FLOAT 100 · Art · No. 96
Companion (Flayed) Black
KAWS cut his skull-faced Mickey in half to show the brain and guts inside, sold it for $200 through museum shops in November 2016, and the unnumbered vinyl toy now changes hands for several times that.
- Year
- 2016
- Maker
- KAWS
- By price in art
- 98 of 100
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Create a free account- Artist
- KAWS (Brian Donnelly, born 1974, Jersey City, New Jersey)
- Character
- Companion, created in 1999
- Version
- Flayed: half the figure shows its interior, from the brain to the guts
- Colorway
- Black exterior with a multicolored interior
- Medium
- Painted cast vinyl, produced by Medicom Toy
- Size
- About 11 x 5 x 3 in (27.9 x 12.7 x 7.6 cm); about 28 cm tall in auction listings
- Edition
- Open edition, unnumbered
- U.S. release
- November 22, 2016, at $200 retail
- Sold through
- KAWSONE, the Museum of Modern Art store and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
- Markings
- KAWS signature and 2016 stamped on the bottom of the foot; sold sealed in a clear blister package
A cartoon, dissected
Companion is the most recognizable figure in KAWS's work: a gray, clown-like character based on Mickey Mouse, with two bones sticking out of its head and X's where the eyes should be. KAWS created it in 1999, and that year a Japanese company called Bounty Hunter produced it as his first vinyl toy.
The flayed version cuts the figure down the middle. One side is the familiar cartoon body; the other is peeled open to show what is inside, from the brain to the guts, rendered in bright colors like an anatomy model. On the black Companion (Flayed), the outer half is black and the exposed interior is multicolored.
In 2016 KAWS released a run of six Companions, full-body and flayed, as open editions made by Medicom Toy. The flayed figures came out in black, brown and gray in November 2016; a fourth color, blush, followed in June 2017. They are unnumbered, which is what 'open edition' means here: there is no fixed, published quantity.
From Jersey City rooftops to museum gift shops
Brian Donnelly was born on November 4, 1974, in Jersey City, New Jersey. As a teenager he invented the tag KAWS, a word with no meaning that he liked for the way the letters looked, and painted it on a rooftop he could see from his high school classroom. He studied illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
His career has always moved between street art, galleries and products. After the 1999 Bounty Hunter toy he worked with Japanese partners including A Bathing Ape and Medicom Toy, and with Medicom he ran the brand and store OriginalFake in Aoyama from 2006 to May 2013. In 2012 the Companion became a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
In 2016 KAWS began a long partnership with the clothing retailer Uniqlo, starting with a Sesame Street line. His paintings and large sculptures, meanwhile, reached far higher prices: in April 2019 his painting The KAWS Album sold in Hong Kong for HK$115.9 million, about $14.7 million, an auction record for him at the time.
November 2016: Where the End Starts
The flayed Companions were released alongside KAWS: Where the End Starts, a major survey of his career at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, which ran from October 20, 2016, to January 22, 2017, before traveling to the Yuz Museum in Shanghai. The curator, Andrea Karnes, presented his paintings, sculptures, drawings, toys and street work together.
In Japan, the open editions first sold at Medicom Toy's own shop, and an online sale for Japanese residents only began on November 5, 2016, at ¥21,600 each including tax. A Paris gallery's online store offered them at €191 each before tax. In the United States the black, brown and gray flayed figures were released on November 22, 2016, at $200, through KAWSONE, the Museum of Modern Art and the Fort Worth museum, and they sold out quickly.
It was the same month that Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election and the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series since 1908.
From $200 to the secondary market
The black flayed Companion now trades well above its $200 retail price, mostly through dealers and resellers rather than at auction.
In October 2026 one art-toy dealer listed a sealed example at $995, and another offered one in mint condition in its original box at $990.00. A third gallery has listed the black flayed figure at $2,000. At auction, a sealed example offered in Hong Kong in June 2026 with an estimate of $2,000 to $2,500 went unsold.
How to identify a genuine one
A genuine 2016 Companion (Flayed) in black stands about 11 inches tall, measuring roughly 27.9 x 12.7 x 7.6 cm, and auction catalogs list it at about 28 cm. The FLOAT record gives 12 inches; the dealers and auction houses we checked give 11 inches or 28 cm.
The bottom of the foot is stamped with KAWS's signature and '2016.' The figure was sold sealed in a transparent blister package, and many collectors keep it unopened.
Counterfeits are a real problem for KAWS figures. In May 2023 KAWS won a legal case against a man in Singapore he had accused of making replicas of his Companion figure and other toys, skateboards and artworks. The stamp under the foot, the original sealed package and a purchase record from the 2016 retailers are the main things collectors check.
The numbers
- Medium
- Painted cast vinyl
- Dimensions
- 11 x 5 x 3 in (27.9 x 12.7 x 7.6 cm)
- Edition size
- Open edition, unnumbered
- Manufacturer
- Medicom Toy
- Release
- November 22, 2016 (U.S.), $200 retail
- Markings
- KAWS signature and 2016 stamped under the foot
Timeline
Brian Donnelly, later KAWS, is born in Jersey City, New Jersey.
KAWS creates Companion; Bounty Hunter produces it as his first vinyl toy.
KAWS and Medicom Toy open the OriginalFake brand and store in Aoyama.
Companion appears as a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
KAWS: Where the End Starts opens at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Medicom Toy begins an online sale of the open-edition Companions for Japanese residents at ¥21,600 each.
The black, brown and gray Companion (Flayed) open editions are released in the U.S. at $200.
Where the End Starts closes in Fort Worth before traveling to Shanghai.
A fourth flayed colorway, blush, is released.
The KAWS Album sets an auction record for the artist in Hong Kong.
KAWS wins a legal case in Singapore over counterfeit Companion figures.
A sealed black flayed Companion goes unsold at auction in Hong Kong.
U.S. dealers list the figure at $990.00 and $995.
The world in 2016
The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union.
Pokemon Go is released and breaks sales and revenue records.
The Summer Olympics open in Rio de Janeiro, the first held in South America.
The Chicago Cubs win the World Series for the first time since 1908.
Donald Trump is elected the 45th president of the United States.
Italy's constitutional referendum fails and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigns.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 22, 2016 | $200 | Asking price, not a saleU.S. retail price at release. |
| Oct 3, 2026 | $995 | Asking price, not a saleListed by a U.S. art-toy dealer. |
| Oct 3, 2026 | $990 | Asking price, not a saleListed by a dealer, mint in original box. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Companion (Flayed) Black is number 98 of 100 in the art entries of the FLOAT 100. 88 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (96 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The word KAWS has no meaning; Donnelly chose it because he liked how the letters looked.
- The flayed Companions were sold in museum shops, including the Museum of Modern Art's.
- The same flayed design came in four colors: black, brown and gray in 2016, and blush in 2017.
- In Japan the figures sold for ¥21,600 each, tax included, and only to Japanese residents online.
- For the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, KAWS redesigned the Moonman trophy in the form of his Companion.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026