Our mission is to be the most accessible and relevant toy news site, to introduce more artists and toymakers to more readers and to promote interest in the toy industry as a whole. ToyCyte publishes more designer toy and toy culture stories per day than any other site. This often feels effortless because we are ourselves writers and toy junkies.
ToyCyte covers the intersection of art and toys in vinyl, resin, plastic, plush (and the occasional wood, metal and ceramic) from all over the globe. We also make a point of going “Beyond Toys”, to bring you info on shirts, skatedecks and other non-anthropomorphic offerings from our favorite artists.
Jeremy Brautman, Editor-in-Chief: I began collecting Qee in 2003 to escape the monotony of a cubicle cell. This seemed a natural extension of the pile of Smurfs I amassed in my youth (and still have). It was through the Toy2R platform that I discovered many of my favorite artists (Joe Ledbetter, Jon Burgerman, Dalek, MCA to name a few). In 2004, I saw Beautiful Losers in San Francisco and met my first KAWS Chum. From that point on, I was hooked. Following the evolution of the scene is interesting to me as both a person who likes stories and toys. From its Asian origins with Michael Lau and Bounty Hunter to Kidrobot’s French Dunnys to San Francisco street art from Alex Pardee and the Upper Playground crew to London auctions sharing lots with Warhol, low brow art toys are hanging out in the company of high art. These are incredibly exciting times. Currently, I dig toys, cool collaborations, the DIY movement, pop culture and writing all day long about these things while listening to music from the early 80s in my Bay Area Bungalow. Contact Jeremy today!
Slight alteration to a strip from The Rut.
Contributors:
Sunny Chanel: Sunny Chanel loves her toys. If she was doll, she’d want to be a Blythe. When not scouring for hot toy news, she eats, sleeps and writes in San Francisco. She also edits the magazine Punk Rock Confidential and writes about baby stuff and infant culture for Babble.com.
Collin David: Collin has a deep affection for all things toyetic, animated and tentacled. He draws and paints a lot, and doesn’t get to sleep until very late.
Undercover H: This unknown figure loves the smell of fresh vinyl from the steaming hot molds. No matter if it’s popular or not, he loves everything and almost anything related to Japanese vinyl. He lives underground but when new releases come out, he comes out of the shadows. As of now no one knows who this person is, but he likes it that way.
Pantheon Labs LLC is the owner of GameCyte, ToyCyte, VerticalWire and TopicDrop. Pantheon Labs consists of:
Richard Kain, Publisher: Richard Kain is the lead investor of Pantheon Labs, LLC, TriplePoint PR, and various technology and video game companies including Telltale, Unknown Worlds, and Mindfuse.
Jason Babler; Creative Director: Jason is responsible for the artistic vision for all Pantheon Labs projects, and also offers his creative services to TriplePoint PR. Jason has worked at Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, Computer Gaming World, ADV Films and Newtype USA magazine.
Henry Bryant; Developer: Pantheon Labs hired Henry away from the professional gaming scene in 2007 to develop custom web applications. At Pantheon, he’s tasked with translating design specifications into functional PHP/MySQL applications on the back end and intuitive AJAX interfaces on the front. Having kept current with trends and standards since the early days of the web, Henry can be relied upon to produce the best solutions to today’s needs.
