Showing posts with label jon malmstedt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jon malmstedt. Show all posts
Mar 23, 2017
11:29 AM
Nov 29, 2013
blind bag, glow in the dark, jon malmstedt, krampus, krotpong, rampage toys, sofubi, unpainted, vinyl
12:34 PM
Next week, on Friday, which is St. Nikolaus Tag in Germany and Austria, Rampage Toys will be releasing an EXCLUSIVE new version of Krotpong's Killer Krampus figure! The figures are cast in Glow in the Dark BLUE vinyl, and there will be two options available:
1) Unpainted - $80 each.
2) Blind Bagged One-off - $150 each.
For these, orders will be accepted for about 5 days, and all orders will be shipped out in time for them to arrive before Christmas! The paint application will be a 'secret' - and each one will be a one-of-a-kind handpaint!
May 23, 2013
9:30 AM
Rampage Toys x Smash Tokyo Seismic Ace custom
Today's feature product is a custom from Rampage Toys based on the 9" Seismic Ace platform from Smash Tokyo. The figure has been hand painted by Jon Malmstedt with spray paint (masking and stenciling) and a touch of acrylics.
The figure is made of resin and comes packaged in the Seismic Ace box. Pick it up today for $100 in the Tenacious Toys online store.
Apr 15, 2013
9:30 AM
Mini Kaiju Cupcake Custom Series Blind Box
This blind-box custom series is based on the 2-inch Mini Kaiju Cupcake platform created and poured into resin by Jon Malmstedt of Rampage Toys. Jon is a friend of Tenacious Toys, having participated in many of our group shows as well as signing at our NYCC booth in 2010. We believe strongly in Jon's offbeat Americanized kaiju aesthetic- "Kaiju" means "monster" in Japanese, and what is more monstrous than our food here in America? Cupcakes, in all their sickly sweet deliciousness, are truly the scourge of our great nation. This mini series, therefore, both celebrates and vilifies the cupcake. Artist were invited to basically do whatever the heck they wanted with this platform. Customs came back both cute and scary. This certainly reflects the true nature of the cupcake. Do you think cupcakes are the food of angels, or are they the devil incarnate? Pick up one of these blind boxes and see which kind of cupcake you find inside!
There are 25 blind boxes in the series with one containing a golden ticket for a 5x7" original painting by Jon Malmstedt. Artists included in the series are NREAZON, Jon Malmstedt, Nasty Neil, Justin Hillgrove and OsirisOrion. Pick one up for only $25 now at the Tenacious Toys online shop.
Oct 7, 2012
12:30 PM
- Blank Ugly Unicorn - $35
- Painted Ugly Unicorn - $45
- Blank Manotaur - $75
- Normal painted Manotaur - $85
- 'Chase Manotaur' - $125 each (there will be 2 of these)
- Blank Cyclops Dinos (set of 3) - $45
- Painted Cyclops Dinos (set of 3) - $50
- A new mini resin guy in solid Tenacious Blue - $5 each
Feb 29, 2012
7:14 AM
Manotaur WAX!, originally uploaded by rampage.toys.
Jon Malmstedt sends us word from Japan- another project in the works! This is the Manotaur figure he's creating with Justin Hillgrove of Imps and Monsters- a SWEET sculpt if I do say so myself. In terms of the progression of how a vinyl toy is created, it needs to be molded in clay, and then wax. The clay is "waxi-fied", and the wax was at the mold maker as of the 21st of Ferbruary, meaning this project is well underway! The official release is scheduled for the weekend of Emerald City Comic Con - Seattle's Comic Con - starting March 29th. There will be blanks up first, and a really small batch of RAMPAGE handpaints as well.
After the event, anything left will go in the Imps and Monsters site (http://www.impsandmonsters.com/3dstuff.html), and I think Justin might be offering a pre-order now as well. Blanks will retail for $65 - painted versions pricing TBD. You can also follow that link to read the backstory on the Manotaur.
Jon says: Following the initial release of blanks and handpaints, we will be having masks made, and regular runs will be painted in (generally) simple masked paint schemes - with one-offs from Both Justin and myself and RAMPAGE micro-runs on occasion. You can expect some teaming up of the Manotaur and the Ugly Unicorn.
Pictures of the monster, 8 inch Wax Proto can be found on Jon's Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27483582@N00/
Dec 7, 2011
7:56 PM
I'm gonna piss Jeremy Brautman off and copy and paste what Jon Malmstedt just emailed to me. Jeremy is a great writer who is a big fan of doing your own research and writing your own copy for blog posts. I totally agree with his viewpoint, yet I am going to just plain paste this text in to my blog to see if I can get him all riled up:
So, amidst the longest wait I have yet to have for new Ugly Unicorn Vinyl (there's a serious back-up at the factories after the con season and all...), I decided it would be a good time to do some good ol' custom kaiju handpaints. I had a handful of M1GO and Bullmark figures sitting around unpainted, and one or two blank Unicorns, so I managed to get quite the little bundle assembled :-)
These guys will go Live in my shop on Monday at 8PM EST (Stateside) - which is 10AM on Tuesday here in Japan. Always a juggling event to figure out the right time for this stuff...
Anyway, I've attached a pic, and it basically tells the whole story - bright colors on various colors of vinyl. It was fun to paint a bunch of different platforms - especially since things are about to TAKE OFF with Ugly Unicorn production! Lots of projects in the works for 2012! First up, a new color of vinyl for 2 releases - more on that soon (I hope!) ;-)
More pictures of the "Holiday Kaiju Invasion Squad" are on the Flickr, here.
May 29, 2011
6:11 PM
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| NREAZON custom Mini Kaiju Cupcake |
When Jon Malmstedt first came to me with his Mini Kaiju Cupcake custom series idea, the first artist that popped into my head was NREAZON. NREAZON already has a pretty big roster of food characters- her logo is a skull ice cream cone!
As it turns out, NREAZON took the cupcakes we sent her and sculpted the crap out of them. Each of her cupcake pieces is completely different. Above is one of her customs, veiled with my secret blend of Photoshopped cartoonification. OK, OK, it's not really obscured all that much, considering it's supposed to be "teaser"... but there are 4 other NREAZON pieces that look totally different, so it's really not revealing much!
Stay tuned to this blog next week when we'll reveal the ratio info and more clear images of NREAZON's custom Cupcakes, as well as the other 4 artists' work.
Apr 30, 2011
2:36 PM
Jon Malmstedt's very first SOLO SHOW will take place in SEATTLE, WA on May 12th, during the Capitol Hill Artwalk! The show is at the most excellent CAKESPY SHOP, owned and run by the very mostest excellentest Jessie Oleson - CAKESPY herself! The opening is from 5-8pm on Thursday May 12th. Check it out and invite any friends you might think would come! Here is the Facebook event.
'Monsters, Cupcakes and Monster Cupcakes' will showcase paintings and toys from Seattle-based character designer Jon Malmstedt - RAMPAGE TOYS! Jon's work focuses on fun and colorful creatures that just so happen to be monsters. Expect scenes of urban destruction a' la the classic films 'Godzilla' and 'Mothra', but with a bent in the direction of silly - instead of Godzilla think 'giant cupcake that has no arms.' The show will include paintings, custom vinyl toys, handcast resin figures and a couple collaborative pieces done with the Cakespy herself - something for anyone who loves monsters, cupcakes, monster cupcakes or all of the above! Oh, and need we mention that actual, real, edible and delicious CUPCAKES will be in attendance? YUMMY!!!'
Feb 3, 2011
10:42 PM
Rampage Toys will be launching a bunch of new toys tomorrow (Friday Feb 4th) in their web store. Cake Caps, pictured above, are 3-inch tall resin & vinyl custom pieces that will be sold blind-boxed for $25 each. There will be chases and one will include Rampage Toys artwork as a bonus! A smorgasbord of custom toy goodness. Read more about what Jon Malmstedt has to offer and what's new in the world of Rampage Toys in his blog post here.
Dec 3, 2010
2:46 PM
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.
Jun 30, 2010
7:45 PM
TENACIOUS TOYS: Hi Jon! The first thing I'd like to know is a little bit about who you are and where you're from.
JON MALMSTEDT: Originally from: NJ! Yep, from age 8 'till 22 I hailed from the Garden State. NO art at that time - just mountain biking and BMX (man...I sucked at BMX...). I remember my high school art teacher being really mad when I told here I was opting for language classes instead of art...
Currently residing: in Seattle, Washington. I moved out here about 4 years ago - the mountains and water drew me. It also helps that people out here actually THINK about the world they live in (not knocking the East coast though - they're catching up slowly but surely).
Occupation: Paying the bills working as a data manager and GIS analyst.... I won't last much longer in from of the computer...
Education: BS in Geology. I have no 'formal' training in art. I've always kept a sketchbook, and I used to paint miniatures a lot (I was a Warhammer geek in high school). I basically honed my skills with acrylics by painting miniatures and I still paint the occasional model. Sculpting is new to me in the past couple of years, but I feel like I'm getting the hang of it!
Interest (in order of 'importance'): Rock Climbing (been doing this for 10 years now - hence the interest in mountains in the West. I also teach at a gym); Artwork (Toys, Painting, Printworks, Jewelry, Plush, etc... Mostly I like making my own resin and doing customs); Driving (and fixing) my '82 VW Westfalia; Learning Japanese with the ultimate goal of living abroad at some point (!); Cruising Flickr for inspiration!
Inspirations (also in order of 'importance'): My wife (she's kind of my muse - she bought me my first toy, which started the whole toy thing (2007). She'll drop an idea and I often turn around and make it into a material thing!); Devilrobots! - these guys are awesome, and I really appreciate the fun style they bring to their work (I'm totally not into the 'macabre' or 'gory' thing that is going on these days.... it's just depressing...); Japanese Kaiju - monsters -taking a character, cute or scary or 'inanimate' (in the case of the snack food I do) and make it into a monster! I love the 'man-in-a-monster-suit' look of a lot of the Kaiju out there.
Style: Fun and Cute - often with a 'twist.' E.g. who doesn't love cupcakes? But who doesn't love MONSTER CUPCAKES even more?!
TT: Oh cool! I love Devilrobots' toys! So when did you discover kaiju-style toys?
JM: Yeah, Devilrobots - those guys are great! While I was in Tokyo last fall I stopped by their office - they were maybe a bit confused, but welcomed us warmly and ended up giving me a whole bag of free stuff - stickers, postcards and toys!
I really got into the kaiju style after I took a trip to San Francisco at the beginning of 2009 (so, kind of more recently). We went over to Japan town and stopped in the Super7 shop, and they had such awesome stuff on display. The characters were fun, the vinyl was the most awesome colors, and the possibilities for customizing seemed boundless! Going to Tokyo also provided a lot of opportunity to 'investigate' the style. Honestly, I'm not in a position to buy a whole lot of these toys, so making them (or prints, paintings, etc. of them) is the next best thing!
TT: So at what point did you decide you wanted to do food-themed kaiju? Walk me through the creative process that led you to produce Kaiju Cupcake.
JM: Ummm... that's a tough one. I guess it all stems from a habit of mine, where I do some random doodling in my sketchbook and then look at it for a while and eventually turn it into a full sketch/drawing. I made this doodle that kind of looked like a cookie (to me), and then I started making a whole bunch of sketches of monster snack foods. The cupcake was one of the last ones I did, and my friends kept telling me it was the coolest one (cupcakes being hip and all). When I started making the resin toys, the cupcake was certainly the most successful in local shops, and so I got started thinking about producing a large number of them. The injection molding thing came up when I spoke with a friend in central NJ who manufactures injection molded parts (mostly for display cases and other industrial stuff). Long story short - 3 months into the modeling, prototyping and pricing work for the Kapukeeki Kaiju, I'm looking at resin again - a larger run that before, but still limited. Plans are not finalized, but I'm exploring local options in the Seattle area, and I'll most likely be doing most of the work myself - including the packaging. I'm entirely opposed to working with China on this project - for a number of reasons. I have to admit that a soft vinyl toy made in Japan would be the ultimate achievement for me, but that might be something for further down the road.
TT: Well, however you pull off the manufacture, Kaiju Cupcake looks rad. Personally I don't really care whether a figure is vinyl or resin or something else, as long as the whole piece looks right when it's finished. And as a retailer, I can't really hate on China, as most of my inventory is made there. Are you into that crazy, amorphous, wildly colored Japanese style of toys? That's a whole huge scene that I never dove into. Mostly I stick to collecting (and selling) toys that look like some sort of definitive character.
JM: Yeah, I hear you about the China thing. Just so happens though, that they essentially OWN the US economy (bonds and all that), so I'm just trying to do SOMETHING to keep some US cash out of their market place...
Anyway, no, I'm not a huge fan of some of the random kaiju toys. It’s sort of a style within that style that gets me. Have you seen Uamou's toys? That sort of thing (a kind of cow but not really a cow - cute but also mysterious) is the kind of stuff that I find really great! I do really dig the colors of a lot of that Japanese vinyl, and the fact that they often make a figure work with very little paint once it's cast. With the cupcake, I'm aiming for a figure that can be just a couple of colors, and that has simple lines and an attitude at the same time.
TT: Sounds delicious! Any plans beyond Kaiju Cupcake? Surely there must be some sort of expansion, variation or another character that you have in mind. Does Kaiju Cupcake have friends? Or maybe enemies?
JM: Kapukeki Kaiju certainly does have friends! They are all members of RAMPAGE series one, and you can read all of their 'profiles' (i.e. comical histories) on my blog. Here and here are a couple of direct links.
Beyond the cupcake, yes, I do have plans for lots of stuff... thing is I work full time, and that takes up a good chunk of my energy (and, umm, well, my time....). I'm trying to put the kabosh on the full time job thing, but that's not going in effect until late fall (I seem to be a vital part of my organization, and I just don't have it in me to burn any bridges...).
Here's a list of projects currently under way in the 'world' of Rampage Toys:
1) Make this cupcake toy! Be it resin (handcast by me or Seattle local) or some other material, this thing is going to materialize in a small and pretty run come Fall (late fall at the latest).
2) I am making TONS of stuff for the Indie Banditas Bazaar at the end of this month - jewelry, toys (various types - picture to come on Flickr), Print art (screen prints and monotypes), clothing and other cool stuff. Leftovers will be up on Etsy and BigCartel come the week of the 28th of June.
3) I've started working with another local artist named Justin Hillgrove. He and I are working on pulling together some 'mini-series' style resin toys, as well as a DIY figure which will be the main platform for a gallery show we'll be doing in November!!! Justin is really talented artist, and I'm excited to be working with him.
4) I'll be doing a Cupcake Monster plush exclusive for Schmancy (here in downtown Seattle), which will be released in her shop and on-line on September 1st. This is exciting, because Schmancy is THE go to place for toys and plush in Seattle.
5) I'm trying to be as involved as possible with the Toy2R 15th Anniversary events. I did a 2.5 inch Qee last month, and I'm working on an 8 incher for the upcoming show at the Spaghetti Project in Virginia. This toy is coming along great, and I can't wait to have it done and post pictures!
So, yeah. I'm kind of busy! There are never enough hours in the day.
TT: Oh man I love the Choco-Fiend-Trio and your customs too... Sounds like you have a full plate right now!
I think getting the toys into production is a very large step towards world domination.
Thanks so much for all the info! I look forward to stocking your angry food toys in my store!
JM: For sure Benny! Thanks for the interview. It was my pleasure to share.
You can follow the progress of Jon's company Rampage Toys on Flickr, by reading his blog, or by friending him on Facebook!
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