ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

Jure Gavran has got your goat. Your Scapegoat, that is. The Bay Area-based graphic designer created this toy to communicate his stance against the social ill known as scapegoating, a problem which he refers to as “a silly make-believe caricature of the truth.” Until recently, the act of blaming others for one’s mistakes has been faceless and anonymous, but to everyone’s surprise this very act has decided to take form and come out to show his ugly face. He goes by the name of Scapegoat Billy and his sole purpose is to inflict discriminatory blame on the innocent.

With tooling by ThreeZero (known for the street-smart figures of many famous Hong Kong toy artists), Jure brought Billy to life as a hulking 8-inch vinyl villain with an innocent GID Blamee trapped (but removable) in his translucent stomach. The first edition of Billy the Scapegoat is Immigrant Billy which comes in a distinct brown/yellow colorway limited to 250 pieces (individually numbered) with a 3-inch Blamee, red collar, leash and green leaf blower. Solid sculpt with clean paint all around. This is a really unique toy in that Billy breaks in half (between his tighty-whiteys and bulging belly) so that the Blamee can be taken out and walked on the leash. To see this in action, check out a great video review by Spanky Stokes.

You should be able to find Scapegoat Billy at your favorite designer toy stores or you can check out a cool glowing pic of the GID Blamee and pick up Billy online at Wizard Sleeve Toys. Stay tuned for the next edition: Urban Criminal Billy will be blaming U soon…

JB: Which came first: the image/form of Billy or the story behind him?

JG: The concept and story definitely came first. They were the driving force behind the design of Billy, from his “I don’t give a damn” expression to his bulbous size. When I began to sketch out the character, I used three underlining ideas to shape the design. 1. People who scapegoat usually don’t care whom or what gets hurt by their actions 2. Scapegoating is similar to throwing your weight around and bullying the weak 3. Blaming others for one’s mistakes is a lazy way to solve a problem.

Describe the process of turning an idea into a sketch into a 3D model…

Well, I was actually quite surprised how straightforward the process was. Once I felt my concept was strong, I began to draw the concept sketches. From there I spent a good portion of my time refining a few ideas on tracing paper. Afterwards, I compared the drawings and figured out which concept would best tell the story and more importantly which design was going to work best as a toy. A good illustration doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll translate well into a toy. With that in mind, I had to make necessary compromises. As soon as I chose the design, I immediately began to draw out the turnaround (which is the front, 3/4 view, side, and back views of a character) on my trusty Canson paper pad. Once those were refined a few hundred times, I digitized the drawings in Illustrator and chose the proper Pantone colors for the characters. Soon after that, I sent the files to ThreeZero. After a week and a half, they had the clay sculpture ready for me. There were a few rounds of refining the belly, jaw, and hands, and once they satisfied my anal retentive eyes, I approved the clay sculpt and they made a wax mold. They sent me a grey prototype, which I used to inspect and point out any minor flaws that occurred to the mold. At this point it was all about quality control. I made sure the paint application was good and that the joints were all nice and tight. Kim and his crew at ThreeZero did such a fantastic job that he made my job a breeze.

How did you connect up with ThreeZero? I assume the average Joe can’t just show up at their door with a sketchbook…

Yeah, I probably wouldn’t just show up with a sketchbook at their door. One of the many great things about the Bay Area is that you have a small core of artists/designers that pretty much all know each other and are willing to offer advice. I was fortunate enough to have met a few artists and people who are in the toy biz, so through them I met Kim at ThreeZero. They believed in my concept and designs, so they offered to hook me up. They know who they are, so thanks again!

What were the biggest obstacles to getting the toy made? Is it any more difficult to engineer GID or transparent vinyl for instance?

The biggest obstacle in getting my toy made was engineering the removable transparent belly. All facets of that section pose a problem. Kim had to figure out how the two halves were going to stay on tightly and equally importantly how the Blamee was going to stay upright inside the belly. Not to mention the transparent vinyl. I don’t know how they did it but they minimized the air bubbles that accumulate during the casting process. They truly are magicians.

Do you have a personal connection/experience with the problem of scapegoating?

I don’t have a major personal experience with scapegoating, but I’ve experienced elements of scapegoating, such as discrimination and stereotyping. But I think we all have a connection with the problem of scapegoating. It might not be a personal experience, but ultimately we’re all connected and affected by the choices we make as a society. In one form or another, we all feel the consequences of these social ills.

How did you come to choose the two colorways: Urban Criminal and Immigrant?

Well, I wanted to bring awareness to a particular modern age group that was/is getting scapegoated. Having grown up in California, the first group that came to mind were Hispanic immigrants. When I was developing my concept, there was lots of news on how immigrant workers were crossing over into the U.S. and taking all the jobs and sending all their money to their countries. Somehow, this was the cause of our financial problems in the U.S. Well, we now know that there are other factors at play for our economic woes. For my second group, I chose African Americans because I feel that they receive unjust, stereotypical, and negative media attention. People have wrongfully associated crime with black skin and I think it’s a great injustice. What I tried to accomplish with my toy was to bring awareness and to showcase these social ills as silly caricatures, because that’s what scapegoating is: it’s a silly make-believe caricature of the truth.

Tell us more about your experiences as an artist growing up in Guatemala and then later, LA.

Diversity, diversity, diversity was my main experience. I’ve had the opportunity to either see and/or experience how different cultures live. As an artist, I’m always searching for new experiences and different perspectives for inspiration. Having lived in Guatemala and later in LA, I have been provided with the necessary tools to explore and accept different social perspectives.

We’re big fans of local art. Tell us what you like about The Bay Area.

The one thing I immediately noticed about the Bay Area when I moved up here was the passion people have for art. I mean it’s everywhere. San Francisco is a designer’s paradise. I absolutely love how people up here appreciate good design and are aware when they see clever aesthetically pleasing work. The eclectic neighborhoods and progressive thinking are also two of the main reasons why I’m here.

What are you up to next???

I’ve actually started to sketch out the next series of Scapegoats. This new series will deal more with the beginning stages of scapegoating, the underlining factors of unjust blame.