ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

NYCC was a nearly incomprehensible miasma of crowds and excitement and getting whapped in the shoulder by uncareful cameramen, but I survived the whole ordeal with bruised body intact. After a few technical delays, I’m finally home again, here to report on the onslaught of awesome.

Plenty of weirdos, plenty of “Jedi” who took themselves WAY too seriously, a couple of family-sized Black Canaries, and an incredibly embittered Evan Dorkin later, the urban vinyl alleys at the far left of the Javits floor were usually a pretty safe refuge from the craziness – unless, say, you stumbled into that wonderland during a Pushead or Kathie Olivas signing. At that point, it was like leaping into a frustrated, groin-to-ass whirlpool of humanity and hoping that you don’t get trampled, infected, or married to the guy impatiently thrusting behind you. We’re all going in the same direction, man, and that direction is NOT towards my insides. The aisles could have been a little wider, and the importance and popularity of some of these guests could have been estimated more properly to accommodate the crowds that formed (at one point wrapping around the whole aisle and beginning to fill another), but the warmth of the artists I managed to get to was the highlight of the whole weekend for me.

I was introduced to artists by other artists, creators left their booths with me to hunt down people they enjoyed working with, and I felt pretty damned welcome.

Here’s the roundup. Click each linked heading below to be transported to the corresponding post (which has tons more pictures).

Foox

I wandered into the urban vinyl alleys expecting to meet all of my favorite toy artists, but not really anticipating meeting too many ones I hadn’t yet heard of from here in the trenches of the art movement – but the first thing that caught my eye was the work of David Foox. As someone with an unnatural attraction to anthropomorphized human organs, Foox was right up my alley.

They were selling first edition sets of these organ-y Organ Donors resins at the show while trying to shop around the blind boxed, multi-colorway thing to any prospective retailers. The blanks that you see in the background are a real possibility if the line actually takes off, but with an appeal that reaches beyond the urban vinyl crowd into an audience of OTHER weirdos who grew up with the deliciously damaging imagery of Pee Wee’s Playhouse – if there’s actually a place where the two demographics don’t intersect. Check out the crazy variety of colorways!

So, new toys from NYCC! Hop over to the Foox website for more info and to show your support! I’m always a fan of the soft touch of vinyl over that harsh mistress resin, so let’s see these march on.

Bob Conge / PlaSeeBo

It’s no secret that Bob Conge is probably one of my favorite toy artists. Not only is his subtly creepy awesomeness all handmade from his upstate NY studio (upstate NY represent!), but it’s all super-limited edition, very high-end, classy as bejesus goods. While he was not at the Con, his stuff was represented at the joint booth of GoHero and Executive Replicas. Steve Fforde of GoHero described Bob as (and I’m paraphrasing here) a laid-back, awesome guy who makes stuff because he loves to make stuff, and the fact that people want to buy it provides him with a bit of happy amazement. So, Conge has become one of my larger creative inspirations.

Present at the con were his previously-announced unique ‘Journey of the Stone Walker‘ piece, and the edition of ten clear resin ‘Outer Space / Ice’ Skulloctopus pieces, which glowed with a button-cel LED and sold for $120 each. And I freakin’ had to have one, so I decided on my huge Con purchase early (not without a little bit of prompting from Jeremy, who is aware of both my love of octopi and our bony, human endoskeletons). Each Skulloctopus, much to my delight, also came with a large Skulloctopus print – so, bonus. Also present was a one-off painted Skulloctopus.

Some unannounced pieces made their debut in Conge’s small case, such as a unique ‘Reactor Night Gamer P6′ piece with a full-on glowing Koosh head, and selling for $275. The slightly more complex, and eerily beautiful  Reactor Night Gamer P4 piece was selling for around $400. Check out the photos for Conge & PlaSeeBo’s other new offerings.

GoHero

I chatted up GoHero’s Steve Fforde at NYCC, and he assures me that the humongous Cyclops that you see before you, oh kaiju fans, is actual size. With a short history of going just so slightly, addictively overboard with their stuff (such as the upcoming glass-helmeted Buck Rogers 12″ figures), the huge cyclops will be in scale with the rest of their Clash of the Titans 1/6th line, will be vinyl, have furry legs, and while it’s still a dream he’s pursuing, Steve hopes to give the Cyclops a moving eye – which will not only move, but will be hooked up to a motion sensor to determine just which ways it’ll move. Intense and interactive.

GoHero debuted their bullet-headed Commando Cody 1/6th figure, as seen here, again featuring an amazing likeness, and showcased the various colorways and progress on their Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon figures – including a couple of especially alluring black & white versions. Each will include a 1 GB MP3 player with full USB connectivity. Again, interactive and intense, mixing the keen retro sensibility with very current technology. I’m inclined to get the trio of famous Rocketmen together for a stupendously awesome display – to match my Buck Rogers replica Disintegrator.

And the 1/6th Harryhausen Skeleton Warrior? I’ll take a dozen, please.

Erick Scarecrow / Esc-Toys

Mr. Erick Scarecrow is probably one of the most zen, amicable people I’ve ever met. Pardon me for fawning, but for such a prolific artist to be so relaxed and obviously in love with his craft is genuinely refreshing. I don’t know how he does it, but he seems to have found a center in his art, and it’s great to be a part of it.

Erick showed up with a ton of wildly different toys, all defiant of current urban vinyl aesthetic trends, including the announced Shitake, Muraida and Medusa pieces. Mr. Esc also showed off five different Soopa Maria Sato colorways, the Chelly Chainsaw ‘Shiny Massacre’ 10″ resin colorway (coming sometime in 2009), two completely unexpected Headbanger colorways, and some Mousey Micci plush and vinyls (including a March 2009 ‘Waffle’ version).

I pressed him for the key to his recognizable but often aesthetically divergent works.

“I draw a lot, and I try to be as diverse as possible. I think that there’s power in diversity.”

When further pressed for future toy plans, Mr. Scarecrow responded with the following :

“I have a new character that I’m going to be doing. It’s going to be like my [version of a] Dunny – it’s based off of an old dog I used to have that passed away. I felt like I wanted to have something to kinda remember him by – I always saw him as a real powerful dog – so I think I’m going to introduce it first in Japan, and then do something here.”

While there are no immediate plans for blanks, especially due to the personal nature of the project, Erick plans on testing the waters first. But ultimately, wisely and infectiously :

“You’ve gotta have fun with it.”

Jure Gavran / Kuso Vinyl

So, Kuso Vinyl’s new stuff didn’t show up on time for NYCC, which is something of a major bummer – but that’s okay! Weekend raffles and general amicability propelled the booth throughout the weekend.

I happened to be there at the booth while Jure Gavran’s Criminal Billy was raffled off to this lucky young lady.

While there weren’t too many new or upcoming works on display, I was particularly amazed by seeing the set of Fulcraim figures in person, as they’re substantial and mix cute and space-alien-creepy in ways I’ve never seen before. The set was something to the tune of $300, but it’s absolutely something to keep an eye out for.

Jared Deal

Jared Deal, semiprofessional carnivalologist, is another one of those successful toy artists that’s just cool to talk with – no matter how deeply you try to pry into his subconscious to figure out where this circus stuff comes from. Ultimately, it’s a little bit of Coney Island and a little bit of the rotating (and more adult-themed) makeshift circus that he’d bore witness to in his younger days. The NYCC exclusive purple Pierce and Dogboy were on display, but seeing as how the family (which is slowly being united in vinyl) was originally conceived as a cartoon premise, I asked if we’re going to see the full cast in three dimensions.

“I’m debating on whether to keep going with the Carnys or not, or start something new. I don’t know if I want to go THAT deep into it – I might just stop here.”

What it comes down to is sales – so, if you want to see the whole Carny family, buy ‘em up! Ultimately, a toy series has to be at least self-sustaining. Also at the booth were the ridiculously popular Vlad resins – which Deal revealed were also a more satisfying product to produce.

“The Vlad resins have a quicker turnaround, they’re more hands-on, less problems, less stress.”

Within a few hours of the Con opening, four of the six final Vlads had already sold, leaving these two specimens behind. While I didn’t scout ‘em out before the end of the Con, I assume that these guys also found loving homes. Perhaps more resins are in the future.

Check out sculptor Eric Nocella on the right in this photo also – he’s the guy with his hands all over these Jared Deal designs, turning them so perfectly into the sculpted toys that we dutifully collect. Nocella was psyched to talk about Galtow, a comic and sculpture property he’s working on, so go check it out! The future holds full-sized sculptures in a traditional comic vein.

kaNO

kaNO was a little bit of everywhere at NYCC, his mark was on at least five different show exclusives and premieres, including his MoneyGrip colorways at Argonaut Resins, the Hi-Defs over at ToyQube, his contribution to the Baby Monk Yoto at MyPlasticHeart and the GID Bodega.

A man of few words (or perhaps I’m just a reporter who was a bit tongue-tied in the presence of such proliferousness), he also had some funky artist wallets and patches laid out – all neat stuff – and he was kind enough to take a moment before the lens of my ol’ workhorse of a Canon A60.

Nakanari

Nakanari’s planned Noruto Spiki NYCC exclusive was a casualty of the cruel, cruel world, but he happily sketched away on a blank minifigure at the Kuso Vinyl booth, while a guy in eyeliner chatted me up about finding rare figures in blind boxes and incurring the jealousy of everyone around him at the Con.

I didn’t stick around.

NEMO

The ToyQube booth saw NEMO hangin’ out and sketching. One enterprising fan was collecting giant marker sketches on a street map of NYC – an excellent idea to commemorate the NYCC. You can see a Lou Pimentel ape in there, too.

Check out his Wanderlust sculpt for BIC Plastics in the Brent Nolasco post!

Brent Nolasco

Stylin’ Brent Nolasco had a whole ton of handmade customs for sale at NYCC’s MPH booth, and there still weren’t enough to go around, as his custom Scavengers sold out individually before some fans could buy them as much-desired sets.

Making a sudden appearance on Saturday, having just arrived from a long, mysterious journey was the sculpt for the upcoming Wanderlust figure from BIC Plastics – designed by Nolasco and sculpted by NEMO. Mr. Nolasco commented on the organic design of the piece, as opposed to the usual ‘toyetic’ design of many vinyl toys. In this case, Nolasco’s original art came first, and the subsequent toy was a ‘let the manufacturer figure it out’ kind of deal – resulting in this very unique form, which will come apart into various pieces (one part owl, one part slug), and have some different as-yet-undetermined colorways.

The vinyl Wanderlust, which is still seeking a solid distribution deal, should be hitting sometime late this year, so keep an eye out! It’s tremendous in person.