Artist: Michael Lau 
Series:  Original Tatto from the Gardener Series
Date Purchased: Early 2000’s
Price purchased: $100-$150CAD

Story:  No real interesting story with this one.  This was an ebay buy for me.  It was probably my second Michael Lau figure purchase.  Michael Lau was first known for his collection of 101 Gardeners.  They were 101 12inch (1:6 scale) custom street-wear style figures.  These were incredible and really the first of their kind.  They are extremely limited, not really massed produced and if you can find one today, it’ll cost you in the $15-$30+K range.  After exhibiting his Gardeners, he started making smaller, more affordable vinyl versions of each of his characters, usually sold at his exhibitions.  This Tatto figure was the first of the 6inch vinyl Gardeners and was shown and sold at the 1999 MIchael Lau Exhibition III – Crazysmiles (Hong Kong Arts Centre).  It would take another two years before he would release another vinyl Gardener.  This subsequent releases from the Gardener series were subsequently produced by another manufacturer (I think it was Bandai). They actually released another Tatto version produced by this new manufacturer which is quite different from this.  As a result, this is viewed as the original (I believe 1,000 produced) and also came in a black and white (Lazy) version.  This was probably my first Michael Lau holy grail.  I heard a rumor of a version with blue underpants somewhere out there but I’ve never seen it.