Last week we posted up some sweet custom Androids by
Keithing he is called the "
1UP Android" custom set... an homage to Super Mario... and today he is sharing with us another set of custom Android figure titled "
Bullet Android"!! These customs are each hand painted and resculpted and each one has a different graphic on the back, some with different hand signs too... AWESOME! These will be up for grabs during NYCC 2011 via the ToyQube booth #880... and they will be super limited so don't miss them!
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New York Comic Con is just a day away... and if you're in town this week for the largest pop culture event on the East Coast be sure to drop by the
My Plastic Heart booth #879 in the Cultyard where they will be releasing a slew of amazing exclusives. To view their complete list of NYCC releases click
HERE. Also, don't miss out on getting an autograph/sketch from the lineup of impressive artists who will be signing at their booth throughout the weekend. Here's the official signing schedule:
Friday 10/14 11am – 12:00pm Steve Talkowski
12:00pm – 1:00pm kaNO
1:00pm – 2:00pm Andrew Bell
2:00pm – 3:00pm Lou Pimentel
3:00pm – 4:00pm Shawnimals
4:00pm – 5:00pm MAD
5:00pm – 6:00pm Jeremiah Ketner
Saturday 10/15 11:00am – 12:00pm Jon-Paul Kaiser
12:30pm – 1:30pm Brent Nolasco
2:00pm – 3:00pm Matt Siren
3:30pm – 4:30pm kaNO
5:00pm – 6:00pm MAD
Sunday 10/16 12:00pm – 1:00pm FluffyFriends!
1:00pm – 2:00pm Wheelbarrow screenprinting demo
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More NYCC news... and why not as artist Paulo aka
Zukaty has announced that a bunch of customs that he has been working on over the past few months are ready to release... and just for fun, and seeing as he is not going to be present at NYCC, he figured he would release them during the convention for all those who are unable to attend! There will be 3 releases on 3 different days as seen on the above image!
1st on the 14th the 8 Dunnys re-takes and stuff... 2nd on the 15th will be the 4 Dunnys Iga and Koga Ninjas, and the 3rd on the 16th will be the Teddy Troopers Zu Force One! All custom will be bagged with a header card and can be found
HERE each day at 2pm PST for the ripe
price of $75 per piece + shipping... and to make things sweeter you can save 5% off by entering the coupon code
2011NYCC during checkout! Pretty sweet customs to be snatched up!
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While smashing some HUGE walls in Los Angeles, both
Angry Woebots and
Pixel Pancho had a little down time - I don't know how, just look at that work - Woes passed over one of his resin Panda King figures to crew mate Pixel Pancho (
artist from Italy), and then he commenced to work his magic! This custom 1-off turned out soooo sick... and I love the loose ,watercolor like, pastel paint scheme applied to this figure... and if you are feeling it, it's available for purchase
HERE right now! If you are unfamiliar with Pixel's work, just have a peek over
HERE and prepare to be floored!
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Out what!!!! Here are a few more exclusives that artist
Jared Deal will have at NYCC this year via booth #789! First up is a continuation of his "Vlad" plush series... but this set he is calling the
'Albino' Vlads... all of which have a rad white fabric backing with colorful fabric ascents!
He will also have a
MASSIVE "Vlad" MegaMunny on hand at the convention that he created using fabric... what a cool looking figure and just check out those wings! Oh, and don;t forget... if you are unable to attend Jared is loading up his
online shop for a little presale action on Wednesday October 12th... it's a 12hr presale - 12 noon til midnight - and after that everything travels with him to the con. See you all there!
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Industria Mechanika is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs to watch as they announce kit after kit of cool collaborations with some of the best visionary artists around. Today they announced a new project with artist
Miguel Lopez aka "
Devilminer" Miguel's work ventures from vehicles to mecha's and his latest creation "
Dust Buster" a AFV (armored fighting vehicle) design. This dune buggy creation will be in
1:35 scale and looks to be one heck of a fun build. More details as they come out which hopefully won't be too long as
Industria Mechanika seems to be on fire lately.
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We are less than 2 days away from the official launch of NYCC 2011, and you would think we have seen all the exclusives... think again as some artist are slowly trickling their pieces in last minute to show off and that is the case with
Rsin, as he just emailed me his goods... and by goods I mean AWESOME PIECES!!!!! He went all out for this show creating not 1 or 2 customs... he created a ton of pieces including a really cool
set of collaboration resin Qee's with Matt Anderson, and a fantastic set of
3 custom sculpted full sized skulls... that are seriously out of this world cool!!! All of this will be up on display/sale via the
Toy2R/
Tenacious Toys booth #876, where on Friday, October 14th Rsin will be signing at 1pm.
It's so great to see all these massive custom Qee's on display and for sale during NYCC and that
beast of a custom 18" Qee that Rsin created... well I am getting lost in the details... mostly the skull face and those teeth... TEETH!!!!! I am really stoked to be going to see these in person, and to finally meet the man behind all of these amazing customs I have been covering for over 4 years now! Do yourself a favor and do the same thing... if you are around NYCC be sure to stop by booth #876... you will not regret it!
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Bob Conge of
Plaseebo just dropped word that he will have a "murder of Skulloctipy" with him at the NYCC... and above is just a taste as he will have up to 10 of them for grabs! Each one is a unique hand paint and offered at the
show price of $75 each... and they all have that patented color changing Plaseebo LED unit to light up their brain/glass eyes and each come signed... just check out that PINK "
Bossoloctopus Partyphant" with a brain full of fun... AWESOME!!! These will be made available at the
Tenacious Toys Booth #876 on Saturday at 3pm during his group signing with Mike "NEMO" Mendez and Rob "OsirisOrion" Ingellis.
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So, we've already told all of you about the NYCC release from Jon M. of
Rampage Toys new vinyl figure the "Ugly unicorn" for the folks over at
Lulubell Toys... well he has decided to make a few things available via his online shop
HERE for those folks who might not be fortunate enough to attend NYCC - so there will be a run of 5 'sleepy eye' Ugly's on red vinyl (
featuring 'color changing' metallic purple and some yellow sprays), a few custom 1-off's, and some Ugly Unicorn original Gouache paintings available starting Thursday, October 13th at 8pm EST... so if you are bummed you are missing NYCC, don't miss these as well :-)
Source[Rampage Toys Press]
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Ryan the Wheelbarrow just sent over some info of another custom that he will have on display/sale at the
myplasticheart's booth #879 for NYCC. It is a text_r bub. ex.1 -wht/wht... very similar to his custom labbits, as it is created with dicut vinyl letters and glossy spraypaint. Something about the simplicity of the white/white... stunning really! Don't forget that Ryan will also be screen printing on Sunday, Oct. 16 from 1-2pm where he will be giving out complimentary samples of fresh screen printed post cards.
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Have you ever wanted to have your own hand sketched designed translated over to vinyl?!?! Well... Luke Rook, the man behind
Grody Shogun, is offering up at NYCC made-to-order Monsters! All you need to do is print out the above flyer and then color that bad boy up! Once completed bring it, along with
$35 to booth #589 at NYCC, and Luke will hand paint his interpretation of your design just for you! Crazy, right???? Choose a head, make several, design one for a friend... the possibilities are endless! Oh and
this is a NYCC exclusive so you have to be present at the con to do this!!!
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We have seen the '
Iced' Glop, and the '
Biohazard' Glop and just announced as a NYCC 2011 exclusive is an all new 'Red Planet' Glop in a Box from
Andrew Bell and
mphlabs! This is the 3rd colorway of Andrew's 4.5″ resin figure and it's limited to a
small run of 8 pieces, which will be available at
myplasticheart booth #879 starting Friday, October 14th for $100 each... what a cute little fella!
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Hey all you NYCC goes... are you looking for something to do on Thursday night the 13th of October, well
Clutter Magazine is partnering with
Cherry Vinyl as they will be unveiling 25 limited edition hand made and hand painted
Toy Princes! Designed by Pete Fowler and based on the dazzling golden “Toy King” trophy exclusively for winners of the
The Designer Toy Awards, this vinyl version pays homage to the award but is not an exact replica. This loving executed artisan toy by Julie B of Cherry Vinyl is an
NYCC limited edition run of just 25! The Limited Edition Toy Prince will be released Thursday night at
Concrete Bar, just blocks away from the Javits Convention Center, on Thursday, October 13th at 7pm. The event is open to the public and the first 25 to walk through the door will receive an exclusive Clutter gift bag... totally worth going to as Clutter throws a great party! I will see you there!
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Toy Art Gallery is proud to present their new upcoming show titled “Pop Fiction” featuring the sculptural works of
Francesco de Molfetta. He blends together seamlessly familiar pop cultural icons and important political and historical figures to create an amalgam of childishness and controversy. Free of spite or bile and filled with appropriations of beloved things from youth, Francesco intertwines hope and happiness with critique and irony. Francesco’s love of art history and sculpture is brought to the forefront with his “Michel-Angelo”, a re-envisioning of Michelangelo's David presented as a life-size fiberglass sculpture and limited edition porcelain art multiple.
Says Francesco: “
The intent is to bring an ancient Art icon out of the classical museum and meet it with a contemporary aesthetic. The world's most famous sculpture (probably) the David by Michelangelo is re-interpreted in a more up-to-date way, camouflaged in a very futuristic Michelin man suit (white like him too!), and there he stands upright in his powerful proud pose. This visual short circuit gives birth to "Michel-angelo", a great homage of a sculptor to the great master.” Oh, and if you want an indepth look at who Francesco is, read the interview
HERE that Okedoki did with him last year... it's a good one! “Pop Fiction” starts Friday, Oct. 14th, 2011 and runs through Nov. 4th. There will be an opening reception from 7-11 PM on Oct. 14th at Toy Art Gallery’s new showroom located at 7571 Melrose Ave. Hollywood CA 90046... don't miss it!
Source[TAG Press]
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With the weeks peeling away we find ourselves getting ever closer to the
3A custom show in San Francisco Nov. 4 - Dec 4. as such we thought we'd take a moment and touch base with another of the artists from the show. We had the unique pleasure to chat with
Kenn Munk, graphic designer and toy customizer extraordinaire. For those that aren't familiar with Kenn Munk's customs, for many his work back in 2006 with his show "
Everything is Black and White" was seminal. His creative vision of limiting himself to two colors whilst pushing his design aesthetic to the limits has been inspiring to many, and so it was intriguing that we hadn't seen any customs from him in a long time.
Kenn's early work is still strongly collected and his 1:6 figures have been some of the best work out there in terms of strong visuals with a combination of great tactile materials. So we were very excited to see Kenn join in the 3A custom show. With his ability to distill a custom into one clear theme and execute it all the while voicing something deeper in meaning we couldn't wait to chat with him and get his views on toys, art, the future and what his plans for the future are. So lets get started and see what this unique artist has to say... hit the jump to give it a read!
What brought you into toy customizing?
Around 2004 I stumbled upon a design competition to design a qee and through that I found out about the toy scene, I found out about customizing and thought: "oh, this is what I used to do in my childhood, but this time I'll hopefully finish my work and my parents won't tell me off for ruining my toys." I had worked a lot with model kit parts back then and a childhood dream had been to make props and models for films, so all the Tamiya tanks were always turned into something else although not very skillfully and rarely finished. My brain tends to roam and I fairly quickly lose interest in things, so one week's tank-robot-idea got replace be another weeks space scooter idea got replaced by a time traveling dinosaur idea...
Where do you see the future of designer toys heading?
I don't think designer toys have a future, I think it has several. It will branch out further, both in materials and subject matter we're seeing metal sculpture already. it will branch out in different ways, commercially, companies will continue to expand their product lines and brand to as many platforms as possible, creatively there will always be some artists wanting to push the boundaries and it being a young art form, there are plenty of boundaries to be pushed. More on that later
What brought you to the world of 3A?
I more or less stopped customizing toys a few years back, I did the occasional custom for a friend and I didn't buy toys anymore. I did follow from afar a bit and was aware of 3A toys and they were the stuff of my childhood - I think that's what Ashley Wood does very well, he takes the stuff of childhoods and ads a bit of sauciness and an amazing style to them, I was tempted at times to buy something, but didn't cave in. Then at one point I started getting a few emails about a 1:6 scale show I'd done a few years back called "Every Thing is Black or White" that didn't get much attention at the time. I was attracted to 1:6 scale because you sudenly had articulation in your figures, I was never a character designer, but with these you had body language to play with. Only the Hong Kong guys seemed to do 1:6 scale at that time (around 2006-2007) and I thought it'd break in the west soon. When James Brown contacted me about "I Are Legion", I lurked the boards a bit and I thought: "This would be an amazing "last job"." The one that always goes wrong in the movies. It is a good chance to revisit Every Thing is Black or White (except, now a bit less so.) It made me happy that someone had dug up my Black/White toys and gave them some attention and it made me extrememly happy that people started playing a game of "What is this made of?" on the 3A discussion board.
Yeah, I know myself that that is one of the main draws of 1:6 figures to me that you can customize something that’s articulated and it gives you a wider range of movement in poses to evoke a feeling with, and as seen in many of your past works it really gives you the ability to work with different materials in a way that allows for some great textures to challenge the viewer in ways that simply painting something might not. I know for many it was your mixture of materials and keeping it simple with only two colors that drew people into your designs, but what really kept them there was that it always seems like your ideas have a lot more thought go into them then just “this would look cool” and I think that really resonates with people years later.
I know for me it’s kept me coming back to your blog every few months just to see what new great ideas your working on now. Items like your “Dice for a Lie Generator” really show a grand depth that I’d really love to see more in both the art and toy worlds. What are your thoughts on that?
I think there is a lot of depth to be found in the art world. Artists like Charles Avery and Lucy Steggals create "our" kind of work, something that has that storytelling that we all grew up with, with toys often being linked to cartoons or movies. At the moment most objects I design are meant to be played with, handled, worn ( a bit more on that later) the lie generator dice was a ploy to get kids to tell stories - well, lies really about something heroic they'd once done. I think if you want someone to play along and to tell stories of slaying princesses and saving dragons with a straight face, the props need to be believable too, not necessarily "real" but believable, The lie generator itself was made of an old pram and a drawer which in itself is a lie, objectified, I like the transformation of objects and sometimes a 1:1 scale sock becomes a perfectly good 1:6 scale dress.
What future plans do you have for customs, shows?
I have plans for shows, but not toys. After "I Am Legion", I'm done. I have a secret club (that is the name of the project "a secret club" www.schhh.org). It's a project teaching (mainly) kids creative thinking and social skills, sound dull, but it's really playing - I moved from toys to playing. Toys may be featured as an activity at some point, but it won't be designer toys. There will still be paper kits though, but also for a secret club or clients. As for shows, we're currently planning one where we get artists to collect collage materials that they then swap and make a collage from, so again, it's playing, but not with toys. I have great Lego plans though for when my son is old enough - have you seen some of the stuff the grown up lego geeks make? it's amazing, it far surpasses anything that's ever left the Lego factory in terms of sculpting with Lego.
Yes, you know I really love seeing some of the latest works that artists have come up with using Lego’s it’s really challenging the way I look at them as simply building blocks and in many ways it’s more like the work you do where it creates something visual but sometimes something a lot deeper. Any Lego artists / projects that really inspire you?
I'm slowly being sucked into a Lego obsession, but I need to keep it under control for a few years, when my son Mio is old enough we'll build secret castles and space stations all over our flat. There's a dude that calls himself Rogue Bantha on flickr that does some wicked stuff, but like I said, I'm holding back, but it's very tempting to pick up some current, killer sets and keep them for Mr Mio, like vintage wine, when his friends crack out their latest he'll have this weird old stuff.
Are there any artists you personally collect?
I've gotten rid of most stuff, but some things I couldn't part with and I would buy more of: Brian Flynn's figures are pretty damn cool, his ghost-series is amazing and if ever Mars-1 would make another series of minis, I'd be willing to do a lot of pretty horrible things in order to get it. Mars-1 stands out to me, his toys are probably the only ones that aren't rooted in world of childhood cartoons - not that all other toys are based on cartoons, but the aesthetics are linked to that, Mars-1 is visionary stuff, it's a direction I'd personally like to see toys move in - a direction that's removed from the childhood angle.
Mars-1’s invisible plan toys are some of my favorites of his work.
It is pretty amazing, I don't really like his paintings, but his sculpture. wow, it's like having hallucinations in an ancient forest.
What are your top 3 favorite toys?
Mars-1 Invisible Plan is still the best series of minis ever done.
in terms of concept, Nathan Jurevicius is doing something interesting, his toy releases are (or at least they were, don't know if he's still doing it that way) were a linear story about Scarygirl and the people she met on her journey, but it's probably not on my top three. Pete Fowler is, though. His Monsterism universe is the funkiest place, My wife collects Pete Fowler a bit. And, as I said, Brian Flynn is fun.
What’s your favorite toy to customize and why?
With a secret club and all: Wood. Wood is my new vinyl, reclaimed wood, stuff from the streets. We use it for signage, lie generators, accessories to our tents. Looking back, I can't say I had a favorite, they each brought their own challenges, platform toys are easy, but if you crack a non-platform, it feels great. I think toy customization should be taught to kids in arts and crafts classes. It makes you see possibilities in the material.
That’s probably one of the biggest things that really resonated with me in your work is the use of not only mixed media but mostly found objects and yet nothing ever looks like it was just trash or something you’d see found along the side of the road. I love the idea of seeing people challenge themselves with found objects or simply using other objects and reclaiming them for their own unique vision. I agree that it’s something I’d like to see taught to children, I think that nothing really pushes a person creatively more than getting them out of their comfort zone of what a item should be and getting them to think and see those items for another purpose. Children seem really adept at this though already, and I bet that giving children a chance to create their own characters and give voice to their own creations is much better than getting them plugged into the franchise toy and story universe that we see today.
Your new work with A Secret Club sounds intriguing as well. I’ve followed your blog and your design courses for a few years now and it’s great to see that the same ideas are being translated to today’s youth. I hope you come back and tell us more about your work with A Secret Club and your plans for lego’s when your son is old enough. If your other work is any indication I expect it will continue to inspire people for years to come.
Thank you, kind words. I know that from the designer toy perspective, starting to do stuff for and with kids is sort of regressing, but I think the same play-elements can be used for adults and also designer toys, we made stylish monster finger puppets for grown ups at the V&A museum in London last year and - and the queue was out the door the entire evening. People want to play, they just need an excuse.
---- I think that's a good point to wrap it up on. For those interested in seeing more of Kenn's customs check out his flickr page here, and be sure to check out his custom Bothead at the "I am Legion" show at the 1AM Gallery in San Francisco Nov. 4 - Dec 4.
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