ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

We are loving wood toys lately, and David Choe’s Choegal is a great illustration of why. When we first blogged about Choegal, David said, “I gave detailed instructions to the factory on how to replicate my multi-layered style, and looking at this toy, I can’t even tell the difference from the original, I should just get these fuckers to do all my paintings for me too.” You can now see what he’s talking about above. The figure on the left is David’s original; the figure on the right is being painted. Compare those socks!

David sketched the initial drawing (above) based on the wooden toys he made during earlier Giant Robot art shows (below).  The original figures had Popsicle arms and a paper hat.  David wanted the face to be ball-shaped, so that when you spin it, it showed different expressions.  In early conversations with Ningyoushi (which is producing the figure), vinyl was suggested. However, David wanted to keep the wooden concept. Nobody asked my opinion, but I like that decision.

After deciding to go forward with wood, they needed someone to make the wooden prototype (below). Enter Dave Higgins.  Dave had helped previously with prototypes for GAMA-GO’s wooden Deathbots. When Denise from Ningyoushi showed Dave H the drawings, he was able to figure out how to translate this into wooden pieces. They also added mechanical arms for articulation (just like those little wooden model mannequins you see in art stores).  Finally Dave H tackled the biggest issue: how to make the face move with a simple spin feature.  The round ball (pom pom) can be twisted and it’ll spin the face to reveal different expressions.

Once the wooden design was complete, David Choe embarked upon the master paint sample.  Since David doesn’t use Illustrator or Photoshop on his paintings, it had to be done by hand and replicated by hand at the factory. Which brings things back to the beginning with David’s quote. We’re expecting 1000 pieces to arrive before the holidays. Stay tuned for more on David Choe’s Choegal!