New Custom Minis for My Big Cartel Store

So last year I started to check out basic webstores. Since most of the customs I paint are commissions and I don't really have any merchandise, there has never really been a reason for me to have a real webstore. I have a store section on my website, but it has no store-like functionality, which is kind of lame. I figure another reason to have a store is just to get the added SEO brownie points, since my regular website is all Flash-based. I do have some old customs laying around that it would be nice to get them up somewhere where people might actually see them. Finally, some of these webstores are FREE (for a basic setup), so there's really no reason not to have one- right? So with my research I decided on Big Cartel- mainly because everybody else I know has one. Maybe there's some other good options, but I don't know about them.
Now that I've decided which webstore I would use, it's now a matter of setting it all up and the most important thing- having something to sell. So since the beginning of the year I've been trying to sneak in a little time to paint some custom minis (while I work commissions and shows.) The above picture is what I've been working on for the webstore. All 3-inch Dunny customs (my mini platform of choice)- there's Caveman Dunnys (Tog & Bonk), a Spade-Skull Dunny, Yokai Dunny, and a Pug Dunny. Note the Pug Dunny won't be for sale- he is a tribute to my oldest Pug Pancho that recently passed away, so that custom will be kept in the family.
If all goes well, my webstore should be up and running by the end of the week. I'll make an announcement here and on Twitter when it's up.

Dr. Mario Virus Dunny Set

I wanted to work on a fun little side project before I started my next client piece. I'd been playing Dr. Mario on my old SNES (yes, I have a Super Nintendo) over the holidays last year and noticed that the three little viruses were pretty cool little characters. Following the along the same lines as the Dig Dug trio I completed earlier this year, I figured creating this virus set was a no brainer. I have a few more ideas for some custom mini sets, but I will be picking up my next commission this week so the fun side projects will have to be put on the back-burner once again.

Humans Beware

Also coming up on April 10th is Humans Beware - I.W.G. Custom Art Show. The show is curated by Drilone and being held at Rocketworld, creators of the Insurgents Wilderness Gruppo Toys. This is Dril's first foray into curating, and he's doing a top notch job. There's an impressive 80+ artist lineup that will not disappoint. Some sneak peaks have been showing up online, such as Cris Rose's Vespbear. My custom I.W.G Bear is almost done- there might be some sneak peaks in a bit so stay tuned.

Dig Dug Dunnys

So once all my 2008 show commitments were complete around November last year, I started working on commissions again. To keep from burning out, I like to work on some 3-inch customs just for fun while I'm working on projects for clients. Since everyone always wants Spade-Skulls, it's nice when I can turn out some small customs that are different once in a while. I have a list of custom ideas that I'm hoping to get to one day, but since I'll probably be painting commissions for another couple years, if I ever expect them to see the light of day they'll have to be in mini form. This newest set of minis is from that list. Dig Dug was one of my favorite video games when I was growing up. I remember spending hours at the arcade on just a couple of quarters, constantly glued to this game. With all the incredible video game consoles these days, the simplicity of games like Dig Dug probably wouldn't hold many folk's attention now. But I have very fond memories of this game (as well as many other 8-bit games) and still play it once in a while. So I decided to pay tribute to it by creating this little set of 3-inch custom Dunnys.

Update- These little guys got a quick feature on Toysrevil- thanks Andy!

Final Custom Toys of 2008

Here are my last custom toys for 2008. I'm neck deep right now in a very large commission and I'm also starting to think over ideas for some upcoming shows in 2009, so I've been taking little breaks here and there by working on these two little guys. The one on the left has a pearl white base color, with red and gold. The one on the right is plain white, with Black and orange. I still enjoy working on 3-inch Dunnys and have some cool ideas for some non-Spade-Skull designs that hopefully will see the light of day early next year. If all goes well I'll be starting on some more over the holidays while I continue on the commissions and show pieces. Most likely this will be my last post of 2008, so Happy Holidays to all and I'll see you in 2009. Cheers!

New Spade-Skull Mini Dunnys

Here are some new 3-inch Dunny customs I just finished up. I like to paint minis once in a while. I use them as a way to relax while I'm working on other projects. I try to have at least one mini in progress while I'm working on various commissions and show pieces. They're so small I can turn them around a lot faster, which is nice when I'm consistently working on the same large piece for weeks on end. These four little guys have been in a various stages of completion since the beginning of summer. After I finished my custom Stitch, I decided to take a little break and finish these guys up. I was in a flocking mood for a while, so most of my recent minis have been flocked, and I followed suit with three of these four. The little black and white one was supposed to be a Halloween skeleton guy, but the 31st came and went really fast. Anyway, I'm already back plugging away at my commission list, but I'm hoping to turn out a couple more minis before the end of the year. Stay tuned.

Ougon Neko

Since the Miao custom show preview went up a few days ago, I figure it's okay for me to post a full shot of my custom Miao (and Mousubi). You check all the customs out at Subtext's blog by downloading the pdf preview. And don't forget to check out the show this Friday if you're in the San Diego area.

Miao Show

I just finished my piece for the custom Miao show at Subtext. Once again the line-up for this show is very impressive and from what I've seen so far the customs are going to be top notch. This show has been a little under the radar, but with all the artists involved I'd say this is another must-see show if you're anywhere near San Diego. At first I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with this figure, but then an idea hit me and I really like how it turned out. I've attached a little sneak peak here (sorry for the photo quality, it's pretty bad.) Once we get close to the show date I'll probably reveal the full Miao and Mousubi. Stay tuned.

SDCC 2008 Customs

So I just got back a couple of my customs from this year's SDCC. I know a few folks were interested in these and I was telling everyone these had sold (which I thought they had), but it turned out there was some miscommunication on that and pricing discrepancies which caused these to end up back in the Reactor-88 display case for now. I've also got a couple of the SDCC minis (had those for a while.) Anyway, if any of you that contacted me about SDCC customs are still interested, send me and email and we'll talk.

Custom Kanser

It's been a really long time since my last entry- more than a month now. I promised myself I'd have at least one entry a month, but seeing as how I only blog about my artwork (for the most part), that means I need to have something to write about every month. That can be a tall order at times. Anyway, looks like I'll hold true with the unveiling of my latest finished commission- a custom ToyQube Kanser. I had this guy started at the beginning of the year, but I had some serious show commitments so all of my commissions had to be put on the back burner. Once I got through the bulk of my shows for the year and went on a much needed vacation, I started thinking about commissions again and figured I should just spend a little time and finish this little guy up. Now that it's done, it's back to finish up my pieces for the final two shows of the year- the much anticipated Mad-L Citizens Show at Lift Footwear in Detroit, and the Miao Custom Show at Subtext in San Diego. Once they're out of the way, I'll be back on the commissions- with the goal to knock down my waiting list a bit and get out one big job before the end of the year. Wish me luck...

Reactor-88 x StrangeKiss @ SDCC

Well now that it's almost here, I get to show all the customs I've been working on for the Simple Pleasures show at the Strangekiss booth- happening during the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) this year. Now, I'm not really sure if you'd consider this a typical "show" show- I think it will be more of a general display of customs and art from a handful of artists within the confines of the Strangekiss booth, but it's still pretty cool. I'll have a total of ten customs, six being brand new for SDCC (8-inch Dunny, Mad-L, Munny, Mini Munny, 2x 3-inch Dunnys), two from a few smaller shows in the years past (10-inch Icebot, 5-inch Labbit), and one (3-inch Dunny) from earlier this year that I decided to hold onto just for this occasion. You may have noticed that didn't add up to ten, as I forgot to take pics of my custom Spade-Skull Buffmonster toy- oops... Anyway, hopefully everyone that makes it down SDCC this year will swing by the Strangekiss booth and check out all the cool customs and art by all the great artists they have on display. If you can't make it down, at least you can see my stuff here in this post- well, everything except the Buffmonster toy...

GID Spade-Skull Munny/Multiple Personalities Show

The Multiple Personalities show over at Lift Footwear in Detroit opened up this past weekend to much fanfare. There was a pretty good turnout, and the new Lift digs looked really nice. One of my favorite artists, Mr. Glenn Barr was there for the opening as well. With that, I figure now I'll fully reveal the piece I created for the show- the GID Spade-Skull Munny. He's the brother to the original Spade-Skull Munny I made for last year's Detroit Munny show at Lift. Interestingly enough, the same person that bought last years Munny bought this one as well- thanks Tommy!

Easter Spade-Skulls (Kinda...)

After completing the green flocked Spade-Skull mini for St. Patrick's Day, I've been wanting to test out a slightly different flocking technique. So along came these guys. What I decided to try different with these guys was to compact the flocking onto the figure while the glue was still slightly tacky. It definitely gives it a slightly less furry look and has a more velvety appearance. But I don't know if it's just that the black flocking shows a more imperfections or what, but I can see a lot more spots on these where the flocking looks thin as opposed to other flocked customs I've made. I did one touch-up session earlier this evening on them, I might have to hit them again this week. With that, it's back to big stuff. I've got one really big project almost wrapped up, and them I'm going full-force on creating a few more pieces for SDCC and getting back to commissions. No rest for me...

St. Patrick's Day Mini Customs

I'd been wanting to work on some green customs for a while now, so I figured why not try to get a few done for the St. Patty's Day? Here's what I just finished right on time- the White Pearl/Green Lucky Spade-Skull Dunny and the Green Fuzzy Spade-Skull Dunny- all 3-inchers. I was also trying to revive an old NADE custom I was working on last year for the now defunct Rocketpop show, but I was having some issues getting it back together tonight, so back into it's box it went. Too bad, since it's all white/green and has a few shamrocks here and there just like the mini Lucky Dunny. Oh well, maybe I can revive it again and have it ready for next year. Anyway, I've also got a few minis coming for Easter (stay tuned), but once that's done I'm all about commissions (and some special SDCC projects- shhh...)

Golden Spade-Skull Dunny

Here's a little 3-inch Dunny custom I whipped up the other day. This little guy was keeping me sane while I'm working on a few commissions and finishing up some show pieces. Lately I've been infatuated with black/gold color schemes- more proof of this soon...

Royal Guard Teddy Troop

So while I work on commission art, I try to work on a small, personal piece at the same time just to break things up a bit. Figuring I've got commissions lined up easily until the end of 2008, if I don't work on a few things for myself once in a while I'd go crazy. With that said, here's my latest "me" piece- a 4-inch custom Teddy Troop based on those famous English Royal Guards. This was one of those projects I'd had on my list for a while, I'd just never gotten around to working on it. I had kind of forgotten about this, and then I saw a photo of a royal guardsmen and the idea popped back into my head. I was hoping I'd be able to get the flocking on the helmet a little bit "shaggier", but I was happy with the way it turned out. This little guy will be going up in my web store pretty soon- he'd make a great late holiday gift :)

Big Dawg

So when I dropped off my Cereal Killers painting this past Saturday I picked up another 16-inch Qee. I still can't get over how big these things are. The second pic was taken next to my 8-inch Kenzo Dunny just for reference- yeah, I guess it is basically twice as big... Once again it was free, but this one was actually given to me for an upcoming commission. I can't divulge any other details about the project as I always treat my commissions like I'm under an NDA- some folks don't care, but just in case I extend the courtesy. Anyway, I'm really excited to start working on this bad boy. The client has some basic guidelines as far as what they want, but for the most part I can take as much creative freedom as I want with it (I think.) As usual, I'll sketch out some ideas on some Qee templates, and once I'm in agreement with the client the fun will begin. But as usual, this project is still a little bit off on the horizon. I need to finish a couple customs for some upcoming shows, finish a couple of current commissions, then I can begin to brainstorm about this one. I can't wait...

New Stuff

So I've finally finished up some new customs, so I thought I'd share. Now don't you feel special? First pic- a sneak peak of my piece for the upcoming Vinyl Elements show. I guess I could show the whole thing since no one really reads my blog, but hey, you never know. I don't want to upset Jack... I just packed this up to send over. Hopefully when they receive it they'll take some real pictures of it. My little digital point/shoot just isn't quite up to take studio/product shot-type pictures. The second pic is my Spade-Skull IceBot that I painted for the Art Toy Alchemists show at Artifact Unmundane. Where is this you ask? It's down in Anahiem- yes, I was surprised when I found out there was a vinyl shop in Anahiem too. This world is full of surprises. I'm pretty sure I'll be driving down for the opening night- as long as it's on the weekend. The third pic, are some fun little mini customs I've been working on. I call them my Spade-Skull Metal Series. It sounded cooler than saying Gold, Silver, Copper. Anyway, all three of these little guys sold at my "online preview." It's pretty scary when someone like me is setting up "online previews" by request. Like I said, this world is full of surprises...

Vinyl Elements Show

Vinyl Pulse's big custom vinyl show, VInyl Elements is coming May 17th, 2007. I've seen some sneak peaks of some of the pieces, and by the looks of the artist list this should be a really good show. Here's the details from the Vinyl Pulse website:

Vinyl Elements brings the excitement back on Thursday May 17th @ Barracuda from 7 to 10 PM. The elements the ancient Chinese believed to make up the universe Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth form the show's theme. This classic theme will be interpreted by a select international group of fifty top-flight artists including David Horvath, Frank Kozik, Nathan Cabrera (for SURU), Tado, Tim Tsui, tokidoki, Touma and more. Rather than working on one identical platform, this stellar group will present their wide range of styles and techniques across twelve different vinyl figures. Vinyl Elements, a must-not-miss event, delivers the essential elements to showcase the very best in custom toy art, piece by piece from the first to the last.

Sounds impressive, huh? With that, I really need to finish up my piece. I'm customizing a 9" Jamungo BUD- I'll try to get a couple of sneak peaks up soon...

Tofu Robot

So yesterday I went down to Robocon in Chinatown to pick up a Tofu Robot. Created by the good folks at Spicy Brown, this little guy stands about four inches tall and has five points of articulation (I think that's just a fancy way of saying his head, arms and feet move.) Anyway, they usually have this little tofu graphic on the belly, but mine is blank because I'm participating in a Custom Tofu Robot show at Robocon's gallery later this summer.