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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The name Prozac Rsin, R-sin and Rsin popped up on a ton of shows we covered last year. I checked out his Flickr, and noticed he was crazy-customizing Munnys like they were going out of style. I remember thinking: "his name must be a commentary on toy-making as a remedy for depression." Turns out I had part of it right. I'm in awe of how quickly Rsin can crank out these mini-masterpieces (all the while being a frequent tweeter). Rsin is part of the next generation of toy artists you will be hearing about everywhere, so take note. Interested in getting one of his signature Burning Bear Munnys? You'll have to enter custoMONDAY...
Continue reading...Monday, May 11, 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...Monday, April 27, 2009
Over the last few years, UK artist Cris Rose has been creating and painting vinyl toys. For the past year, we've been chronicling his output. Cris keeps us busy with weekend and surprise toy drops and traveling around to shows to see his customs. 2008 witnessed the rise of Runcible and Rotund, Cris' original resin figures. 2009 promises more. Now if you've been reading ToyCyte or following Cris on twitter, you're no stranger to the fact that Cris' work tends to get snatched up in under 60 seconds. His retro-futuristic style has found fans in all kinds of art and toy collectors; this journalist included. I'm particularly excited to present Cris' first glow-in-the-dark Radioactive Rotund. We've got four of 'em: one to give away on custoMONDAY and three, which will be available tonight at the ToyCyte store. The orange custoMONDAY edition has a unique head content; the other three are green, khaki and grey with the same head contents (but different size heads). Each piece is a one-off with unique damage, rust, moss and GID box. You can read his tweets, browse his Flickr and shop his store for other sweet pieces, but this is the only place to find Radioactive Rotund.
Continue reading...Monday, April 13, 2009
If you live in the Bay Area, or have gone to any art toy show in the last few years, you know the guy who signs his emails "Cheetos and Beer." His name is Leecifer, a nickname he's been living with since toddler times. But the artist otherwise known as Lee Gajda has grown into the moniker. And here at ToyCyte, we've been following his exploits for a year now. Leecifer excels at turning a run-of-the-mill platform toy into a splatter-painted and dry-brushed piece of original art. It's not unusual for someone to say, "I don't really care for X platform, but I want it because Lee painted it." With Leecifer's most recent customs for the I.W.G. Humans Beware show now sold-out and his original resin figure/canvas set included in the latest London Phillips de Pury auction, the dude is hotter than his nicknaming folks could ever have imagined. Leecifer's been a friend of ToyCyte since the beginning, and we've had this custoMONDAY in the works for a while, so without further ado...want to win a ToyCyte-colored custom Dunny or Ghostland figure by Leecifer? You'll need to enter The Contest.
Continue reading...Monday, March 30, 2009
Jason Hilbourne of Portland’s Bunk Bots created an answer to an age-old quandry: By giving our children soft teddy bears and stuffed sharks, are we then teaching them the lesson that bears and sharks are lovable, huggable creatures? Rather than directly answering this paradox, he came up with his own solution: lovable, huggable Bunk Bots. There are currently 10 plushbots in production (many of which are also in film productions), with more in the works. You can pick up an army of Bunk Bots at your local toy shop or online retailer (locations listed here). But if you want something really special, something that nobody else will have, you'll need to enter The Watchmen x Bunk Bots contest!
Continue reading...Monday, March 16, 2009
For this installment of custoMONDAY, we are heading up north to Toronto Canada, where 3D illustrator Jessica Fortner calls home. Her imagery, staging and titles can't be described as simply gorey, they're more Edward Gorey--each vignette its own tragicomedy. Not one to be typecast, Jessica dabbles in varying levels of creepy, cute and unique spins on anthropomorphic beings. Last month, one of her illustrations appeared in The New York Times. Jessica's work was recently featured in the Spraygraphic Mini Mini show and in Fefè Magazine. Her latest clay creations are the Furry Friends, which she made exclusively for custoMONDAY. Want to win a 12-inch tall original Furry Friend in handmade packaging with its own stand and print? Then you'll need to enter custoMONDAY.
Continue reading...Monday, March 2, 2009
Phoebe Marie is a midwest-dwelling artist who caught ToyCyte's attention for her incredibly detailed Dia De Los Dunny custom series. Since then, we've gotten to know her for other toys, collage work, jewelery and being a very funny, extremely prolific persona (her bevy of personal blogs includes daily feet and the 366 Days project). I can only imagine that Phoebe's keyboard is covered in glitter. You can follow her visually on Flickr. While you're there, check out the enchanting St. Patrick's Dia De Los Dunny series Phoebe made just for ToyCyte, which includes 6 custom figures perfect for your holiday celebration. Five will be available in the ToyCyte Shop shortly. But Phoebe and ToyCyte want to give you one for free. Read on to hear why Phoebe digs Day of the Dead, a thesis on how leprechauns might just be gay and probably the first and last mention of payot on ToyCyte.
Continue reading...Monday, February 16, 2009
I kept coming across the name "grimsheep" in custom shows. His work seemed heavily influenced by the comics and superheroes of my youth. When Owen won a custoMONDAY, he decided to give back by starting a custoMONDAY of his own. Owen's work will particularly resonate with comic fans. Writes the artist, "I will say its been fun seeing quality adaptations of comics coming out in recent years. Iron Man was quite a pleasant surprise, not only because it was great, but mostly because I didn't think anyone would ever do it. Coincidentally, Iron Man was the first comic I collected and also the first custom I did." A Stormtrooper here and a Hellboy there, and no doubt you're going to recognize Owen's work when you see it. You can keep up with his customs on Flickr, see his upcoming shows in San Francisco and Montreal, and you can enter our contest to win an original figure from Owen DeWitt's Custom Dunny Skull Squadron series through ToyCyte's custoMONDAY.
Continue reading...Monday, February 2, 2009
Dustin Cantrell crossed my radar when his interactive custom Mad*L (crossed with a Bleep Labs Thingamakit) joined the ranks of last year's ME Mad*L show in San Francisco. While T.W.E.R.P. took third place in the juried competition, it was first on my mind. Now it blips, bleeps and alights in my house with me. If you've ever been to a hands-on science museum (or, alternatively Spencer's Gifts at your local mall), you are aware of the fun of touching these plasma-globes and conducting the electricity within. Combine that with your love for designer toys and you've got Dustin Cantrell's Plasma Dunnys. Or, more correctly: we've got them. Dustin made a limited run of just three metallic silver Plasma Dunnys for ToyCyte. We will offer two of them through ToyCyte's new store later this month (stay tuned). But if you want to get one of these unique, interactive, awesome figures for free, you'll want to enter...custoMONDAY.
Continue reading...Monday, January 19, 2009
Yosiell Lorenzo (aka Project Detonate) first got in touch with ToyCyte about his Crooked Ways custom show in October 2008. His seamless painting style and cute, but corrupt, characters made me an instant fan. After experimenting with hands-on art forms versus sitting behind a computer all day long, Yosiell quickly fell in love with painting. As a result, Project Detonate has taken on a life of its own. With diverse artistic influences ranging from horror movies and Mist UK to Japanese pop art and video games, toy collectors and graphic artists alike are bound to connect with Project Detonate. If you'd like to connect with an original custom Munny and print set from Project Detonate, check out our custoMONDAY contest...
Continue reading...Monday, January 5, 2009
We begin the first custoMONDAY of 2009 with a first for the series: plush. And who better to kick things off than full-time plushinator, Lana Crooks? As the proprietor of Crookedart, Lana spends her time between freelance illustration, costume and set design for film and TV, visual design for retail and, of course, making unique soft sea creatures and skeletons...you can pick up her plushes in LA at Munky King. Or, you could win one right now.
Continue reading...Monday, December 22, 2008
The final custoMONDAY artist of 2008 comes to us all the way from the north of France. Gaël Brienne (aka Nanan1) has created a spectacular space-age Santa Munny to highlight your holiday season. Not to get too deep, but we're hoping that 2009 brings some serious healing to the world, and we've chosen this Munny as a metaphor. After spreading (virtual) peace across the planet, Nanan1's custom Munny will fly home to one lucky reader. To win this great prize, submit a name for Santa's spaceship by Friday, January 2nd.
Continue reading...Monday, December 15, 2008
Leslie Levings is an artist and writer living in Los Angeles and working at a comic book shop. What I like most about these is how much personality she crafts into 1-inch polymer clay critters. Leslie has offered to make one ToyCyte reader his/her own custom Beastlie on the show. To win, submit two starting points as a comment below: name and color.
Continue reading...Monday, December 8, 2008
MONSTREHERO is Sean Blay and Cliff Kirschner, two guys who live in Orlando and like to make toys. They draw influence from superheroes, Japanese monsters, comics, old school action figures and the environment around them. Perusing MONSTREHERO's Flickr, you'll immediately notice that the duo is not afraid of color or texture. One of their signature original figures, The Victim, ranges from a sweet soda shoppe Shirley Temple colorway to the Skittle-vomit Mardi Barf variant. For this week's custoMONDAY, the winner will get a custom Victim made to his/her specs!
Continue reading...Monday, November 24, 2008
Jason has worked with LEGO, MTV and Nickelodeon and has been featured in the pages of Hi-Fructose, Juxtapoz and Heavy Metal. His anatomy illustrations have circulated the Web from BoingBoing to Nerdcore. He has, on the horizon, several magazine pieces, a couple top secret product projects and a collaboration with the United Arab Emirates. Every once in a while, Jason returns to 3D form and busts out a choice custom piece. Which brings us to...THE CONTEST.
Continue reading...Monday, November 17, 2008
Mike Slobot is an artist and a storyteller. Each of his creations is a character with a background (and a future). ToyCyte isn't the only blog to take notice of Mike's work. Gizmowatch and BoingBoing both profiled slomunnyV3, calling it "The Cutest DIY Mini Munny Ever" and "a Post-Apocalyptic Cyborg Lemon," respectively. With accolades like that and Mike's upcoming solo and group shows, you won't want to miss out on...the CONTEST!
Continue reading...Monday, November 10, 2008
After two weeks of giving you hand-cast resin toys, custoMONDAY presents its first vinyl customization, as realized by visceral visualizer, OsirisOrion. The artist, born Robert Ingellis, should be no stranger to ToyCyte readers who have seen his copious customs and original HemoGoblins series profiled herein. So without further ado, if you love monsters, here's our...contest to win a custom 8-inch Dunny!
Continue reading...Monday, November 3, 2008
Let me introduce you to Minneapolis' Aaron Arel, who operates as Uh Oh Toys. You've seen his work before on ToyCyte. Most recently, we profiled his Barrister Ghost, which is almost all sold-out. Aaron combines his unique character designs with some of the lowest prices on the planet for original art. You can see what's in stock at the Uh Oh Toys Webshop. Or, try your luck at our custoMONDAY CONTEST.
Continue reading...Monday, October 27, 2008
Eric Nocella Diaz has been sculpting professionally for over 12 years. He has worked on high profile projects with major toy companies such as ToyBiz, Mcfarlane Toys, ToysRus, Hasbro, Kidrobot and Ka-Ching Brands. Some of the licensed projects he has worked on for those companies range from the Beatles Yellow Submarine toy line, E.T., Preschool Spiderman, Classic Avengers, LOTR, FLCL to the Video Game Award crowned monkey trophy for Spike TV. He is also a co-publisher, art director and editor of independent comicbooks through Xmoor Studios. We're premiering custoMONDAY with the first Argonaut Resins figure: CellPhonesKill, in a Picante exclusive colorway just for ToyCyte's custoMONDAY.
Continue reading...Monday, October 20, 2008
Whether your Mondays are manic or you just don’t like ‘em, the beginning of each week is not customarily cheerful. With the help of a vigilant community of customizers, ToyCyte wants to change that. Presenting custoMONDAY: Something reliably fresh and fun to look forward to and start your week off right. Here’s how it works: [...]
Continue reading...
Monday, May 25, 2009
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