Tim Tsui Is an urban vinyl pioneer. He is one of Hong Kong's greatest urban artists and illustrators. He has his own brand 'Da Team Bronx' which is massive on a global level, producing amazing works of illustration and graphic design.

Tsui is extremely well known for his work with vinyl toys. He likes to add gemstones to his toys. It's his kind of trademark feature. His Work has been exhibited in the US, UK, France and all over Asia. He has worked for Coca-Cola, Hasbro, Adidas, MTV and many more big names. He's such a big name in the designer toy world that he's even been a guest speaker at Toyzworld Exhibition.

Tsui loves gorillas! and almost every example of his work I have seen is gorilla related. Infact the gorillas remind me of the illustrations from the band Gorillaz in which it is obvious to assume that Jamie Hewlett of the Gorillas draws inspiration from Tsui.

Visit Tim here!

Buff Monster was first known for plastering hand-silkscreened posters throughout LA, a very productive street art career that lasted seven year before he moved into a new medium. He now works on paintings, vinyl toys and select design projects. HIs artwork has been published in numerous magazines, newspapers and books. His paintings have been shown at many galleries worldwide. His introduction to vinyl toys was a 3" Kidrobot Dunny.

Buff Monster lives in Hollywood but is currently on european tour currently in Bristol painting a Mural at the Bristol City Museum where you can see his typical style, influenced by heavy metal, ice cream and japanese culture. The colour pink, always present in his work, symbolizes confidence, individuality and happiness.

Buff Monster does the cute japanese style illustration that I know and love. He always uses pink which is absolutely my favourite colour.

Visit Buff Monster here!

Andrew Bell is an English born Illustrator. He lives now in Brooklyn, NY where he operates Dead Zebra Inc. He originally pursued a career in skateboarding which lead him into urban art.

Bell has an ongoing project called 'the Creatures in my Head' which is literally him drawing anything an everything that he imagines. His Work has been featured in the New York Times, Wired and many other magazines as well as being displayed in galleries worldwide. Andrew has done quite a lot of work with Kidrobot as early as 2005.

Andrew has a very Dark Style similar to that of Jhonen Vazquez. I really enjoy examining the dark and detailed elements of his work. I once was obsessed with this dark and demonic style of drawing and after looking at Andrews work it makes me want to start reading the old comics that I used to be into.

Visit Andrew here!

Filth is the alter ego of illustrator and designer Lucas Irwin. He freelances under his business under the name Filth Robotics Inc in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. He is experienced with product design, editorial, designer toys, illustration, interactive design and motion graphics.

His extremely unique style has scored him places at many exhibits across the US, Europe and Japan. His work has very futuristic tendencies too it. Fluorescent colours and strong symbols and shapes make up his work. He recently has done some designs for a series of silicon iPhone skins and is a frequent Kidrobot artist.

I really enjoy Lucas's work. even though he produces the same media as the other artists and designers I have looked at his work is at a completely different level. No cute characters, just this colorful, sophisticated, modern look that has strong commercial potential.

Visit Filth here!

FILTH ROBOTICS (2010). Blog of Lucas Irwin. Retrieved 30/5/10 from filthrobotics.blogspot.com

Tokidoki is the japanese-inspired lifestyle brand created in 2005 vie Italian artist Simone Legno and his business parters Pooneh Mohajer and Ivan Arnold.

Tokidoki produce apparel, footwear, accessories and vinyl toys using art and there iconic characters. Tokidoki have a memorable logo of a typical skull and crossbones but the skull has been replaced with a heart. There most memorable and iconic characters are SANDy, DUSTy and Sabochan which are just a few of the cactus friends.

Tokidoki started as a personal website for Legno. It was mainly a blog and online portfolio. Mohajer found Legno's website and emailed and arranged to meet him in LA and provided him with flights from his home in Rome. They met and and offered Legno an offer he couldn't refuse. Legno moved to LA to build Tokidoki into a brand to share with the world. They believed that everyone should experience the cute and playful world that is Tokidoki, aiming to make the world a bit more colorful and positive. Since then they have collaborated with many major brands and companies including skullcandy, hello kitty, coca cola and even xbox LIVE.

Tokidoki are yet again a huge influence on my illustrative style. I love the bright colours and their cute japanese style. their goal to just make the world a brighter place through their art and design also speaks to me a lot.

Visit Tokidoki here!

Mori Chack is a Japanese graphic designer/illustrator best known for his character Gloomy Bear, a giant, pink, blood dripping grizzly. Mori is also known as CHAX which is just a play on his last name.

Gloomy Bear has gotten Mori into a bit of trouble as some may think drawing pictures of bears attacking children is cruel. Mori actually has strong views on animal cruelty and so through gloomy bear he attempts to give his message that "being cruel to animals is no less atrocious than abusing or killing innocent children. Take a look from the other side of the fence."

Mori has done work with Kidrobot swell and produced his own uniquely shaped gloomy bear vinyl through them.

Although his characters are cute and cuddly there is a message laid within them which i think is very clever.

Visit Mori's Website here!

Jon Burgerman is a UK artsit and illustrator. He spends most of his free time doodling. Over the years he has done a lot of work for some big international clients including work with Sony's PSP and Media Molecule the genius's behind playstation exclusive title LittleBigPlanet, where he created a sticker pack which includes stickers which you can use in-game to build environments and characters in your own unique levels(video below). Jon is also into animation and has recently released an iPhone/iPod application titled "Inkstrumental". He also contributes regularly to Kidrobot with his latest vinyl toy collection which he made in collaboration with Stu Witter (above). Its as far I know, an untitled 5 piece collection consisting of the characters, (from left to right) Wish Baby, The Shaman, Tim-Sam, Stoo Bear and Burgersaurus.

Jon's Illustations are somewhat abstract in style and always full of diversity. I really enjoy his work and inspired by his success. Someday I would like to be able to make a living a vinyl toys and illustrations. A dream perhaps possible?

TADO are Katie Tang and Mike Doney, a couple, a design business and an amazingly creative art duo. TADO have found success doing exactly what they love doing.

TADO’s character design, illustration and animation work has made them famous internationally. TADO have worked with art directors at some of the world’s largest

advertisement agencies, working for clients as big as MTV, McDonald’s, Sainsbury’s, Vodafone and the World Wildlife Fund.

TADO have over the past decade gotten heavily into designer toys and have worked with Kidrobot many times. They just released there most recent Dunny called Cobbler this month and just last week had a signing at Kidrobot London. They were also recently at the "We Heart Wood" show that I mentioned in my last post.

In an interview with computer arts projects Katie points out that "they once had a phase of putting fangs on everything they drew. Similarly, for a while they gave everything big breasts." Its to no surprise to find that they’ve been influenced by off-beat comic books, metal music and punk. They’d spend afternoons in Forbidden Planet, soaking up characters like Squee from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez(Which I do own a copy off if you'd like to look at it).

Visit TADO here!