The Jason Freeny x Fame Master Gummi Bear Anatomy 3D puzzle project [previously blogged here] has been in play for almost 5 years, and the company finally announced a release date. Freeny’s clear and green colorways will be released this coming July, along with a surprise (non-Freeny) “Terminator Pattern” cutaway edition. Fame Master cautions that the solid colors represented in the photo above is not indicative of final quality and are for reference only.

Direct-to-fan pre-orders are open for the clear, green and Terminatbear versions at a price of $30 USD each (including 30-45 day surface mailing postage). You can reserve one now by contacting Fame Master’s sales department, and expect to settle your invoice some time in July.

I still think these popjects make a pretty nice affordable sculpture, though, like Toy2R’s Visible Qee, the complexity of Freeny’s original design had to be simplified a lot for production. What do you think?

Gummi Anatomie by Jason Freeny

French art director Lena Antoine created a custom alarm clock using a DIY Mad*L toy. She describes it like this:

One day, I wanted an alarm clock. I had an art toy and an old alarm clock. I have merged the two objects.

So simple, it’s perfect. Does it come in an AM/PM version?

Today at 4PM, Die Antwoord presents a “special, one-night only installation” inside of Upper Playground’s San Francisco gallery, FIFTY24SF. While I can’t really picture how the madness will unfold on Fillmore, thanks to Juxtapoz, I CAN clearly visualize the vinyl Evil Boy toy they’ll be releasing. Remember back in April when we first Wikipedia’d Tokoloshe? Although the toy version of the South African demon is not the ”hairy, pot-bellied dwarf” previously reported, I can say with certainty that it does “have a penis the size of a horse’s”.

The Evil Boy toy was made in collaboration with Good Smile Company, the folks responsible for David Choe’s Munkos toys. Upper Playground says that “select vinyl pieces will be hand-detailed by Die Antwoord’s Ninja.” I have to try to get one. Die Antwoord’s appearance coincides with the San Francisco stop of the South African artists’ TEN$ION tour. See you there?

Click through if you’re in a place where people won’t judge you for looking at pictures of Caspar the Friendly Ghost with an enormous erection.

Kind of calls to mind Takashi Murakami’s My Lonesome Cowboy, yeah? No?

[Thanks again, Greta!]

Custom Stegoforest by Jesse Narens

It’s been a while since news of Jesse Narens‘ hybrid animal-plant creature, Stegoforest. As it turns out, in the months following its cryptozoological discovery, Narens was quietly organizing a custom toy show (currently) at Portland’s Grass Hut.

Custom Stegoforest by Monstrehero

The show features frequent Grass Hut collaborators like Bwana Spoons, Monstrehero and Spencer Hibert. Dig up available specimens from the show here. Seek out solid Stegos from Narens’ etsy shop here.

Custom Stegoforest by Alex Chiu

Custom Stegoforest by Grumble Toy

Custom Stegoforest by Spencer Hibert

Custom Stegoforest by Bwana Spoons

Out of all of Jason Freeny’s toy dissections, I think this 2-foot dissected Kewpie Doll is his most radical transformation. By cutting away half the cute, Freeny reveals twice the creepy. Below (at right) is Freeny’s prior execution of a Kewpie. Above and below left is his new 22-inch Dissected Kewpie which looks less like a custom toy than a medical school teaching tool. Amazing.

Ferg‘s newest Squadt, the Fr0g s001 [swamp dwllr], is a triumph in toy art engineering. Inspired by one of his favorite childhood toys, the G.I. Joe Frogman, the Fr0g Squadt occupies that wonderfully (Pantone warm) grey area of “playable” toy and “art” toy. Ferg had been thinking a lot about “playability” when I interviewed him last summer. At the time, he said:

If the piece is basically a toy…a figure or character, with an artistic execution, then why not make it fun to play with? I’m definitely going down this path right now and getting way into the many playability options that a piece can contain.

In hindsight, I’ve got to think he was talking about Fr0g. Behold playability options galore!

Fr0g features a brand new helmet, flippers, tanks, wet suit and frog eyes. He comes with an sMP5, spear gun and diving tanto (gun and knife are accented in a wonderful fluorescent green), and both classic arms and Squadt 2.0 articulated arms. Let’s not forget about the K11 spot companion (not shown, but also sporting a wet suit and flippers). You have to try to picture this stuff in 3D.

Click through for pictures to help you picture it.

With his DTA-award-winning Trouble Boys, there were so many layers, options and possibilities for play or display. Fr0g appears to step it up a notch, staking a claim as a shoe-in (or, flipper-in? sorry…) for a 2012 DTA. It takes time to sync up so many small parts, and Ferg is really pleased with “the overall fit and finish…the way the helmet, hoses and tanks interact.” He also gives props to the flippers* and Benny and SiuYin at threezero.

*Flippers as in footwear, not people who re-sell toys at inflated prices!

You know when you’re talking to someone, and their enthusiasm is just infectious? This is that.

Ferg: I am REALLY stoked about this one. It’s crazy how much fun I had making it.
Jeremy: Oh yeah?
Ferg: I mean I always have fun designing the pieces…and many of them are personal in some way, but this one took me back…I thought about it a lot…like probably too much.
Jeremy: As in your wife was like “Clay, are you listening to what I’m saying?”
Ferg: Yes. Totally.

Ha! Who hasn’t been there?

It was really important to Ferg for the Fr0g design to have an essence of the G.I. Joe Frogman, but retain the Squadt vibe. He obtained the counsel of a trusted source who confirmed that while Fr0g referenced the ancestral Frogman, he remained firmly within the Squadt oeuvre. Expert sleuthing has revealed this insight to have come from a conversation with Ferg’s 10-year-old daughter, of which Ferg proudly says: “I could totally tell she wasn’t bullshitting me.” How could she be? Fr0g totally rules!

It’s been a journey from his first sketch to the turnarounds to the prototype to the final production piece, and reckoning time is almost at hand. Fr0g s001 [swamp dwllr] is the inaugural Fr0g Squadt. Collect yours on March 5th at 12PM CST in the Squadt Store. It’s what Jerry Seinfeld would want you to do!

Pril is a brand of German dishwashing detergent. They recently tried to use social media to crowdsource new package designs for two limited edition bottles. The campaign was entitled Mein Pril – Mein Stil (“My Pril – My Style”), and the winners are in, but they aren’t the ones the public chose. Of some 50,000 entries, Pril’s people picked the leopard print design (above left) and the business attire design (above right) as their winners. Regarding the former, which is called “Prrrrril – beastly good mood,” Pril explains (via Google translation): “the leopard design embodies the highest and fastest fat dissolving power and brings new life into Germany’s kitchens”. Regarding the latter, which is called “Mr. Pril,” Pril says it’s a “reliable helper, you can rely on at any time. With a suit and tie is he the detergent case.” I couldn’t have said it better myself! Oh wait…

Some of the contest entries are a little…rough…in an MS-Paint kind of way. Interestingly, it’s the “amateur” designs that won the popular vote, at which point, Pril amended the rules, eventually crowning the more family-friendly winners. According to a BoingBoing commenter, Pril did in fact produce a small run of the PRIIIIIIIIIL design (below left), and these were quickly snapped up on eBay. Unfortunately for dirty dishes (and dirty minds), the “Tastes like chicken” design (below right) was not produced. But you can read an interview with the designer here.

[You might also enjoy this story about the post-post-post pop bottles of Neil Wax.]

When you see a bandage, and it’s not on someone’s skin, your instant reaction is probably to choke down the vomit that just bubbled up the back of your throat. Tokyo-based designers, Mr_Design, however, have turned the iconic Band-Aid form into a different type of “gag”. Their Bankoso notes (notebooks) and fusen (sticky notes) are novelty items for sure, but kind of awesome nonetheless. According to their website, they ship internationally. Office supplies or orifice supplies? Score.

San Francentric artist, Jeremy Fish, has reinstated his online merch bazaar, the Umbrella Market. Lots of great T-shirts depicting the San Francisco lifestyle are available for $24.

Remember Dimitri Tsykalov’s excellent skulls carved out of fruit? The Paris-based artist has returned with a new series of thought-provoking textiles.

The five giant woven credit cards were hung at Galerie Rabouan Moussion in a state of unraveling. (Weezer would be proud.) Tsykalov’s installation is, of course, inspired by the extreme undoing of our global economy. Simple, literal and impossible to ignore: the message of financial instability and uncertainty crosses language barriers with its visual language. Powerful stuff.