Emilio Garcia Brain Pattern Qee by Toy2R

Emilio Garcia's Brain Pattern 8-inch Qee Bear in stock now for $64. 

A little background info:

For the uninitiated, a "Qee" is what we call a "platform toy," or a toy with a standard basic shape which a manufacturer will decorate with numerous different paint jobs. The Qee is the flagship product of the 15-year-old Toy2R company, which is from Hong Kong. Toy2R was started in 1995 by a man named Raymond Choy, and since then it has developed into one of the most well-known and prolific vinyl toy manufacturers. 

There are several different variations on the Qee platform: they come in different sizes (2.5 inches all the way up to 5 feet tall) and different head shapes. The above Qee shape is called a Qee Bear (or BearBearQ) because it has a vaguely bear-shaped head. The interesting brain pattern paint job applied to this Qee Bear was developed by a Spanish street artist named Emilio Garcia. Emilio has recently enjoyed international notoriety (at least in the designer toy world) due to his wildly popular Jumping Brain series of mini figures (also manufactured by Toy2R.) Emilio's first 8-inch Qee, therefore, also employed a brain theme, at least in the paint job he created. 

Toy2R frequently uses designs created by popular artists and sends the designs into limited production on their Qees. Most artist Qees like the one above have a tiny production run of 500 pieces (sometimes less).

Jon Malmstedt Jersey Devil 3in Dunny for Almighty Dunny Show

Our friend Jon Malmstedt of Rampage Toys shows us this sweet "Jersey Devil" custom he made out of a 3-inch Dunny for the upcoming Almighty Dunny show. 

The show kicks off Dec 11th at Halcyon in Brooklyn. Expect to see hundreds of custom 3-inch Dunnys at this show! It's gonna be epic. 

We hosted Jon Malmstedt at our NYCC booth this year and he rolled up with some sweet handmade Kaiju Cupcake figures, accompanying prints and an exclusive mini series of his Nachteule owl figures. 

You can follow Jon on Facebook or his blog, and you can read more about The Art of Toys show in which he participated at Tasty in Seattle, WA in November.

Ian Ziobrowski customs: 20in Qeebert Einstein & 7in Jerry Garcia

If Ian Ziobrowski is not the next rockstar toy customizer, I will eat my hat. He consistently delivers extremely high-quality customs with simple, yet perfectly sculpted details, and expertly applied paint. Above is Qeebert Einstein, the 20-inch custom Qee he made for the Qee to the City custom show down in Miami we are helping put together, along with Wizard Sleeve Toys and Toy2R. The show started yesterday, and you'll be able to purchase the custom Qees from this show here. Expect to see many more images of customs from that show here on this blog. Here are a few more images:

Just before he completed Qeebert Einstein, Ian was working on a commission for a private collector who is a Jerry Garcia fan. This Jerry Garcia custom is based on a 7-inch Kidrobot Munny figure:

Ian's talent is undeniable. Here's to a long and successful art career for him! If he keeps banging out customs like the ones above, he's going to be one busy guy. Go Ian! 

If you are interested in a commission piece by Ian Ziobrowski, email him here. You can also friend him on Facebook here, or stop by Genuine Artikle in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY (on Long Island) where he works.

Qee to the City 20-inch Qee show at Art Basel

Location: Casa Wynwood, 2135 NW 1st Court, Miami 

Dates: Starting Dec 2nd @ 4pm, running thru Dec 5th @ 7pm

Curated by Mike Franco of Wizard Sleeve Toys, with the assistance of Benny from Tenacious Toys and Qees from Raymond & Kevin of Toy2R.

EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK: Laconic 1 vinyl toy

We are pleased to show you an exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming 5-inch vinyl toy from Laconic Design, operating out of Alberta, Canada. They will be making 500 pieces, with 100 of those going to various artists to customize. The finished customs will be sold as blind boxes. Production pieces will be sold for $39.95. Price for the customs TBA.
Stay tuned for more info! In the meantime, follow Laconic on Twitter.

Lisa Rae Hansen Munny Beaufighters

Lisa Rae Hansen has debuted series of custom Munnys based on her original sculpt series called "The Beaufighters", which are a handmade resin and stone plaster series. The custom Munnys pictured here are a spin-off on that idea: hand-crafted, hand-numbered custom 4- and 7-inch Munnys. The helmets are removable and lined in felt. 

The Munny Beaufighters can be purchased directly from Lisa Rae's webstore: http://lisaraehansen.storenvy.com/

Ridiculously cool stuff from Strangeco

Strangeco usually sells to retailers at the wholesale level, but occasionally they sell some rare and cool vinyl directly to collectors. 

Here are 3 notable items they're selling that I think are worth passing on to you:

The "Listen to Metal" 3-inch chase figure from King Ken Series 1, only $9.99. Buy it here.

Greg Simkins' Keel Haul Clegg 7-inch vinyl figure in a rare red colorway (300 made). 

Buy it for $14.99 here. 

Regular colorway Keel Haul Clegg (black) & Cap'n Rotnclaw (red), as well as greyscale Cap'n Rotnclaw, are all reduced to $14.99 as well! If you're a Simkins fan, you can pick up all four 7-inch pieces for $60, and that's a helluva deal.

Finally, above is the very special custom Brine Edition Cap'n Rotnclaw, hand-painted by Dead Presidents. Limited to only 24 pieces and priced at $74.99. Buy it here.

SNEAK PEEK: Tenacious Blue Puppy Dunny by ZAM

This awful cute blue puppy 3-inch Dunny by ZAM is a very kind gesture on his part: he invited us to do up some dunnys for the Almighty Dunny Show and although I really want to start doing customs, I don't have time at this time of year to do much of anything besides packing and shipping orders.

After all this time in the art toy world, it's really sorta silly that I've never shown off my artistic side... anyway, ZAM is a much more talented and experienced customizer than me, so he kindly offered to create a 3-inch Dunny in the likeness of our blue Danger Dog logo:

I think ZAM's Blue Puppy dunny came out looking GREAT, and I can't wait to see it up on display at Halcyon alongside all the other customs at The Almighty Dunny Show! Here are some more images: