SANDy: Tokidoki [95][Rainbow Edition]

Toy Tokyo is a renowned specialty toy store located in New York City’s East Village at 91 Second Avenue, between East 5th and East 6th Streets. Established in 2000 by owner Israel “Lev” Levarek, the store has become a haven for collectors and enthusiasts, offering a diverse selection of toys and collectibles.   The store specializes in a wide range of items, including vintage and contemporary toys, action figures, designer art toys, and pop culture memorabilia. Much of its inventory is imported from Japan and Hong Kong, featuring products related to anime, superheroes, and iconic franchises. Notably, Toy Tokyo offers exclusive items from brands such as KAWS, Funko, Ron English, and Medicom Toy. Pop! Vinyl by Funko is one of the most recognizable and successful collectible toy lines in the world. Launched in 2010, these figures feature a distinctive design with oversized heads, small bodies, and minimal facial features, often with black, round eyes. The line covers a vast range of characters from movies, TV shows, video games, anime, sports, and pop culture. Despite their mass-market nature, Funko Pops have influenced the designer toy scene by popularizing vinyl collectibles, introducing mainstream audiences to the joy of collecting, and occasionally collaborating with artists for unique, stylized designs. Funko is an American company known for producing licensed pop culture collectibles, most notably its Pop! Vinyl figures. Founded in 1998 by Mike Becker and later sold to Brian Mariotti, Funko started with bobbleheads before evolving into a global powerhouse in the collectible toy industry. Pop! Vinyl Line (2010–Present) – The company’s most famous product, featuring stylized figures with oversized heads, covering franchises from movies, TV shows, video games, sports, anime, and more. Funko has partnerships with Disney, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Harry Potter, anime studios, music artists, and sports leagues, making it one of the most diverse collectible brands. The company produces various collectibles, including Dorbz – Smaller, rounder figures with a smiling aesthetic. Funko Soda – Vinyl figures packaged in a soda can-style container. Funko Gold – Premium stylized figures, mainly for sports and music icons. Board Games & NFTs – Expanding into digital and tabletop gaming spaces. Retail & Fan Culture – Funko has flagship stores, exclusive online drops, and a massive presence at conventions like SDCC, NYCC, and ECCC. Funko has democratized collecting, making it more accessible with affordable pricing and an endless variety of figures. While not an art toy brand, its influence has helped mainstream vinyl figure Simone Legno is the creative director and co-founder of tokidoki. Born in Rome, Italy, Legno, drew incessantly as a child. The boxes of chewed, broken and unsharpened pencils he adored as a kid were the beginnings of a passion for art that led to the eventual creation of tokidoki, Legno’s online portfolio of the same name. tokidoki means “sometimes” in Japanese. Legno, who has always had a deep love of Japan and fascination with world cultures, chose the word because he feels “everyone waits for moments that change one’s destiny, by chance or by meeting a new person”. Simone's special moment arrived when his designs drew the attention of entrepreneurs Pooneh Mohajer and Ivan Arnold, who spied the art on his personal website and convinced him to move to L.A. to start up a dynamic new partnership with them. Simone has been a sought-after speaker around the world at museums, universities and conferences, from MOCA (the Geffen Museum-Los Angeles) to the Adobe MAX conference, UCLA, USC, the Flash Film Festival in San Francisco, Istituto Europeo di Design in Rome, Grafika Manila and many others.