Custom Sewer Creep toy

I picked up a clear unpainted Sewer Creep from Coma21 @ NYCC last year. I really liked the design, since it reminded me of the old TMNT toys, but made in Japanese (sofubi) vinyl. It took me a while to finish this, but I think the extra time really paid off. The red and brown were done with spray paint, while the rest was painted inside. The white and black details were done with the new Monster Kolor paint pens, which worked out great. Once it was all painted, I did a black rub to make the details pop. This is really fun design, and I'm very happy with how this came out. I took photos down at the skate park, since I felt like the background fit the character.

Mummy Boy for Super7's Mummy Mania contest

Super7 is having a contest to paint their mascot, Mummy Boy, called Mummy Mania! To coincide with this, they released a large and pocket sized unpainted flesh tone toys for people to buy and paint. The winner in each category will be produced, which is a pretty rad prize.
I wanted to keep the paint somewhat simple, using a style similar to what they've done before, but using spray paint and a paint marker. I went with a somewhat realistic mummy color scheme, and followed the detail lines with a paint marker. Usually when I do this style of toy, I like to use a clear base and paint the inside, so I was a little worried about going too thick on the paint. Also, my paint marker died early on, so I had to do some improvising. He will be exhibited and for sale at the Mummy Mania! Customs from the Crypt Show on Saturday, January 28th, 2012, at the Super7 Store (1427 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117). Doors open at 6PM Pacific.

UPDATE:
Featured on Super7's blog
On sale (via Super7) HERE

Custom Rumble Monsters toy

I scored a Rumble Monsters Damnedron toy on eBay cheap recently. I decided to do it in a somewhat Hedorah style, giving him a kinda sludge/oil slick look. I painted the inside with black, which through the milky clear vinyl looks dark gray. Then masked out the detail for the eyes and teeth, and painted the mouth with a paint marker. For the body, I sprayed kaiju style whisps of yellow, and masked off my trademark X's and a biohazard symbol. After that I did a rub of light green to give it a kind of grosser look.

More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bleedingedges

Custom Tripus toy

I had gotten this clear Tripus by Max Toy Co. a while ago, and kind of stared at it, not wanting to ruin it until I had the right idea. It's about 9" tall, and has 7 parts. I based the colors off the Kraken from the old Clash of the Titans movie. After taking it apart, I noticed that the face tentacles were glued on, and not a part of the head. I had to cut a hole, and use a straw to paint the inside. Once I painted the inside green, I made masks out of tape on the chest and legs for the gold spray paint. I was a little worried, since the vinyl is a little different than what I'm used to, but the paint stayed perfectly. For the arms and top of the legs I went a little more free form, and did a more Kaiju style spray. For the face, I used a gold paint marker for the horns and eyes. Once painted, I went over it all with a black rub technique. This really brought out a lot of hiding detail, especially in the scales. I couldn't be happier with how this came out.
More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bleedingedges/sets/72157627161316251

custom Skulloctopus toy

I had gotten this clear Skulloctopus by Plaseebo a while back to paint. I painted the inside of the bottom and did black rub, which gives it a bright yet gritty look. I treated the head a little different though. I sprayed the front white with a little ivory, and left the back clear. I painted in the metal components with a paint marker, and did a black rub all over. I also got some fake eyes and drilled holes inside the eye sockets. It gives it a much creepier look than just painting them black. Lastly, I got a handful of glow in the dark snakes off eBay, and filled the skull with them, so that they glow would appear in the unpainted part. Unfortunately the snakes don't glow very brightly (w/o the aid of a black light), so I may replace them w/ some pink worms to look more like brains.(click to get a better view of the turn around)

Smurf Munny

Kidrobot is having a Munny custom contest this month, so I decided to use a Munny I got for X-Mas, and do a simple custom. At work I've been working on the Smurfs Cereal, so staring at Smurfs all day gave me the idea. I had bought a crappy Mighty Mugs rip-of Smurf a while back on clearance for $2, So I chopped off his head, and gave the Munny a hat.
I based the design off the Purple Smurf cartoon/comic, so he'd be a little different than just doing a generic smurf. Voting for the Munnyworld contest ends this month, so please vote for me HERE!

custom Ghost Trooper toy

I had gotten a clear Ghost Trooper toy recently off someone on the Skullbrain board. The toy is a collaboration between Death Climax and Super7, basically taking the existing Space Trooper body and adding a new head by Brian Flynn. For this custom, I painted the inside of the body brown and taped off and spray painted the red. Once that was done, I did a black rub, to make the details pop and give it weathered look. I painted the inside of the head with a glow in the dark paint, which was hard to work with, but looks great. I like painting the inside of clear toys, because from an angle, you can still see the clear on the surface (especially in the skull on the chest). Super7 had a custom show this weekend, and after seeing all those cool customs, it motivated me to finish this.

Grenade art show + some more Kaiju Customs

This grenade is for an art show at Finder's Creepers in IA, where every artist customizes a grenade in their own way called "Fire In The Hole!" I decides to paint mine like a clown, which I've decides to call "Rambozo the Clown." As usual, I painting the whole thing with spray paint, then added a black rub to get the darkness in the detail. While painting it, I had some issues with the paint flaking off, but I think I was able to conceal it a bit. I added the arms from a crappy old action figure, to give it a more ridiculous character look.

Because I'm such an exciting guy, I decided to spend my Saturday finishing up some other toys I started. First is yellow vinyl Blowfish by Brian Flynn/Super7. I wanted to try a new idea I had, where I cut out some circles with painter's tape and placed them inside. I then painted the inside blue, so that it would look green, and peeled off the tape circles, leaving clear yellow dots. It came out pretty cool, and looks real good when in some direct light. I also did a dry rub, but it was so round, that it's very subtle.

Next I painted a clear vinyl RealXHead Ashira, which is a version of the one eyed fortune cat that I love. I painted the inside light green, then taped off the robe and flower to spray paint pink. The black rub gives it a look of a weathered jade statue.

Lastly, I had this Chaos head from the Glyos Custom Corp for a while. The body it came on wasn't nearly badass enough for it, so I made this for him, but had it un-painted for months. Again, not badass enough. So in my painting last night, I decided to try a white rub, and added the detail to the glow pieces with a fine point paint marker. Finally, think he looks badass enough.

Krazy Kaiju Kustoms

I had gotten these 2 RealXHead unpainted clear pieces (Mini Hone Borg and Mini Ichibonboshi Ryusei Ninja)way back last December when Super7 had a big sale. They sat unpainted for a while, then I did my usual spray painted detail, and paintign the inside of the clear figure. It came out ok (see below), but was lacking something. So they sat in my basement for a few months until recently. I decided to be bold and try a black rub technique. Basically what I did was painted the area with black paint, then rub the surface lightly with a paper towel. This leaves paint in the detail, and adds depth to the paint. I really liked the way these came out, and the technique saved some otherwise mediocre custom paint jobs.

Next we have a clear Mini Borugogon by Monstock. I painted the inside with acrylic craft paint to resemble one of the old McDonalds Fry Guys from the old 80's commercials. The piece has a ridiculously detailed texture, which was perfect to do the black wash. The toy had 2 red eyes, which fit perfectly in the divots, but I thought some old school googley eyes would be more fun.

80's Toys Art Show

Here are my 2 pieces for the Autumn Society 80's Toys Art Show. The art show will go from July 2- Aug 4 @ Brave New Worlds in Philly. More info can be found on Facebook.

This painting is based off of the original crappily sculpted Stormtrooper action figure from the Star Wars line. I know the toy initially came out in 1977, but they re-packaged these through the 80's. Ever since I was 3, I was hooked on Star Wars, and after getting the Super Shogun Stormtooper recently, the old toys have been dancing though my head. It's a 2 color stencil, with the background made up of various colors of the black layer.

This second piece was kind of last minute. I had this weird long canvas, and had the idea to do a toy based off M.U.S.C.L.E., which were these crazy pink Japanese wrestling characters. This guy is Terry Bull, who if I recall was the leader of the bad guys. This was also done with spray paint and stencils.

FinnMunny for Munny Munth

In honor of Munny Munth over at KidRobot, I decided to do a custom on their Trikky Mini-Munny platform. The design is based on Finn, the main character from Adventure Time. I sculpted the backpack out of a new sculpting compound called Zubber, which didn't work as good as I would have hoped. Still it was a fun little piece, and adds to my 2 other Adventure Time tributes HERE and HERE.
Vote for my Munny custom here! I'm not gonna win, but it literally takes 2 seconds to click "Like."

Qeeology 2.5 show

Recently I was asked to be a part of Toy2R's Qeeology 2.5 art show. They sent me a blank 2.5" Qee to customize any way I wanted for the show. I tried something a little different, but overall like the finished product. Notice the 7 Seconds logo on the chest, and various X's and No symbols. I decided to name him "Drug Control" after the 7 Seconds song.
Pictures and a recap of the show can be found HERE. I'm glad to have been a part of it.

Custom Skully for PVC art show

The folks over at Delicious Drips are having an online art show/contest with custom DIY Skully vinyl toys. I submitted a new piece, which is a glow in the dark Skully with some spider imagery. I also submitted an older design I did, which was featured in the promotional video. As of now my pieces are on page 2, please vote for me since I have some pretty low ratings right now.

"Fuck your popularity contest, I'd rather see a murder contest" -Left For Dead

Skuttle custom for It Came From Skullbrain II show

This is my custom Skuttle toy, which I did for Super 7's It Came From Skullbrain II art show. The show consists of artists customizing Japanese vinyl toys. Genereally Japanese toys are painted with an airbrush in small busts of color to highlight the sculpt. I chose a clear Skuttle by Tuoma, and painted the inside then added the details outside w/ spraypaint. By painting the inside, the color is a bit more subtle, and still shows some clear when viewed on an angle. I named my piece "Slices" after the record by the band of the same name w/ a turtle on the cover.

Jan 16th 2010 from 6pm - 10ish.
Super7 retail outlet
1628 Post St
San Francisco, CA 94115
http://www.super7store.com
http://www.skullbrain.org

*flyer coming soon?*

Custom Yoka for D-con

Here's my finished YOKA custom for Designer Con. He needs a name, any ideas? The coloring pattern was based on my gf's Boston Terrier. The Yoka platform toy is great because it looks good standing, but even better sitting. I am extremely humbled to be a part of this show, from what i hear there will be 300 artists involved. Thanks to DKE Toys and Dylan Evans for giving me this opportunity.

*UPDATE: his name is "Mopey"*

Misfits Tubby, Couch Slouch Qee & Kaiju Gwin

I've been working on a bunch of toys lately, and haven't had a chance to post them, here's what I've been working on for the past month or so,,,
This was originally a vinyl toy of Tubby from the Little Lulu comic. I got a few of these and decided to paint it up in a style of Bounty Hunter, hence the logo on the back. It was mainly influenced by the Misfits fashion sense.
This started out as a blank Pigee Qee, and I turned it into a lazy balding dudes who I call "Couch Slouch" (after the DRI song). He's so depressed he just sits around the house watching TV in his underwear and flippy floppies. Poor guy... I painted it pink first, then gave it some light sprays of ivory to lighten him up in spots.
This was a Gwin that I made as an experiment to try painting the inside of a clear toy. I left him blank, but decided I should finish him off w/ some simple details. I was influenced by the minimalistic kaiju style paint jobs from Japan.
This Gwin was mine for the Custom Gwin Trade on the October Toys forum. The concept was that the Gorilla had a banana peel on his head, which made use of the penguin shape's flaps. My trade partner got this Gwin along w/ a custom painted Zombie and header card. I had gotten the Zombie free in an order and was just playing around w/ paint markers one night. The arms are from a Dunny and are drilled in so they still move. My trade partner was very happy with it and I eagerly await his custom to come in the mail.

hardcore/punk toys?!

Collecting vinyl rules. Whether that vinyl is playable or shaped into a cool toy is your choice. What some of my usual blog readers may not know is that a lot of punkers are involved in the toy world. I did a post a while back about the Gorilla Biscuits toy, but did you know that CIV did a Dunny design in their tattoo series?
Suicidal Tendencies had a Be@rbrick design as a pattern. I was lucky enough to score one of these on the first try. It's made to look like a blue bandanna, and is a part of the pattern series. Medicom recently released a larger "400%" version of this design. They've also done Sex Pistols themed Be@rbrick in the past.
Kidrobot recently did series of pieces depicting their mascot as a punk rocker called Kidpunk. There were 3 different versions- 1977 (Sex Pistols), 1980 (Dead Kennedys), 1984 (Black Flag). I of course got the Black Flag looking one. Each one came with a record and cover parodying the band's classic album that was released in that particular year. I thought it was pretty clever, and shows that someone working there knew something about the actual music, and not just the look.
Everybody knows Pushead for doing tons of awesome album covers, but he's become popular in the toy scene as well. His toys are kinda hard to come by, so I still don't have any in my collection yet. Hopefully soon... He recently did a signing at the NY Comic Con with Secret Base out of Japan, that I heard was packed. Secret Base also has produced toys for Napalm Death and Balzac. Mike Sutfin who you may know from bands like Charles Bronson and Killers also had customs for sale at NYCC. He has his own toy coming soon from Reckless Toys, which is reminiscent of the old Corrosion of Conformity logo. Amos Toys recently released a character called Martin X, which has X's on his hands and makes references to the character being Straight Edge.
Also, make sure to check out a great documentary DVD called Toypunks, focuses on the rise of designer toys, and the parallels to punk culture. There's even a song by Deep Sleep used in the movie.
There's even a huge DIY movement within the designer toy scene. People hand mold and cast their own toys out of resin and sell it themselves. A lot of toy companies sell blank toys, which encourage customization. So you see, the hardcore/punk scene stretches far into nerd culture than most people would like to admit.


*this is a post I was working on back in February/March, and never finished until now.

BLObPUS custom contest

Here are some pictures of my Blobpus custom for the contest via Lulubell Toys. I poured red acrylic craft paint on the inside, then did some sprays in black and silver w/ spray paint, then added the details w/ paint markers. This was my first kaiju style paint job, and I'm pretty happy w/ it.




For reference purposes, here's what it looked like originally, you can see the vinyl was clear.