Blank vinyl toys are probably the most used objects to express his personality with customisation techniques. And also the most popular for designers who like to develop their creations on a 3D volume. To better understand the Toys Art, I shared with 3 persons essential to the discipline: a figurines designer, a « customizer » and a collector, who delivered me the keys to their passion for the figurine customization …
I do not know much about Art Toys, except that I love to spend some time in the shops ArtToyz to admire the incredible range of characters customized by artists of different graphic universes, and that each new release of a figurines of the Japanese manufacturer Medicom creates excitement in my collector friends.
Between graphic scene for designers, and collectors working with the same mechanisms that art market, it seemed interesting to understand the codes of Art Toys and various customization techniques .
I met Sarah, Martin and Alan on Twitter. I asked them my “Candide” questions and they were willing to talk around the internet about Designer Toys.
Martin has found a community that gathers on its site vinylgraffiti, fans, collectors, customizers and designers toys. It is therefore well placed to answer the question about who are the designers’ of artistic toys :
Designer toy artists come from all backgrounds and all corners of the globe. Although the designer toy market is still a relatively new art form (originating in Asia in the 90’s), the number of artists turning to this format as an outlet for their creativity is growing around the world. While many designer toy artists have a background in art (eg Frank Kozik who before being famous as a toy designer was equally famous as a designer of concert posters), many come from diverse and non art related fields. There is certainly a growing trend and crossover with graffiti artists. A major player in the designer toy market coming from a graffiti background is KAWS, whose toys are highly sought after and often sell for thousands of dollars”
Urban Toys designed by Kaws
The time to ask what differentiates the customization of toys from illustration:
”Unlike the conventional art form of drawing or painting, toy customizing provides artists with a 3 dimensional canvas with which to express themselves. Drawing is a complete process where the artist begins with a blank 2D canvas, whereas the toy customizer starts from a pre-defined 3D shape. This however, doesn’t mean customizing is easier than drawing, quite the contrary. Although more ‘platform’ toys are entering the market each year designed specifically for customization, the shapes are generally simple in design (eg, Kid Robot Munny’s, Toy2R’s line of Qees, Trexi by Play Imaginative) requiring customizers to be highly creative to be able to produce unique artwork.
In addition, rather than simply painting a toy, many artists utilize various skills and materials in their creative process by adding or subtracting from the original shape.”
Methods of creation explained by Alan who runs a design company that focuses on designing characters resin marketed under the brand Heretic Pixies.
”For the things that I produce I’m using Fimo to scupt with, silicone for mold making, EasyFlo 60 resin to cast with and a variety of paints and varnishes to finish. The work that produce is all based round my own resin cast figures”.
Heretic Pixies figurines collection
You may learn more about Molding techniques with this website dedicated to sculpture, which explains in particular the use and implementation of polymer clay Fimo and Sculpey. Before exploring great lists of tutorials for designing toys in Spoongraphics blog.
A new dimension of creating 2D to 3D, for illustrators who would like a new world of expression, as explained by the designer Lunabee aka Sarah, who personalizes toys for many years.
” I love being able to add the tiniest details and see a character spring to life in front of me from a blank toy. It’s also great having so many vinyl toys to choose from to customize, a lovely friend of mine asked me to customize a Dink fairy figure for her which was a challenge but hugely enjoyable. I really enjoy pushing myself and creative abilities to see what I can do next.
For me its very different as I illustrate digitally so being able to work with paint again is fantastic, its very hands on and I can get lost in painting for hours and hours then realise I need to eat/sleep! My style hasn’t changed in that I’m still working with the bright bold colour palettes and a love for tiny details but the application is so different, painting is a very calming, soothing process for me. Unlike my design work there isn’t a looming deadline, I work at my own pace until I am happy with the piece.”
Lunabee art-toys custom
A profusion of new models that appear regularly throughout the world and it now seems important to sorting of belonging and family characteristics. A classification by type of figures specified by Martin:
”Toys that are used for customizing vary in material and size. The most popular material used in the production of designer toys is vinyl, but plastic and resin based toys are also popular. Designer toys are generally categorized as being toys with small production runs and are sold mainly to adult collectors.
The Stikfas line of action figures is an exception to the normal designer toys you see being used to customize in that they are produced in relatively high numbers (more than 1,000). BanyJ created Stikfas primarily as a blank canvas for fans to create their own action figure. The base figure represents a human figure with 14 points of articulation using ball joints. But with over 50 themed kits available (each including various accessories) the scope for customizing into unique characters is almost limitless.
Before he summarizes the different tools and techniques for customization:
“The key tools and materials used in toy customization include permanent marker pens/Sharpies, paints, brushes (some prefer air brush), Sculpy or other moulding material and cutting tools such as a Dremel. Techniques used vary from solely painting a figure to give an otherwise blank figure a personality, to those customizers who combine the toy with other materials (including electronic components) to create a completely new product. A recent example of a custom toy featuring electronics was Dustin Cantrell’s 8 inch Plasma Dunny (3 sold for 600$ each).
Vinyl Graffiti will soon be launching a section on the site where toy customizers will be able to showcase their toy customs as well as sell/trade their creations. Currently, we are focussed on building a global library of designer toys from which members can catalogue their own toy collections, add toys to their wish list and interact with other like-minded designer toy fans. The global designer toy library can be searched and sorted by artist, toy brand, size, color and other features, making it a great resource of inspiration for customizers and toy designers. When we add the custom section, we hope the depth and wide range of skills employed will add a further degree of inspiration to those both old and new to the world of toy customizing”.
Enjoy a remix of custom Designer vinyl art toys :
