Disney x Play Imaginative Toys Play Foul

Artist and toy designer Sergio Mancini has alleged Play Imaginative are not fulfilling a toy design contract after several years of design, production and excuses. The toy in question, pictured above, is a design contracted from Sergio based on his hand-painted custom for their Play Imaginative Mickey 2012 showcase.

The toy is fully produced through Play Imaginative, and the design is even appropriately credited to Sergio on their website.

Play Imaginative is no stranger to licensing- with an expansive line of active licenses from globally recognized popular culture brands. Meaning there's no excuse to jerk anyone around with fulfilling a contract. Especially when the original artwork was provided to them for their showcase for free, and production design payout consists of only 20 production pieces.

Sergio is no stranger to licensing and production design either, with global clients including Kidrobot, Andrew Bell's Android Mini, Toy2R, Designer Apparel brands and a CV of international exhibitions. Companies would do well to tidy up their business with contracted designers. 

So, why blog it? After a generous amount of time going in circles by email, independent creative professionals usually get to choose between public awareness or letting things go. For small contracts, a legal consult and retainer to even plan taking a negligent party to task would be more costly than the payout due. As a creative community we can hold companies accountable, and inform their patrons and potential designers of potential risks. Disney, and many others, have licensed their character's friendly faces to companies they trust to represent them. And this kind of treatment in representation of anyone's intellectual property deserves a pass.

If you would like to add your support to industry awareness of Play Imaginative's alleged neglect in fulfilling their contractual obligations, feel welcome to reach out through;

Disney's Instagram

Disney's Facebook

Disney's Twitter

e-Mail Disney

Play Imaginative's Facebook

Play Imaginative's Twitter

Play Imaginative's Instagram

eMail Play Imaginative

-Tasha Zimich

Spongebob Squarepants Mini Figure World by Playimaginative...

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?... SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS. If you have always wanted to take home Spongebob in cute mini form then this is definitely the set you want. Play Imaginative is releasing a huge assortment of Spongebob Mini Figures. The first 4 waves are shown below with more to come. Each figure comes boxed and will retail for $13.95 each. If you would like more information on these figures please click HERE. Or if you are interested in purchasing some go to Tenacious Toys and send an email requesting these!

Askew Rangers Mickey Malice by Josh Mayhem

 Josh Mayhem presents the newest member of the Askew Rangers: "Mickey Malice", a part of the Play Imaginative / Disney Custom Micky Mouse Group Show in Singapore. Featuring a working spring-loaded rocket launcher with replaceable missiles, and Josh's signature style of simple paint patterns, an abundance of weapons and accessories, this custom evokes the versatility of an action figure and the visual aesthetic of a designer toy.

Also be sure to check out the rest Josh Mayhem's Askew Rangers custom
toy series available to purchase at in our shop here.

Josh is available for commission work and can be contacted here.

OsirisOrion custom Mickey Mouse for PlayImaginative

I can't tell you how much I love OsirisOrion's paint work. It's mind-blowing. This is his custom Mickey Mouse for the PlayImaginative show. Sick, deep metallic color. Heavy clearcoat makes the paint look so deep that you can dive into it like a swimming pool. Everything he paints looks amazing. Check out this album he has on Flickr. It's just amazing. That's all.

M'Ickey custom Mickey Mouse by alarment for PlayImaginative

 Allan Armenta (aka alarment) shares with us an excellent custom Mickey figure, which he did for the Play Imaginative showcase of their Mickeys. Nicely textured sculpting and detailed paint make this one an extremely well-executed custom! Little dude looks like he's at the end of his rope. Just so all of you know, they way this custom looks is how I feel inside 80% of the time.

Check out more alarment work here.

FYI: Joe Ledbetter Chinese Zodiac Figure Delayed Till September

Click here to see announcement on PI site: Joe Ledbetter Chinese Zodiac Mini Figure World Series

Joe Ledbetter Chinese Zodiac mini figures

 

Joe Ledbetter just released images of his upcoming vinyl mini figure series, coming in 2011 from PlayImaginative: the Chinese Zodiac figures! 

12 figures, corresponding with the 12 different animals in the Chinese calendar. I'm assuming that these will be blind-boxed (don't hold me to that) and that they'll be about 3 or 3.5 inches high (don't hold me to that either). Joe says they'll be released 2011, and aside from that we have no other info. But these figures look like an INCREDIBLE follow-up to JLED's fun Finders Keepers series released a while back by Kidrobot. I think we've all been waiting for some more JLED mini figures, haven't we? 

Email us if you're interested in these; please write JLED ZODIAC in the subject line and tell us how many figures you want, or if you want a sealed case. (We might also do open-box sales once we have them in stock)

We sell first to those of you who contact us in advance.

Joe Ledbetter Slander Snake coming soon!

This sweet little vinyl toy is designed by Joe Ledbetter. 

It's made by a company called PlayImaginative from Singapore. 

Slander Snake is 4 inches tall, made out of vinyl, and they made 1,000 pieces of this green version. 

Our case is shipping to us right now and you can preorder yours from us for $24.95 here.

Now you know.