.

I feel really cheap and dirty right now. I have to come up with a new “tag line” when posting about customs– “Custom Delights” clearly belongs to Tomopop. =X Soon, I promise! Now back to our programming. =) Jeremiah Ketner, or how I’ve been referring to him: Small and Round, has just posted some custom works of his on his commerce website. I’ve become a huge fan of work and style and I only wish I was a more selfish human being so I could guiltlessly purchase one of his custom madl’s.

Currently, the “Pink Guy” is the only madl still available, along with a Munny he also customized. I love the pink guy, but I really wanted to purchase his “Blue Guy” and that’s been sold off. *shakes fist with anger* Oh well, maybe next time. What’s important to focus on is the fact that this artist is REALLY talented and creates amazing pieces– and I have recently discovered a very affordable price tag of $150 for a 5″ MadL and $300 for the Munny. Check out his shop for other shopping opportunities. Maybe buy me the guy above and I’ll heart you forever and ever?!

The first time I’d encountered Dacosta Bayley’s work was when the Mr. and I noticed his GID “ball” in MPH. I liked the look of it, the Mr. liked that it glowed in the dark and the DCTO ended up coming home with us. It wasn’t until we got home that I sat down and traced every detail of the packaging. Every word of the background story was read. Every image on the box was given full attention and I caressed each curve of the physical object I came to know as the DCTO: Dreams Come True Object. Though it was the Mr. who bought it, I was in love with every aspect of the figure– the background story was captivating and to this day it has not escaped my mind. The drawings were “super fresh” and clean. I was impressed.

When Dacosta made his way to NYCC ‘07, he and I became close fairly quickly. I’d already been in contact with him through email and it was a pleasure meeting the man behind the toy that gave me some inspiration. Which is why, now, I follow his every move (whether it be voluntarily or not– I’m sounding like such a stalker right now). Fresh off the press blog entry, Dacosta drops news of his upcoming Dreams to Dreams show opening December 6th at the Japanese American National Museum in LA. To get more details about the show and the amazing cast of contributing artist, check out Dacosta’s blog.

I absolutely love Brent’s style– it’s not this cutesey stuff that I’m normally into, but he has these very well defined lines and such bold colors, I can’t help but love his intricate work. Not to mention, the man is too cool for words as I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with him a couple of times this year. Well, a buddy of mine wanted his asthetically boring speakers to have a little more style…

I’m not sure if NYC residents have noticed, but we’ve got plenty of shows to keep us busy in the month of August. I thought I’d make a rundown of all the shows (which I’ve blogged about before) and whether or not I shall be around. First up, Julie West’s Sickly Sweet taking place this Friday at My Plastic Heart.

Best part? I was able to score an interview with Julie (thanks to the wonderful peeps at MPH) and will hopefully be available during the show, but I’ll share a link when it is posted. Yay! It was loads of fun talking to her and hope that you all come out and see her. This has definitely been added to my calendar. Yay!