-->
WELL-KNOWN ARTIST & ENTREPRENEUR
RETURNS TO ART TOYS WITH NEW JANKY TOY SERIES FEATURING 16 WORLD-FAMOUS ARTISTS —
New York, NY — May 15, 2018 — Acclaimed
artist & entrepreneur Paul Budnitz
(Kidrobot, Ello, Budnitz Bicycles) launches his designer toy company Superplastic today, with new limited
edition toys by renowned artists for sale today on Kickstarter.
Designer
toys meld pop culture, street art, and fashion into limited edition works of
art. Fans are well-known for lining up for hours — or days — for a new
release.
“These
aren’t just toys — they’re art,” says Budnitz. “With so much emphasis on
digital culture, people are literally starved for something beautiful to hold
in their hands.”
Superplastic
begins selling JANKY today — a sneaker-obsessed anthropomorph that’s somewhere between
cute and dark, nasty and nice. Prices range for $25 for a handful of 3-inch toys
to $5,000 for an exclusive handmade 4-foot version.
The
figure took 8 months to design, and is a collaboration between Budnitz and
Superplastic art director Huck Gee,
whose handmade toys sell for $50K and above. Both Budnitz and Gee are featured
in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
“Where
others see toys, Budnitz saw a medium for art,” says Gee. “Paul is as excited
about creating experiences as products, and that’s what made art toy culture
explode.”
Budnitz
has been credited with launching the designer toy revolution when he opened his
first Kidrobot store in New York City in 2004 (he left the company in 2012 to
found Ello & Budnitz Bicycles). His return has been
anticipated. The Superplastic home page began
receiving tens of thousands of visits a day in late April, in anticipation of
the Superplastic launch.
“The
man is back! The man is back!”, tweeted XM Radio’s DJ Whookid, a longtime fan.
Other
super limited-edition toys available on Kickstarter today include a giant sized
8” SuperJANKY entitled Ro-Mu-Lo by Mexican artist El Grand Chamaco; and Maximilian Cash by UK artist Pete Fowler, a psychedelic 9-inch tall vinyl toy with fangs, sneakers, a
boombox, and a glowing blue skull. Both
are limited to just 666 pieces.
Says
Fowler, “Paul called and asked if I would make toys with him again. I was like
— shit is
oooonnnn!!”
When
Kickstarter approached Budnitz & Gee last fall about launching Superplastic
on the popular crowdfunding platform, they jumped.
"This project is
really going to resonate with our Kickstarter community, which loves to support
the intersection of art and design," says Julio Terra, Director of Technology & Design for Kickstarter.
“We
immediately saw Kickstarter as a brilliant new way for us to connect with our
audience,” says Gee. “Of course, we decided to do crowdfunding a little
differently.”
Once
their basic $25K goal is reached, the team will unlock a range of fun
challenges and exclusive stretch goals. Kickstarter backers get to launch toys into space, write a Haiku
about their favorite toy, or get a JANKY tattoo. When all 35 challenges are
completed, every single backer gets an extra JANKY toy for just one cent.
Partway
through the campaign Superplastic will also unveil JANKYLAND, a 3-D rendered glitch-art mobile game where fans can
play for free on iPhone & Android.
“In a
world where most things are rebooted, repackaged and resold, everything
Superplastic does is new and original,” says Budnitz. “It’s why our fans are so
excited.”
LINKS
COMPLETE LIST OF JANKY SERIES 1
ARTISTS:
ABOUT SUPERPLASTIC
Founded
by artist and entrepreneur Paul Budnitz (Ello, Budnitz Bicycles, Kidrobot),
Superplastic creates premium limited edition designer toy with artists
worldwide. Its products are limited edition, so when they sell out, they’re
gone forever. Huck Gee is head of art and production.
Key
products include JANKY, a platform toy designed by Budnitz and Gee and
customized by well-known artists worldwide, as well as larger limited edition
vinyl figures.
ABOUT JANKY
JANKY
is a toy series created by Superplastic founder Paul Budnitz and toy artist
Huck Gee. Blank versions of the toy are given to well-known artists worldwide,
whose customized limited editions are sold to customers and fans.
Most
3-inch JANKY toys come in a surprise box,
so customers don’t know which toy they will get until they open the box. Some
designs are secret, and others are super-rare. In addition, Superplastic also
sells limited-edition 8-inch and 4-foot SuperJANKYs. Prices range from $25 to
$5000.
ABOUT PAUL BUDNITZ
Besides
founding Superplastic, artist and entrepreneur Paul Budnitz is well known as the founder of Kidrobot (which he
left in 2012), Ello, and Budnitz Bicycles — as well as a half dozen other
companies.
Budnitz
has collaborated with hundreds of artists, including Shepard Fairy, Takashi
Murakami, Frank Kozik, Tara McPherson, Swizz Beatz, Joe Ledbetter, Camilla
D’Erricco, Ron English, Junko Mizuno, Joe Ledbetter, Gary Baseman, Seen, and
many others. He has worked with brands including Visionaire, Marc Jacobs,
Gucci, Karl Lagerfeld, Burton, Volkswagen, and Nike.
Budnitz’
designs appears in collections including the Museum of Modern Art and Cooper-Hewitt in New York City. Budnitz
Bicycles was named City Bike of the Year
by Bicycling Magazine in 2015.
Paul
Budnitz lives in Burlington, Vermont and wears size 13 sneakers. He lectures on
creativity worldwide.
ABOUT HUCK GEE
Superplastic
head of art and production Huck Gee
has been recognized as one of the world’s top custom toy artists since 2003.
Huck’s
handmade toys sell for as much as $50,000, and appear in the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art. Huck exhibits worldwide, races Japanese cars, and lives
in San Francisco with his family and about a million toys.
