ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

One of the main goals we have here at ToyCyte is to support toy designers, especially artists who have just begun their journeys. As an artist myself, I know exactly how hard it is to get a foothold into any industry, let alone the acutely small world of designer toys, and now the added stress of a crappy economy makes it all the more challenging. ToyCyte has a staff including me, Jeremy, our web guru Henry and a handful of stellar contributors. Because we pay every writer who writes for us, we are looking to keep up with publishing costs but also move forward with exciting projects for 2009. That is why I am extremely excited to announce that ToyCyte has paired up with some of the very artists we have written about to launch our new storefront: ToyCyteShop!

Toys, Toys and some exclusive toys!

Through ToyCyteShop, we are reaching out to artists we believe are pushing the designer toy world in new directions. Some of the products you won’t find anywhere else. We have reached out to artists who we have written about and are going to bring you ToyCyte Exclusives: custom pieces by emerging artists, some of our favorite toys by established artists, original short-run series, exciting exclusives…and we also hope to release our toys soon as well. You never know what will pop up, which is going to be half the fun. We’ll be selling toys we believe in, and while you may find a few of these toys elsewhere, buying them from us will help keep ToyCyte running and feeding the community need for compelling toy news, interviews and events coverage.

There are many ways we can work with artists in our shop:

• If an artist wants to sell their toy with us, we can easily arrange it in our store.
• Artists can take an existing toy and create a colorway, paint job or custom design that can only be found at ToyCyte’s Shop.
• Artists can create an original series to be promoted by ToyCyte.

Separation of church and state, or in this case, “Editorial” and “Shop”

While Jeremy and I continue to make ToyCyte a collaborative success, I will be running the store while Jeremy keeps his focus on providing the best news to our readers. Don’t be surprised if Jeremy’s enthusiasm involves him in the process of bringing new toys to our store too. Rest assured however, you’ll notice that we won’t change our editorial based on what is in the store. In fact, I’ve even gone so far as to brand our “Shop” posts with a different look, so there is no confusing what’s editorial and what’s “shoptalk,” as you see in this post already. As we intend to continue supporting the community as a whole, we’ll still be linking to other stores and accepting other store advertising.

I will be working directly with any artists or wholesalers who partner with ToyCyteShop. Not only can I help you by promoting and designing your materials for ToyCyte, but I can provide design assistance with your own site as well. Don’t have a site? Heck, we will try to help you out there, too. New artists and toys may be featured in the Storefront and will also get an ad on Toycyte’s right-side advertising space, where we will announce new products, artists, sales, etc.

When the time comes, we will also work with individual artists to get their toy mass produced, basically, putting our money where our “Shop” mouth is. When you feel your toy is ready for production, we will plan our strategy on a case-by-case basis, produce toys through our company or help you reach out to toy companies to help your vision become a reality. ToyCyte is interested in working with artists from all over the world as well. We are currently able to offer language services for French, Japanese and Spanish. More news to come in the next few months.

Watch this space

Keep checking back with us. Soon we will announce exciting exclusives, the artists who are joining us and info how to access the shop. If you are interested in selling your toys with us, please contact me at jason (at) toycyte (dot) com.

Thank you for your support over the last year in making ToyCyte the best junction of art and toys on the Internet. Let us know your thoughts and feel free to contact me anytime!