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Vehicular MERDE Slaughter

Mike Le Merde and Vehicles at SDCC 2010

OK, I know the title of this post is nonsense (and my former French teacher mother is going to read it and think the phrase “Vehicular Shit Slaughter” is increasing evidence that I’m losing my mind), but the Grass Hut guys have great senses of humor, and I’m going with it.

Some of the best booths in the SDCC toy cultyard were those that switched it up on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis. On Saturday, rounding the corner by the Gargamel/Grass Hut stall, I noticed some new vehicles by Le Merde and Arbito. Suddenly, things made sense. Le Merde’s mini-resin Burgerbuns? Check. Arbito’s scented silicone mini-Seekers? Check.

Each character now has his own fleet of resin vehicles with rolling silicone tires. Le Merde demonstrated the excellent roll-ability, and Arbito confirmed that those alluring erasers were a fortuitous byproduct on the journey to make those tires. The colors are rad, the tires have tread, and these pieces get high marks for playability. The vehicles (with removable character figures) were being sold at $150. I’m told these are painted protos and more are on the way!

Bigshot Toyworks is All Over the Place (in a Good Way)

Jeff Soto and Travis Louie at Hi-Fructose

Bigshot Toyworks was everywhere this year at SDCC (DKE, Hi-Fructose, Mike Mignola’s booth…) and their productions crossed many mediums (vinyl, resin, wood, plush…).  Sharing some similarities with DOUBLE SUPER’s showcase at SDCC, Bigshot showed off several sculptural works–playful in nature if not necessarily in practice. Perhaps, like art itself, the definition of toy is really best left to the beholder?

Whether you want to call it an art toy, a sculpture, a bust or something else entirely, Bigshot is making 3D “objects” from 2D imagery by Jeff Soto, Travis Louie, Brian Taylor, Nathan Jurevicius and Mike Mignola, and as a collector of such objects, I find it exciting. Also exciting: exchanging compliments in person with the man who calls the big shots: Klim Kozinevich. Check out some of the Toyworks I found walking the aisles.

DOUBLE SUPER Ushers In a Return To Art Toys

DOUBLE SUPER, an upcoming range of figures by San Francisco’s own STRANGEco, made its debut at Comic-Con. Representing great hope for art toys, which in recent years have dropped the “art” from the equation, DOUBLE SUPER features intricate, high-quality sculptural editions by Nathan Ota, Bob Dob, Mars-1, Ron English, Feric and Will Sweeney. Each figure has been created faithfully from an original painting by the artists, and read this twice toy junkies: they have NO articulation. The sizable works are made from vinyl, and though prices aren’t set as of this posting, they are expected to be in the $120, $150 and $175  ballpark with low run sizes. I, for one, am double-super-stoked.

Pimping the Purple Dead Che

Frank Kozik might think purple Telegrinnies “are for girls”, but purple revolutionaries apparently cross gender lines. He just sent over a shot of his purple personal version of the Dead Che Bust. It’s an edition of 50 pieces with 25 reserved for Kozik subscribers and the other 25 available to the general public for $200 plus shipping (& CA tax if applicable).  Email FrankKozik [at] SBCglobal [dot] net if interested.

Ron English’s Telegrinnies Make Me Grin

Speaking entirely personally here, Ron English’s Telegrinnies were the sleeper hit of my Comic-Con 2010 experience. While the majority of my central nervous system despises surprises, a tiny area of my brain delights in a sensory shake-up. I’ve always been on the fence about toys involving broad strokes pop culture appropriation, so I wasn’t expecting to even really like Ron’s Telegrinnies. Instead, it was adoration upon visualization.

The toys are eight inches of shiny, candy-colored vinyl produced by Made by Monsters with perfect paint application. Like the Teletubbies on which they are based, each figure sports a different “antenna insignia”. They all have the matte-skull signature “grin” of Ron’s Grins series, plus a transparent red rib cavity. They are, in a word, wonderful.

Thanks to the power of Twitter, I was able to find someone else similarly smitten with these enough to split the $175 pair. In a perfect world, I’d have the whole smiling set and smile right back at them. Isn’t that what it really comes down to with art toys? This glossy green piece of plastic makes me feel something–and that feeling is happy. Perhaps that’s the intended effect: subverting the typical programmatic reaction to Peanuts characters or Barney the dinosaur (or Teletubbies) by giving them a “scary” skeletal smile, which somehow only actually makes them seem sillier and cuter. Call it the visual version of binaural beats: your brain combines your expectations with the creepy vs. cute waveforms your eyes are absorbing. Um, yeah. Or something.

I know many people were similarly surprised to see me walking the Comic-Con aisles with what a quick glance would appear to be a Teletubby. My pal Frank Kozik expressed it the most eloquently by saying simply that “Teletubbies are for girls”. Maybe they are, and maybe cigarettes are for idiots, but when it comes down to it, those of us who make stuff, make stuff we like, and those of us who buy stuff, buy stuff we like. And in case you didn’t notice over the weekend by being in San Diego or reading the blogs, there’s more than enough STUFF to go around. I like some stuff that smorks, and some stuff that grins.

Ron English was around all weekend signing at several booths. He was even cool enough to re-sign something for me after I smeared it seconds after he was done. Nice guy. I anticipate a Meet Your Maker interview in the future…

Jamungo’s BUDCATs are Basically Zymoglyphic

I wonder how many times I walked by the DKE booth at Comic-Con inquiring whether the Scott Wilkowski x JAMUNGO BUDCAT exclusives were available. (I bet Sarah Jo Marks knows the answer to this…) Due to luck and lingering, I scored this black resin fella. When the gents showed up for their Friday signing, the popular BUDCATS had already all been adopted.

As to whether there are actual skeletal remains incorporated into the resin bud platform, that would be no. However, it really, really looks like it. So does the fire cracker, which according to FERG is “not real…but they look real as fuck.”

If the objects aren’t real, why am I calling them Zymoglyphic? Well:

1. Zymoglyphic is a made-up word by Jim Stewart, and he seems cool with a little creative rule-bending.
2. Like these BUDCATS at SDCC, the Zymoglyphic Museum is only available to the public for one day.
3. In my opinion, the BUDCATS meet this Zymoglyphic criteria: “Of, or pertaining to, images of fermentation, specifically the solid residue of creative fermentation on natural objects.”

The 4-inch BUDCATS were sold in pairs including a clear version and a darker version that ranged from grey to black. They are handmade, and they are awesomesauce. Most of the BUDCATS went home as sets, a few were divvied up amongst friends, and all are gone. Your best bet to find one is through the Jamungo fan forum. And a cool endnote: I didn’t know it at the time I wrote the story, but Scott W has two (live) cats of his own, and therefore is a member of Cats of the Toy Art Scene.

photo courtesy of Jamungo’s Collect & Destroy forum

Cats of the Toy Art Scene: A Fluff Piece

Frank Kozik and Eddie in San Francisco

If you’re reading this story, you’re probably not at Comic-Con in San Diego. Since you’re missing out on toy overload, the least I could offer in my absence is a big batch of cute overload. I’ve been saving up this “fluff piece” for just the right occasion. Ever notice how a lot of artists have cats? I did. “You can use Stripes even though he doesn’t like you,” said Eric of 64Colors. “He doesn’t like anyone because… he’s a cat!” All cats are different though. Adds Stephen Donaldson of Tomopop, “Samkin loves figures of all types and sits and looks at them all day long.” Just like toys, cats come in all shapes and sizes. (Don’t tell Dodgrr’s Sam he weighs 30 pounds or Ernesto’s female cat Prince she’s named after the singer!) There are Persians, Bengals, tabbies and tuxedos among us, but Sergey Safonov gets the prize for his most unique Peterbald feline companion: “He’s the son of world and Europe breed champions, but he has a slight ‘defect’ so we bought him cheap.” Awesome!

Tofu lives with artist Sergey Safonov in Moscow.

Bailey and Mitch live with blogger/collector Jeremy in the Bay Area.

Artist Lunabee and Gwen in the UK

Mao lives with artist/blogger Andy Heng in Singapore.

Stripes lives with artists 64Colors.

Artist Jay222 and Ella in the Bay Area.

It keeps getting cuter.

Read the rest of this entry »

ALIMAÑA Toys: Hecho en Mexico!

Something you don’t see every day on the header card of a kaiju toy is the phrase “Hecho en Mexico”. But then again, Mexico City’s ALIMAÑA aren’t your average toy company. Beto Matalí, Bela Álvarez, Emmy Hernández, Victor Hernández and Cieromuco have been making toys as ALIMAÑA for about 3 years, and it’s time you got to know them. As luck would have it, Bela has family in the Bay Area. After their first face-to-face meeting with ALIMAÑA-collaborator Mark Nagata, Mark, Bela, Oscar (a 3D animator currently working in Mexico City) and I chatted over sushi.

JB: How did ALIMAÑA get started?

Bela: In the beginning, it was Beto and I working together on different projects. Then we began working with Emmy and Victor. Beto and I did the toys, and they did the illustrations. With the addition of Carlos, who designed the character for Bacteria, we are now 5 guys working together. Well, 3 guys and 2 girls.

What does ALIMAÑA mean?

Bela: ALIMAÑA means vermin. It’s like a little bug. Beto and I didn’t have jobs, and we thought about doing something to get money. So we said “What can we do? Lets do T-shirts.” That was like 5 years ago. We designed special shirts for a Lord of the Rings convention because we love it. But we needed a name and a brand, so we came up with ALIMAÑA and we designed the logo. That was the beginning. Then we did different things, so when we started with the toys and we needed a brand, we said, we have one.

How did you get set up with production and a factory?

Bela: We started with the idea and the sculpture. We used 3D modeling software and made all the changes and chose the colors and and finally we went into production. The factory is in Mexico City.

Oscar: Mexico still has a lot of manufacturing. Before China came into the scene, Mexico was the place where you did dolls. There were a lot of factories. We had 2-3 very important toy companies, but China came with lower prices, and all the factories in Mexico started to close. The factories still there are small and not for big brands and the mainstream markets. So ALIMAÑA went to those guys to see if they could make these special things.

Why toys? Read the rest of this entry »

SDCC Toy Artists Signing Schedules

After making this map of the Toy Growers Cultyard yesterday, it seemed like it might also be handy to make “at-a-glance” versions of the SDCC 2010 toy scene artists’ stalking signing schedules. I’m sure there’s a few typos, and afterall, everything is subject to change. If you click the images, you can print out hi-res 8×10 versions perfect for scratching out errors and strategizing how to best tackle your afternoon. Brad Smith also created a pretty comprehensive list of SDCC happenings over at the KRonikle, too. SEE YOU IN SAN DIEGO!

Tuesday Time Waster: Regretsy

Whenever I need a laugh (preferably at someone else’s expense), I turn to Regretsy. Reading Regretsy recalls the good old days of watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. While Joel Hodgson and his ‘bots turned their comedic riffing toward a screen showing science fiction and B-movies, Helen Killer updates this by being on the other side of the screen and directing her etsy-generated snark back at you. Regretsy serves up a warning signal for those about to buy it now. It’s a moment of pause, which all of us about to embark on the journey to SDCC could stand to contemplate.

How many of you haven’t had a “WTF” moment when looking at a DIY toy? Regretsy is an aggregator of “WTF meets DIY”. And it is HILARIOUS. Whether they’re taking aim at the gall of a $170 Roofies body pillow or a horrifying diorama lovingly made safe for kids with the use of lead-free paint, Helen and co are always on target.

And it’s with such elegant brevity that she can turn a “Stunning Natural Wood Wand – Apple – for Working with Faeries or Unicorns” into  “a fucking stick”. Before you go thinking Regretsy is the work of a cruel complainer, many artists are in on the joke. Months back, while talking to toy customizer Amybean, she said of the opportunity to have a piece of her work exposed on Regretsy, “I should be so lucky!” We’re rooting for you, Amy. Regretsy is updated daily, and there’s a book, too.