JC Rivera custom Calavera Dunny and Munko

JC Rivera has an amazing eye for composition. His delicate custom paint work on the David Choe Munko figure above is exquisite- just enough detail to create a fully-realized  piece of art, yet minimal enough to work perfectly within the simple form of the Munko figure. This piece is about 3 inches tall, and it doesn't come witha crown- that's JC's addition in resin. I suppose the crown is sort of his  signature- he incorporates a crown into many of his pieces.

At the same time, there's noting subtle about the other piece JC emailed to us: this wild custom 8" Calavera Dunny has also been blessed by JC's sculpting and painting. This one was based on a 3" Calavera Dunny JC did last month- it came out so nice that a customer commissioned him to do an 8" version, so regrettably, it's already sold. In typical Benny fashion, I did not make this blog post fast enough to give you a crack at buying the Munko- it's sold as well.

There are, however, still several really cool customs available in JC's shop, so click here to see what's available. He also takes commissions, obviosly. Here are his links:

www.artbyjcrivera.com

http://artbyjcrivera.bigcartel.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artbyjcrivera/

http://artbyjcrivera.tumblr.com/

We still have some of JC's Riker's Island series left in stock- a 3" Dunny series he made for our shop.

tANkDROID custom by Jim Magee

and 4 1, originally uploaded by Jim1297.

Check out more pics of this awesome Android custom, and many other customs, on Jim's Flickr page.

 

Genuinely disgusting Grubby custom by eeKs

Usually the time I set aside for blogging is while I drink my coffee in the morning, just before I eat breakfast and get on with my day. My brain works best in the morning, and the blog posts are up for people to see them as they start their day.

In this case, I'm not so sure my timing is all that great, as I just woke up and I am now staring at eeKs' custom featuring maggot-filled open wounds. BLARRRRGH! Guess I will skip eating eggs for breakfast.

6" of pure grub worm filled,  grotesque, ill tempered vinyl makes up Grubby. Between scars & the worms, Grubby stays busy being the dirtiest & most vile curmudgeon one could lay eyes on. Check him out in eeKs shop today! www.eeksart.storenvy.com in the Custom Toy section.

I've been studying and working with art now for nearly 2 decades, and one concept that is evident throughout the art world is that art is supposed to elicit a reaction from the viewer. That reaction does not always have to be positive (love, calm, happiness, warmth) for the piece to be successful. Indeed, The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch is a sick, messed-up piece that couldn't possibly make the viewer feel anything good. Yet, I love that painting- it's one of my favorites. It's sick, and it makes you feel sick, and that's awesome. Sorta like eeKs' Grubby. I really am a bit disgusted by that open wound, and that means the piece is successful. Bravo!

Corporate Monsters Series 2 by DAVEMARKART in stock now

After the immediate sell-out of DAVEMARKART's Corporate Monsters Series 1, Dave set right to work creating  Series 2 for Tenacious Toys. Here they are, from left to right: the Corporate Death Dealer, the Corporate Bloodsucker, and Two-Faced. Corporate Monsters Series 2 is now for sale in our DAVEMARKART section! Dave outdid himself this time, with complex sculpts and even more detail... This is Dave's first crack at using Mini Munnys as a platform, and they came out great!

Shawn Wigs MATRIX Dunny series

Shawn Wigs shares with is his sweet new MATRIX series, which includes ten 3" Dunnys, an 8" Dunny and two 4" Mini Munnys. 

I'm a little slow on this post so some of them are sold already, but you should click here to go to Shawn's store to see all of them. 

Shawn also let us know that he has an even BIGGER series coming soon- his next project is an artist series:

First week in March I have a brand new series of 110 custom 3" Dunnys & one Custom 8" Dunny.
This time I reached out for some help from 7 amazing artists and 1 SUPER STAR... Here's the line-up:
Shawn Wigs, Anthony Devito, Nervis Wrek, James Fuller, Mike Die, JC Rivera & BALD (Bryan Lopez). Plus there will be 5 custom Dunnys designed & signed by Ghostface Killah from The WU-Tang Clan. The release date is set for March 2nd at 3:00 pm Eastern Time.

Scott Kinnebrew resin Buddha Fetts in stock

We now have a wide selection of Scott Kinnebrew's 4-inch resin Buddha Fett figures in stock, each in a unique, one-off colorway. The one pictured above is the Rainbow colorway, but there are also such gems as Peppered Mango, Rotten Citrus, and my personal favorite: Unicorn Vomit. At only $20 each, these are selling fast. Click here to see which ones we have left!

Terminator Che by TaskOne

From the twisted mind and capable hands of artist TaskOne comes Terminator Che! The original Dead Che bust was designed by Frank Kozik and sculpted by Brin Berliner. This custom piece has been "reinterpreted" by Task, with photography seen here by Brad Topolewski. Pretty damn evil. 

You can follow Task at the links below:

www.taskoner.com
http://www.taskonernews.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=701977835

Glass Mini Destroyer: Toygodd dives into alternative medium

You might remember the Destroyer figure- it was a 5" resin figure produced not long ago by Argonaut Resins for an emerging artist named Oh Negative. Oh Negative turned out to be none other than the Almighty Toygodd- Eric Frank, editor and writer of the Toygodd, Hangar 3A and Vinyl Shack columns on Action Figure Times. If there's anyone who covers as many different topics in the toy industry as I do, it's Toygodd. I hang out with him several times a year when he comes to town for the Toy Fair and NYCC.

When Toygodd was here a couple weeks ago, he showed me his latest creation: a mini 2" version of his Destroyer figure, but this time in glass! Glass is a medium that is being used a little bit these days, but no one is making figures as detailed as Toygodd. They are super heavy, and cool to the touch. Such a fun medium! He even melted GID powder into a few of them and I can personally sttest to the fact that once you charge the GID ones up, they glow INSANELY bright. They even have an inner glow visible in a lit room- it looks like a tiny lightbulb. Watch for more info on the evolution of these figures, both on Toygodd's blog and mine.

SNEAK PEEK: Secret project teaser!

Teaser! We're partnering with Brian Ahlbeck to put together a secret project. This piece, by Rich Page of Ume Toys, is one of the first pieces we got back. 

More teasers and more info on this project coming soon. 

(I will entertain guesses in the comments section of this blog post.)

Coming soon: Misfit Monsters Dunny series by UNCLE Studio

 

Arriving any day now is this sweet 3" Dunny series by UNCLE Studio: the Misfit Monsters! This crazy series will be for sale on our new UNCLE Studio page on our site. Full reveal once they arrive.

In the meantime, you can follow UNCLE Studio here:

Website: www.unclestudio.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/unclestudios
Facebook: www.facebook.com/unclestudio
Store: www.unclestudio.storenvy.com

The third of NEMOs 3 Tribesmen: the Mad Guru Bud

 

NEMO has released the third of his 3 Tribesmen series of Doodle Budz figures- this one is the Mad Guru Bud. The previous two were the Blue Bud and the Voodoo Bud.

You can buy all three customs here.

Also make sure to check out NEMO's Bad Applez custom show that just sent live on the Bad Applez site. Bad Applez is the company NEMO started with OsirisOrion.

The Battle of the Wordsmiths app and figure series

Quite a long time ago, a gentleman named Tunde contacted me and asked me if I knew of a good sculptor who could help him with a project he was creating.

Why yes, I replied, in fact I do know a very talented sculptor: Mike "NEMO" Mendez.

I hooked Tunde up with NEMO by way of email, and that was that. I have kept in touch with Tunde, off and on, over the past couple years as he got his vision off the ground. Tunde is of African descent, and he had an idea for a series of action figures utilizing the cultural archetypes present in the collective unconscious of the African diaspora. In layman's terms, that means in many African cultures there exist certain characters- whether they be mythological or real- that are common threads amongst the many different cultures. Tunde envisioned a series of action figures based on these characters.

NEMO's job was to sculpt the heads of some of the figures so that Tunde could get them produced by a factory. Tunde wanted fabric clothing and accessories for these characters, and he showed me some illustrations at one point which were fascinating and of course fundamentally different from anything coming out of the Americas, or Europe, or Asia. In short, a very cool project idea.

Well, as many of you know, getting toys made, especially by factories, is no easy task. And it doesn't happen overnight. I do not know Tunde- I've never met him personally, I mean- but I know he is passionate about this idea and wherever he is, he is most likely doing what so many of us are: working trying to survive in the "normal" way, while also pursuing our passion on the side. Getting very little sleep, having very little extra money, and very excited about our next big creative project.

In Tunde's project evolution, he has created an iPad app, whose intro video is below:





Tunde's project is called The Battle of the Wordsmiths. Honestly, from the video, the graphics look pretty cool. Tunde tells me that the iPad app will be released this month and the limited-edition figure series will begin to be released later this year. Please support Tunde by visiting TBOTW's Facebook page and Liking it. Also, go download the iPad game in the iTunes store here. It's free!



Here's a description of the game:

THE BATTLE OF THE WORDSMITHS is an epic multiplayer role playing card game set in the Yoruba kingdoms. Using cards you build armies of creatures, shape landscapes, control forces of nature, and use magical charms in a war against your opponents. THE BATTLE OF THE WORDSMITHS combines beautiful graphics, original gameplay and fast paced strategy.