Ever changing, challenging and re-inventing, designer toys are in a never-ending state of flux. Old becomes new and new can become pioneering.
Flux is an intimate and exciting journey through the idiosyncrasies of designer playthings — every artist featured offers you the chance to meet the quirky characters of their imagination, and see the world through their eyes.
Not just toys, this book is bursting at the seams with inspiration. The supporting artwork tells the story of the development of characters — how the initial sketch of a good character can make it across media through vinyl, advertising, animation, illustration, cloth design, and much more. This title also presents exclusive new works and a hint of what is to come from this ever-expanding discipline.
Flux – Designer Toys doesn’t just show you the characters and artwork from designers worldwide, it provides a glimpse into the thoughts and aims of the person behind the art.
This is 320 pages, Paperback, 900 color illustrations andretails for $29.95, and you can pick it up HERE!
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Strangekiss Art Toys will be expanding and growing in a new direction with a few twists. We have ecstatically enjoyed production work so very much and after the release of Ollie the
Twitterrific bird, our demand has been growing strongly. We have decided to phase out 95% of all retail and replace that time wisely as we return to the roots of the designer vinyl scene and expand towards a brave new world.
Strangekiss will change the focus that our customers have been used to for the past years. The primary reason that we entered this genre, was to produce low run art toys, and it’s time to return to our roots.
Strangekiss was born out of a passion for the arts, and I have been documenting this genre in film for a very long time. I sold a successful web hosting business a few years ago and entered this small pin drop but lovely genre with open arms. Having a sales background, it was easy to slide into the retail portion of the lowbrow - pop art scene. This is an expensive business to enter if anyone is curious, so it helps to be stable financially to have fun and of course making a profit is awesome!
I have been thinking of this for quite some time and the following is how it was decided.
A few nights ago at a local pub, business people of all ages and types met to talk and of-course have a few drinks :). It was a very interesting and diverse group of business owners and artists. When I mean diverse, hmmm... Lets say that there was a 24-year-old Entrepreneur with hot LA fashion label and a 62-year-old Orthodox Jewish man (yes in full black with the hat) that owns a local medical marijuana dispensary. In total eight of us (including my buddy that makes custom surfboards, so if anybody want one, give us a shout!), settled in for a very animated discussion.
Sitting back we asked each other questions with a touch of Ale fueling the conversation. The main questions were:
What part if any would you give up in your business?
What is the best and worst thing about your business?
Why do you do it?
You’d think that these would be easy to answer, but instead we all immediately ordered another ale. The Orthodox man said "I hope I don't get Shikker or my Beryeh will kill me" (which means “drunk” and “wife” in Yiddish). We all sat about and laughed while trying to avoid the questions.
The artist that was there complained how biased and fickle the galleries and toy companies are in retrospect of his popularity and past hits. Its not about the art, its about the money as he compared a particular company to Wal-Mart. The Jewish man, I would give up the drama with the city and said the best is the best and the worst can always be worst. Why I do it, I have a family and one of them in chronic pain.
Upon my turn, I mentioned a recent email from a client asking “Why haven't you had anything new like you use carry weekly?" And the answer was easy, I don’t believe the field (genre) that I am in cares anymore about the artist, it’s all about the bottom dollar.
What part if any would you give up in your business?
I would give up the retailing as it’s time consuming and takes away from what I want to do. I love that we sell people art toys and they find enjoyment in their purchase. Buts its also exhaustive and I think bunches why I do it is for the artist not for the money as that is no concern. I run on principal and what will be expanding.
Thinking rationally about this I, decided that I would rather use my time differently and step away from focusing on retail. Phasing out 95% of retailing, Strangekiss would be left with what we believe to be exceptional art toys or objects of pop art, exclusives. The five percent will be the roots that I learned as I entered this game.
What is the best and worst thing about your business?
The best thing is the happy collector when they send a thank you email, and dealing with great artists that have passion and no drama attached!
The worst, well that could be a lot of things! I deal with a small genre that is filled with red tape that you think would not exist as it’s for the artist? I think the big companies in the game have forgotten about the core of what it should be, and that just sucks. I could on go for hours on this… I have been even considering a small lawsuit against a toy company in San Francisco that took advertising dollars 18 months ago, never granted us a wholesale account and never published this book. But did put out other publications in the meanwhile. Not for the money – Just out of principal of being ripped off!
Why do you do it?
I have an extreme passion for the creative as I understand the needs of being an artist and what faces them at every turn (I come from a fine photography background).
I can’t answer anymore why I do it. We have (had) a very competitive store that has matched the brick and mortars in google statistics and sales, but one leading continues to setup hurdles. It’s just silly and juvenile in so many ways. Don’t get me wrong I love money and domination, but when domination kills a small niche, it makes you wonder why do you do it?
I tipped glasses with my wife and the gentlemen and said, “I love my hobby business and how it has grown, but is it time to move forward”. We all said cheers took a shot and the conversation moved to the next entrepreneur.
We at Strangekiss hope you will enjoy and embrace our change as we try to constantly evolve. Sometimes to embrace the new, you need to return to the roots.
I wish to add that I know personally a lot of brick and mortars are in need of help but will never show that to the general public out of pride. We at Strangekiss fully support them! To understand the passion from a consumer reading this letter, there is a store on the east coast that is run by two people that work two full time jobs to keep their store going. That is dedication.
I will leave you with this as this came from one of the top people in this industry located somewhere on the East Coast where subways run like veins ☺
“Don’t think many people make money in this game, stores, manufacturers or artists. Seems like most of the big names artists that you know always seem broke to me too. I guess if you don’t love it then...”
Strangekiss loves this genre, sometimes love is hard!
Written by Michael Stills of Strangekiss
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Artist
SteffBomb created some amazingly cool plush "Ice Cream Sammy's", which are available now in her online store
HERE for $75 each. Steff notes that "
I know the price seems kinda steep, but because of all of the hand stitching, it takes me a whole 48 hours to sew one. sigh." understandably so! This adorable little guy is handsewn and made with enough tender loving care that he's good enough to chomp. Put him in your freezer, let him sit on a hot sidewalk, put him in the hands of a chubby kid with s**t smeared all over his face... it doesn't matter. This Ice Cream Sammy doesn't mind. He'll still be crying. This cool plush is 5.5" long, so snag one up while you can... also stay tuned for some new work from Steff in the near future!
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Elite Gudz’ team of artists will be spotlighted to the over 20,000 attendees at this year’s
Toy Fair at the Jacob Javitz Center, February 14-17, as they paint and sculpt live in the Designer Art Toy Isle. Curated by Elite Gudz in association with Shocker Toys, booth 4954 and 4955 will host artists
Phetus,
Mr. Den,
Rolo Ledesma,
Narek Gevorgian and
Nemo as they create artwork, live on the show floor.
In addition to the original works being created by the team in the Designer Toy Isle, Phetus will be crafting his art piece while on display in the Javitz Center’s main lobby. Phetus will work from within an art installation previously on display at the United Nations featuring children’s drawings from around the world entitled, “Pieces for Peace.” Also... check out the sneak peek look at their blank
“canvases” (
pretty creepy stuff) before the show and then keep your eyes peeled for pictures and videos of the finished pieces once Toy Fair 2010 wraps up.
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Monstock x Minoru Sugiama Moai Robo has everything that makes toys fun; two sided head, cute and clunky robot body, perfect size at about a little over 6 inches and it's black. It's the right amount of fun and evil. This is the second figure with Minoru Sugiama. His first is Pabarasu, a large and in charge birdly beast. Rumor has it that there will be a third in the series, think giant evil frog.
Next up is Softo San, or Mr. Soft serve ice cream to us. Starting his life in resin form, this new vinyl version has all the charm and is about 20% bulkier. You can expect many different flavors. So far there are vanilla, strawberry, squid ink and Luke's favorite, clear.
The last are from nature loving artist, Tanaka Shinpei. Neither Gaton nor Kameron have seen an official release as of yet, but you can be assured they will soon. Be sure to follow Monstock closely as 2010 is going to be their year. All this info and pictures were provided by Luke of
LuluBell's Toys Bodega!
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Kidrobot president,
Paul Budnitz is teasing us once again with posted pictures of a new
Kidrobot x Gloomy Bear toy coming out soon... not quit sure what this could be as of yet, but it appears to have the classic Gloomy shape, unlike the Dunny's that have recently released. Stay tuned for more info as it comes in!
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Vinyl Pulse just posted up some great shots of
Marka27’s upcoming 8” Half Dead Bic Buddy... which is going to be the first production 8” Bic Buddy design. We first saw the teaser posted
HERE, and could tell what this beast was going to be, but boy has the artwork caught me off guard... in a good way. Marka is mixing two of the best things on earth... Skeletons and Luchadors, so this is a must have in my opinion, and the 8" Bic Buddy is an amazingly large figure. This piece is going to be limited to 150 pieces, and will retail for only $60! If you have tickets to
Toy Fair this weekend you can spot this in person first hand because it will be at the Bic Plastics Booth No. 2866! Look for the figure to release at the upcoming “Buddy Custom Show” in LA (3.27) and NYC (4.9) featuring custom 8” Bic Buddies from a ton of talented artists!
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Rich from
Happy Panda Toys just passed over some awesome images of a new custom for thier upcoming custom show by FAS. The platform is a Lunartik in a Cup of Tea. The piece is 6.5" tall all hand painted in FAS fashion. This platform is so unassuming, and I had no idea so many great customs would have come from it... and Rich states that they still have tons of customs by Squidnik, Pocket Wookie, Motorbot, Moneroman, Leecifer & Nebulon 5 to come, so be on the lookout for those!
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Super 7 just posted up on their blog another spur of the moment release, and this time around it GLOWS!!!!!! This Rose Vampire, designed by
Josh Herbolsheimer, comes out at night, guided by its own pink glowing light... pure awesome, and this figure seems to be very much sought after so get those F5 keys ready on Saturday, February 13th, at 11am PST if you wanna pick one up!
Super7 Store1630 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
415.409.4700
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Stefan is a super talented artist, and a super cool guy to boot! You can now follow all of his updates via his Twitter profile HERE, not on Twitter yet? Get a move on!
From Stefan's Blog:
Good morning. The craziness of today's work schedule proves once again that it's easier to get ten things done than one. The pressure of having to slog through a long laundry list of tasks neutralizes the active ingredients in procrastination: doubt and fear. No time for that if you've got to finish two days worth of work in one night.
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Alright, for all of you rock stars out there... or wanna be rock stars for that matter, this one's for you!
TeeFury is an awesome website that sells T-shirts for $9 a pop...the only catch is that it is only on sale for 24hours and then the next T-shirt is posted up! I have seen awesome shirts by some amazing artists on here and the total purchase price is $11. So that is $9 for the Tee and $2 for the shipping...that is an awesome deal that can't be beat! I will try and post the shirts up daily, or you can go visit the
site yourself!
Money does go back to the artist and after today, this t-shirt will be Gone FOREVER! Today artist earns $1 for every tee sold. So make sure you get over there if yer diggin the design!
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