"J-Town Urban Da’Crew" resin figure set by Eric Liem

So what do you get when your major influences are Eric So, Tim Tsui, and Michael Lau... well, in the case of Indonesian born Eric Liem, you get "J-TOWN URBAN DA’CREW"! This figure set was actually Eric's final project back when he was in school in mid 2006. The first idea is to represent the explosion of street culture movement in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the J-TOWN URBAN DA'CREW did just that. Eric created 3 main characters "DOOM" the big bruiser, "VANDAL" the sly/shifty one, and "SPICE" a sweet little girl with an edge!! Eric tells us that the first time he read the review about Michael Lau in IDN magazine, it gave him a euphoric experience and new perception about toys, that and being a collector... he started in on this journey. Want to know more about this project... hit the jump for full bios of each character as well as more pics and info on how to snag these up!

DOOM
“Scratchin’ to beats that are not from this world.”

DOOM works at a vinyl record shop, scratch DJ-ing at underground clubs part-time. He’s been in love with hip-hop ever since his late big brother, BIG-D, gave him his first Grandmaster Flash record. BIG-D also taught him to draw graffiti, which DOOM often does in his pastime. DOOM hasn’t been very talkative since his older brother died; some say he was killed by gangsters, but no one knows for sure.

SPICE
“Roll with me or get outta my way.”

Rollerblade skater. Freestyle rapper. Street artist. A sweet girl who lures you in, then kicks your ass. DOOM met SPICE in an underground hip-hop gig where she did a freestyle rap to the record he was spinning. They say she’s actually the daughter of the biggest triad in Jakarta, her father owning nearly the whole city. Story has it, she walks under the shadow of an invisible ninja—touch her and before you know it, your head will roll to the ground.

VANDAL
“You can’t catch me even on 24 frames per second.”

A crazy boy with ADD who can breakdance like nobody’s business, VANDAL is like an own brother to DOOM. Nobody knows where VANDAL works, although there are stories around of him secretly working with makers of military weapons and tanks. There’s reasonable proof that VANDAL actually has a superior IQ; he just can’t seem to focus on one thing at a time. “If you give him Rasta monsta, it’ll fast-forward him, like a bullet in full speed. Play games with him, and he’ll break the console.”

As you can see, so much time and effort went into creating these, and I love that throwback flavor of design... LOVE!!!!! Eric even went as far as to create a handmade wooden box that holds all three resin figures that can actually be purchased for 1,200,000 IDR or $135 for one set... which includes that handmade wood packaging and certificate! If interested drop Eric a line via phantasma.studio@gmail.com to get all the juicy details worked out! Eric tells us that J-TOWN URBAN DA’CREW project won’t end here, this is just the beginning. Stay up to date by following Eric's blog HERE and his Tumblr HERE!