Custom Toys, Spade-Skulls, Totem Art and Much More : Reactor-88 Blog

I was once again invited to participate in this year’s New Moon show happening over at one of the coolest art toy and gallery spots in NYC, Myplasticheart. Last year you might remember I opted to go 2D and paint on canvas (Four Totem Monkeys). This year I’ve gone back to vinyl, but that’s all I can say for now (no sneak peaks…) Anyway, there is an awesome line-up of artists for this show and I’m very excited to be a part of it. To see who’s participating, check out the “Meet the Artists” page, and if you’re in NYC on February 5th, be sure to check out the show.

Here’s my custom Totem Cranston (designed by my good friend and very talented artist Lou Pimentel) for the When Hell Freezes Over show, which opened on January 5th. If you’re interested in purchasing this piece, contact Myplasticheart.

So now that the LOST Underground Art Project has happened, I can finally reveal official pictures of my piece. It’s an eight-inch tall resin statue of Taweret- the four-toed statue that is first seen in (I believe) season two of LOST. While this is probably the toughest piece I’ve painted to date, since I’m a big LOST fan I was very honored to be a part of this event and had a lot of fun with it. Big thanks go out to Jensen at Gallery 1988 for inviting me to participate. This also marks my final custom for 2009. But get ready because 2010 will start off very quick with a special show in early January at Myplasticheart NYC.

Most folks know I’m a pretty big LOST fan, so when Gallery 1988 contacted me about participating in a LOST themed art show I was pretty excited. Even more excited at the fact I would be working on a “special surprise” that they were sending out to some of the artists. Needless to say when I got the surprise I was amazed and baffled at the same time. Obviously I can’t share what they sent me, so if you’re curious be sure to check out the LOST Underground Art Project this coming Tuesday, December 15th from 7 to 10pm. Note, if you’re familiar with G1988’s previous themed shows (Crazy 4 Cult, I-Am 8-Bit) you know there will be a serious crowd and wait to get in, so make sure you get over there early…

Every time I drop pictures of a new custom, I get a few requests from people wanting me to paint a custom toy for them. Sadly, I have to tell these folks that my commission list is currently closed. I just realized it’s been about a year since I officially closed it, so I thought I should give some sort of update as to what’s going on. First off, I honestly thought that I’d have knocked my list down quite a bit by the end of this year so I’d be able to open it up again- unfortunately this didn’t happen. I got involved in a few more shows than I had intended, as well as worked on some projects I felt would be very beneficial to my toy design future. Anyway, there is some light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve made the decision to drastically cut down the number of shows I participate in during 2010 so I can put the bulk of my energy towards my current commission list. Note, I’m currently focusing on four pieces for shows in the first quarter of 2010, but once these are done it will be all about commissions. Lastly, I’d like to thank all those that are currently waiting on my list for being so patient. I plan to start contacting you to make sure you are still interested in a custom from me, and we’ll take it from there. So if you’re on my list, keep an eye out for an email or PM before the end of the year…

Unless you’ve followed my custom toys from when I first got into the toy scene, you may not know that once in a while I like to come up with things other than Totem and Spade-Skull designs. One of the more complex non-Totem/Spade-Skull designs was my holiday custom from a few years back- a Santa Dunny sitting in a sleigh being pulled by mini Labbit Reindeer. After I made that, I planned to create a special holiday custom each year. Along with the usual elves, candy canes and toy soldiers, one of the ideas I had at the time was making some sort of “present” or “gift box” Dunny customs. But after thinking about it, I had no idea how I’d pull it off. Fast forward to earlier this year when Kidrobot released their Dunny 2009 Series. They included a Tofu Head Dunny design that had the perfect little square box head. Once I saw this, I knew my gift Dunny idea was back on track. I was able to pick up a bunch of them, hand-paint them with red and green metallic paint, wrap them in real ribbon, and even add real hand-tied bows to the tops. I still felt they needed one final detail, so I added small “Naughty” and “Nice” tags. I ended up creating seven sets (a green and red gift) of these of these little guys and will put them up in my webstore sometime this week- so if you’re interested in picking up one of the sets, stay tuned…

I’ve been a big fan of 64 Colors’ Marshall character since I first saw him, and when he became a toy courtesy of Rotofugi & Squibbles Ink, I knew I had to get one to paint. But other commitments and priorities always pushed the idea to the back of the list. So about three months ago I went on vacation and took this little Marshall with me. I had already stripped the paint and primed it, so while on break I was able to leisurely pencil in the design and begin the paint. Over the next month I was sneaking in a few minutes here and there on him between other things and eventually I was able to finish him up. Then it sat for another month and a half because I was just too busy/lazy to set up my lightbox to do a proper photoshoot. So tonight I finally broke out the photo gear and got some pics of him. Note this wasn’t a commission or for a show or anything like that, so if anyone is interested in purchasing this little guy I’ll be putting him up in my web store sometime this week…

I recently got back a few pieces from some old shows- the Totem Lunchbox (read more about it here) and the Spade-Skull skatedeck (read more about it here). If you’re interested in either, head on over to the Reactor-88 webstore.

Last year I painted a custom ILLAZILLA (a funky wooden dinosaur/Godzilla-ish toy created by TNES Hippoe) for the Attack of the ILLAZILLA Tour. Anyway, it’s finally up for sale over at HippoEsthetics- better late than never I always say…

Better late than never, here are a few pics of my latest custom- The Totem Qee. This was painted for the We Ain’t Plastic Qee Exhibit that took place (yeah, it happened already) in Lincoln, Nebraska. Yeah that’s right, Nebraska. It’s probably not the first place you think a toy show would happen, but when you realize Lincoln is the headquarters for the Toy2r USA office, then it all makes sense. Anyway, the show had a nice turnout- you can view a video recap of all the pieces here. After this show, my Qee will be joining the next Toy2r World Tour which will travel around all through 2010. Note, it’s Toy2r’s 15-Year Anniversary in 2010, so expect so big things from them.