Archive for the ‘Figures’ Category
Lossy Botany Lab: The Plant Plushes
Remember this great Felt Mistress teaser? Felt Mistress really knocked it out of the park with these felted fruits, veggies and plants. As with most of Jon’s shows, there is a ton of work, so here’s just a glimpse at some of the plushes photographed by Jeps and Evelien (of Darker and the Dutch Doodlesplatter posse). Stay tuned (or if you’re at the last one, look back) for a plethora of posts [click here for current tag archive], each concerning a separate element of the installation and exhibit (as well as the pricelist from heliumcowboy artspace). Click through to see some of the great soft sculptures, a pic with Evelien to show the size of these buggers and a little video too. Head over to Felt Mistress’ Flickr set for even more fantastic felty foliage.
Buff Monster’s Custom Toy Show
Recently, custom group toy shows have been making me weary. Not the case here. This show has a stellar lineup and a unifying concept. My bud, Buff Monster, gave “roughly 50 super awesome artists [room] to reinterpret my 3-inch toys,” and according to Buff (as well as all people with eyeballs in their heads who’ve seen the previews), “there are some really amazing pieces in the show”! The show opens Saturday, July 10th at 6:30PM at Giant Robot in Los Angeles.
Buff, who shot all the photos of the pieces and created a special poster for the event, sent Doodlesplatter these exclusive snaps of Jon’s Monster. If you look closely at the at the side view in the triptych below, I think Jon’s taking the yellow fellow in the direction of an erection…
The full roster of participating artists includes:
Aaron Martin/Angry Woebots, APAK!, Arbito, Flying Fortress (Germany), Christopher Bettig, Jon Burgerman (UK), Camilla d’Errico (Canada), Chaz/The London Police (Netherlands), Olivier Cramm/KOA (France), Tristan Eaton, Huck Gee, Godmachine (UK), KaNO, David Horvath/Uglydolls, Mari Inukai, Jay222, Jeremyville (Australia), Kirkland Jue/Toybot Studios, Paul Kaiju, Mike Kelly/Le Merde, Travis Lampe, Joe Ledbetter, Daniel Lim/Fawn Fruits, Travis Louie, Markie Darkie (Canada), Drew Millward (UK), Miss Mindy, Junko Mizuno (Japan), Brian Morris, Moto (Japan), Mark Nagata, Martin Ontiveros, Alex Pardee, Albert Reyes, Johnny Rodriguez/KMNDZ, Chris Ryniak, Benjamin Salomon, Greg Simkins/Craola, Sket, Skinner, Bwana Spoons, Sucklord, Tado (UK), Uamou (Japan), Michelle Valigura, Amanda Visell, Yoskay Yamamoto.
The Monster Within closes on August 4th. I’m really working on trying to get Buff to bring the show up to San Francisco. Stay tuned!
Pictures From Kidrobot’s Doodle and Scrawl
Kidrobot posted a slideshow of photos from Jon’s recent Doodle and Scrawl signing at KRNY. The event looked well-attended, and Jon added colorful doodles to many a Munny. Although the bulk of the objects tended to be Munnyworld, I really dig this one person’s customized hat. A few photos follow. Click through for the slideshow courtesy of KR’s Flickr set.
Munnyworld Customs: Where Are They Now?
Jeps, leader of the Dutch Posse and half of the music duo known as Darker, is now also proud parent to two of Jon and Stu’s recent Munnyworld customs. I was such a fan of “Tim-Sam the bad kitten” that I must salute Jeps with a hearty rendition of South Park’s “You bastard!” But there’s no such thing as bitterness in Burgerland. These customs couldn’t have found a better home. Jeps also sent in this animation of the new fellas breakdancing with some pieces by Felt Mistress and Joe Ledbetter!
Tea Bear Dunny Tribute by WuzOne
Jon released the 8-inch Tea Bear Dunny with Kidrobot in 2008. Two years later, toy customizer, WuzOne, has painstakingly recreated the details of the 8-inch figure (above left) on a 3-inch Dunny (above right). This is a hand-painted tribute to Jon’s Dunny by another artist. It would be a unique piece to add to your collection of Jon’s three 3-inch production Dunnys, and is currently listed on eBay here.
Kidrobot Munnyworld One-Off Customs
Following up their 2008 Heroes of Burgertown Dunny/Munny Mashups, Jon joins forces again with Stu Witter on these one-off Kidrobot Munnyworld customs. If you know only three things about me, you probably know that 1) I love the color green, 2) I dislike the majority of platform toys, with a particular disdain for Munnyworld and 3) I am a huge fan of Jon Burgerman. With the #3 bias noted, I can say that Stu’s sculpting and Jon’s doodles have made these the first Munnyworld customs I have seen and liked. Perhaps its the clean solid application of color that reclaims them from the saturated dismal domain of stark white DIY toys? (Read a little thought-provoking article I wrote about all that here). Or maybe doodles really can fix even the most problematic platforms?
This blogography had its beginnings in Jon’s toys, and now, nearly 600 posts later, I’m still digging them. Writes Jon of these toys:
They’re just some customs made for fun with my friend, Stu Witter who I’ve done a lot of customs with in the past. And now we’ve made them. We want to offer them to anyone who’d like to buy them.
These are all one-off, custom pieces. If you’d like to get one, please contact Jon directly: http://www.jonburgerman.com/contact Blank Munnyworld figures cost between $7.95 and $9.95 and are available here.
Click through for extreme (cuteness) closeups. Read the rest of this entry »
Custom Vinyl Rody
Everybody at Doodlesplatter is always excited when there’s the potential for a new Jon Burgerman toy. We think that the rumored collab with Amanda Visell may have been just that (a rumor), so the current fate of new JB toys lies in the hands (hooves) of an Italian horse named Rody. Rody was licensed by a Japanese company called Jammy, turned into a vinyl toy by intheyellow and is now the subject of a group custom toy show sponsored by the great folks at Paradise Toy Land in Taipei. Jon is representing all of England amongst an excellent roster that also includes Bwana Spoons, Uamou and Tim Biskup (and Tim Biskup’s daughter). The show is currently up and running (trotting) in Taipei.
For those of you keeping count, this is actually Jon’s SECOND custom horse toy. The first was Pizza Face Pony for the My Little Pony Project in 2008. Perhaps if Rody is successful overseas, we’ll eventually get a production version. But let’s not put the cart before the horse. OK I’ll quit horsing around with the puns now!
Shapeways Hoodie Toys Revealed!
We can now present a few images of the previously-blogged Customizable Hoodie Toys from Culpritart/toys and Dotsan produced by Shapeways, the company that uses a 3D printer to “turn your designs into reality”. Two things you’re bound to notice right off the bat:
- These toys are TINY. (The green one pictured taps out at 2 inches/5 cm. The red one stands a bit taller at 7cm. This may seem small for $25.)
- Gone is the smoothness of the figure and blister packaging envisioned for the prototype shown here.
If you can get past those factors (I can in this particular case), it’s a cute little toy which presents the unique opportunity to customize the colors of a Jon Burgerman hoodie. Unlike the sandy texture of the figure itself, the process of working with Shapeways was extremely smooth. I emailed Dotsan my preference for green. Within 24 hours, he had uploaded a model to Shapeways. I purchased it, and Shapeways sent me emails when it went into production and when it left the Dutch facilities destined for California. The figure arrived safely packed, but the “packaging” was just a plastic bag.
At first I thought the sandstone was weird, but Greta (often the voice of reason) pointed out that “weird is good.” Doodlesplatter is, after all, not just a project to chronicle every waking move of the artist, Jon Burgerman, but also to showcase the different canvases that are possible for art. 3D printing will probably not win any fans among the hardcore art toy collecting contingency (yet), but if you have a spare $25, you can get a pint-size figure custom-made in Burgerwear tailored to your liking. I like my little dude. Get the 5cm (2 inch) figure (currently the only customizable size) or the 7cm (2.8 inch) figure. Click through to see my guy digging some coconut juice and Jeps’ figure hanging with a Yami.
Customizable Hoodie Toys from Shapeways 3D Printers
Head’s up! Remember this Hoody prototype from 2008? Matt Pattinson (Culpritart/toys, an illustrator based in Edinburgh) and Vijay Paul (Dotsan, product designers based in Glasgow) are producing the figure through Shapeways, a company that uses a 3D printer to “turn your designs into reality”. Culpritart and Dotsan met Jon at the seminal Free Lunch exhibit at Analogue Books, and the seeds for Hoodie were planted.
I dropped Dotsan a note to try to understand the technology of this new toy. He promptly responded:
As product designers, the challenge for Dotsan is to help creative people realise their ideas and introduce them to a new medium and dimension whilst keeping their artistic intent. The photorealistic computer renderings are great for visualising concepts without the expense and time of traditional sculpting and manufacturing processes. Computer modeling allows for many quick amendments and when applying textures and colours there are no limits because you don’t have to worry about manufacturing constraints. The 3D full colour printing allows for complicated artwork to be created. The surface is like fine sand paper and has a waxy matt finish. There are many ways the CAD model can be materialised, Shapeways offers reasonable prices and ordering. No need for tooling, Far East mass manufacturing or stock; the figure gets made on demand and delivered in 10 days.
[Jon's] illustration would be very difficult to create using traditional methods such as painting, decals etc, the 3D printing method works brilliant at this size. To have something that small with that amount of detail gives great pleasure. On Shapeways there is an option to customise the colours or submit your own pattern for the hood.
Culprit and Dotsan are waiting to see the response to Hoodie. This is a new process, and there is lots to learn and understand about how best to use it. Dotsan are working on creating new Culprit characters. There is a large body of work to choose from, the most exciting challenge will be to create Culprit Tech stuff: the renderings and models will be mind blowing.
Well, to be honest, my mind is already kind of blown. I had a second round of emails with Dot, in which I asked about the potential for color customization. He wrote back immediately with a link to the “Jeremy Hoodie” colorway, which features matching green hoodie and green trainers! Well, color me stoked! Naturally, I purchased one immediately. The material is listed as sandstone, which is a new one for the artkive, so that’s exciting. The 5cm (2 inch) figure (currently the only customizable size) costs $23.06 and the 7cm (2.8 inch) figure is $25.76. Shapeways has a minimum order of $25, so if you buy the 5cm, you eat $1.94. No biggie, since you’re already committed to spending this much on a tiny figure anyway, right? There’s all sorts of other fine print about VAT and taxes, that I probably should have read, but really, you had me at “Jeremy Hoodie.” Jeps ordered a 7cm Hoodie, so we’ll post updates when the figures arrive. The Shapeways site says there’s about a 10-day turnaround on production + shipping time. Stay tuned! Lots more photos after the jump.
Rotocasted: The Toy Collector’s Database
I want to take this rainy Friday and remind everybody about one of my favorite websites, Rotocasted. The toy collecting database is being developed by talented toy designer Sergey Safonov, and I help out as a “volunteer librarian”. I like Rotocasted for the fact that I can show my Collection to anybody with a computer, and by extension, I can share my Wishlist with just a link. It’s also extremely addictive. Want to see (almost) every toy that Jon Burgerman has ever made? Or which of Jon’s toys are the most wanted? How about what people are saying about Jon’s Kidrobot figures? Or maybe you just want to see every toy in the database that happens to be green? You can leave comments and make trades. It’s a lot of fun, and like most passionate side projects, it’s always evolving. You can tell Sergey has his heart in this project and really believes in trying to do the impossible: create an accurate, visual encyclopedia of art toys. Every time we upload toys and enter data about them, we’re helping write toy history. Check it out and claim your Burgermenos! One of Jon’s Dunnys is on the Most Popular page; let’s get the Heroes of Burgertown to join him! I wrote a bit more and posted some other screengrabs on The Neon Monster Blog.
Custom