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Court of the Dead

Mar 20, 2012

House Industries x Medicom Toys

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Big ups to my man Warren for turning me on to this image, video and blog post by House Industries about the Bearbrick they customized and the logo they created for Medicom's 15th anniversary.

House Industries for Medicom Toy

We were thrilled to do our part to balance the USA’s cultural trade deficit by illustrating a tenth anniversary BE@RBRICK and a fifteenth anniversary logo for Japan’s Medicom Toy Corporation. Take a video peek behind the House Industries analog curtain:


Scott Kinnebrew pieces for Vinyl Thoughts show

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Scott Kinnebrew is kicking ass and taking names. Here are a few (not even all!) of the pieces he submitted to the Vinyl Thoughts 2 show in Dallas. Click here to see more about this show. Click here or here to see and buy more pieces by Scott Kinnebrew.



Tenacious Toys Blog voted one of FrugalDad's Top Toys Blogs

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We are happy to announce that Frugal Dad has posted their Top Toy Blogs and this wack little blog I write is on the list! We're humbled to be in the company of Spanky, TRE, Plastic and Plush and a whole flock of other, more prolific blogs. Please click through to their list, where you will find a ton of links to the other blogs. Great reading material. Bookmark that page if you want a one-stop reference for who is blogging about toys.

JonPaul Kaiser show at Yoyamart on Oct 11

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Our friend JonPaul Kaiser is going to leap across the pond in October and run wild in the streets of Manhattan. Be warned. October 11, Toy2R has foolishly invited JPK to invade Yoyamart, a fashion and style trendsetting boutique on Gansevoort Street, where he will not doubt blow every single mind that walks through the door. Literally.

No, sorry, I meant figuratively. JPK is a giant, amazingly sweet man who I am very proud to call a friend. His talents really need no introduction. He understands form and composition, and his steady hands have brought to life some of the most brilliant custom toys that ever sold in 3.5 milliseconds at our NYCC booth. I'm stoked to meet up with JPK again. We can all expect to see beautiful Toy2R production toys, as well as custom toys, by JPK at this show.

Oct. 11th, by the way, is the opening day/preview night of NYCC 2012, so any of you in town for the Con will be able to scoot easily over to Yoyamart, which is on the west side, reasonably close to the Javits Center. See y'all there.

Alien Bio Mecha Kong by Cyberphunkk

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Cyberphunkk shares with us this absolutely SICK custom piece based on an 8-inch vintage 1980s King Kong figure. This figure incorporates a new style/method for Emmanuel: it's a mixed media piece with new painting techniques and clear coat layering he has been testing.

The Story Comes alien race of bio mechanical parasites decides to take over earth.
using its world most powerful creatures and monsters to their advantage by taking over their bodies and bio mutating them into hardwired killer alien bio machines set to destroy the humans and conquer earth.



Soul Glo Dunny custom by eeKs

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You’ve gotta let your soul glo!

Just let your soooouuuuul glo baby
feeling oh so silky smoov
Just let it shine through yeah
Just let your soooouuuul glo oooo ooo ooooo

eeKs shares with us his latest 3" Dunny: Soul Glo! This custom has clay sculpt, acrylic paint & a gloss clear coat to help keep its Soul Glo drippy fresh! Watch the couch! Buy him in eeKs' shop.

Also found on eeKs' site: Cool D(unny). Dig this sculpt:

Dead Rand Toys Gread keychains available now

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Brian Ahlbeck of Dead Hand Toys has expanded his popular Gread character design to include these new Gread keychains, which are cast out or resin much like the Gread figures themselves. Many colors available, including the glitter flourescent colors seen here. Only $5 each and you can buy them here.

Mar 17, 2012

The Candy-Coated Custom Show in NYC April 21

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 At this point, having already received a piece in the mail from Jon Malmstedt, and with Rich Page's piece already making the rounds on Spanky Stokes, I'd like to announce our upcoming custom toy show: The Candy-Coated Custom Show

This will be a group, themed custom show (no specific platform), taking place at The London Candy Company in our neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The themes of this show, in a nod to the location, are candy and/or Britain. We've invited a talented group of artists, many of which will be present at the opening night party on Saturday, April 21 from 7 to 9 pm. 

The London Candy Company is located at 1442 Lexington Ave, at the corner of 94th Street. You can get there easily by subway, taking the 6 train to the 96th Street stop and walking up the hill up Lexington Ave. If you're driving in, there are a number of parking lots and garages in the area in addition to street parking.

Everyone is invited! Refreshments will be provided, and there will of course be PLENTY of awesome British candy in the shop. StrongTreeImages.com will provide photography for the event, so come looking swanky! And for you party animals, there will be an afterparty starting at 9pm at ABV back down the hill at Lexington Ave and 97th Street. ABV serves beer, wine and food and I think they'll do a draught beer special for us.

This is a big deal for us. This is Tenacious Toys' first custom toy show, and as far as I know, this will be the first custom toy show on the Upper East Side.

Here's our artist roster for the show:

• Mike "NEMO" Mendez
• Nasty Neil (Wasted Talent)
• Den "Mr.Den" Ramos
• Giannina Gutierrez
• southerndrawl
• Rampage Toys
• Scott Kinnebrew
• Danicus Prime
• Ahren Gauthier
• Brian Ahlbeck
• Ian Ziobrowski
• Masahiro Ito
• Hugh Rose
• Tony DePew
• Shawn Wigs
• Joe Scarano
• Adam Pratt
• Mr. Munk
• Cris Rose
• AW177
• Mike Die
• Rich Page
• Matt A*
• Foox
• Evilos
• ZAM
• Rsin
• Squink!
• JC Rivera
• OsirisOrion
• Kris Dulfer
• Sucklord
• Teru Fujita
• Billy Roids

For more info on The London Candy Company, visit their website and be sure to LIKE their Facebook page. (And, of course, LIKE the Tenacious Toys page as well!) We'll make an event on Facebook soon for this party so you can spread the invite around. We will also be posting as many customs as possible in an online preview just before the show opens. Pieces will be for sale at the opening, and they will remain in The London Candy Company shop for 2 weeks after the opening.

Hope to see all of you at the April 21 party!

Mar 16, 2012

Scott Kinnebrew Wario custom Bic Buddy for Vinyl Thoughts

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 Scott Kinnebrew shares with us a sweet custom which is a fun departure from the type of whimsical custom we're used to him doing. This is a custom Bic Buddy, quite possibly the best/most accurate use of theBic Buddy shape I've ever seen: Wario! Perfect! Scott killed it with this one. 

You can follow Scott here. Find out more about the Vinyl Thoughts show here (this is the second Vinyl Thoughts show), and follow them on Facebook. And you can buy more Scott Kinnebrew custom toys and resin figures in our shop here.

Some Assembly Required custom Transformers Bumblebee by Daniel Yu

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Some Assembly Required is new custom by Daniel Yu. This is a repurposed Takara Tomy DMK02 Bumblebee model kit, done up for the forthcoming Transformers Cybertron Con 2012 in Singapore which runs from the 11th till the 14th of March. A total of 50 local and international artists were invited to customize either an Optimus Prime or Bumblebee kit which would be part of a custom showcase at the convention.

More amazing work by Daniel Yu! As an aside, if I ever started a band, I would call it "Superfluous Kibble." Just sayin.

Fantasy Empire custom Gay Empire figure from Jim Magee

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fantasy empire, originally uploaded by Jim1297.

Jim shares with us another customized 3.75" Gay Empire action figure from Suckadelic. This seems to be Jim's platform of choice. Click thru to his Flickr to see more!

Nathan Hamill Bellicose Bunny Stinker Edition coming soon

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The next colorway of Nathan Hamill's Bellicose Bunny - Stinker Edition - will be coming soon.

Forged by the stars and space alike, and stuff and things, the Bellicose Bunny was enlisted by top minds throughout the universe to seek out, thwart and destroy all known evil. Equipped with a pair of space goggles and the Sword of Ulyssia, he mounted his Daucus: Class 8 Rocket and embarked on his quest. Now he's reached this galaxy and needs our help in his noble mission. Hear his cry for peace: 'Starbunny Fields Forever!'

Stands 7 inches tall, made of vinyl. Limited to 100 pieces. Price will be $50 each.

We still have 1 or 2 of the original Bellicose colorway, and ours come with signed mini prints cuz Nathan signed at our NYCC booth last year when the original was released!

Glyos Fan Pin, a project by Evilos and Charles Marsh

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Something unexpected and quite different arrived in the mail the other day: a collaborative project between Charles Marsh (Monsterforge) and Christopher Avalos (Evilos)- the Glyos Fan Pin. These are heavy diecast metal double-post pins. The Glyos Skull logo appears in the middle of a pair of wings. The pin measures about 2.5 inches wide. Evilos says the project is fully supported and approved by Matt Doughty, creator of the Glyos system of designer action figures.

 The graphics on the front of the card were donated by Matt Doughty, and Charles Marsh designed the pin itself, with production by Evilos. A true team effort! These pins came out GREAT. Really high quality work and a MUST-HAVE for any Glyos System fan. There are only 100 of them, all hand-numbered. You can purchase your own here from Evilos for $10 + $3.50 shipping.

As an extra added bonus, I am sure because he knows I think this type of stuff is hysterical, Evilos sent me some Asshole on Board stickers. Now, I don't own a fleet of cars, so one is going on my skateboard. The rest I will give out to lucky readers of this blog. All you have to do is use the sharing buttons below this post to share this post on your Facebook page. Then message me (Benny Kline) on Facebook, or tag me in the post, or leave a comment below, and tell me you shared. First 4 shares will get an Asshole on Board sticker mailed to them free!


Mar 15, 2012

Jacob JAMS Mutation resin figures

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 Jacob JAMS' Mutation X51-Z resin figures are now available in his web store! A whole rainbow of brightly-colored resin colors available... as well as DIY white for you customizers looking for the next big platform to tear up! 3.5 inches long, $15 each. Go check out all the SWEET resin figures by 11-year-old Jacob in his shop here!

Walt Mickey custom by Ian Ziobrowski

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Ian Ziobrowski isn't all nuggs and thugs... here he flexes his considerable painterly skills with the custom Mickey vinyl figure by PlayImaginative. Walt Mickey features a dead-on portrait of Walt Disney on Mickey's face. Damn eerie, and beautiful. I am sure Walt would have loved it. 

Next, Ian will sculpt Walt's disembodied, cryogenically frozen head in a jar.

Follow Ian on Facebook here and check out the rest of the customs in this show here.

Sevren custom Horselington for Pranay

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 Pranay Parikh sent us these images of another Horselington he had commissioned for himself: this one by his buddy David Ten aka Sevren. Awesome, beautiful work. I like the wooden apparatus he built to hang the piece... it lends some fine-art credibility to the custom toy. We're always searching for credibility and mainstream acceptance, aren't we? 

(All you rebellious punks out there know how hard it is to make a living doing your punk rock, "F the establishment!" artwork. Rebelliousness is cool but every once in a while you gotta make sure you make a piece designed to sell. Or else you can't afford to buy paint for the next "F YOU!!" piece you wanna do.)

I bet Matt Anderson digs this Horselington. Matt did a pretty damn fine Horselington custom himself, also for Pranay.

As an aside, lest y'all think I'm advocating on behalf of boring, mainstream art... remember that I'm writing a blog about art toys. And you're reading it. Which means we're both weirdos.





Mar 14, 2012

Dave Webb Joker Mickey custom for PlayImaginative show

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 In an awesome departure from his more common hand-sculpted monsters, Dave Webb (aka DAVEMARKART) applies his considerable skills to the PlayImaginative Mickey platform for their online custom show showcasing the 6" Mickey Mouse vinyl figure

Love the detailed accessories on this custom! Sick work by Dave, as always. 

You can follow Dave on Facebook and buy his custom figures at his shop. I'd love to see more DAVEMARKART pieces based on pop culture characters, I think this one turned out great.

Albert Einstein 8GB USB drive in stock now

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"The Legends of MIMOBOT Series" is a brand-new lineup of MIMOBOT flash drives from Mimoco honoring iconic figures in history. The first USB drive in this series is none other than the most influential physicist of the 20th Century: Albert Einstein! This 8GB capacity thumb drive has a high speed USB 2.0 interface and is compatible with Mac or PC. Also, all Mimobots come preloaded with exclusive themed content. Click here to buy Einstein!

Ian Ziobrowski Rusty the Clown 8in Dunny

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 Ian Ziobrowski shares with us his latest commission piece: an 8" custom Dunny called Rusty the Clown:

This is my new commission "RUSTY The CLOWN". He's a new character for NUGGLIFE. He's an 8 inch custom dunny with a juggling accessory. He juggles beer bottles that he's been drinking all day for some scrap change. Trying to make a living as a professional clown, you might just see him on a local side walk near you....

New character from Ian? Yes please. Every time he rolls out a new one, it's sick. Want more! 
Friend Ian on Facebook here.


Swamp Ghoul Mickey Mouse custom by We Become Monsters

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Friend of Tenacious Toys Christopher Moore (We Become Monsters) was invited to participate in PalyImaginative's Mickey Mouse custom show, using their 6" blank Mickey platform (which sadly, is not licensed for distribution in the U.S.). This is Christopher's Swamp Ghoul Mickey, which was created using acrylic, resin, epoxy, and spices on vinyl. Yes, it is spicy!

You can follow Christopher Moore here:
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