Tatsuhiko Akashi and the bear that has no face
It was born of a shortage of time before a deadline. It became the canvas that KAWS, Chanel, Basquiat and Supreme paint on.
On 27 May 2001, Tatsuhiko Akashi handed the guests of the World Character Convention in Tokyo a free gift: a simple, white plush bear with a red "@" on its chest. BE@RBRICK wasn't a planned project — Akashi had a deadline and no time, so he took the silhouette of a bear (which happened to be celebrating its centenary in 2000) and mapped it onto the shape of his earlier Kubrick figure. The result was so simple that it became genius. Today it's one of the most expensive designer toys in the world.
The man behind Medicom Toy
Akashi was an ordinary office worker at a computer company who dreamed of his own toy firm. In 1996 he founded Medicom Toy in Shibuya. His philosophy is simple: make things you'd want to own yourself. No research, no focus groups — only a collector's intuition. When employees come with an idea, Akashi asks: "do you really want it? Then make it."
Sizes and percentages
BE@RBRICK is measured in percentages from a base of 7 cm (100%). 400% is 28 cm, 1000% is 70 cm — and it's these two sizes that are the heart of the collector's market. Each figure has nine movable parts: the head, torso, hips, arms, hands and legs. The same skeleton for over twenty years — only the deco changes. And that's exactly the genius of the form.
An empty form for the artist
BE@RBRICK isn't a character with a personality — it's an empty form waiting for an artist. KAWS painted his cross on it, the Warhol Foundation its pop-art cans, Basquiat graffiti, Chanel tweed fabrics, H.R. Giger biomechanical horror. Each collaboration is at once a figure and a work of art — which is why BE@RBRICK hangs in galleries and stands on CEOs' desks.
Prices and records
In 2008, Yue Minjun's BE@RBRICK "Qiu Tu" (1000%) sold at auction for nearly 200,000 dollars. Karl Lagerfeld's Chanel 1000% from 2007 costs over 19,000 USD on StockX today. The collector's record belongs to Gao Ke from China — 1,008 pieces certified by Guinness in 2020. Pharrell Williams, G-Dragon, Justin Bieber — everyone collects.
Akashi created a bear that has no face — so that everyone could write their own onto it. It's not a figure. It's a question: what do you want to say?
Iconic collaborations
The whole BE@RBRICK collection is waiting for you here — the form that conquered the galleries.
See the collection →Follow: Medicom Toy · medicomtoy.co.jp
