Jon Burgerman "My American Summer" show at Giant Robot + Kid Lew + custom shoes + ToyToy plushes

I stopped by Giant Robot NY on Saturday evening for the first time to meet Jon Burgerman and check out his show "My American Summer"... it was a lot of fun and I am kicking myself for having been in the designer toy business for 4 years now and never having made the short trip down to GRNY. It's a great location, one block north from the famous St Mark's Place!

Actually the manager of GRNY is named Mark too, and the guy is awesome. He INSISTED upon pouring me a drink, so of course I let him crack open the ginger ale. I'm a badass. Also present was Michael Denicola, who caught me on camera walking in with my Mr. Douchebag t-shirt on... check out his website called InkLungs, he does some great drawings!

Burgerman's show was great- everything hanging in the show was hand-drawn or hand-stiched (there were one-off plushes too, stiched up for Burgerman by the Felt Mistress!)

The orange drawings are apparently snapshot records of Burgerman's trip to the US. Each one is done sort of spur of the moment, wherever he is, and is based upon whatever he sees or hears. Actually really interesting to read the words he's worked in and check out the places he's been! All works by Burgerman are for sale and you can contact GRNY to purchase. Prices range from $99 to $300+ (high end is for the OOAK plushes!).

Burgerman himself was a typical Brit- exceptionally gracious and nice to a fault. I tried to get him to sign my DIY Qee with "Piss off, Benny. -Jon Burgerman" but he declined. Instead he drew one of his little characters on there to accompany drawings by Nolasco, MAD, Sket, Lou Pimentel, Keith Poon... and Kid Lew! I met up with Kid Lew and we actually chatted for the first time for real- we keep showing up at the same events and we finally got a chance to get to know each other. Watch Kid Lew in the near future- he's got plans to turn his characters he's working on into toys/prints/t-shirts etc. We unofficially scheduled him in to sign at our booth during NYCC 2010.

Meanwhile, this guy Arthur Roberts wandered in off the street and showed us his custom-painted Adidas (see below). Art runs an apparel company called Mumz the Werd.

The intricate detail on these shoes warranted pics and a shout-out. I'm not even a sneakerhead and I thought these were dope so there ya go.

Art's wearing one of his Mumzthewerd t-shirts which they are selling.

I dig their logo/character with the tape over his mouth.

After that this guy Daniel from Brazil walked in.. turns out he's on vacation but when he's back in Brazil he makes custom plushes for his company called ToyToy. He hooked me and Mark up with ToyToy stickers so props to him! Definitely check out his characters, they are very cute and colorful in typical Brazilian style!

And finally I gotta give props to my friends at IHeartCoolStuff because they were there at GRNY too, doing an interview with Burgerman! They run a fantastic blog, much more in depth and interesting than the drivel you're reading now, so why don't you pop over there and check it out?

All in all, an excellent trip downtown for me!

Tomorrow I'll post about what I saw Sunday at the NY Gift Fair...