ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

I’m pleased to announce that Jeremy Brautman has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief of ToyCyte. I first met Jeremy when I started ToyCyte, and he answered an ad for a freelance toy blogger, and it wasn’t long before I knew he was going to play a bigger part in ToyCyte.

Jeremy has been a lifelong collector, beginning with Smurfs and Snorks and graduating to Qee and Gardeners. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of designer toy culture with special interests in urban art, platform toys, the DIY movement and collaborations. He enjoys connecting pop art with pop culture, and once told me that unless he is asleep, his brain is always drawing invisible lines and making connections.

Jeremy began collecting mini-figures as a solution to the monotony of 14-hour workdays in front of a computer. “Qee-bay” was his lifeline. After seeing Kaws’ work for the first time as part of Beautiful Losers in 2004, he was hooked. From then on, he began obsessively collecting toys and information from the scene’s origins with Michael Lau and Bounty Hunter to the present. [He can be spotted at toy releases and events dating back to this Kozik signing in 2004.]

Far from an elitist, Jeremy is enthusiastic about the growing attention to the scene. He likes seeing kids at Kidrobot and art toys in art auctions. He believes in profiling emerging artists as well as established designers. Although he hopes for change in the US (and has been covering all the Obama Art to that extent), he wants ToyCyte to represent toy culture globally. His posts reflect the movement in cities from around the world.

Please join me in congratulating Jeremy on his new position. We all look forward to exciting times ahead.