r2-d4 by nathan cabrera

have you ever seen the film 'star wars' ?

i've never seen it, never seen the empire strikes back or any of the other

star wars films. 

i've no idea why to be honest... i've seen the alien films, blade runner, 

star trek, starship troopers, predator, even avatar.

what i mean is, i've seen films set in space, films with aliens and battles and 

stuff, but for some reason i've never seen star wars or any of it's sequels / prequels.

to my shame almost, i do own two pieces of star wars related memorabilia though.

maybe in my defence i should say that they are not proper, official star wars items.

they are in fact parodies of star wars.

i'll show the other item in my next post because it really is something special

and i think it's something of a 'grail' piece for collectors... plus it's related to 

the sneaker game.

but first up here's a piece i bought because i like the artist who designed it

and it just coincidentally happened to be a star wars thing... kind of.

let's do a bit of a tease first and i'll show you some photos of the box.

( because to a collector, the box is important right ? )

the box is almost a parody of star wars toys. it's brand new and in perfect

condition but it's been made to look like a damaged box with burns on it and

that some kid has scribbled on too.

interesting box eh ?

can you guess what it is yet ?

here's the top of the box

as you can see it utilises matt and gloss finishes. it must have cost quite

a bit just to make the box.

the bottom of the box shows the artist's name 'cabrera'

it's a long story but the name 'cabrera'... well...

ok, nearly ready for the reveal

unless you want me to show you inside the box flaps ?

seriously, they are really nice too !

ok, here's the window at the front of the box

eh ? eh ?

r2-d4

wd40 x r2d2 get it ?

it's a really well made piece

with lots of great little details

i won't lie. this is the first time i've ever taken it out of the box !

it's a great piece. rare as balls and although it's a bit star wars-y, i like it.

www.vinyl-creep.net/File:Spandroid-r2d4.jpg

art at whitfield towers

as you know, i'm a big art collector.

what ?

i do kind of collect art... you know, i collect vinyl figures, prints, trainers

and i do have a very nice little collection of pieces by my favourite artist...

... la niña.

a few christmases ago these two pieces arrived at whitfield towers

1

oil on canvas

a cat with two heads

nice.

2

oil on canvas again

a girl with 6 legs

it's a beautiful piece isn't it ?

and here they are on display at whitfield towers

just outside my office.

thank-you la niña. 

michael marriot x paul smith limited edition ply stool

one of my favourite designers is michael marriott.

i first met michael in 1995 and over the years i've collected quite

a few of his designs. i've also commissioned a couple of things from him too.

a couple of years ago i was walking down dover street in w1 and saw

a new product from michael in the window of the paul smith store.

naturally enough i bought one.

it was a flat-pack ply stool.

here it is after i assembled it.

it's just 5 pieces of plywood. each piece has a painted pattern on one side

and it can be assembled with the pattern on each piece facing out or in.

it's held together by four cable ties

hot lime green cable ties at that... michael told me he bought them in the usa

naturally it's a limited edition

hmmm... sustainable timber too.

here are a few more pics

it's a corking little stool and like all michael's work, it's functional

and kind of fun too.

www.michaelmarriott.com

sam flores fatima figure

a few years ago i got heavily into collecting vinyl figures.

my friend the earl would call them plastic tat, i would prefer to call them

post-modern porcelain.

i was pretty fussy about what i collected. obviously i chased the rare and limited

edition pieces but i only bought pieces that i really liked and by artists i admired.

one such figure which i hunted down for ages was 'fatima' by sam flores.

i'm a big fan of sam flores and i have a few of his prints in my collection.

er anyway, i finally managed to snag a green fatima figure.

it's kinda nice eh ?

here's a side view

and again

the tiger illustration on her dress is a theme that flores uses in a lot of his art.

sometimes he has the fatima figure inside a tiger skin.

it's very much like some really old art i saw once in mexico city.

( but that's another story )

oh... here's a similar and i think less rare version on the bay

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SAM-FLORES-FATIMA-BIRD-HEADDRESS-PURPLE-FIG-SOLD-OUT-/230459997360?pt=US_Action_Figures&hash=item35a87c7cb0#ht_1487wt_907

japanese kitkat review

my love of kitkats has been well documented on this blog.

( type kitkat into the search bar at the bottom of this page for proof )

in tokyo a few weeks ago i bought this 

to be honest i've no idea what flavour it's supposed to be but i'm guessing

it's just dark chocolate or maybe black coffee flavour ?

as ever, as with most japanese things, the packaging is excellent

i particularly like the blank space at the back so you can write on it.

are you supposed to give it as a gift or something ?

thanks for showing me how to open the box too

how difficult can it be to open a kitkat ?

to be honest, it was pretty tricky and i made a bit of a mess of the box

anyway, inside the box were three little packets of kitkat

on the back of the packets...

what are those blank boxes about ? are we supposed to write on these too ?

ok, i opened up one of the packets and tucked in

and i'm gutted...

... gutted i didn't bring more of these bad boys home, it was absolutely incredible.

hands down the best kitkat i've ever tasted, and if you do the search you'll

see that i've eaten probably 30 different flavoured kitkats over the past three years.

anybody in japan fancy hooking me up with some more of these ?

rainy leeds

back in the day, the word 'leeds' was always prefixed ( unfairly in my opinion )

by the word 'dirty'

nowadays la niña often uses the word 'rainy' to describe the fine city of leeds.

here's a drawing my favourite artist did a few days ago to illustrate the rain

around the university... ( the parkinson building, for those familiar with it )

nice one la niña.

standard behaviour in e1

what did you expect me to do ?

i love coffee machines and i love me.

hmmm...

this was one of the last shots i took to be honest... 

with all the coffee i was drinking ( it was at the london coffee festival )

i did have the 'hattie jacques' more than somewhat.