The Candy-Coated Custom Show in NYC April 21

 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!

Scott Kinnebrew Wario custom Bic Buddy for Vinyl Thoughts

 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

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

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!

tokidoki Truffle in stock now

Click here to buy the Truffle Bunny, the newest vinyl Cactus Friend from tokidoki! 

Under 10 bucks each. You think you can handle this level of cuteness?

Nathan Hamill Bellicose Bunny Stinker Edition coming soon

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

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!

Licensed Public Zoo apparel by Evy of California

A buddy of mine who runs Evy of California just showed me their lineup of apparel under the Public Zoo license... if you dig So So Happy, you'll love The Public Zoo. Check em out on Facebook.

Here's their PZ apparel and below is a sweet video from the Public Zoo YouTube channel:

Jacob JAMS Mutation resin figures

 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!

Zukie custom Dunnys! Hurry!

Check out these sweet custom Zukie Bunny Dunnys by Alison Perez! You see 5 here but 2 are sold already... hurry to her store to grab the last few!

Walt Mickey custom by Ian Ziobrowski

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

 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.

Dave Webb Joker Mickey custom for PlayImaginative show

 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

"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

 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

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:

www.webecomemonsters.com (website)
webecomemonsters.storenvy.com (shop)
www.facebook.com/webecomemonsters (WBM Facebook page)
www.facebook.com/chrism8re (Christopher's Facebook page)
@webecomemonster (Twitter)

Luke Chueh bronze Jack sculpture by Fully Visual

I'm not going to apologize for loving Luke Chueh, nor for posting this $1,200 sculpture here on my blog. (I could never afford this thing, but hey, someone can. Maybe you?)

The new wall-mounted taxidermy style piece should immediately remind collectors of ‘Jacked’, Chueh’s beloved painting of a rogue rabbit who has unceremoniously removed (‘jacked’) an antelope’s antlers in order to transform himself into… nothing other than a Jackalope! A clever take on the original painting, the new sculpture offers an abrupt and perhaps karmic conclusion to the saga. Limited to 10 pieces, the ‘Jack’ wall-mounted bronze (9”x8”x5”) comes with a certificate of authenticity featuring a hand-drawn Jack portrait.

Buy this piece here in the Fully Visual shop.

Sale at the Tesselate shop!

Our associate and UK artist Tesselate has a sale going on in his shop: all Keyeyes and Pressbot figures are just 5 pounds! And I noticed that George and His Amazing Dispensing Machine is just 40 pounds! WOW! Those are some awesome deals for high-quality work. Check out the Tesselate shop here.

George and His Amazing Dispensing Machine

We also have an exclusive series of Tesselate custom Mini Munnys called the Double B Squad, which you can purchase here.

The Double B Squad by Tesselate

JFury Jester custom for So So Happy show

Justin JFury Phillips shares with us his custom Bunee Qee for the So So Happy Toy2R Qee Show. This one is based on the So So Happy Jester character pictured below:

You can Like JFury's work on Facebook here and make sure to visit his shop here to grab a commission.

Scott Tolleson discusses our Uncle Argh Noir Kickstarter on Toy Break

Every week, George and Ayleen invite a special guest onto the Toy Break couch to help them out with the show, give their honest opinion on the issues and toys discussed, and generally look pretty. This week, our friend Scott Tolleson played First Mate on the Toy Break couch for episode #207.

Like the conversational ninja he is, Scott managed to sneak in a plug for our Kickstarter project to fund an exclusive colorway of Scott's Uncle Argh Mini Qee. Thanks Scott! 

You can watch the full Toy Break episode here, and you can donate to the Kickstarter here. Shipping is included for all rewards/pledge levels, whether you opt for a sticker pack ($5 pledge) or the full-on Scott Tolleson custom toy package ($500). No additional shipping fees for international backers.

Askew Rangers Buggz the Toxic Bunny custom by Josh Mayhem

Introducing Josh Mayhem's newest addition to the Askew Rangers elite -"Buggz The Toxic Bunny". This 15" custom one-off piece is an original design and sculpture / toy mash up displaying Josh's unique style of vibrant colors, crisp lines, and simple paint foundations that serve as complimentary backdrops to an overwhelming display of weaponry and accessories. This one-of-a-kind original piece is now available for purchase on Josh's page at TenaciousToys.com. Here's a pic of the whole series:

There are ten customs in Josh Mayhem's Askew Rangers series, all featuring bright paint and extraordinary attention to detail! With price point varying from $75 to $300, there will definitely be a piece in there for you at the right price. I'm super excited to have these amazing customs up in our shop!

With upcoming shows including Play Imaginative / Disney's Mickey Mouse custom group show in Singapore, the Playsam 500 custom group show at Super 7 in San Francisco, and the Bellicose Bunny
custom group show at Toy Art Gallery in Los Angeles, you're going to be seeing much more from this emerging artist in the near future.

Josh Mayhem is available to take commission work. Feel free to contact him on his Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/joshmayhem1 or on his website here: http://joshmayhem.com