Oct 30, 2013
Tested Interviews Jason Freeny
Norman Chan of Tested.Com stops by Jason Freeny’s studio for a little interview! Here we learn all about the thought processes, techniques, and everything Jason goes through when creating some of his amazing dissected figures. Take a few moments out of your time and check out this rad interview!
Feb 06, 2013
TOKYO X CREATIVES – UAMOU Documentary Indiegogo Campaign
Tokyo X Creatives wants to bring you on an inside look at some of the Tokyo’s latest and greatest in the design world. There first episode would be following Ayako Takagi, the artist behind Uamou. They’ve captured hours of footage, which needs editing, sound mixing, color correction, translations, and time, to create a 20 minute documentary. To produce and fully captivate all the happenings in the world of Uamou, including turning her passion into a family business, they are in need of your help. That’s why they’ve created an Indiegogo campaign in hopes to raise 1.000€ ($1350). There are a number of contribution levels to choose from, ranging from 1€ to 1,000€, each with different perks. So if you want to see this documentary made, please send a contribution to this campaign!
Oct 25, 2011
PBS’s ‘Through the Artists’ Eyes’ NYCC Video Featuring kaNO
LA transplant kaNO is featured in a new NYCC video created by NYC PBS Channel Thirteen – the most watched public television channel in the country. It’s a look at the show from the perspective of kaNO as well as comic artists Peter Kuper (Spy Vs. Spy) and John Paul Leon (Static). For more kaNO, be sure to drop by the Ya Heard Booth @ DesignerCon (11.5).
Sep 10, 2010
Vinyl Addiction with DJ Q-Bert
Vinyl Addiction has been posting some great interview segments on the ‘net. The action continues with the just released DJ-Qbert interview / crib tour hosted by Jesse Hernandez. Check it out and enjoy the tour of his art collection featuring pieces from Woebots, MARS-1 and more.
Aug 31, 2010
Vinyl Addiction Rob Dydrek
Vinyl Addiction heads back to the Fantasy Factory to do a nice interview with the big boss himself, Rob Dydrek. They get inside the head of Rob and what the Fantasy Factory is all about. Rob even shows off a sneak peak of the upcoming Wild Grinders Cartoon. I’d like to see what Rob’s full toy collection looks like.
Aug 10, 2010
Vinyl Addiction Featuring Tracy Tubera
On this edition of Vinyl Addiction, they feature our good friend Tracy Tubera. For those of you who do not know, Tracy does most of his work at the Fantasy factory, where Jesse had the pleasure of visiting. Might be better if you just watch the video above. High Five!
Jun 11, 2010
Produce Adult Crayon CMYK x Spiki Photoshoot Video
Produce will soon be releasing a special limited-edtion Tee featuring their exclusive Adult Crayon CMYK Spiki (ed. of 100) and model Emily Garcia. Here’s a really nice video of the photo shoot featuring the exclusive figure from Nakanari and Kuso Vinyl. Look for the CMYK Spiki on Produce’s site sometime next month.
May 10, 2010
ModNation Racers Profile: Huck Gee
Last week Playstation.com rocked a video profile on Jesse Hernandez showcasing his art and his custom driver designed using the in-game tools for the upcoming ModNation Racers PS3 kart racing game. Now, Huck Gee has next. This one starts off by showcasing Huck’s toys (production + customs). The middle portion shows Huck using the game’s mod tools to put Skullhead into the game – great stuff. Finally, Huck boasts he’s going to ‘pown’ Jesse Hernandez heads up… It’s a bit long, but def worth a watch.
Mar 05, 2010
Vinyl Addiction Online Excerpt: Interview with Chris Lee
While we’re stoked about Vinyl Addiction, the only TV show dedicated to designer toys, the only slight downside is that many of you don’t have access to Myx and so can’t watch it (yet). Thankfully, show host / artist Jesse Hernandez has just uploaded the Chris Lee segment which aired as part of Episode 4 a few weeks ago. Enjoy.
Jan 04, 2010
Scribe and Friends – KC Graff Videos
Philip Koening has just released the last three (of 14) videos he shot of Scribe and his cohort painting up Kansas City. In this last drop there’s a video of East doing his thing, Scribe dreaming up a whale with a weakness for cupcakes and a tag-team of Scribe and Jason Brunson working on a pair of Giant Hamsters (above). Check out all the videos on Youtube.
Dec 28, 2009
Kaiju Invades SF: Video Interviews to the Max
As part of the ongoing Kaiju Invades SF! show, Double Punch interviewed both Yajima-san of Dream Rockets (above) and Ichimiya-San of Sunguts (below). Be sure to enable subtitles (cc) from the Youtube player menu. In addition, Toybot Studios interviewed Yajima-san, Ichimiya-San, and Matt Walker of Dead Presidents designs. Happy viewing – these five well-done interviews provide insight into the creative efforts of these artists. The show continues through the 30th, so there’s still time to pick up pieces from Sunguts, Max Toy Company, Dead Presidents and Dream Rockets.
double punch
1821 Powell Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
415.399.9785
Videos: Scribe Painting in KC
Happy Monday. Philip Koenig has just released four new videos of Scribe and friends painting it up on the streets of KC. We’ve put up one of the highlights – Scribe rocking his signature Rumpus character above. Hit Youtube for the others (shark, ufo, and walrus).
Dec 21, 2009
Scribe – Six Time Lapse Graffiti Videos
Scribe cut his teeth painting on walls and he still finds time to paint on the streets of Kansas city. Phil Koening has been documenting the graffiti of Scribe and a few friends. Today he released three more videos including “Goat” (above). So far that brings the tally to six. Three more will drop each Monday until all thirteen have been seen.
Nov 20, 2009
Alimana – Spore Trooper + Insane Viral Video
Earlier today Kris ran a post about Gunnzo's DesignerCon booth and mentioned some of the figures they would be offering including Alimana’s Spore Trooper made in Mexico. And that was that. Until a late-night visit to our Facebook page and a link to a video promoting the toy. Let’s just say we're blown away. ‘Ursula y Espora 2.3’ is a slickly produced over-the-top b-movie style pseudo trailer directed by Carl W. Jones and quite likely the best viral video for a designer toy – ever.
Warning, the video is NOT WORK SAFE – there’s a spot of nudity and you should know that its a little graphic – in an exaggerated gore kind of way. Check it below (in English). Also check out the Spanish edition and the making-of video.
While the film itself is eye-catching, the Spore Trooper toy seems to live up to the hype. Based in Mexico, Alimana designs and produces original vinyl figures completely in Mexico. Riffing off Japanese monsters, the Spore Trooper features a clear dome and apparently removable brain. Check it out at Gunnzo’s booth – I’m going to make a point of it.
DesignerCon @ The Pasadena Convention Center
300 East Green Street
Pasadena, CA 91101
Oct 26, 2009
Brent Nolasco – Video: The Making of Gordo
Here’s a cool video Brent Nolasco put together on the process of translating his character Gordo from 2D paintings to 3D limited-edition resin figures from mphlabs. In just under 3 minutes Brent shows of sketches, early sculpt shots with revisions as well as his hand-painting of each figure. The first Blue Orchid Gordo edition drops this Friday, October 30th 2009 (7-9 PM) @ myplasticheartnyc with a signing/release party. Enjoy.
myplasticheartnyc
210 Forsyth St.
New York, New York 10002
646.290.6866
Sep 17, 2009
VP Live - Dave Pressler Video Interview
Dave Pressler will release his Angry Clobber Monkey vinyl from Munky King tonight (9.17) at the brand’s shop on Melrose. Two days ago we sat down with Dave for a live webcast interview. Our elves/minions/nanobots/slaves have been a little slow this week but they’ve finally gotten around to making a nice copy of the interview. Watch it above (and maybe grab something to eat first, it’s 25 minutes long). There’s plenty in there including shots of the master molds for Brendan Monroe’s Sour and the original Ron english rabbit figure, both of which were sculpted by Dave.
Aug 19, 2009
Huck Gee’s Vinyl Addiction
Vinyl Addiction, the upcoming TV show for vinyl addicts everywhere, just released a cool video segment with Huck Gee. Shot in his studio, Huck and host Jesse Hernandez chop it up about the craziness of being a vinyl toy designer and his tremendous success with limited-edition customs. And if you’re wondering, yes this footage was shot awhile go but that’s how TV production goes sometimes. Very good watch.
Jul 21, 2009
Ohm – Sketch + Interview Video
This morning, the Muttpop crew dropped by the office with French artist Ohm who created the consistent look for the Tcho! anthology mini-fig series. Here’s a quick video interview + sketch session with the talented artist that touches on his background as well as the challenge of translating several artists’ 2D characters into 3D for the Tcho! project. Since Ohm landed in LA about a week ago, it’s been go-go with a signing in Phoenix at Red Hot Robot over the weekend and the mother of all ‘cons, SDCC, in just a few days.
For SDCC, Muttpop will be releasing the Puro DIY Tcho! set of figures (5 + 1 bonus) for $60 at the DKE Toys booth (#4732). If you’re interested in individual figures, a different Puro Tcho! figure will be available at each of Ohm’s five signings (schedule below) for $15. Ohm will be doodling on the figures for customers as they wait. As you can tell from the video, he excels at creating on the fly so the on-the-spot customs should be quite nice.
FRIDAY: JULY 24th
ToyQube (booth #4837) @ 1PM (Moko)
DKE Toys(booth #4732) @ 4PM (Malika)
SATURDAY: JULY 25TH
Munky King (booth #4539) @ 11AM (Jubbei)
Rotofugi (booth #4930) @ 2PM (Captain Biceps)
DKE Toys (booth #4732) @ 4PM (Lou)
Jun 01, 2009
Time-lapsed Lou Pimentel Painting – The Great Migration
Featured on our sister site VPeast, is a video of Lou Pimentel’s Great Migration painting for the “Products of Our Enviroment” show at Monkeyhouse Toys. More here!
Andrew Bell Answers Some Questions at Rivet Gallery
For Andrew Bell’s solo show “It’s What’s Inside That Counts” at Rivet Gallery, he had a Q&A sessions the night before the opening show. Here is part 1 or 6 videos from the event. You can see the rest of the Q&A sessions via Relatively Unknown.
Apr 30, 2009
Buff Monster on Vimby
Vimby has become a very good source to feature some of our favorite artists and gives us the inside scoop. For this video we get to follow Buff Monster to both Japan LA and to his show, “Sweetest Thing” at the Corey Helford Gallery.
Apr 28, 2009
Shawnimals on Vimby
Vimby has just posted a cool video feature on one of our favorite designer plush brands -- Shawnimals. It's cool to see that the company is growing -- we knew that Shawn couldn't possibly saw all those toys himself. He's had a group of assistants for awhile but now they've got fancy titles and what looks like a dedicated workshop. Nice.
Jan 19, 2009
Field Stripping Frank Kozik’s Sarge [metal]
As we posted a few days ago, Fully Visual will drop a set of Frank Kozik’s four mini smorkin’ characters this coming Tuesday (1.20) @ 11 AM PST through their store. While they are all dope, Sarge is a stand-out. Just like the larger vinyl, he can be disassembled by removing the pin and the handle. The use of metal adds a sense of realism and just a touch of playability. Since you likely won’t be able to get your hands on one before Tuesday’s drop, we had Jamie of Fully Visual demonstrate the faux grenade’s operation in a little video above. Enjoy. Look for more funky videos from VP shortly.
Oct 28, 2008
Video: Sucklord Intros the Suck Off
While we were shooting pics of the setup for this Thursday’s Suck Off custom show, Sucklord obliged us to shoot a little intro for the show. He talks about his goals for the show and also walks us through a few of the impressive custom Sucklord 600 figures. We call this “raw video” – shot in one take with some ahem… motion jitter. The key is though, it’s a quick turn around and its in your face.
Munky King
7308 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323.938.0091
Jun 27, 2007
Plasticgod Mural and Ningyo @ SURU (6.29.07)
In anticipation of Friday's (6.29) release of the Plasticgod Ningyo from Super Rad Toys, Plasticgod spent four days transforming the wall outside SURU into a dope 5 headed Star Wars themed totem mural. The end result speaks for itself but we though you might enjoy seeing the painting process. So we joined the passerbys and onlooking admirers on Melrose to shoot some pics as Pgod went to work meticulously recreating his design on the wall. Pictures are great (a thousand words and all that)... Oh but what about video? Time Lapse ;-) So here ya go, 14 hours of footage compressed down into just under 3 minutes -- that's a speedup of about 280x. Enjoy. Be sure not to miss the Plasticgod Ningyo release party @ SURU this Friday, June 29th from 7 to 11 PM.
Plasticgod Mural Video
Watch: Standard Resolution (320 x 240) High Resolution (640x480)
SURU
7662 Melrose Ave.,
Los Angeles, Ca 90046
323.655.0770