TeXt Marks The Spot

Toys Are Us: A Revolution In Plastic is a documentary on the vivid world of vinyl toys, the people who make them and the collectors who love them. Produced by X-Ray Films, Toys Are Us was shot on location across the country, exploring the scene through the eyes of both designers and fans. The documentary features interviews with Frank Kozik, Patrick Ma, Tara McPherson, KaNo, Erick Scarecrow, Mark Nagata, Nathan Jurevicius, Brian Flynn, Brin Berliner, Mars-1, Jermaine Rogers and more. Now that the director’s cut is out, I thought it was fitting to interview the director, Brian Stillman, himself.

Read the interview.

This was originally intended to be just filler between “more important” features on ToyCyte, but it really caught on and got picked up by other blogs. Who knew that even among “toxic” toy lovers there was still an interest in being green? I guess I did.

Everything’s going green these days, and the toy world is no exception. Perhaps appealing to our guilt at the amount of plastic we consume as toy fanatics, a growing crop of collectibles attempts to balance the extraneous and the ecological. Just because you live in the city doesn’t mean you can’t grow a garden. I hereby coin this photosynthetic phenomenon herb-n art toys.

Read the rest of the story.

After five months of living and breathing toys (much to my girlfriend’s dismay), I got promoted to ToyCyte’s Editor in Chief (girlfriend is happy now). ToyCyte’s publisher wrote a very nice press release about my dedication here. Those kind words were joined by accolades from other toy sites and artists in the community–all of which feels really terrific. As EIC (or as I cheekily refer to myself Editor-n-Chief), my main goal is to make ToyCyte the best website for designer toys and its ravenous and dedicated associated culture. To paraphrase a quip from the illustrious owner of Hair Club For Men, I’m not just the Editor, I’m also a Collector.

I’m sure this is going to sound a little, uh, bromantic, but I totally love these guys. Taking head and chest hair DNA into consideration, I think Todd Berger might be my brother for real. TeeBee is one third of Cypher13, the design collective (comprised of Todd, Alex Henry and Lucian Foehr) responsible for one of my favorite blogs, JoyEngine. Their latest project, SOFT&FURRY™, is a global DIY collab. I’ve been watching the simply shaped woodland creatures evolve into colorful customs from around the world. ToyCyte has covered S&F™ since its onset, but for further insight, I went straight to Cypher13.

Read the rest of the interview.

Back in September of 2008, it was still a month before I would be promoted to EIC of ToyCyte, and I had some more time on my hands. So I painted up a blank toy and took it on a photoshoot around my ‘hood.

Eric from Argonauts Resin sent me this CellPhonesKill Statik edition #1/10. I’m normally not one to amass too many toys with guns and knives but I particularly like when cutlery and ammunition are juxtaposed with something unexpected…like a cellular telephone. It takes it from PG-13 to straight up B-Movie. The CPK range consists of 4-inch hand-sculpted resin mobile phones. CPK Waves 1&2 featured the familiar mascot sans hands. CPK Wave 3 added handsets for Statik and removed the eyes for BlindMansBluff. The latter is now available through AR for $30 shipped. I’m obviously more of a writer than an artist, but this was great fun to paint up. There are lots of details on the CPK platform that would appeal to the more experienced customizer. I call my custom Midnight Marauder. Here he is looking for some trouble in my neighborhood.

Some of my favorite photos are below. You can see more here.