Every toy website seems to be doing their little retrospective of Michael Lau with the 10th anniversary of Gardener coming up. Normally i'd be against following the crowd but these early pieces of artwork that became such iconic figures are way too good not to be shown.

The 10 Year anniversary of Gardener is at De La Barracuda on Setember 30th and takes a look at the sketches, paintings and the original 109 custom figures. Michael Lau is an artist who has continued to stay at the forefront of the toy world, pushing its boundries.

It was 10 years ago that Gardener first appeared as a comic strip in East Touch Magazine, hot on the heels was the first of the Crazysmiles exhibitions featuring the original 101 handmade custom figures. Since then he added an extra 8 figures to the series and started coverting them into 6" vinyl figures. For a brief period Gardener was licensed by Sony to produce a few figures and generally to be associated with the coolness that Michael Lau brought to the table.

Back in 2004 at the opening of the Maharishi store in London we got to finally meet the man and interview him for our 3rd issue which has long since sold out. Michael is very driven but at the same time humble and appreciative of praise and peoples love of his work.

Gardener represented a way of life and a style influenced by American street culture that was adopted in HK back in 1997 and inspired Michael and in turn spawned the toy world as we no today. To be frank without Michael Lau's contribution to the toy world our magazine may well not exist!

And while Michael may not in the past have been that keen to be associated with the toy world that he helped spawn he has still been seen as the leader of the movement and everyone pays attention when he has a new figure coming out, and has always commanded extra respect for personally sculpting his figures.

We always look forward to seeing what the great man is working on. Happy Birthday Gardener!