Life moves fast. If you have a nose, don’t forget to stop to smell the roses. If you don’t have a nose, maybe you have one giant eye. If so, stop to see the roses. Nature makes beautiful things: misfit monsters included.
Sometimes a true gem of a warehouse find comes into Neon Monster, and sometimes that toy happens to be green. Back in 2006, Flopdoodle Publishing (in association with Hong Kong project management by Toy2R) made a figure for Tim Biskup called Alphabeast Calli. The green and gold vinyl figure was originally released as part of Biskup’s “American Cyclops” exhibition in Barcelona, Spain. However, it soon became clear that the gold paint would quickly “patina” into a dark olive green, and Flopdoodle organized an interesting toy recall. If buyers of the green/gold version sent back their figure, it would be returned along with a new green/silver version. In order to prevent people from re-sending the same figure for replacement, a small hole was drilled into the bottom of the green/gold version’s foot alongside the copyright 2004 Tim Biskup.
If you’re a Biskup fan, enjoy his aesthetic and dig green things with stripes, my professional opinion is you aren’t going to mind the QC issue on this figure. It’s also a rare opportunity to get both the silver and the “gold” versions together, which of course, I already did. I actually prefer the dark green stripes to what would have been gold. Neon Monster has a couple sets of the 9-inch vinyl figures in stock now. Each comes in its original box complete with Tim Biskup illustrations (and some shelf wear that is par for the course for 4-year old toys). The figures can stand, sit and stack up on each other. They feature 5 points of articulation (neck, arms and hips). As a bonus, they enjoy hanging out in your garden on a sunny day. Only a few sets left. Get yours here.
Are these designer drugs or toys you can eat? The answer is somewhere between both or neither. Metamorphin is an innovative idea by Daniel Goffin that recalls Junko Mizuno’s Pure Trance, but takes it even further:
These tiny sculptures are cast in isomalt, a sugar substitute frequently found in pharmaceutic and diet products. The capsules are made from gelatine. So basically the whole thing is edible. However, I still wouldn’t recommend it because well, I haven’t tested the effects…
Each “pill” is a handmade capsule containing one of ten handmade sculptures. The packaging is also handmade, and each package will include a print. If you’ve been following my toy writing, you probably already know that I’m a big fan of toys that masquerade as medicine. Isn’t that what they are in a way? An over-the-counter pick me up? Daniel hasn’t yet released all of the info on what he plans to do with his Metamorphin, but you can find more details on his Metamorphin Flickr set.
Be sure to also check out Daniel’s blogs for some interesting toy reading: Reduced Figuration and Idleware. The German designer will be in California for a few weeks coinciding with his show at LA’s Toy Art Gallery. I’m looking forward to chatting him up in San Francisco this weekend and perhaps even popping one of his pills.
Yeah, I know the title of this post sounds like an album by some prog band or maybe even something released on a cassette-only label, but what we’re talking about here is Julie B using eco-friendly materials to create a large-scale installation. What exactly is “regrind” you ask? Quoted on her blog:
Julie said, “When I took the initial challenge, it was hard to find anyone who’d managed to utilize regrind (discarded plastic ground into a usable molding substance) and eco-friendly material, in the way I knew it needed to be done to get the effect we wanted – where the creatures are opaque during the day and semi-transparent at night. In the end, while I’m keeping most of technique secret, everything had to be painstakingly hand applied.”
In case you were looking to link Julie B and T-Pain, Kevin Bacon-style, the connection isn’t voice modulation, but rather Save My Oceans, an awareness campaign (also featuring Shepard Fairey), asking people to pledge to:
These are some things we can get behind. You can make your pledge here. Oh, and the sculptures look rad, too.
Click through for a work-in-progress shot of Julie and a giant regrind turtle and a short video showing the illuminated creatures and some college kids. Lots more info about Julie and this project can be found on her Planet Illogica page. Read the rest of this entry »
Squeezing in at the tail end of April to be our Greenest Toy of the Month (narrowly beating out this), is Sergey Safonov’s Godot.
Writes Sergey:
The name Godot is pronounced in Britain and Ireland with the emphasis on the first syllable, /ˈɠɒdoʊ/; in North America it is usually pronounced with an emphasis on the second syllable, /ɠəˈdoʊ/.
The figure is named after a character of Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot“, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for someone named Godot who never shows in and whose identity remain mystery. You should read it or watch the play on YouTube.
The figure is 12 cm (4.5″) tall with removable fedora. The toy prototype is made with help of Crazylabel prototype and development office and will be produced as limited edition resin figure at my home studio. It’s going to be released late May 2010 with little comic and a guide how to wear your fedora properly.
Sergey’s been teasing me with word of a green toy for a while now, and from feathers to fedora, this is a win. Let him know what you think by leaving a comment here on this post or over on his Flickr page. You can also send him a message @sergeysafonov. As always, awesome work, my friend!
The toy scene still surprises me! I thought for sure you’d be all over this Playge version of Ferg’s Misfortune Cat. Or perhaps my vision was colored, literally, by it being green? Either way, for people who care about these things, this rotocast vinyl Misfortune Cat is the third (and possibly final) colorway, and it’s the smallest run (100 pieces). Neither of those things mean much to me. I just care that it’s a green and black (mis)fortune cat. It’s also 9 inches tall, which means I’m probably going to get in trouble from my wife when it arrives. All previous editions of the Misfortune Cat have sold out, and indeed anything Ferg/Jamungo produces sells out fairly instantaneously, so at more than 2 hours following its drop, it’s only a matter of time for this kitty. Still available (as of this minute) HERE.
Green isn’t the most popular color, but those of us who love it will defend it to the death. Although Kermit had a public struggle with it, being green is now easier than ever. Nobody ever says, “The grass is always yellower on the other side.” The Enlightened adore green’s many hues and shades (which is more than I can give to purple). Green tells people to GO! It’s the only color with its own political party. It factored heavily into the urban planning of Emerald City. With a green screen, you can go anywhere. If you really need to get away, you can camouflage yourself with green. There’s a reason why people chill out in the green room. It’s a super-great color, and it’s presence in the world brings me happiness. Soylent Pink just isn’t people, you know?
DISCLAIMER: There’s a nice amount of green toys in the Neon Monster shop right now, and much like how The Man in Black dispatched Jacob on LOST, I only needed a loophole to tell you about them. This post has absolutely nothing to do with Saint Patrick’s Day, although I wish our Irish and green-loving friends a terrific time today!
We recently came into possession of a small batch of 2005 Observers. The classic figure from San Francisco’s own Mars-1 has seen its way to something like ten production colorways, but in my opinion, this green edition is one of the best. We’ll be putting the remaining few green, red and grey Observers online this week. (Watch the blog and the Twitter for the notice.) Oh, and don’t forget: We’ll have signed glow-in-the-dark Observers at Wondercon.
Andrew Bell always delivers on two things: buttcracks and green. We hope the widespread embrace of his Google Android toys (a series which sports several green figures), brought Andrew some serious greenbacks. For the rest of us, there’s O-No Sushi in Green and Giver of Disease.
Jim Woodring is another artist who brings the green. Yes, I know that Big Egypt Parlor Sphinx is a new toy and it’s a green frog, but it seems so…obvious. By contrast, Mr. Bumper and LORBO are mixing it up psychedelic-style.
Many toy collectors are also dedicated recyclers. We recycle every plastic bubble from a blisterpack and every bit of newsprint that eBay sellers use to pack our toys. Those who are also artists, like Phu! and Mike Slobot, find ways to make trash into fantastic figures. But all of this doesn’t stop us from buying vinyl from Japan and plastic from China. It’s our passion, and it doesn’t have to spell the world’s demise.
Co-founder Kristy Klinck talked to me about Mitch and Neon Monster’s commitment to both toy collectors and the environment:
We took great care to ensure we didn’t have any aspect of product packaging that was wasted. Mitch’s tag can be used as a sticker with the underside recycled or kept with Mitch. Mitch is made from 100% recycled PET (recycled soda pop bottles) which is made into fleece. Mitch’s bag was upgraded from a standard disposable plastic bag to a custom printed re-usable Voltage Seal bag. Neon Monster completely recycles all cardboard packaging that toys are shipped in. We either break down the cardboard and cut it into small rectangles which are then used for shipping comics to customers, or we re-use small boxes to ship web sales. About 70% of all boxes Neon Monster receives are re-used; the remaining 30% are recycled with the city of San Francisco.
Polyethylene terephthalate (sometimes written poly(ethylene terephthalate)), commonly abbreviated PET, is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in synthetic fibers. You can read a TON about PET on Wikipedia here. Still feel like learning? Read about the PET bottle recycling process here.
All of this got me really thinking about PET, and I found this house on TreeHugger. Click over to see more photos, but check out the one below to see an unbelievable prototype house in Argentina made entirely out of 1200 PET bottles, 1300 Tetra Pack cartons and 140 of CD jewel cases. Insane and awesome.
Keep an eye on the Greenhouse where we’ll highlight other examples of eco-friendly toys (plus a few that just happen to be great green colorways).
The Neon Monsters are split on this new figure set from Noferin, so since I’ve got more eyes than all of them combined, I’m stepping in to give it its fair stare. It’s not even up-for-debate that Noferin is adorable as both an artistic family and an original world. The Jijibuts are made of sustainably harvested rubber wood, are non-toxic and ASTM and CE certified for 18 months+ and one display case guarantees a full set. Did they revolutionize the blind box industry as the teasers teased? Perhaps not. That said, our customers (and our customizers) seem to really love them. Slightly bigger than a Dunny, these wood toys actually stack to form sculptural shapes. Jijibuts are now available in our San Francisco store and online by the case (a 5% discount) and as individual blind boxes.
