Thursday night saw the release of the Ye Olde English Dunny at Selfridges London. The event was hugely anticipated in our small but closely knit UK toy scene and it went down a storm.

I think I can safely say that we, and the majority of the Artists involved, had no idea what to expect from this event. We certainly didn’t envision queues of fans waiting to get inside and grab their goodies like you see in the states.

Selfridges ‘wonder room’ was full to bursting the whole night, with fans and artists free to chat, drink, and draw. Even Paul Budnitz made it over for the event, which was nice to see. The feeling of the night was one of weirdness, and I’ve been racking my brain trying to pin down why that was. I guess us UK artists are inherently shy “attic drawing” (well put by Dok A) monkeys, who aren’t used to the kidrobot circus being in town and all the attention that brings. Or maybe it was the Selfidges link, all that glamour when we are much more suited to downtrodden warehouses, complete with paint splatter? Either way there is no denying the prestige of this event, and what it means for the UK scene.

There has been mixed feelings and hot debate on Kidrobot’s location choice. Many thinking that Selfridges offered something that wasn’t in keeping with the feel of the scene. I myself had mixed feelings when I initially heard about Selfridges involvement with the toy world, but I think that you would have to be very naive to overlook the positives. Selfridges and Kidrobot sit hand in hand, the direction that Kidrobot have pushed over the year’s means that their exclusivity fits in with Selfridge’s company ethos. The traffic that Selfridges push through their doors can only help to make the scene in the UK larger and stronger. I (nor most other toy fans) wouldn’t buy product from there, favouring independent stores, but for the people who don’t even know our world exists; it’s a door into a whole new world of excitement, and we welcome them with open arms!

It was really great to see everyone, new and old faces, showing support for the UK scene. We rarely get events like this in the UK, so it was great to see everyone getting behind it. Apologies to anyone we didn’t get to talk to. The only down side of the event was the Selfridges organisation of the Queuing system, I know a lot of people were left disappointed. Not even Geoff could get in, and they didn’t seem to really care when I pleaded with them…. Sorry Geoff I really tried!!

Big pat on the back to everyone involved in the series and the launch event. For those of you who didn’t make it here is a snipit from KR website.. Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2936396&server=vimeo.com&show_tit...

More photos here and here