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To the right is the majority of vinyl figures Michael Lau has made. Don't mistake these for mass market pieces. Michael's figures are produced in low numbers. For any given series there are anywhere between 50 to 1000 made. The Jan Lam, Lam Dog and Baby Lam (Lam Swim) figures being among the biggest set of figures and variants produced by Michael. Those figures were almost exclusively sold at Jan Lam concerts, making collectors of the figures Die-Hard fans of Michael's work. The other figures are sold at gallery openings, select shops in Asia, Europe and occasionally extremely rare sets in Toy Shows. There are no reproductions so consider how hard it is to get a complete set of anything like all 9 of Michael's original Crazy Children. Now imagine how hard it is to get a complete set when the figures have a global demand but are only sold at gallery openings in Japan and Hong Kong! |
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By rows from the top: Original Tattoo, Lam Dog Prototype, Jan Lam and Lam Dog, Jan Lam variants including the KISS Jan Lam, 8" Jan, Baby Lam, LamDog, Crazy Children, MC Yan, Lazy Yan, Davy (Stone Edition, Regular, Fire), Kai and Meera, Wee Wee and Wa Wa, 3" Crazy Children Sets, PARCO Exhibition Tattoo and Brian, Crazy Children Mr. A, Mr. B and Woo C.
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Of the figures pictured above, the set I am most interested are the 6" Crazy Children. Each figure came with an additional piece. If you managed to get all nine then you could assemble all of the pieces and get Crazy Children figure ten, a 6" Michael Lau. There were three complete sets of smaller 3" Crazy Children available to those who didn't get the larger figures. One set was in the original colors, the second in black and the third in a gray tone. If I can't find all nine original Crazy Children, that is if I can't find them for a reasonable price, then I am going to settle on the smaller set. |
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Above are all nine of the original Crazy Children. From left to right: Fatback, Thinbone, Deadkid, Longfour, Littlewest, Podgy, Crylon, Skatebroke, Brothereight with the assembled figure, Michael Lau, at the end.
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In 2003 Michael finished his lettered Crazy Children (below) A, B, C.. all the way to letter I. Each figure also came with an extra piece so you could assemble a final mystery figure. |
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Above and below are most of the new Crazy Children (not to scale). From left to right, top to bottom, Mr. A, Mr. B, Woo C, the Pig, Child F (the CC King), the Bear, Meter Chen, Cat, Boy D. and Junkie.
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| As you can see Michael is not limiting himself to human Crazy Children. Michael received a lot of criticism from fans for making many variations of the Pig and Bear, which were also very small figures by CC standards. The figures also received flack from fans for the jagged design cues and nonconforming style.
The previous generation of Crazy Children had similar poses and design cues. The latest generation of figures varies from rough (Pig and Bear) to more traditional design cues like in the Crazy Children King. However fans are still collecting the figures and mystery pieces in order to assemble the next mystery Crazy Child which was a large Michael. On the right is a picture of the ambitious King of the Crazy Children. Look carefully and you will notice that his throne is made of old Crazy Children boxes and he is holding a miniature Michael Lau figure in his hand. |
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At the end of 2002 Michael released a very limited figure for a crossover project between himself, Fiberops (designers) and Nike (ACG). This figure is rendered in the rough style and has a pixelated face similar to the other Crazy Children. As an official Crazy Children character (complete with mystery piece) his name is Boy D.
Boy D also features the Nike shoes, shirt and colors designated by the crossover. |
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In addition to Boy D, Michael also showed off some new CC Bear figures at the winter 2002 ToyCon. Each figure was designed and/or modified by one of Michael's friends.
From left to right the designer CC Bears were made by: Michael, maharishi, Junkie, Wallace and Prodip. Many thanks to Eva of Urban Vinyl.ru for the images. |
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To the right is one of the last figures that Michael produced in the 2002 calendar year. This figure is based on the character Cat and is vastly different than any other piece produced by Michael.
The figure of Cat is wearing one of 17 possible clothing styles. She comes packaged with a small blue cat and a mystery piece. |
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Crazy Children #19 AKA "JUNKIE" turned up at the Hong Kong Toycon in August 2003. The Junkie figure is based on a real person (Godfrey Kwan) and friend of Michael, similar to Meter Chen.
The little dog pictured below left is Junkie's pet dog Ah-B. The figure features an extendible torso and arms, another first for Michael. The hat and glasses are also removable. Junkie is a famous graphic designer and artist in his own right, a booklet of his art comes with each limited-edition figure. The plastic transparent cloud pictured far left also comes with the figure and can be fitted over the head of Junkie or Ah-B. The smoking reference is implied without a cigarette (or something greener) actually being placed in the hands of the character. |
| As with the original series of Crazy Children, all of the mystery pieces fit together to assemble the final character. In both cases the figure has been Michael.
The new assembled Michael character was much larger than his previous incarnation. Plus the character came with a hat and was presented in the same jagged–stylized manner as many of the second generation Crazy Children (including a pixelated face). Thanks goes out to Jason Lee (not the skateboarder / actor, but the "other" Jason Lee) for the image. Check his gallery to see more pics. |
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A culmination in Michael's various styles can be seen in his summer 2003 release of the CrazyChildren hood series. Above right are "The Girl and My Cat" below right are "The Boy and My Dog" figures.
The figures are very animated and a play and perhaps parody on both Michael's earlier work as well as the current movement of releasing play sets with figures. Michael substitutes Crazy Children boxes taped together as furniture. The heads of the figures and pets themselves are boxes as well. In the Gardener world figures with box heads are also known as pedestrians or generic community members. The CC Hood figures represent the beginning of the third generation of Crazy Children figures, each with a mystery piece that will assemble another secret figure. |
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One of the CCHood figures turned out to be none other than a young Michael. It is my understanding that this figure was one of the pieces that came with the Boy or Girl CCHood figure. Other items included the vinyl pieces for assembling the mystery figure as well as dice.
The speculation for the dice, packing material and extra pieces is that not only will collectors be able to assemble another mystery figure, but also an entire game board to play on! Thanks goes to jlamkk for getting me a picture of these figures. |
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At the end of 2003 Michael was in the beginning of a big change. He announced that it would be his final presentation at the 2003 Toycon in Hong Kong, from now on his work would be premiered and sold at SIXS.
In addition to the CCHood figures premiered at the end of 2003 Michael also released S.F.C.C. characters (sci-fi CC) SFCC #21 G.E.O.R.G.E. (immediate right) and SFCC #22 P.E.T.E.R. In unifying the theme of packing materials and figure boxes as seen in the furniture of the CC King and CC Hood figures both G.E.O.R.G.E. and P.E.T.E.R. are designed in presented in the same media. The packing material theme is a play on people that order everything online and never venture from the house. G.E.O.R.G.E. and P.E.T.E.R. are delivery men ensuring that all packages arrive safely to their destination. |
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Each of the new S.F.C.C. figures also comes with a mystery piece so that a new (and rather large) figure can be assembled.
Left to right: SFCC #23 T.O.M. and SFCC #24 J.A.M.E.S. In early 2004 both joined the third generation of Crazy Children characters. Images courtesy of DP-MHI. |
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In July 2004, Michael released the fifth and sixth S.F.C.C. figures. From left to right are SFCC #26 R.I.C.H.A.R.D and SFCC #25 S.T.E.P.H.E.N.
If you look closely you will notice that these figures also include sticker logos for MHI and Maharishi. Images courtesy of DP-MHI. |
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The S.F.C.C. Exhibition and release lasted at the SIXS gallery from July 14 to August 14, 2004. The final three S.F.C.C. figures are presented here. From left to right: SFCC #27 D.A.V.I.D SFCC #28 M.A.R.Y. (the only female SFCC figure) and SFCC #29 W.H.O.
Images courtesy of DP-MHI. |
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As with all of the previous generations of Crazy Children the final S.F.C.C. character (SFCC #30) is assembled from the mystery pieces.
This figure is named M.I.C.H.A.E.L. and is among the largest figures that Michael has ever produced. The body and frame is based on the S.F.L.M.F. figures. Images courtesy of DP-MHI. |
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The August 2004 SIXS release saw the debut of the Undelivery CC figures. Each of the figures was hand customized and produced in very limited numbers. The figures sold out in the first few minutes of their offering.
From left to right meet Undelivery CC 22 and Undelivery CC 21. Images courtesy of DP-MHI. |
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| August 2004 SIXS event also premiered the latest SFCC figure, SFRBCC #31. From left to right the figures are cutomized for each release location, SIXS, METEROOM and Maharishi.
Images courtesy of DP-MHI, Gardenercrazys, METEROOM and Ningyoushi's Workshop. |
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Michael released limited-edition tees for each of his new S.F.C.C. characters. These tees featured one illustration of the new characters and came with a sticker sheet and small S.F.C.C. character.
All of the goodies can be seen in part of Michael's dedication to the figure art. The tees are unique and rare, by adding the stickers for the packages of the S.F.C.C. "deliveries" and smaller characters Michael has outdone himself yet again. Images courtesy of Ningyoushi's Workshop, Gardenercrazys and Meteroom. |
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Many call these characters the pets of the S.F.C.C. These small characters, from left to right: S.F.C. (SFCC Pet), S.F.R.B. (SFCC Assistant), S.F.D. (SFCC Pet). The figures came with tees of the following characters: S.F.C.C. #21 G.E.O.R.G.E., S.F.C.C. #22 P.E.T.E.R., S.F.C.C. #23 T.O.M. AND S.F.C.C. #24 J.A.M.E.S. |
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In October 2004, Michael had his FINAL S.F. show at the GPS store in London. To celebrate the show Michael and Maharishi collaborated to create the GPS limited edition SF variants, from left to right, GPS 21, GPS 22 and GPS 23.
Each box was signed by Michael and comes with a mini Michael. Each GPS figure has a maharishi bonsai DPM camouflage jacket in one of 5 different camouflage variants. Only 25 of each jacket variant produced and only available at DP-MHI. Images courtesy of DP-MHI. |
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 Click on Michael's back to go to the Lam Dog and LMF page. |
 Click on Michael to go to the Tom Kids & Tokyo Tribe page. |
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There are rules regarding the images on these pages:
Fan-based web page and illustrations by Noe V. Created circa 2001, restored in March 2024, updated infrequently |