Le Merde and David Horvath, with Giant Robot made some great Kaiju for something called a "Biennale"? While it took some searching to figure it out what the word means, scoring these limited run imprints and originals is worth the homework.

According to the Japanese American National Museum: "The 'Giant Robot Biennale' is an event that occurs every two years, curated by co-founder and co-editor Eric Nakamura. 'Giant Robot Biennale: 50 Issues' highlights artists associated with the magazine over the past 15 years."

This time It produced special installation and series of products consisting of original pieces of Toy Design and Art.

This tribute to the kaiju scene, features collaborative works made by indie sculptor and artist Yukinori Dehara, UglyDolls co-creator David Horvath, Portland-based underground toy legend Le Merde, Ledavhara collab figures & paintings & Deth p Sun paintings.


Yukinori Dehara, David Horvath + Sun Min-Kim, Le Merde Original Figures


Ledavhara Figures & Paintings, Deth P Sun Paintings

Some of the contributing artists created pieces that are seeing production as short run prints in the form of "toys". These pieces are exclusive to Giant Robot. Like these funky "Dave's"...



The Daves. Available in Green and Pink.

While the Vinyl toy craze of recent is dying down, Japanese style Kaiju pieces, are on the rise as fine art collectibles. The Japanese "Slush Molding" process is heralded to produce the most pure and artistic pieces. Resin cast pieces have also seen a massive rise, and are considered the new competing medium for self label artist pieces.


Bangal Short run figures. Manufactured by Gargamel + Le Merde. Available at Giant Robot online.

The Bangal is really amazing, available in this one special color design, and is a very high quality clear vinyl cast from Gargamel Toy House in Japan. There are a mere 4 pieces available at the NY store, at $100 each.





The two different "Dave's" are limited to 6 pieces each at this location. Manufactured by INTHEYELLOW toys of Japan.

It should be noted that these "toys" are truly the equivalent of limited edition silk screens or lithographic prints that you would traditionally see in galleries and museums.
If you're looking to diversify your artistic collection or add to your existing one, these pieces are worthy of consideration.

You can grab some at the retail locations of all Giant Robot stores or online here.

Giant Robot Locations:
giantRobot.com

LA
2015 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 478-1819
Mon-Sat 11:30am-8pm; Sun 12pm-6pm

NY
37 E 9th St
New York, NY 10009
(212) 674-4769
Mon-Fri 12:30pm-8:30pm; Sat 12pm-9pm; Sun 12:30pm-7pm

SF
618 Shrader St
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 876-4773
Mon-Fri 11:30am-8pm; Sat 11am-8pm; Sun 12pm-7pm

Japanese American National Museum
http://www.janm.org/exhibits/gr15/