Nigel Flyer

Founded in 2002 by designer Paul Budnitz, Kidrobot is the world's premier creator of limited edition art toys and apparel. Kidrobot creates toys, apparel, accessories, and other products in collaboration with many of the world's most talented artists and designers. The products sold at Kidrobot are the centerpieces of a global movement that exemplifies the cutting edge of both pop art and mass culture. Many Kidrobot toys, such as Dunny, MUNNY, and Frank Kozik's Labbits and Mongers, attract huge followings. Artists that work with Kidrobot have gained celebrity status-these include USA artists Frank Kozik, Tim Biskup, Huck Gee, Joe Ledbetter, Tristan Eaton, Paul Budnitz, and Tara McPherson; the German design collective eBoy; Japan's Devilrobots & Mad Barbarians; French street artists Tilt & Mist; the UK's TADO and ilovedust; Australia's Nathan Jurevicius; Argentina's DOMA; and many, many others. Kidrobot also regularly collaborates with many of the world's top brands to create unique limited editions products. Past collaborations include Marc Jacobs, Visionaire Magazine, Barneys New York, The Standard Hotels, Playboy, Burton, Nike, Lacoste, Nooka, Matt Groening & more. A blend of sculpture and popular art, many of Kidrobot's exclusive toys are extremely rare and collectible. Artists often create a series of only a few hundred Paul Budnitz is the founder of Kidrobot, the world's premiere creator of art toys, fashion apparel and accessories. Budnitz studied photography, sculpture, and film at Yale University, earning honors and a degree in Art in 1990. As Budnitz's energies became increasingly devoted to moving images he became aware of gaps in existing technology. "Since there weren't any affordable ways to edit a film on a computer in 1995, I hacked my own hardware system to edit my films," he says. He made the first feature film to be edited on a home computer, an achievement chronicled in Wired magazine in 1996. Budnitz's career took another unexpected turn in 2002 when he came across images of edgy vinyl toys that were coming out of China and Japan. These toys included "vinyl toys based on cereal box characters, and remixed GI-Joes turned into stylized B-boys." He recognized the quirky, intricate toys as works of popular-art, pieces that mixed many aesthetic movements he loved -- including fashion, cartoons, graffiti, comics, music, and fine art. Budnitz sold Minidisco and sunk the proceeds into founding Kidrobot in a California garage in 2002. Leveraging the technology he'd developed for his older businesses and moved the new company to New