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Court of the Dead

Apr 10, 2012

2012 Designer Toys Awards: Call for Entries now open

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Last year we were both surpised and honored to have been nominated by one of our loyal customers in the Best Online Store category at the 2011 Designer Toy Awards.  We were even more blessed to have made it into the final round- the "short list"- from which the winner was picked. Although we did not actually win, the nomination itself served as proof, for me personally, that I am on the right track with Tenacious Toys.

We've been doing our best over the past 7 years to create a fun and functional website where you can purchase your designer toys. We've also been heavily involved in the art toy community, cultivating artists and collaborating with talented people and interesting companies in order to provide collectors and fans with a more rewarding collecting experience.

So it is with great excitement that we re-post the following information which just arrived from Clutter (the organizers of the DTAs):

To start things off the Call for Entries is now open over at www.designertoyawards.com. You may be wondering why we are calling it the "Call for Entries" this year, so let me explain what's new:

This year we have made a few changes to the process. Firstly we removed two categories, "Most Influential Event" and "Best Functional Toy", from the line up to make the awards more concise. Secondly we have put together groups of nominating committees. These committees will be in charge of digesting the entries and discerning there qualification in the awards. The committees will reduce the entries to five nominees in each category for Board-voted awards and ten nominees in each category for Community Choice voted awards.

Nominations will be announced on the Designer Toy Awards Nominating Party, which will take place in San Diego during SDCC week. Be there to hear who the nominees are!! We'll announce them live before we post to the site. We'll turn community and board voting on shortly after SDCC.

The other big news it that this year's award ceremony will be taking place in our home town of NYC during NYCC in October! WOOT WOOT!!. We hope as many of you as possible can be there, and we are looking forward to sharing more information with you as the year unfolds.


It looks like when you go to the nomination page, you must log in to their site to make your nominations and cast your votes. If you voted last year, you already have an account. Once you're logged in, click on the Call For Entries button in the pink nav menu.

If you have enjoyed the service and support that Tenacious Toys has provided during 2011, please consider nominating us or voting for us. We appreciate all of your feedback!

Apr 9, 2012

Huck Gee x Beast Brothers 8" Royal Guard Skullendario Azteca

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From Huck's email:
Lining the gates of the palace is the illustrious Royal Guard of the Azteca Empire. Cast in solid gold, adorned with rare jewels and crystals, and proudly displaying the royal flag.

Brought to you by two artist powerhouses Huck Gee and The Beast Brothers in a unique collaboration. This 8-inch hand crafted custom will go on sale for only 24 hours starting Saturday, April 20 at 1pm EST only in The Beast Brothers Webstore.

Each hand painted sculpture comes signed by each artist, adorned with purple Swarovski crystals, a custom flag, and safely entombed in a laser engraved wooden crate. Each Royal Guard Skullendario Azteca will cost $475 plus shipping.

Ron English 10-inch Mouse Mask Murphy preorder

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Ron English 10" Mouse Mask Murphys coming end April or early May. Price will be $140 + shipping. Original or grayscale available. HIT ME NOW if you want one- this is my ordering opportunity, right now, so please let me know. A non-refundable $40 deposit will be required to secure your order. Will be invoiced via Paypal immediately upon hearing from you.

New in Zukies World: Zukie Emotion Charms, Tiny Zukies & Tiny Zukie Charms

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Zukie Emotion head charms (above) are made of sculpey and hand painted with detail. You can put one on your key chain, phone. Only 13 made! Click here to buy for $8 +shipping.

Tiny Zukies (above) are back!!! Tiny Zukies are made of sculpey and each is 3/4 of an inch tall, with only 5 sets made. Each set comes with 4 Tiny Zukies. And they were available here for $8 + shipping, but they sold out in the past day or 2.

Tiny Zukie Charms are made of sculpey airbrush and hand painted. You can put them on your phone and keys- carry your ZUKIE everywhere! Each Tiny Zukie Charm is $6 + shipping and can be purchased here.

Fuller's Grr Dunny custom turned into limited-edition skate deck

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 Last year Fuller did a dunny custom which he called "Grr" (above). Fuller says: "The story behind Grrr is he is a little monster that lives in the forest. He doesn't want to be a monster so he dresses up like a tiger and runs around growling and scaring the little forest animals. I still love Grrr and I wanted to dedicate my next board to that character. I will be doing a whole campaign revolving around this character. I have T-shirts, pins and even a plush in the works for him. I hope you will like it."
Fuller's Grrr deck is available for preorder in his shop here. They'll be shipping in May, and he's only making 10. They'll all be signed and numbered. This looks like a sweet deck, and one that I'd proudly hang on my wall. (I ride too messy to even consider bolting trucks to something like this) Personally I'm very excited for the Grr t-shirts and plushes he has in the works. 
Stay tuned for more info on those!

Uncle Argh Kickstarter update: New Tolleson Argyle T-Shirt rewards added

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Now you can sport your allegiance to the Argyle Association right on your shirt!

We are working with local screen printer Rebelution Ink to create these awesome Argyle graphic t-shirts (check their Tumblr and Facebook). Scott Tolleson provided us with a beautiful argyle graphic which will be printed in orange ink on black cotton t-shirts.

All sizes available, from Small up to XXL. (Men's and Women's sizes from Small to XL are $20, XXL shirts are $23). We have added MANY new pledge levels to accommodate those of you who are interested in these shirts: for as little as a $20 pledge, you can get one of these shirts in your choice of sizes.

We have also added additional higher pledge levels for those of you who might want to upgrade your current pledge by $20 to get a t-shirt in addition to what you've already pledged.
Please click the link below to go to our Kickstarter page and see the many new reward levels available!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tenacioustoys/tenacious-exclusive-scott-tolleson-uncle-argh-noir

Apr 6, 2012

Matt Anderson Custom Easter Eggs

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Matt Anderson's Custom Easter eggs will be released at 12 noon eastern time today in his shop
Colors will be randomly picked. Sale price is $50 plus $3.00 shipping. 
Purchase includes 1 custom pearl Easter egg, 1 brass egg stand and a Matt A* signature plaque.

Scott Tolleson Uncle Argh NOIR Kickstarter: full sticker pack revealed

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Kickstarter to fund a Tenacious Toys Exclusive Scott Tolleson Uncle Argh NOIR Mini Qee

Images for all 7 stickers in our Sticker Pack rewards have now been revealed!
Backers who have chosen rewards that include Sticker Packs will get a full pack of 7 stickers:
  • (2) full-color stickers featuring artwork by Scott Tolleson
  • (1) 5.5" wide black and white Argyle sticker (artwork by Scott)
  • (1) 3.5" diameter circular Argh Noir face sticker (artwork by Scott)
  • (1) 4" wide Tenacious Toys sticker
  • (2) 4" wide Toy2R stickers

Only backers who've chosen rewards that specifically include the Sticker Pack item will get Scott's full-color stickers. (We have several rewards that include Sticker Packs, including the lowest level reward- just a $5 pledge gets you this sticker pack!)

We will most likely have plenty of black/white stickers left over after those rewards have been shipped, so the rest of the backers (even ones whose rewards don't specifically include stickers) will get stickers in the mail as well.

Thanks to everyone who has pledged thus far- we are now 80% funded! Please share this post with your network- we are so close but every pledge and every dollar counts in the next couple weeks!


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tenacioustoys/tenacious-exclusive-scott-tolleson-uncle-argh-noir

Carson Catlin fungusamongus for Playsam 500 show at Super7

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Carson Catlin writes:
 Here is my contribution to the Playsam 500 show at Super7Store in San Francisco on April 28th.
This is the first time I have ever worked with wood, and boy was it fun. I started by sketching out the design and then slowly drilled away with a Dremmel. My goal was to achieve something similar to my cuts pieces but came away with a mushroom looking thingy. That's why its called fungusamongus. I painted the wheels with light green acrylic and finished them with a high gloss lacquer. The body was stained twice and then sanded down to reveal the unstained wood. To finish it and give a it warm gloss I waxed the car a bunch, like for at least three hours.



Josh Mayhem custom Playsam Streamliner for Super7 Playsam 500

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Josh Mayhem shares with us a WIP shot of his custom Playsam Streamliner for the Playsam 500 show at the San Francisco Super7 store. Josh always goes way above and beyond with his accessorizing, and this very basic wooden toy is definitely getting a little firepower from the Mayhem Monster Garage! Seriously Josh, I think you should add some more guns!

Did you see Josh's custom Bellicose Bunny? The thing had a laser cannon bigger than the damn bunny!

To see and buy Josh Mayhem's Askew Rangers line of customs, click though to our site here.

Chrisosaur resin WOP releases today

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 Today Chrisosaur releases his WOPs- his first resin figures!
WOP stands for War On Perfection, a bit of a play on the derogatory term for Italians. 

Release date is today at his online shop: etsy.com/shop/chrisosaur. Each WOP stands just under 4" and is hand cast in resin and hand painted.  Will be priced at $40.00 shipped. This is a series of 15 but Chrisosaur is only selling 10 today. 

There will be more colorways to follow (including a Tenacious Toys exclusive!). You can see more pics of his work on Flickr.

Apr 5, 2012

Tenacious Toys Blog featured on Blogs of Note

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In perhaps my most reflexive blog post ever, I am blogging that Blogs of Note ("Interesting and noteworthy Blogger-powered blogs, compiled by the team") has noted that our blog is noteworthy. I'd also like to note that Blogs of Note has blogged a note that the Ume Toys blog is noteworthy. Blogs of Note is a blog running on the Blogger platform, like this blog, and is written and compiled by the Blogger team.... I'd like to thank the Blogger team for the recognition and incoming traffic. I am sure my sponsors and the artists I blog about are happy to know that my efforts are being recognized.

Glass Dunny Bottles by Henry Puxley

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Up and coming Irish glass artist Henry Puxley is proud to present his first foray in to the world of art toys with his latest creation, the custom Dunny Bottle. 

Originally featuring at the West End House Gallery, Kent, the beautiful 10 cm x 5 cm pieces come with a detachable clear cast Dunny stopper, with bottles available in either light blue or pink colourways. Hand cast using a lost wax technique, the Dunny Bottles are custom made to order for just £65 plus shipping. Available to purchase by e-mailing him directly, the Dunny Bottles will also be making an appearance on the soon-to-be-opened MAN-E-TOYS store in the near future...

Scott Tolleson Nosellots by Screaming Sky Gallery

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Nosellots (knows-a-lots) noun:  The brightest and cutest monsters in all the Cosmos.  With some love, their cerebral superiorities can be relegated to human beings.  Before long, they will control our behavior with the intent to reign supreme.

Meet Francis.
Francis is one of the smallest known Nosellots.  He works as a Microbiologist.  He is constantly forgetting his last name, even though it is printed on his lab coat.  A Nosellot anomaly, Francis used to be able to fly until his horns grew too heavy.  Now, when he is very excited, he can flutter high enough to reach the top shelf.  This makes him very happy.

Francis is the third released character in the Nosellots line developed by Scott Tolleson and Screaming Sky Gallery.  Measuring 8.5" tall, this creature is quality produced with heavy fleece materials, detailed stitching, and vibrant colors...all things that the collector and casual customer will appreciate.  Keep an eye out for our next character, coming soon!

The blue colorway seen at top is a Screaming Sky Exclusive which can be purchased here. The yellow colorway below is being made available to retailers (like us!) so hit us up if you want one.

Scott Tolleson is a popular guy these days. We're teaming up with him on our own exclusive release: the second colorway of his Uncle Argh Mini Qee by Toy2R. 

Killer Croc and Scarecrow DC Villains by Fuller

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Fuller writes:
 Just wanted to share my latest Villains. It's been a while since I made a comic character so I was itching to do some. Two of my most favorite DC Bad boys: Killer Croc and Scarecrow!

These 2 customs are based on Kidrobot Mini Munnys and are available for purchase as a set here: http://fullerdesigns.bigcartel.com/


Trains of Fame new website and new DIY trains

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Trains Of Fame presents its new website and online gallery. The works of graffiti artists such as Comer, Decap, Pone, Pro, Zenoy and DIY blank train cars will all now be available on the net.

After the success of the exhibition in the Oberkampf’s gallery in January, reuniting over 133 graffiti artists from France, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Germany, Spain, Italy and over a thousand people during the opening night, Trains of Fame decides to launch an online gallery and promote the works of five of the most influential french graffiti artists.

Always on the parisian subway model and for this special occasion, Comer, Decap, Pone,
Pro and Zenoy have customised some new trains, all of which can be seen in the online gallery.

Allowing everyone to express his creativity, Trains Of Fame also offers prepainted trains either of one and two colors or refering to the color code of the french trains and parisian subways.
 
The “Metro” model is composed of several types of subways referring to the current one
and those in circulation since its inauguration in 1900.
 
The “RER” model is a perfect copy of the parisian trains, carrying more than 2.7 million
passengers a day.

The “grey train” model reproduces old trains put on traffic in the 60s.

Once again, this gives a great opportunity to express yourself on historical train models!
Those reduced scale train models are specially designed be put on a desk, shelf or fix on a wall.

Oh So Sweet custom Munny by JC Rivera for The Candy-Coated Custom Show

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JC Rivera has sent us images of his Oh So Sweet custom Munny which he did for our April 21 custom toy show The Candy Coated Custom Show. JC is one of about 38 artists submitting pieces to the show. 
Although JC will not be able to come in from Chicago, you will be able to meet and chat up many of the artists in the show at the opening night party: April 21 from 7 to 9 pm at The London Candy Company, 1442 Lexington Ave, NY, NY. 

Check out the Facebook event for the party here.
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