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Court of the Dead

May 14, 2012

Resin is King reveal, series drops Friday May 18

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Resin is King Series 1 is a blind-box resin figure series developed by Dead Hand Toys and Tenacious Toys. We called in 7 talented resin artists to contribute new sculpts to this series. Each piece is just under 3 inches tall, and each blind box will retail for $25. There are a total of 40 pieces in this series. The release date is this Friday, May 18th at 8pm EST on our Resin is King page.

Above is the first time we've publicly released real, full-color images of the pieces in the series. Note that this picture only illustrates one colorway for each sculpt/artist. Each artist did in fact submit pieces in a variety of colorways- every piece in this 40-piece series is uniquely painted, so in reality the image above is not even close to a full reveal. The ratios indicated show the chances of pulling a piece from that artist.

Each blind box will contain one 2.75" tall figure, a sticker and a ratio card. The artists in Series 1 are: Motorbot, Jay222, Matt A*, Brian Ahlbeck, Dave Bondi, Rich Page and Bad Applez Inc.

Below is the Golden Ticket Teuth figure by Brian Ahlbeck. The Golden Ticket will be randomly inserted into one of the blind boxes. GOOD LUCK!

Sons of Anarchy Clay Morrow custom by Task One for As Seen on TV

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photos courtesy of Brad Topolewski
 Task One just dropped a sneak peek into our inbox: his custom sculpt of Clay Morrow (played by Ron Perlman in Sons of Anarchy). This piece was done for Task One's solo As Seen on TV show at Plastic Chapel on Saturday June 9th, 2012 in Denver, Colorado. Thanks Task for the peek! This is a SWEET piece with an accurate portrayal of the distinct grill of that Perlman dude! What a face on that guy! (Nice gun too, Task!) Follow Task here:

Toy Invaderz custom show June 30th in Chicago

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We've been working with Emmanuel White Eagle (Cyberphunkk) for some time now, and it's finally time for him to curate as he puts on his very first group custom show: "Toy Invaderz" will take place June 30th in Chicago!

Emmanuel says: 
I have spent the past year and a half networking and admiring the works of artists in the toy community. From across the continent- US to Latin America and in Chicago itself- delving into the world of custom and original toys, enjoying and loving their creative input and determination, seeing and becoming a part of this art and its community and where it's headed. So after being around it and making toys myself, I decided in 2011 to start looking for a space to curate and launch an independent toy show in Chicago. I wanted to showcase customizers and independent toy makers from all over the world that are up and coming.
The idea is to bring more exposure to the Chicagoland area of the toy scene and the artists working in toys. I wanted to introduce more people to the movement in Chicago since there is not much of a custom toy scene here.
This event hasbeen created and curated by yours truly (Emmanuel L White Eagle, aka cyberphunkk). I recruited some very talented artists- from already established to up-and-comers.
 I have partnered up along with our beloved Tenacious Toys (www.tenacioustoys.com) to host and blog our online gallery and toys, exposing this show nationwide & worldwide via the web.
And this event will be hosted in Chicago thanks to the support of Quennect 4 Gallery who are the ones hosting our event, partnering up with all of us artists to help us bring this toy show to life..
The event will be proudly exhibited at the fresh and collaborative gallery space RGB Lounge.
 Toy Invaderz
June 30th, 2012
RGB Lounge
1420 North Milwaukee Ave 
Chicago. IL 60622  
phone: (312) 880 7421
 We are honored to have been asked to participate and lend our ecommerce abilities- to that end, we will be setting up a page to host and sell the customs in this show. 
Stay tuned for more details.

May 13, 2012

Arqball Spins: 3D spins of designer toys & the Arqball Kickstarter

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Last night I met up with Dave from Arqball at our warehouse so he could demonstrate the capabilities of Arqball's product. Arqball has created a hardware (rotating base) and software (iPhone/ iPad app) combo that allows the user to quickly set up and capture moving images with iPhone/iPad camera. The app then takes the image and creates a "spin" which you can see below:







The spins create a much more informative visual display for the product in question. I think it's perfect for designer toys! Above is a spin of Evilos' Tron Mini Qee custom (from my personal collection). The actual creation of the spin takes about 1 minute from the time you set the object on the base to the time the app is done creating the file. Really, super incredibly fast. The spins are currently hosted on Arqball's servers, and you can access them at any time online via a link or by embedding a short line of HTML code into a web page or blog post (as I have done here). So easy, a toy-obsessed caveman could do it.






Above is a Pink Feather HoodZomb from 3A's Adventure Kartel series of 1:6-scale figures.






Above is our exclusive David Horvath Strange Beast Bossy Night Stomp edition.

Although we didn't do it with these spins, the Arqball software does come with a background deletion feature which allows you to record the spin in front of a white background and with one click, remove the entire background and base so it's pure internet white.

Arqball is really easy to use, and you can get a jump on your competition by supporting their Kickstarter here. I'm a backer. Expect to see more spins incorporated into Tenacious Toys blog posts and product listings soon. I'd recommend this system to any toy shop or manufacturer that would like to more easily and completely reveal all the details of the products they carry or manufacture. Even great for bloggers who frequently review products online. No more photo shoots followed by editing multiple images! One Arqball spin takes care of every angle.

Manny Pacquiao custom Mega Munny by JFury

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 JFury shares with us images of his very first custom 18" Kidrobot Mega Munny- this thing is almost as tall as Manny! If you go to JFury's web store, it looks like this one is sold, but there are a number of other cool customs available for purchase.

The making of Teru's Bentie the Bentley custom Munny

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Teru Fujita's Bentie the Bentley custom 7" Munny garnered a lot of attention at the Candy-Coated Custom Show... partly because it was such a technically complex custom, and partly because it was Teru's very first custom art toy. Teru wanted to share with us some WIP shots (below) from when he was creating this amazing piece. Bentie took Teru a total of 80 hours to complete.

 The beginning stages of adding sculptural detail to the Munny's head.

Head is placed on body and electronics are tested.
Before being permanently affixed to the based
Teru says he'd like to flesh this idea out into a set, with the next pieces possibly being a Lancia Stratos rally car, and then a VW bus. I'd love to share links with you so you can follow along, but Teru doesn't do the internet very much, so you'll just have to wait and see what I post up here in the future.

Custom Ten-Doh figure by Cash Cannon

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Cash customized this Ten-Doh figure by Squid Kids Ink as a commission for a friend. He used Krylon gold and flat black spray paint, and the rest was hand-painted with acrylics and sharpie poster paint markers. To follow Cash, click here. To get your own Ten-Doh figure, go to the Squid Kids web store here.

Tattoo Art Trading Cards

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PRESS RELEASE:
Tattoo Art Trading Cards, the first set of its kind, was introduced to non-sport trading card collectors, April 21 & 22 at the Philly Non-Sports Card Show. The 25 card starter/base set was extremely well received by collectors at the show. Next, Frank Eachus Publishing introduced the set to tattoo enthusiasts at the Hell City Tattoo Fest in Columbus, Ohio to yet another warm reception. “The set is popular with collectors due to the fantastic art of the tattoo artists,” said Frank Eachus of Frank Eachus Publishing. The set is also popular with tattoo enthusiasts for the very same reasons. 

     I started working on the idea two years ago. Tattooing is much more socially acceptable today, and the art lends itself well to the trading cards, making beautiful collector cards,” says Eachus. “It’s very gratifying to see such a great response to a brand new concept. Hopefully, this set will help to interest more collectors in the non-sport collector card hobby,” says Eachus.

     The initial release of Tattoo Art Trading Cards consists of cards depicting the fantastic art of some of the most talented artists in the world. The history of tattooing is also included in the initial release, featuring historical benchmarks of the art of tattooing, and turn-of-the-century tattooed circus performer posters reprinted on the trading cards.

     Frank Eachus Publishing plans on a fall release of 6-card packs to follow up the very popular initial release. “The packs will feature more great artists, tattooed models, autographed cards, special artist sketch cards, and more chase cards,” says Eachus.

     To learn more about Tattoo Art Trading Cards, and the featured artists, visit www.frankeachuspublishing.com

May 11, 2012

Jorge Rodriguez Gerada Plague Doctor Qee bear

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Renowned Urban artist Jorge Rodriguez Gerada has created an amazing "Plague Doctor" Qee bear for the Swab Art Fair AIDS charity project.

Swab Barcelona 2012 presents the AIDS charity project, Swab Toy’z for FLS, hand in hand with the Lluita Contra la Sida Foundation Fighting Aids, and the participation of about 100 artists and designers who have made artistic interventions on 8" white QEE’s, turning each one into a unique and exclusive piece. There will be an exhibition of the customized Toys during the days of Swab Barcelona 2012 (23-26 May), along with a catalog that will document each of those sold in the auctions organized by Swab Barcelona 2012. This publication will undoubtedly contribute on the spreading of the project on the international art world. Furthermore, to enhance its dissemination, a selection of Toys will be exhibited in several European Art Fairs. Participation in this project becomes a unique opportunity for artists and designers to show their work by contributing to this act of solidarity.
The project is curated by the architect, collector and expert in the international Art Toys, Juan Redón.
The 80 Qee’s will be sold online on the Swab Barcelona website and 20 will be sold at the presencial auction organized by SOTHEBY’S on Thursday 24th at 19.30 at the Fair.

The benefits of the auction will be destined entirely to the Lluita Contra la Sida Foundation Fighting Aids (FLS), a non-profit organisation whose core missions are healthcare, research and teaching in the field of HIV infection. The Foundation has its own HIV unit in the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital in Badalona (Barcelona), an international medical reference in their research on the disease.

May 10, 2012

Resin is King Series 1 blind-box series drops May 18th

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Announcing Resin is King Series 1: a blind-box resin series featuring some of the biggest names working in resin today! We collaborated with Brian Ahlbeck of Dead Hand Toys on this project and we rounded up a few of the resin artists to collaborate:
 Staying true to the nature of resin toys, every single one of the 40 pieces in this series is absolutely unique. Each artist created a new sculpt specifically for this series, but after they cast the pieces in resin, each one is hand-painted or embellished by the artist to make it unique. Each sculpt comes in at just under 3 inches tall.  Each blind box will contain a randomly-packed resin figure, a ratio card and a sticker.

Brian Ahlbeck has created a Teuth as a Golden Ticket (below). The Golden Ticket will be randomly inserted into one of the blind boxes. The winner need only contact us according to the instructions on the ticket.
The Golden Ticket prize: this custom-painted Teuth by Brian Ahlbeck!
Resin is King Series 1 blind boxes will be $25 each. 

The release date is Friday, May 18th, 2012 at 8pm EST at the following link:

May 9, 2012

Pepe Hiller x Lunabee Woodbees

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Pepe Hiller announces his collab with UK artist Lunabee:
These hand carved wooden bees, aptly names WOODBEES, were created by Pepe in Switzerland out of maple & walnut wood and then shipped over to Lunabee to paint up. There are 10 bees in total - 9 smaller worker bees (approx 2.5 inches in length) and one large Queen bee (approx 3.5"). The worker bees will be up for $99 each and the Queen for $149.

These are the only bees that are being made - there will be no future series, it's a one off collaboration and so this is the only chance to grab one of these wooden delights.

The release is being split into two with 5 worker bees being released tomorrow Thursday the 10th May at 7pm London time on Lunabees store (http://lunabee.co.uk) and the remaining 4 worker bees and the Queen being released on Thursday the 17th May at the same time and in the same place.

7-inch custom Raffy Unicorn by Scott Kinnebrew of Forces of Dorkness

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With Kidrobot's release of the new 7-inch Munnyworld platforms, Scott Kinnebrew of Forces of Dorkness got a much bigger platform to work on for his Raffy Unicorn customs! This custom he's holding is literally the first 7-inch Raffy we unboxed and shipped out, and the first completed custom on this platform we saw. You can check out more of Scott's work on our website here. Look for much, much more from Scott in the near future!

Noferin Jibibuts Artist Series in stock now

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Jibibuts Artist Series wooden blind box figures by Noferin are in stock now! Currently we are selling sealed cases only as they arrived yesterday, but soon we will open some up to sell open-box at reasonable prices. Full cases of 12 pieces contain one of each of the 12 designs- a full, complete set in each case! No chasing rare colorways! I like that. 
This series contains pieces with artwork by some of our favorite artists: Andrea Kang, Anna Chambers, Bubi Au Yeung, Buff Monster, Leo Hillier, Martin Hsu, 64 Colors, Nathan Jurevicius, Noferin, Peskimo, Squink and Tado. 
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