NYCC Booth 208: Tenacious Collective Signings, Guests and Live Art Schedule

There's a lot going on in our booth aside from Exclusives....

Below is a group schedule for the events in NYCC Booth 208:

Thursday
11AM: Jason Meents (PGx4tLoTNY)
Noon: John Grayson (SV)
2PM: Tavvon Reynolds (PGx4tLoTNY)
2PM: Sucklord (TT)
All day: Live painting with Kelly Denato, Lou Pimentel & ChrisRWK (SV)
All day: Xavier Alvarez (inprimewetrust) (PGx4tLoTNY)
All day: Guests Jon Schnepp & Holly Payne (BSTW)
All day: FREE digital spins of cosplays by ArqSpin

Friday
Noon: Mike Die (PGx4tLoTNY)
Noon: Leecifer & Brent Nolasco (SV)
2PM: Tony Tran (PGx4tLoTNY)
All day: Live painting with Kelly Denato, Lou Pimentel & ChrisRWK (SV)
All day: Xavier Alvarez (inprimewetrust) (PGx4tLoTNY)
All day: Guests Jon Schnepp & Holly Payne (BSTW)
All day: FREE digital spins of cosplays by ArqSpin

Saturday
11AM: Jacob JAMS (TT)
Noon: Jason Freeny (TT)
1PM: Jason Meents (PGx4tLoTNY)
1PM: ChrisRWK (SV)
3PM: Hon-Bun Leung (PGx4tLoTNY)
3PM: Joe Scarano
All day: Live painting with Kelly Denato, Lou Pimentel & ChrisRWK (SV)
All day: Xavier Alvarez (inprimewetrust) (PGx4tLoTNY)
All day: Guests Jon Schnepp & Holly Payne (BSTW)
All day: FREE digital spins of cosplays by ArqSpin

Sunday
Noon: Micky Fielder (Dad's Cartoons)  (PGx4tLoTNY)
1PM: Hon-Bun Leung (PGx4tLoTNY)
2PM: Jason Meents (PGx4tLoTNY)
All day: Live painting with Kelly Denato, Lou Pimentel & ChrisRWK (SV)
All day: Xavier Alvarez (inprimewetrust) (PGx4tLoTNY)
All day: Guests Jon Schnepp & Holly Payne (BSTW)
All day: FREE digital spins of cosplays by ArqSpin

Key:
(PGx4tLoTNY) = the table of Playful Gorilla and 4theLuvofToyzNY aka Cash Cannon
(TT) = the table of Tenacious Toys
(SV) = the table of Suburban Vinyl
(BSTW) the table of Bigshot Toyworks

ANNOUNCING THE 2015 TENACIOUS COLLECTIVE AT NYCC

We have a very exciting New York Comic-Con booth planned for you!

The members of this year's Tenacious Collective at Booth 208 are:

• Tenacious Toys - online art toy retail shop
  
• Bigshot Toyworks - creative design studio and toy manufacturer
  
• Suburban Vinyl - NJ brick & mortar art toy retail shop
  
• Ian Ziobrowski - Nugglife custom toys, apparel and artwork
  
• Jason Chalker - Manly Art custom toys, apparel and artwork
  
• Furry Feline Creatives - plush toys and accessories
  
• Playful Gorilla - custom toys and artwork
  
• Cash Cannon - custom toys and artwork
• Hungryghosts - custom toys and artwork
  

There is a lot of more specific info coming about the actual products that will be available from each Collective member, so stay tuned to this blog and this page on our website.

Make sure you stop by Booth 208 early to grab your free buttons (produced locally by Skull Dezign).

Our booth will be outfitted with product turntables provided by ArqSpin, with demos of their digital spin software available for both your toys and yourselves! Yes, we will have a giant human-sized turntable platform for all of you cosplayers who want a more special recording of your cosplay than just a plain old boring photo.

Daily media coverage will be provided by Go Figure News and Big Kev's Geek Stuff.

More info to be released soon!

REMINDER: Arsenal of Artists No Toon Left Behind Show at Suburban This Saturday Aug 15

The landscape of childhood has changed. Those of us fortunate enough to grow up raised by the glow of the TV set on Saturday Mornings as we watched our favorite cartoon characters - must never forget those wonderful times. Saturday morning was our time. Our time to grab our favorite bowl of cereal and sit quietly as we watched - suspending our disbelief even if it were for just a few hours. We must remember those days of old. We must reach down and recount the many stories that made us laugh and cry. We owe it to this new generation. The Arsenal of Artists has gathered once again. We will raise our voices and recall our memories leaving no Toon behind!



Playful Gorilla and Cash Cannon Proudly Presents The Arsenal of Artists "No Toon Left Behind!" A group art tribute show remembering Saturday morning cartoons. The Arsenal of Artists follow up show will once again take place at the Suburban Vinyl Art Gallery in Waldwick NJ on August 8th, 2015 between 4pm - 9pm. "No Toon Left Behind" will feature the BIGGEST lineup of the summer! An unbelievably roster of talented artists ranging from toy artists to customizers, from digital illustrators to 3d artists. Each participating artist will bring original artwork with a cartoony twist throwing back to their favorite childhood memories.

The Arsenal of Artist is fortunate enough to have the amazing support of the community at large. A special thank you goes out to this shows sponsors who have graciously donated a wide arrange of items to be raffled off at the show. From nerd boxes to tattoos; from vinyl toys to 3d printed swag - our sponsors are a cut above the rest.

EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS: To learn more about Alex, Cash and their AoA organization, check out the interview that just ran on The Toy Chronicle!

For links to the pages of ALL the artists in this show, visit the AoA website and look at the bottom of the page.

Aresenal Of Artists No Toon Left Behind Show at SubUrban Vinyl

Suburban Vinyl, Playful Gorilla and Cash Cannon presents the Arsenal of Artists "No Toon Left Behind" group art show extravaganza. Opening on 8/15/15, from 4pm-9pm at Suburban Vinyl, this group art show centered around paying tribute to Saturday Morning Cartoons many people grew up with. With 70+ artists providing custom work, digital pieces and 3D sculptures, opening night should be one great night. Suburban Vinyl will be having a BBQ, raffles, and door prizes just to name a few things. So, for everyone in the area, be sure to head on down to Warwick, NJ and take in what looks to be a great show.

Check out our post about the last AOA show (The Recruits).

FEATURING WORKS BY:
Playful Gorilla, Cash Cannon, NeMO, NuggLife, Kris Dulfer, Jfury, David Kraig, RenOne, Mike Die, Melodreama, Pon, ChrisRWK, Brutherford, Mind of the Masons, SoKo Cat, Claynexted, Anthony Respect, Deadhand Toys, Pope Phoenix,Jeff Beck Menace Inc.Studios, InPrimeWeTrust, Beast Box Designs, FreakyKiss Designs, ArtofCristos, Andrew Bones, Raz Christ, The Tonus, Erjurself, Dads Cartoons, The Fractured Nomad, Bun Leung, iRoc Toys, Big C, EOS, FrankMontano, Mr Lunacy, WhiteBoy, Derf Bunny, Chipsouper, Komega, Fernando Sosa aka Mstyle183, Nati513, CreateInkStudios, The 3D Hero, Ume Toys, Malo April, Save The Panduhs, Forces Of Dorkness, Obscure, InkOne, Zukie, JCRivera, Matt A* (Angry Artist), Zombie Petz, MaloWrx, JPK, Small Angry Monster, Shawn Wigs, Lou Pimentel
,TaskOne, Extratruckestrial, Cory Haberman, John Grayson, Kudose, MIGHTYMYUN, Rob3D, JacobJAMS, RSIN, Cat Atomic, Hoakser, Jon Walsh, Nerviswr3k, Koinky Dink, Joe Critelli, Flavia C, Laith Alabbad, Owen Lewis, Monstros Apparel

 - Mark-Anthony

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HOW-TO: Photograph Custom Toys at Home, On a Budget (Part 1 - Setup)

Intro:

So I have this thing I'm doing called Rollin Gobis. It's a rolling online custom show featuring the Muttpop Gobi platform - a 3.5" vinyl humanoid (luchador) figure which is basically part of the lime of toys that the popular Tequila came from.

As I gather up my images for this release, I had one custom Gobi by Cash Cannon left to shoot, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to show all of you how to photograph a custom toy for the web. Initially I thought this might be a short tutorial but I realized that not all of you have access to the same DSLR camera and Photoshop like I do. So... those tools are great for me but maybe not a useful tutorial for many of you.

The reason I am doing this is the same reason I've been bitching and whining about your images for years: when you sell stuff on the web, the images are all you have to make an impression. They have to look pretty good and professional, even if you do them yourself.

Many of you seem to fall back on the good old "shot in dim lighting on my kitchen table with busy background" shot. Please stop doing that. I know many of you are working a day job and sculpting at night, and you're exhausted by the time you finish, but also super excited... so you snap the first picture you can of that piece, at night, on your table, in front of your bored cat and overflowing garbage can. And then you post it to IG because you're all proud, and some bloggers pick it up and run with it, and BAM - that's your actual official picture that gets circulated of that piece.

So your pictures look like you don't give a shit. And that's bad. Whether you want to believe it or not, there is psychology involved in selling your art to people, and you have to appeal to their inner sense of "must have this thing right now." Not giving a shit, in sales, leads to not selling shit.

So, to recap: your images of your custom toys should be brightly lit, against a white (preferably completely blank) background. 

MANY of you don't seem to think you able to produce images like this without hiring a photographer, but you can. In this How-To series, which I think will be 4 posts long, I will show you how to: set up your photoshoot, edit the images on your iPhone, OR edit the images in Preview if you have a Mac, OR edit the images in Photoshop if you have it. All with the intention of creating nice clean images that help sell your artwork. So, 3 different image editing options according to what equipment/tools you have available. I chose this particular figure to demonstrate because black objects (and sometimes white objects) are the most difficult to photograph. This piece by Cash happens to be both black AND glossy, so it's actually pretty difficult- all those reflections plus a high contract between object and background.

Part 1 - Setup of your Photoshoot

So here we have the awesome Vader Gobi

A "seamless" is a piece of equipment for a photo studio into which you place the object to be photographed. The intention is to give you proper light and a nice clean white background behind the object.

You can buy a seamless pretty much anywhere. Google that shit. They're not expensive.

I don't own a seamless, despite having considered myself a photographer for a while.

I make one every time I have to shoot a toy in my home.

How do I magically make a seamless? you may ask... well, I'll tell you, slappy: it's a piece of damn paper.

Yeah that's right, regular old printer paper works just fine.

So basically, I did this shoot at about 10AM today when the light was shining right into my kitchen through the window. I chose this time and location because ambient light (the amount of random-ass light in the room) is strong here.

On the floor I placed a heavy, clean, white envelope that is supposed to be used for shipping prints. It's big on purpose, just to give me more white space to work with. Taped to the side of the cabinet is a regular piece of white paper, low enough that almost half of it hits the ground and curves. That's a seamless right there. It prevents the viewer (the camera) from seeing a line between a floor and a back wall inside the frame of the image.

So you can see right at the bottom of the shot above that the patch of sunlight gets really close to my little shitty seamless.That's awesome and intentional. Sunlight (natural light) is great but being in DIRECT sunlight makes for really difficult photography. What you want is AMBIENT light bouncing all around the room, lighting up your subject from all angles (instead of hitting it directly on the top and making really dark shadows right next to really bright spots). The sunlight will get close to Cash's Vader but will not hit it directly.

If you or I owned a professional seamless, there would be one or 2 lights affixed to it that would achieve this ambient lighting effect. And it'd be better... but we don't have a seamless and this makeshift shit will work just fine for us to sell items on the internet.

From the side, the seamless looks something like this. You can slide the curve in or out as needed.

So I place the feet of Vader right at the edge of the paper to hold it down flat.

Above you see the subject right up at the edge of the seamless, approx 4 inches from the back wall. Feet of the toy hold down the edge of the paper. You can also do this with tape if needed. Keeping that edge down flush is key because we are doing a bit of half-assed editing after the shoot, and I want to keep the work as basic as possible so you can execute without having to use a clone stamp or some weird tool in Photoshop to remove the shadow that would be created if that edge wasn't flush.

This image shows a tiny shadow under the piece of paper near Vader's feet. I can edit this out in Photoshop but just try to do a better job than I did in eliminating that shadow and you won't have to edit it.

Above are the unedited shots from this photoshoot. They have not been cropped or adjusted. These were taken on an iPhone 6 Plus with the HDR setting turned on. All iPhones have decent enough cameras for this, and many of the Samsungs and other smartphones do too.

All that weird stuff like the edge of the paper, the shadow cast by the figure, the different colors of the envelope on the floor vs the paper, and the crap on the floor in the background will all be edited or cropped out.

That's it. In the next post in this series, I'll show you how to edit these images on your iPhone.
Good game.

Suburban Vinyl Presents The Recruits Group Art Show

Playful Gorilla and Cash Cannon proudly present "The Recruits" group art show happening at The Suburban Vinyl Art Gallery in Waldwick, NJ on April 18th 2015 6pm-9pm. The Arsenal of Artists first group show will be bringing together 30+ artists ranging from digital illustrators to toy customizers to 3d artists. Each of these artists have been "recruited" to participate and will bring original artworks with a military twist. Come be a part of an amazing line up! Items will be raffled, door prizes will be given and good times will be had!

Hulk Smash Can collab between Cash Cannon & Mike NEMO Mendez at NYCC Booth 208

Come find Cash Cannon at his table right next to the Kid Ink table near the corner of Booth 208 in The Block to buy these awesome Hulk Smash Can pieces cast by Cash Cannon and painted by elusive legend Mike NEMO Mendez. Who knows, you might even spot NEMO at NYCC today...

NYCC Exclusives by Cash Cannon (4 the Luv of Toyz NY) at Tenacious Collective Booth 208

Metaluna, From the movie Island Earth.  Solid Resin and Hand Painted.  This will be limited to a run of 6 only. 

Our friend and associate Cash Cannon is taking a short break from 24/7 tattooing to be a part of the Tenacious Collective Booth 208 at New York Comic Con! I love working with guys like Cash because he's humble, kind and creative... and despite being a tattoo artist by trade, he is more excited about art toys than nearly anyone I know. When he visited the Tenacious warehouse, I thought his head was going to spin around! Come visit Cash and all the rest of us at Booth 208! You'll see Cash with KiD iNK iNDUSTRiES, NRI and Playful Gorilla, Rampage Toys (Jon M), the Disarticulators (Niall), Manly Art (Jason) and Nugglife (Ian) all in a row in out booth along one aisle. Quite literally a one-stop shop for amazing collectibles from around the world. For more info, click here.

Ghouddha, a collaboration between Extratruckestrial and 4 the Luv of Toyz NY - resin with a few hand painted variations 

Buddhacat- a collaboration between Extratruckestrial and 4 the Luv of Toyz NY - resin with hand painted accents

One Eyed Billy - resin and partial hand painting

Bootleg Buddhas - resin and partial hand painting

Trollok - resin and partial hand painting

Product of the Day - Cash Cannon NYCC Monster custom 2

Today's fetured product is a custom resin figure from Cash Cannon. Standing 5" tall, this NYCC Monster custom 2 is made of resin and was first featured at our NYCC booth. You can pick him up now for $40 at the Tenacious Toys website.

~Mr. N. Visible

Coming Soon - Toy Burst Exhibition From More Than Sunshine

 

 

More Than Sunshine is putting on a show! Sunny Orlando, Florida's Redefine Gallery will host a toy show featuring vinyl, resin and plush pieces contirbuted by both local and international artists.

 

The show opens July 18th, where opening reception will also feature a live 3D Printing demo from the OCLS.

 

Keep an eye out for artworks from;

 

Pez, Miss Zukie, Manny X, 2Bithack, Boy Kong, Flat Bonnie, Kevin Herdeman, Alex Yanes, Mark Nagata / Max toy, Registered Artist, Crummy Gummy, Ian Ziobrowski, Cash Cannon, Respect,  Broken Pigeon, Flaw Toys,  Col Wallnuts, Chris Reason, Marlene "Barbie" Varela, Jennipho, Will Gay, Patrick Wong, Mathew Curran, Michael Banks, Tasha Zimich, Wolfrich, Christobar, Kitten Of Industry, TLA Ivan Roque, Sover, Bryan Collins

 

 

 

 

-Tasha Zimich

7 Seal Sneak Peek: Cash Cannon's 3rd Horseman "Famine"

With a little help from some of our friends, Cash Cannon has been learning a lot about making resin figures this past few months. It's really opening up his skill set to a whole new type of artistic expression. Cash is, by trade, a tattoo artist. This is a WIP shot of his "Famine" sculpt for Menace Inc Studios' 7 Seals Blind Box Series, which will be released locally in one of my favorite states, North Carolina, on Thursday. Check the Facebook event here.

7 SEALS ARTIST ROSTER:

Alexis Rivera (Playful Gorilla) - Seal #1 The Conqueror First Horseman
Chris Moore (WeBecomeMonsters) - Seal #2 War Second Horseman
Cash Cannon - Seal #3 Famine Third Horseman
Jeff Beck - Seal #4 Death Fourth Horseman
Ricardo Luna (lunacyfx) - Seal #5 Mark of the Beast
Motorbot - Seal #6 Destruction
HX - Seal #7 The Seven Angels
Tru:Tek - "Golden Seal" Resin Piece

WHAT ARE THE 7 SEALS?

The 7 Seals are based on the biblical 7 Seals of the Apocalypse. Each of the 7 Seals being broken to usher in that level of the Apocalypse.

1st Seal - Antichrist / The Conqueror(The First of the Four Horsemen)
2nd Seal - War(The Second of the 4 Horsemen)
3rd Seal - Famine(The Third of Four Horsemen)
4th Seal - Death(The Fourth and Final Horsemen)
5th Seal - The Mark of the Beast
6th Seal - Total Global Destruction
7th Seal - The Seven Angels

Each Seal theme was given to one of these awesome resin artists for them to come up with an original sculpt of what that seal meant to them. They will each cast 7 standard versions of their design as well as 1 Chase Variant of their design.

Cash Cannon's Lopsy Artist Series

There are still some Lopsy's available from Cash Cannon's Lopsy Artist Series. Grab these unique designs here!

This series was released at NYCC.
Artists: Adam Pratt from Half Bad, Shawn Wigz, JC Rivera, Miss Zukie, Mr. Den & of course Cash Cannon.

       - Don P 

Candy Corn Zombies and Lopsy's

Available tomorrow at D-Con, these spooky Zombie Candy Corn resin sculptures will be available. They stand at aroun 3" tall and 2.5" wide. They are made from a translucent green resin, sculpted by Cash Cannon and painted by Manny X. Each one comes bagged with a header card and sticker. Unpainted versions will run you $30 and the painted version will be $35. In addition, you can pick up a sticker pack for $5. Stop by booth 204 tomorrow to pick yours up. More pictures of each version and the amazing stickers are under the cut.

In addition to the Candy Corn Zombies, the NYCC Artist Series Exclusive releases of Lopsy's are available now at http://4theluvoftoyznyny.storenvy.com. They are available for $40 with the promo code "Would you like to play a game". These are 3" tall, cast in resin and available in different paint jobs by Adam Pratt from Half Bad, Shawn Wigz, JC Rivera, Miss Zukie, Mr. Den and Cash Cannon.

~ Mr. N. Visible

Cash Cannon x Playful Gorilla Breaking Bad package

Available today: Cash Cannon has teamed up with Playful Gorilla to release these awesome Breaking Bad-themed packs: inside is a resin bumble bee keychain, 3 original stickers and even a pack of edible meth! (Err... OK it's  not real meth. Blue rock candy. Calm down.)
The package is just $12 and you can pick yours up here.

New 8bittys and babbits resin from Cash Cannon

8bittys on top, babbits on the bottom

Spotted online!  Cash Cannon (@4TheLuvofToyzNY on Twitter) will be releasing some cute 8-bit inspired ghosties (8bittys) and wascaly wabbits...er...babbits in glitter and GID.  Keep an eye on his shop for more info!

- Ahren

4 the Luv of Toyz x Tenacious Toys Exclusive blue Lopsy resin

 We are pleased to announce our next exclusive, and our next artist collaboration: Cash Cannon has provided us with a small 10-piece run of his 2.5" resin Lopsy figures in a translucent Tenacious blue!

2 of the 10 figures will be custom-painted by Cash (see 3rd pic) and these customs will be randomly inserted. Cash has bagged these with a header card, and he also whipped up 5 magnetic mini canvases to throw in with the first 5 orders!

The Tenacious Toys exclusive Lopsy will go up for sale at 9pm EST tonight on Cash's page on our website for $20 each.

Custom-painted Lopsy in packaging

These 5 mini canvases will be included with the first 5 orders

Fire Lopsy Blind Boxes by Cash Cannon

These are the new 2.5" tall resin Lopsy figures by Cash Cannon- the first release is these Fire Lopsies, sold blind-boxed on the 4 The Luv of Toyz web store for $20 each. Look for another release of a Tenacious Exclusive Lopsy on our site soon!

Customs by Cash: Vader Helmets, Angry Turds, Spider Man and My Little Pony Ninjas

Darth Vader helmets Cash picked up from Toys R Us. Used to hold candy. Love that SAW one on the left!

 Cash shares with us a variety of pieces he has customized. You can follow Cash here on Facebook.

This is a Spider Man commission Cash did on a Mini Munny.

Angry Turds! One of Cash's ideas, based on a Munny poop accessory. Look for more soon!

A WIP based on a Teddy Troop, this custom features a glass eye.

This is a 4" Mini Munny that Cash is applying Sculpey to. Looks awesome already!

A Leatherface Dunny done as a present for a friend, complete w/ custom packaging.

A custom My Little Pony... ninja? Dope.