So, looking around and doing a bit of web snooping and someone tipped me about this place.
I've seen one other auction of theirs, they seem to be a real gallery, with gallery pricing to match.
They're called the Phillips de Prury gallery. ( http://www.phillipsdepury.com/ ) They do these really high end designer toy and alternative art sales.

But now they're selling rare one-off kaiju!

If you hit their site and go to the Saturday auctions page and look for the view pdf button, you'll see amazing stuff like Mark Nagata's *ceramic* eyezon and some stuff hand-painted by the head of Marmit's design team. There's a semi-ningen in there from I think toybot studios. It's all pretty mind-blowing, trippy and the prices will make hair fall out of your head.

Can any of you fill me in any more on this place? Have the ultra rich never heard of S7 or YJA? Weird.

If I had a lot of expendable cash I would bid on this one...

For reals.

I know the auction topic is a kind of old one, but I still think its actually a good thing. There will always be kaiju for regular collectors, and anything besides a one-off from one of these auctions will come up again, cheaper somewhere else. But I really think that getting more of these figures into the hands of "art collectors" can only help create more opportunities for creators which will benefit everyone in the end.

For example: if I had an opportunity to put a figure I made in for an auction like that and it sold for, say $500, whatever money I received would go right back into making more figures and making cooler figures. I've got dozens of figures I'd love to sculpt and produce myself, and time and money constraints affect all producers.

It might seem ridiculous to us to pay that kind of money for a figure, but I have a feeling the more money we see flowing into the hobby, the cooler the figures flowing out will be.

I like the idea for auctions for one-off pieces of art especially if the entire piece - sculpt, vinyl and paint - are truly by a single artist.
Also hope that the auction houses do due diligence on what they are selling. Last year there were a couple of off-the-shelf pieces in the auctions stuck in there at ridiculous prices with the hope that someone who wasn't in the know would buy something at an insane price. That is so cynically short-sighted and doesn't benefit the hobby one bit. If its truly used as a marketplace for art thats great, if someone tries to use as an upscale eBay then thats bogus. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point soon we see someone from the scene break out big time - some might argue that Carlos already has.

I'm with you on the production pieces, particularly if it isn't labeled as such. I remember some of the ones you mention from last year, and I think it just had the company name as the artist, didn't it? If its clearly labeled as a production piece I guess its not so bad (I mean, they sell prints at auction sometimes, don't they?) but if its not clear whether its an original or a production piece its at least shady.

Whoops. Sorry not to have checked first. Was non-plussed and flustered. And yeah plastichunter, I would sell family members to get that piece too!

I have a piece in this current auction(well 2 considering Marks Eyezon), while Im super excited to be in it with the likes of some very famous names, after looking through the past catalogues some of the toy prices were a little depressing.
But considering what Ive read and the current bad economy the toy companies in Japan could use more customers. While there might be the danger of exploiting some buyers and bringing it all more mainstream, as well increasing prices and the difficulty in acquiring new pieces, if it helps the toy makers themselves then Im all for it. (edit) well not the exploiting part!

Its all about the exposure in the end.

I didn't know that you did that eyezon...brilliant work in addition to your own, which is something I always wanted to pick up and hold!

The main reason I do it.
The catalogue you get for the London auction is slick and really beautiful.
The first one I was in, Melissa took it out of the envelope while i was driving, I saw it and almost drove off the road.
Totally worth doing it for.

Same here - That catalog is just so nice!!!!
Although I made 'em use Leecifer the last time cause they couldn't spell my given name (sigh) the first time around.

Agreed!! Catalogue is sweeet!!
And same here... name is mispelled. Really sucks. Ive gotten used to my name being mispelled but for this it really sucked.

And thanks on the eyezon! .. yeah it was a fun project.

All you guys are hooked into this? I knew you were all pro artists but had no idea you were blowing up! I'm gonna have to start dressing better for when I log in, heh.
Keep it up!

Hahaha....
Dont know about the others but I dont think I could deal with blowing up.

agreed about the catalogs being beautiful...phillips raised the bar for all the auction houses several years ago with their catalogs.

but it still is bothersome on some levels to see certain pieces included in these auctions. the one-off artist works or really rare pieces make perfect sense...but the recent pink astrozombies space trooper? or the shikaruna pieces?

there's fewer toys that shouldn't be there than there have been in past sales...but when recent releases are put in these auctions I can't help but think it's just a case of trying to sell stuff for more than it's really worth because the people buying it don't do their research. never forget the $8,000+ set of chrome secret base all stars.

Now THIS is worthy every penny. 7-9k est bid. 90 inches tall!