Like Transformers I got into collecting Kidrobot figurines and statues pretty late. When I first discovered Kidrobot I think I was just surfing the web when I came across a couple figurines online and I thought they were cool. At the time I was a little more reluctant with spending money online on dumb things than I am now and I was also unaware of the few brick and mortar stores Kidrobot was operating at the time nor did I know any other places that were selling their figurines so I didn’t know where to get them until an encounter with a few vendors at Frank and Sons and a couple trips to a Puzzle Zoo store.

Fast forward to 2015: At this point I’m really big into collecting of Kidrobot stuff. I’ve picked myself up quite a few larger figurines and I’ve dropped more money than I should have on blind boxes which has resulted in me owning way too many of the same figurines but even after this I was still hungry for more.

I remembered past trips to the Kidrobot store in Los Angeles on Fairfax had resulted in me picking up a lot of cool stuff at a pretty good price. Unfortunately they had closed their doors the year before. Then I remembered another past trip to San Francisco and finding a Kidrobot store on Haight Street. Thinking that I was long overdue for a vacation and that I could also use this as an opportunity to visit some cousins in San Francisco I did a quick check on Google to make sure the Haight Street location was still open and made the arrangements to go up for a long weekend.

When I got to the Kidrobot store up on Haight Street I was a little disappointed. It was smaller than I remembered being probably less than half the size of the one that was on Fairfax and the selection of what they had was even smaller.

Considering my entire trip up to San Francisco was centered around going to the Kidrobot store I was determined not to leave empty handed so I scoured the store looking for cool pieces and that’s when I found this piece, a Lil Buddha by Missy M Toyz.

Missy M Toyz is a muralist and urban artist who specializes in customized artwork and collectible toys. Her Lil Buddha is a limited-edition piece of which only 500 pieces were made.

Here’s the box that Lil Buddha came in.

The Buddha I got was number 438 out of 500. I’m actually a little curious how many of these are still out there. If you go ont Missy M’s website she still has them for sale. I’m wondering if this is just a matter of her forgetting to update her website or does she actually still have a few of these things lying around.

Here is the actual Lil Buddha figure statue According to the description on Missy M Toyz’ website the hands of the Lil Buddha represent no fear while the large ears represents wisdom and the large earlobes represent longevity.

Here’s the backside of the Buddha featuring Missy M’s stamp.

On the bottom of the Lil Buddha is Missy M’s hand signed signature.

While I had my Lil Buddha out I decided to try my hand at some long exposure/light painting photography. The following photos show my attempts at doing it this. My intention of this exercise was to see if I could simulate the affect of my Lil Buddha sitting under a spotlight in a dark room.

Considering how small this thing it seems like a 13-15 second exposure time combined with a 5.0 aperture value seemed to be the sweet spot to get the effect I was going for. Although looking at my photos I really need to practice how I move the light so I can minimize or at least even out the glare that’s created from shining a light directly on my subject.

This final photo was taken with a 20 second exposure time and a 8.0 aperture value. This photo I thought came out really well except the lit area was a lot bigger than what I was aiming for. Other than this and the slight glare on Buddha’s forehead I thought it was probably one of my best shots.

Anyway thanks for checking this out. If you want to learn more about MissyM go ahead and check out her website. From what I’ve seen she’s pretty good with replying to fans on social media if you give her a shout out or tag her on something.

If you’re more interested in Kidrobot then go ahead and check out their website. From what I learned while googling them to write this I was a bit surprised to learn that the company almost went bankrupt in 2014 and is now currently owned by the National Entertainment Collectibles Association although this would explain a lot. If you were hoping to visit a Kidrobot store I’m sorry to say this but I’m pretty sure they’ve all been closed down. The store on Haight St. is still there in a way. It’s called Woot Bear and it looks like with the name change they’ve expanded their inventory to carry figurines and collectible artwork that isn’t Kidrobot as well.

I also hope you liked my attempt at light painting/long exposure stuff. I plan to keep practicing it so expect to see more of it soon. ‘m not sure if I’ll use it in that many posts since it is a tedious process and it’s really to screw up doing it but hey, that’s why you practice right?