Phenom, the urban streetwear store that opened earlier this year on Grand, carries all the fly footwear, tees, jeans and hoodies a guy could ever need to distinguish himself from the mall-shopping herd. But if one gets the feeling that a thousand tiny eyes are watching from the perimeter of the store, well, it's true. They are the plastic eyes of Kid Robot vinyl toys, which come in several different, addictively collectible groups. Mongers, for example: a line of anthropomorphic characters such as bananas, ice cream cones and watermelons, all clench cigarettes between their molded lips. Fat Caps look like the spray-paint caps on cans and come with metal balls in their guts so they rattle like they're in a graffiti artist's grip. There are big Munny dolls that artists can paint and design themselves. Two other wildly popular series, the Icebots and the Dunnys, sold out last spring, but the newest series arrived in late summer. The best part about these palm-sized toys, whose names sound like a foreign language to the uninitiated, is that they're sold in blind packages, so collectors don't know what their toy looks like until they open the sealed foil inside the box. Some have opened their boxes to reveal valuable, limited-edition toys. It's a thrill even Famous Footwear shoppers can appreciate.
