This past weekend saw the opening of the b.b. birdy show at Chinatown LA’s premier vinyl figure store, Munky King. Previously on display in Chicago and moving shortly to Japan is an exhibit of about 140 customized figures by an impressive array of pop artists from Gary Baseman to Ragnar to Kozik to MAD.

The figures themselves stand somewhere between 3 and 4 inches tall for the most part, though one artist basically remade the figure as a foot and a half tall robo-behemoth looking thing. While a few looked like they were thrown together on the fly, the majority of the pieces on display were pretty damn cool. Some were painted-up versions of the basic b.b. birdy figs, while others were heavily modded pieces, almost unrecognizable from the source material. It’s really quite impressive that you can give 140 artists the same canvas and get over 140 highly individualized finished pieces. It’s shows like this and the recent MAD*L exhibit that illustrate just how flexible and viable vinyl figures are as an artform.

I managed to snap off a couple of dozen shots of the evening with my cameraphone, so the images are a little fuzzier than I’d prefer. Still, with the reggae bumping from the DJ’s van outside the storefront to the people crammed into the small-yet-comfortable store area, it was a good way to spend part of my Saturday evening. The show runs through June 4th, so if you’re in the area, drop by and check it out for yourself before it leaves the US for good.

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