ToyCyte sale!
We've slashed our prices for a lot of our toys to make room for more customs! Go get some amazing deals today at our store !
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2008 was the year that changed my mind about designer plush. It began with the innocent-enough acquisition of two items: A Curster Yeti by Erin Currie and Frank by Kristin Tercek (aka Cuddly Rigor Mortis). Following that, my mind, and the floodgates, were open to plush. I kept in touch with Kris and watched as new creatures were born into the Cuddly Rigor Mortis stable. You can see how her interests in Japanese culture, animation and horror movies are reflected in the detailed dolls. And detailed they are: each of the sizeable hand-sewn plushes comes with extra touches like embroidery and a birth certificate. If that conjures up an image of an Xavier Robert's signature, hello to everyone else who was born in the late 70s! But with designs based on Universal Monsters and New Jersey lore, these ain't no Cabbage Patch Kids. You can find the CRM crew on Facebook or you can enter here to win a 13 x 15-inch custom Anubis plush in the contest!
Continue reading...8. June 2009
You know that slice of trivia about how Usher finds it soothing to sort his M&Ms by color before a show? Yeah? Really? You do? Stay with me, I’m going to loop back to that. Toward the beginning of my time at ToyCyte, I was writing about Jon Burgerman A LOT. A toy here, a [...]
Continue reading...28. May 2009
We first showed you Camilla D’Errico’s cute-yet-evil Kuro plush proto back in February at Wondercon. Now the 6-inch softie from Camilla’s self-published book, Tanpopo, is hitting stores. “Cute, cuddly, and with a most peculiar feature: a too‐cute‐to‐believe booty that would make even J‐Lo jealous, this little guy has received squeals of delight at recent conventions, [...]
Continue reading...27. May 2009
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Incoming from Attaboy, who is ready to present Gooberry after “four friggin’ years.” Each Gooberry has been freshly picked from a secret Gooberry Patch before ripening just for you! Like a newborn’s skull, their soft skin has yet to be fully formed, so a Gooberry is very impressionable and extra-sensitive to your each and every touch! [...]
Continue reading...21. May 2009
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With the Mortal Plush : I Am Not Your Toy show coming up, the internet is abuzz with a plethora of really innovative and bizarre plush creations, all designed to show intense emotions – a really great concept, especially when applied to an object that usually exclusively demonstrates passivity or geniality. Immediately noticeable is Zabratta Toys’ [...]
Continue reading...20. May 2009
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It’s a little-known fact that I created my local library’s unofficial mascot. He’s a plush squid made out of a Christmas tree form and some fat quarters from Jo-Ann Fabrics – and he hides in the Children’s Room throughout the summer as the kids hunt around for his newest reading spot. He’s been called ‘kind [...]
Continue reading...14. May 2009
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Something about Shawnimal Smith’s ongoing Professor Fliggins narrative grants a deep kind of appeal to a plush that might otherwise be just another accouterment for some perky goth’s bedroom… or Sadness Dwelling, as they call them. Or as I used to call mine. From behind dark blue glasses that I wore all of the time. [...]
Continue reading...13. May 2009
The Felt Mistress has been on my radar since she collaborated with Jon Burgerman on three great plushes for his 2008 Because I Can’t Sit Still show. When I went digging around in her Flickr sets, I discovered that she also, in collaboration with illustrator Jonathan Edwards, sews up a series of plush kaiju. The [...]
Continue reading...11. May 2009
amybean dropped by ToyCyte HQ last March, but she's been a part of the Bay Area art scene for the last two decades. Her creative output ranges from the cozy to the crazy. Her career path has included plush, pyrotechnics, prototyping and lots of stuff in between. Those following today's Throbblehead post, will be stoked to learn that the most recent concert amy attended was, in fact, Throbbling Gristle. amy's latest endeavor is an homage to the elusive Skunk Ape with a series of intricately detailed hand-made plush dolls. I had the opportunity to chat about cryptids and eat caperberries with amy last week, and I learned a lot. I also got to check out the whole Skunk Ape gang in rare close-up, and they're awesome. To borrow a phrase from the Skunk Ape's "mythical" compatriot: the (Jersey) devil is in the details. You could get to know amybean in one of her myriad blogs (see below) and attempt to track down the cold trail of the Skunk Ape on your own.Or, you could win one of these spectacular 12-inch beasts right here when you enter...the contest.
Continue reading...8. May 2009
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Live, now, on Holly Stanway’s Etsy page is perhaps her first departure from cute-creepy into creepy-cute. More cuddly than a Living Dead Doll, and cuter than a Teddy Scare, her Zombie-Bear plush is in all aspects a traditional jointed, poseable teddy bear – except for the undead little girl face. As a zombie fan, I can [...]
Continue reading...29. April 2009
What do you get when you combine a surreal Stonehenge aesthetic with eco-aware plush as envisioned by two creative Italians? JELLYFACE, apparently. The missive from Joe (the graphic designer) and Fau (the dressmaker) hit my inbox out of nowhere, so I was surprised to see how thorough (and, frankly, awesome) a range of JELLYFACE products [...]
Continue reading...29. April 2009
What started with a bizarre slip of the eye while watching Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie has evolved into a redefinition of the nature of plush, thanks again to Melissa Sue Stanley. Taking steps beyond the amazing Baba Yaga Chicken Shacks which I previously blogged, Mrs. Stanley is taking a break from eating those scary half-formed-chicken embryo [...]
Continue reading...28. April 2009
So you already know about the upcycling of old cashmere sweaters into Teddy Bears, and you want to take it a step further: You want to upcycle an old teddy bear into a cool new teddy bear. Well, as Apple would say, there’s an app for that. Her name is Tara Logsdon and she’s known [...]
Continue reading...28. April 2009
Leave it to Kristin from Cuddly Rigor Mortis to sew up some salvation when the economy is looking particularly bleak. The Imps are smaller, rounder versions of the previously blogged core CRM crew. Universal Monsters like Frankenstein, The Mummy and The Creature have never before been rendered so cuddly. And how could you resist the [...]
Continue reading...27. April 2009
Voodoo used to be something relegated to the mysterious back rooms of Louisiana barber shops or anyone who had a few spare chicken feet lyin’ around. DKE Toys is changing that, so watch your ass. With the Youdoodoll, all of the hard work is removed from the equation, since the $20 kit comes with a pre-made [...]
Continue reading...24. April 2009
The nice folks at nottaTOY shipped us a set of Office Cronies, and as soon as we’d opened the box, the plushes sprang to life and went about asserting their signature character traits in our office. Mean Admin struck a menacing pose. Bottleneck promptly gummed up the works. And, well, Fridge Raider made a beeline [...]
Continue reading...24. April 2009
Years from now, everyone will still be talking about the Plush Uterus Recall of January 2009. OK, so that’s my idealized version of reality where plush guts replace celebrity liposuction as our national gossip fodder. But I digress. In the meantime…the plush uterus is back! I met Wendy of I Heart Guts at Wondercon, and [...]
Continue reading...21. April 2009
Staying on the French tip this morning (begun with Nanan1’s customs), I want to update you on the launch of The Dirty Cream, the “young brand & web store with a crazy graphic universe” we first told you about here. We’re seeing a trend in nationalistic designer toy stores (see last week’s Polish Your Vinyl) [...]
Continue reading...17. April 2009
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With what is probably his most awesomely serene and beautiful piece ever, Shawn ‘Shawnimals’ Smith will be releasing the ‘Forest Spirit’ Wee Ninja in honor of Earth Day on April 22nd. Not only is the Forest Spirit Earth-friendly in intent, but the little guy is made with 100% Earth-friendly methods and materials. From the Shawnimals website [...]
Continue reading...9. April 2009
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Remember Ritz the Robot? Nice guy local artist Alexander Shen dropped by to share some Mediterranean food while a helicopter circled overhead. While we chowed, we left Ritz to mingle with some other toys. Although he sports a disarming smile, he managed to steal the hat off Rorschach from Jason Hilbourne’s Watchmen Bunk Bots (which [...]
Continue reading...9. April 2009
Remember our little seated Munny prank last week? Huck Gee’s Taurus was just posted on the Kidrobot Forums (thanks Justin!). It’s like a Munny/Labbit mash-up in regal goldtones and woodgrain. Awesome, of course. I just refreshed my inbox and here’s the full info from Huck: The Legend of Minosu Ushi-Oni & The Golden Bull We revisit [...]
Continue reading...9. April 2009
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Another soft figure enters into that e’er-growing, e’er-less-snugglable world of designer plush. Is it a bear, or is it an ox? Is it really still considered ‘plush’ when it costs $120? You really gonna let the baby drool on that? At what point does ‘plush’ become ‘keep that thing on a shelf because it’s an [...]
Continue reading...9. April 2009
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As it turns out, the third discovery of the great Professor Fliggins isn’t a foodstuff at all, but a living, breathing beard. Who trims the beards of others. I can’t even fathom the delightful complexities of cannibalism in Fligginsworld, let alone their hygienic practices. The diversity of Shawnimal’s handmade plushes has really hit an amazing stride [...]
Continue reading...7. April 2009
In an effort to secure the record for Biggest Bout of Plush Geekiness in Shortest Time Span, Jason Hilbourne has customized another set of Bunk Bots. This time, the Bunk Bots are Trekkies. Plastic and Plush is giving away the Spock, Scotty, Kirk, Bones and Uhura customs to five lucky readers here. And don’t forget, [...]
Continue reading...7. April 2009
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The good Professor Fliggins has contacted us to let us know that his third great discovery will be announced this Wednesday, April 8th at noon CST – aided by Shawn ‘Shawnimals’ Smith, as the good P-Fligs has no fingers with which to type or code HTML. If I were out meeting anthroveggies, I wouldn’t really [...]
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8. June 2009
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