This past Saturday night was the
Rotobox Vinyl Anatomica Ganmetall Celsius Custom Show at the
Toy Art Gallery right here in LA and for some reason I didn't know about it! How can something like this happen where I live and I don't know about it? Rhetorical question, but I will answer it anyway. It is because LA is huge and there is just no way to know about everything that is going on. Of course, being in general contact with the toy community at large and toy customizer and participant-in-this-event
Tony Nakanari specifically, I should have known about this. Somewhere in the bottomless pit that is my e-mail inbox there is probably an invitation or two to this show. But I didn't know all that. Nope, I was completely oblivious. Until I walked past the show on the way to see one of my roommate's friends perform improv at the
Comedy Sportz Theatre which is right next door to the Toy Art Gallery. There was a Kogi-ripoff Korean BBQ taco truck parked right outside, and my roommate and I both wondered to ourselves what it was doing there. We noticed the throng of people gathered around and as we walked past I peeked into the gallery window and to my delight saw several customized art toys. I convinced my roommate to venture into the gallery with me because we were quite early for the improv show. As we entered, we were both handed raffle tickets for prizes that would be drawn later that night. I really didn't think much of it, I didn't think we would be back at ten o'clock that night for the drawing. I didn't think the improv show would go on that long. But it did, and as we were waiting for my roommate's friend to change clothes after his performance and meet us to see what we were going to do, we went back to the gallery for the raffle drawing. To my amazed surprise, bemusement, thrill, and shock I was the first raffle ticket picked for a prize. I won a pre-release Ganmetall Celcius figure, Overheat, which I guess will be released sometime later this year. I'm not sure, there isn't any information about it on Rotobox's website other than that there is just one of them and it was the raffle prize. The new Jadon G.I.D. Exclusive Debametall Fahrenheit figure, which was released for public consumption at the show, was the other raffle prize that was given away. Spencer Ong of Rotobox even signed the feet of my prize Overheat Celsius figure for me! It was pretty sweet! And I normally never win anything! You can see pictures of most of the customs
here. You can see the two that were given away below.
This is the one that I won.
This is the other one that was given away.
Alright, here is one reason I wish I stilled lived in LA. Not that I could afford one of them, but I think that Derringer Cycles makes probably the coolest bikes I have ever seen! Based on board track racer bikes from around the turn of the 20th century, these bikes feature a 4-stroke gas engine along with their regular pedal power. With the size and weight of these bikes, they can get up to 180 miles per gallon. That's nearly 360 miles on the 1.8 gallon tank. And they have pedals, in case you would rather use human power than gas power. With all of the hills here in Chapel Hill, the gas engine would come in real handy. Each Derringer is custom built for it's owner. Rather than stocking them, they prefer to consult with a customer first, then build one that reflects their personal taste and style. So they don't come cheap! I'm not sure how much their custom-built bikes cost, there are no prices on their website, but they have made a special Limited Ed. model for Equinox Fitness Clubs that'll run ya' $2300! And that one doesn't even have an engine in it. I like the brown one pictured above, with it's matching engine color and very useful saddlebags, or the spicy pumpkin orange one, with it's classic white tires, pictured below. Those would be real nice to ride to work in the lovely fall weather. I wonder if they ship from LA to NC?
