Brave Vinylmation Series Coming May 4th

Recently Disney brought an exclusive store to their Vinylmation Facebook page. That means they will be releasing limited edition figures exclusively or first to that page to benefit their online fans. I’m particularly excited for their four-part Brave set above, created for those looking forward to the June 22nd, 2012 premiere. I don’t fully understand releasing the set on May 4th, 2012 - which is so much earlier than the movie, because if people don’t like the film they’ll be stuck with merchandise they wouldn’t appreciate. One may respond that at least Disney will get their money and then it’s not their problem BUT this release will be following a handful of 9” Vinylmations that must have sold so poorly that they are now deeply discounted online. I think for both Vinylmation collectors and flippers that this release will be a decent way to judge the health of that niche. Good luck Disney! Image via.

It’s the final mega-post of the day! This artist seems to have been releasing work over the last few years at a steady pace - with multiple shirt releases, production designs submitted, and customs sold. This is our first mention of him on Opportunity LOL and that’s a bit of a shame because he should have a larger audience. I recently read a number of sad tweets from him, referring to an e-mail that was so dispiriting that he is considering putting his toy design/customizing career on hold. In fact, he is claiming that the custom he put up for Tenacious Toys’ Kickstarter will be his last. It would be a shame for the toy world to lose a talented individual such as Allen and I’m hoping anyone reading this agrees. If you do, consider tweeting @AW177, perhaps purchase his custom through Benny’s Kickstarter, and take a look at his shop to see if you want to add any of his pieces to your collection.

As an aside, it’s worth saying something about the general toy economy and how artists are given a relatively poor deal. First, many vinyl toy companies pay the designers of their production figures with a number of their own toys. This means that they aren’t going to make much money on the deal and are reliant on reselling those toys plus the possibility that getting involved with that company will “get their name out there,” which may or may not lead to more opportunities. Second, the going price for customs is fairly low. This leads to a small hourly for customizers and the only way this can change is if more money enters the market - which can happen by getting more interested buyers and paying the artists actual dollars, since many of these people are also collectors. Third, while there are a number of toy artists who produce original sculpts and sell them on their own (cutting out the companies paying in toys), they are reduced to social behaviors to get sales, which means a lot of extra hustle on top of the time spent creating the art. Things are likely to get better as social media has advanced, more toy blogs have grown, and vinyl toys are finding their way into larger markets (Barnes and Noble, Swatch, Disney Stores) BUT it’s going to take a lot of time to reach a point where someone talented can immediately jump into customizing or producing toys and get enough sales to have a comfortable living. It’s sort of obvious then why a simple rejection or unkind message could dissuade a customizer from carrying on, but I hope that the tightly-knit toy community can balance against the negativity with their support. Personally, I would love to see AW177 continue releasing customs and it would be quite cool if he had a production toy released AND got paid in US Dollars.

You can follow Allen on his Website | Twitter | Flickr | Store

30th April 2012

1 #AW177 #Custom Toys #Production Toys #Art Toys #Designer Vinyl #Designer Toys #MADL #Dunny #Munny #Kidrobot #Toy2r #Qee #Disney #Mickey Mouse #Muttpop #Jouwe

“U.S. KFYL12 Death Walker” Custom KAWS 5 Years Later Figure by DrilOne

WHOA! This is a pretty impressive custom on an extraordinarily valuable figure. How valuable? A quick search on eBay currently has two listings, both at $1999.99 with free shipping. How many four figure custom toys do you see? Fortunately for the collector, DrilOne did a really killer job with this one. You can see more shots in the artist’s Flickr set.

Follow DrilOne on his Flickr | Website | Facebook | @DrilOne on Twitter

Read our interview with DrilOne and check out our previous posts on the artist here.

20th January 2012

8 #DrilOne #Custom Toy #KAWS #designer toys #Art Toys #Vinyl Toys

“Robotone Sprogs Colour No.1 - January Blues” First Part of a Monthly Series by Cris Rose

From the artist (via):

Kicking 2012 off straight away, Jan 7th sees the release of the very first Robotone Sprog, a concept that grew out of last years musings on a Bot of the Month club. Well there’s no club and nothing to sign up for, but every month will see a brand new colour Renold and Rourke hit my store for the totally bargain price of just $25 + shipping! Woo!

Each new Robotone goes up on the 7th of each month, for the same price, and will stay there either until the end of the month, or until stock runs out. The releases are “open”, so some colours may be more rare than others depending on demand, but as i make every one by hand, there is a limit to how many i can make. Once a colour is gone from the store, it’s gone! There is a limit of 2 of each sculpt, per person.

Available for $25 in the artist’s store right now, this is a cool way to make 2012 extra fun! The first image is of “Renold” (short guy) and “Rourke” (taller) in the “January Blues” colorway. The second is a comparison shot with a 3” Kidrobot Dunny. The third image above is the 12 total colorways Cris will be releasing throughout the year. Want to see what a collection of Cris Rose toys looks like? Check out this video from Daniel Perry to be jealous!

For more Cris Rose, hit up the artist’s Website | Store | Flickr | Twitter

Check out our previous posts on Cris Rose here.

10th January 2012

1 #Cris Rose #original sculpt #designer toys

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