Toys

3AA 2014 set ‘Lasstronaut’

Ashley Wood‘s toy company, 3A, make an annual set for members who pay a fee for a special toy, access to buy all figures at a 15% discount and other perks throughout the year. You order in January and get 12 months of these specials, in the meantime you wait for the exclusive set to appear and this year buyers waited 11 months! It was actually worth it for the figure they produced in the end – spacegirl Lasstronaut from the Popbot universe – a pantie-less cosmonaut of unspecified origins but a pivotal role in Ash’s fictional world.

Inside the huge, obi-stripped box buyers find an embroidered patch, a print on heavy textured card, a protective print on tracing paper, a 12″x12″ book of Lasstronaut drawings and paintings, a t-shirt, membership card and the figure itself. The design and attention to detail throughout is top notch and the fully poseable figure has a new rubber ‘skin’ on the legs that covers any joints for a smoother design.

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Mo Wax 21 / Urban Archaeology exhibition, London

I visited the MoWax 21 / Urban Archaeology exhibition that opened at the Southbank Centre in London, currently home to the James Lavelle-curated Meltdown season.it was stuffed with everything you could want from a visual label retrospective with memorabilia and artwork from across the label’s history and beyond into post MW UNKLE releases.

For those familiar with the label there us much here to wallow in but plenty of behind the scenes stuff too. A letter from Mike D about a planned MoWax / Grand Royal ‘Battle of the Beats’ record, working drawings and model for Futura Pointmen toys and plenty of original art that graced many a sleeve. There are toys in every kind of colourway, some still at prototype stage, flyers reaching back to the early 90’s to when MoWax was more of a Talking Loud wannabe than the trip hop and electronica powerhouse of its heyday.

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It’s free but only open until June 22nd so you only have this week to catch it before it’s gone. But if you don’t manage to make it down then there is an extensive book now available with even more info and photos. Initially funded via Kickstarter, I received a copy last week and it’s beautiful to behold, a perfect visual encapsulation of the label.

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Lasstranaut 3A 2014 members set

This wonderful piece of design is Lasstranaut, part of the Popbot Universe created by Ashley Wood and his company 3A. She’s a much talked about but seldom seen character in a world that seems to live largely in Ash’s head rather than on the printed page these days. Rumour is that she created the world of Popbot but I could have that wrong, there’s some info here and yes, she’s not wearing any pants. She’s currently up for sale on Bambaland for $200 which will also net you a book, T-shirt, poster and other goodies plus access to exclusive figures and money off all 3A products for the whole of 2014.

This blurry beast below is called Mars, a 24 inch take on the Shogun Warriors of old for a new line called World’s Best Robots. It’s modeled by a friend of mine from Ash’s designs and I’m eager to see the final paint job, just take my money why don’t you?

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Lego Albums

You know me, I love music and I love Lego. Well, a guy called Harry Heaton has started making classic (and not so classic) LP covers out of Lego. He has a tumblr full of them and is taking requests.

They’re made using Lego Digital Designer apparently which is the Lego equivalent of CAD so they’re not actually physically real but that would take a long time, a lot of money and I don’t think Lego actually make that many shades of beige. Anyway, kudos to Harry for marrying music design and Lego.

Also kudos to Harry for making a version of Bonobo’s ‘The North Borders’ LP sleeve! :)

EDIT: I think I worked out how to do it 😉

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Ashley Wood Iron Man prototype

Can’t wait to see the final colourway versions of this design, as Ash Wood says himself on the first fruit of his hook up with Marvel:

“I thought I would share some prototype images of our IRON MAN with you guys ( We have some nifty colorways to show you soon ) I’m having a killer time designing Marvel Universe characters, getting to play with iconic characters is pretty amazing. I still remember reading IRON MAN 200 as a kid, dreaming of being a Marvel comic artist etc, never did I think I would have a toy company and the chance to make my own! I should mention that Marvel has been nothing but supportive and hands-off, I’ll tell you that its a rare thing with such popular and well known characters! After Iron Man we have Doc Doom, Ultron and Spiderman and his Pal, actually many more, but I wanna keep some surprises!”

“He could do with some armour on his legs” was the comment from my kids on this one.


 

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