The KAWS Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket figures are a 2010 vinyl figure pair released through Medicom Toy that directly appropriates two Disney characters and applies KAWS' signature X-eyes to both. Produced as a limited edition, the set remains one of the most discussed KAWS releases of the early 2010s because it engaged Disney IP themes years before any formal Disney collaboration existed.
What These Figures Are
Released in 2010 through Medicom Toy — KAWS' longtime production partner for vinyl figures dating back to the original Companion in 1999 — the Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket pair sits at an unusual crossroads in the artist's catalog. Unlike the Companion, BFF, Chum, and Accomplice characters that KAWS designed from the ground up, Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket are direct character appropriations of figures owned by The Walt Disney Company.
The execution is unmistakably KAWS: the trademark X-eyes are applied to both characters, Pinocchio is rendered in his familiar yellow hat, blue shorts, and red bowtie configuration, and Jiminy Cricket carries his green coat, top hat, and umbrella. The pair was released together, in matching scale, and was produced in a limited edition through Medicom's standard vinyl-figure manufacturing process at the time.
For collectors who came up through KAWS' OriginalFake-era releases (the Tokyo storefront closed in 2013), Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket sit alongside the Companion, BFF, and Chum releases as a defining piece of the 2008–2013 designer-toy window — a period that is now permanently closed and structurally finite.
Why This Release Matters
KAWS' Earliest Direct Disney Engagement
KAWS — born Brian Donnelly in Jersey City, NJ, in 1974 — built his early career subverting recognizable pop iconography. The Smurfs, Snoopy, The Simpsons, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Mickey Mouse all received the X-eyes treatment in his paintings, screenprints, and figures throughout the late 1990s and 2000s. The Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket pair, however, is one of the first instances where KAWS engaged directly with Disney-owned characters at vinyl-figure scale.
That matters because it predates the eventual softening of KAWS' relationship with major IP holders. The 2019 Sotheby's Hong Kong sale of The KAWS Album — a painting that re-skins The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper cover with KAWS' Simpsons-derived characters — hammered for HK$115.97 million ($14.7M USD) and reframed appropriation works as blue-chip contemporary art. The Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket release sits chronologically and conceptually upstream of that institutional validation.
The Licensing Question
One of the most-asked questions about this pair is whether it was officially licensed by Disney. Public record does not show a formal Disney licensing agreement covering the 2010 Medicom release. This places the figures in the same category as much of KAWS' early appropriation work: published, sold, and traded openly, but operating under fair-use and appropriation-art conventions rather than formal IP partnership.
For collectors, this status creates a specific tension. It means the pair is intentionally finite — it cannot be reissued through a formal Disney channel without re-licensing — and it means authentication needs to track back to the original Medicom production run, not to any post-hoc Disney-branded restamp.
Authentication: What Verifies an Original Medicom Production
Because KAWS counterfeits remain one of the highest-rate forgery problems in the contemporary collectibles market, every secondary-market purchase needs to verify that the figure originated from the 2010 Medicom production run. The authentication chain Gauntlet Gallery uses on KAWS vinyl figures rests on the following checkpoints:
| Authentication Point | What to Verify |
|---|---|
| Medicom Toy stamping | Underside or foot stamp showing Medicom Toy mark and copyright year |
| KAWS signature mark | Embossed KAWS signature consistent with 2010-era Medicom production |
| Original packaging | Medicom-branded box with matching production-year graphics, intact seal preferred |
| Vinyl finish | Factory paint application, no aftermarket touch-up; X-eye registration is clean |
| Provenance chain | Original retail receipt, OriginalFake or AllRightsReserved purchase record, or auction-house lot record |
Counterfeit KAWS vinyl typically fails on three points: stamp depth and font weight, paint application crispness around the X-eyes, and packaging print quality. Gauntlet Gallery's authentication process triangulates against the 160,000+ comparable sales database to flag anomalies before any piece is listed.
OneCOA + NFC Verification
Every KAWS and BE@RBRICK piece that passes Gauntlet Gallery's authentication carries a OneCOA certificate with an embedded NFC tag, allowing the buyer to verify the piece against a tamper-resistant digital record. This is the same authentication chain applied across the entire KAWS and Medicom-produced category — consistent, category-specific, and never mixed with the chains used for Shepard Fairey, Warhol, Death NYC, or music memorabilia.
Secondary Market Context
The KAWS designer-toy market overall is estimated at over $2 billion as of 2023, with annual auction and resale volume exceeding $200 million. The Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket pair occupies a specific niche within that market: it is too small an edition to behave like a Companion mass release, but too IP-sensitive to ever be reissued through a formal channel.
Documented secondary-market activity for the pair over the past several years has tracked a pattern consistent with other closed-edition, OriginalFake-era KAWS vinyl: gradual price appreciation, with significant premium attached to sealed, in-box examples that retain original Medicom packaging. Loose examples and examples with packaging damage trade at a meaningful discount to sealed pairs. As with all KAWS vinyl, condition grading and packaging integrity drive a substantial portion of realized price.
Buyers evaluating the pair on the open market should expect a wide spread between authenticated, sealed examples sold through reputable dealers and unverified listings on open marketplaces — a spread that reflects the documented 40–60% counterfeit rate seen across KAWS vinyl categories.
Where the Pinocchio & Jiminy Cricket Pair Sits in the KAWS Catalog
Within the broader KAWS collector universe, this pair belongs to a small group of releases that share three traits: direct appropriation of an existing licensed character, production through Medicom Toy, and a release date inside the OriginalFake era. That group is structurally finite and cannot be expanded. For collectors building a focused KAWS vinyl collection, the pair often functions as a complement to a core Companion or BFF holding rather than a standalone anchor.
For deeper background on KAWS' overall catalog, edition structures, and authentication standards across Companion, BFF, Chum, and Accomplice releases, see our full KAWS Collector Guide.
The Gauntlet Gallery View
Founded in 2012, Gauntlet Gallery has catalogued 160,000+ comparable sales across street art and contemporary collectibles, with one of the most granular KAWS authentication datasets in the secondary market. Every KAWS piece we list is authenticated against that database, carries a OneCOA certificate with NFC verification, and is sold with a full provenance trail.
If you're evaluating a Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket pair — or any KAWS vinyl piece — we can verify it against our authentication standards before you commit capital. Browse our current inventory at gauntlet.gallery/collections/all or reach out for a direct authentication review.