Clutter Magazine Issue 37 - Peter Kato

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PETER KATO BOB AFRICA • HAUS OF BOZ RXSE7EN • 1000 TOYS

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ISSUE 33

DEC 2015

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ISSUE APRIL 2016 2016 ISSUE 34 37 JANUARY

37 SCOTT

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PETER KATO

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PETER KATO 26 The Hare & Hat-Trick Article by Nick Curtis On The Cover Bedtime Bunnies Image by Matt Dorcas

HAUS OF BOZ

10

Article by Barbara Pavone

RXSE7EN Life and Death Article by Nick Curtis

BOB AFRICA

20

Crisis Averted: How Bob Africa Helped Avoid Disaster for Kidrobot.

Article by Marc DeAngelis

34

1000 TOYS

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Article by Josh Kimberg

Clutter 37 | 7

TEAM Miranda O’Brien Editor-in-Chief

Marc DeAngelis Contributing Editor

miranda@cluttermagazine.com

marc@cluttermagazine.com

Barbara Pavone Contributing Writer Twitter: @ThePavoneReport

Josh Kimberg Managing Editor

Nick Carroll Art Director

Matt Dorcas Advertising Sales

josh@cluttermagazine.com

nick@cluttermagazine.com

matt@cluttermagazine.com

Nick Curtis Associate Editor

Jason Ryule Technical Coordinator

nickcurtis@cluttermagazine.com

jason@tradeincool.com

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8 | Clutter 37

HAUS OF BOZ

BY BARBARA PAVONE

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Opposite: “Toxic Lammi,” 2013

Raised on a remote farm in the British countryside, Leeds-based Loz Boz has been dreaming up characters and immortalizing them in art her entire life. Following her passion through school, Boz earned a degree in illustration in 2007. Four years later, she jumped into the world of customizing toys, a gig she balances with a rather envyinducing job at her local comic book store. We hunted down Boz for some rapid-fire questions about all things creative, including her passion for vinyl and love of lagomorphic animals. Note: Boz shares her studio with two rabbits, Cosmo and Percy.

Let’s rewind to the very beginning!

When did you begin creating art, and what was the first medium you worked with?

My earliest memories are from around the age of five. I used to spend ages scribbling animal faces with big, fat round cheeks, using horrible cheap felt tips. I got a reputation as the arty one in my class all the way through school. It was something I was good at that didn’t make me an uncool swat.

My grandfather used to make me put the date on all the pictures I would make, which my child logic hated at the time — ruining my pictures with numbers! — but now I look back and I can see a timeline of my obsessions with swamp monsters and fairies. And when I gave up those nasty felt tips!

Where did the name Loz Boz come from?

It’s what my mum used to call me when I was small and cute.

Being a classically trained artist, would you say you perfected most of your skills in the classroom or outside it?

I got to experiment a lot with materials, techniques, mediums and disciplines, which helped me find my strengths through college and uni, but I think my artistic “education” took place mostly out of school, stylistically.

I lived and went to school in an isolated rural village for 10 years and there wasn’t a lot there artistically beyond the annual old folks watercolor competition at the village fair.

When I went to college in a city, I was suddenly meeting new people, listening to Marilyn Manson, watching weird and gross films, reading Bizarre magazine and going to other cities on weekends, buying comics and funny Clutter 37 | 13

little toys. I’d gained access to all these things that I never knew existed and my brain just fed on them like it had been starved for years.

Are you now pursuing art full-time? If not, what do you get up to when you aren’t creating?

Well, technically speaking, I haven’t gone full-time yet. I can still be found behind the counter of the local comic store half the week.

I’m lucky to have a job that feeds so easily into my artwork; I get to look at toys and comics all day long and it keeps the lights on while I’m working on my own stuff. It means there’s pretty much no such thing as a weekend for me anymore, but I find toy making as relaxing a hobby as any, so it’s cool.

From the moment you dream up a new character to the moment it becomes a tangible, 3D creature, what is your creative process like?

Usually, I’ll get my trademark face down and the rest is just up to whatever is in my head, how I translate the week’s events from a mess of thoughts and ideas into a single little guy who has a story behind him. What elements I’ve taken away from a film I’ve watched, a TV series, an Instagram of a cute animal or whatever. Sometimes, it’s something I’ve been thinking of a long time, other times it just takes shape in my hands.

I rarely ever plan anything out unless I can’t resolve it in my head and I need a few runups. I’m just not that well organized and I’m horribly impatient. I can’t tolerate the wait between having an idea and the finished piece.

I have to just get straight in at the deep end.

Do you ever have ideas that seem great in your mind, but, unfortunately, are not so fantastic once executed? If so, what happens then: Are they resurrected or sent to a toy graveyard?

I am not averse to chucking something in the bin. For me, if it’s fucked, it’s fucked and it goes in the circular filing cabinet. You can spend a long time trying to polish a turd or you can cut your losses and move on while you still have the inclination to bother. Same goes for relationships, cars and cooking.

Say you’re searching for a big jolt of inspiration — where do you turn?

If I ever get stuck, I have amassed quite a library of reference books in my studio. That ranges from weighty tomes of modern character design all the way to hefty compiled works of historical art and fiction.

A personal favorite is an encyclopedia of 14 | Clutter 37

monsters from all over the world. They are described in great detail, but they aren’t pictured. I find it helps me get the creative juices flowing just interpreting something for myself, and making them my own using only a written description. Kinda like how fan art works, but without the legal red tape because they’re just folk tales.

What was it about customizing vinyl that got you so hooked compared to, say, 2D art or creating toys from scratch?

I like that the various toy platforms tie a collection together, but there’s still so much scope to get wacky with your additions to them.

With 2D, you can spend so long on something and people don’t give it a second look. There’s something about 3D that captures attention; there’s that much more to notice on something from 360 degrees. You can touch it, you can move it, you can imagine the world it lives in, you can give it friends, a home, accessories, set it up like you would have when you were a little kid.

Above: “Teddy Tentacles (Blue),” 2015

Clockwise from top-left: “Eidolon (Hanabira),” 2014 “Hakai-o-wata,” 2013 “Ghost of the Narwal (Suzume),” 2014

I’ve made a couple of things from scratch and it’s very challenging to try to think of something that will appeal to people without going off on some wild, inaccessible tangent of your own.

It’s also got to be something that fits in with the other stuff you make. Dang, it’s really hard!

have quite severe depression and I find the stability of a working routine helps to keep me from sinking into dark places. I thrive on having a list of stuff to get done. If I’m left to my own devices, I just seize up and go a bit mad.

When you have time off, which sounds very rare, what do you enjoy doing most?

I guess I would probably spend it doing country walks and petting farm animals.

Anything where I can avoid people and verbal communication is a surefire winner for me. I like to grow plants from seeds and I am pretty good at making silver jewelry. All of these keep the mind from wandering off into grim territory.

Being super boring usually. You can’t even comprehend how much it means to me just to lie in bed! I like to tumble around my house in animal pyjamas, play lots of video games, drink tea and flop around on the floor with my two house bunnies, Cosmo and Percy. I’m not good socially, so any time I have free, I have to spend it indulging my total disdain for the bustle of human life.

It drives my other half a bit mad, but I like to work in total silence; even music feels like an intrusion on my interaction-free personal time.

This makes me sound like a crazed hermit, but I don’t wear tissue boxes on my feet or anything, I swear.

When someone sees one of your works, what do you hope strikes them first?

The story it tells. That sounds incredibly pretentious, doesn’t it?! What I mean is, I want people to look at the details and see just how readily this character would lay down his life for his love of hot dogs, or how that character is best friends with his toy cat.

If you were forced to take a month-long break from art, what would you do to fill up your days and still enjoy them?

That, and the workmanship. I spend long, boring hours refining everything, sanding, finishing and repeating. I don’t do streaky paint jobs or pass off a lazy piece of poo with some longwinded deep and meaningful story. It’s worth it in the end.

I don’t really know if I could, as it’s such an important outlet to blow off a bit of steam. I

If we popped into your studio, what would we find?

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A huge mess. My desk is full of work in progress and empty tea cups, but if you spin around on the hi-tech revolving chair, you’ll see my personal collection of my favorite toys, many shelves of books, toolboxes full of actual tools, but also weird little odds and ends that I’ve saved, thinking, “This would look cool on a toy.” Sketchbooks, sweet wrappers, thousands of rabbit-related knick-knacks and my longsuffering husband-to-be vacuuming up my trails of crumbs and chips of plastic, paint, and bunny hair.

Once the studio visit was done, we’d obviously want to poke around Leeds.

Where would you guide us?

According to local news, Leeds offers a great range of bars and nightlife, places to eat and live music venues. All that’s for young people that can bear each other’s presence, though.

I’m happy in a deserted field, maybe with a cow and a tree, in the rain. Bonus if I have also packed some sandwiches for the outing.

Now, for the million-dollar question: What’s next?

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Personally, if I don’t get out of the city soon, I’ll probably wither up like a hideous human raisin in an ‘80s body horror film, so fingers crossed I will move to literally greener pastures and my output will increase as the peace and quiet unravels my brain. I definitely need a warmer place to do my airbrushing than my trusty but freezing cold WW2 air raid shelter.

Work-wise, I’m planning on more of the same, a better rate of output once I’ve gotten my forthcoming nuptials out of the way and probably some more resin figures of my own.

The dream is to go full-time, illustrating and toy making.

Before I let you get back to your work (and bunnies!), please finish this sentence: Loz Boz is... …ready for another cup of tea, please!

For more information on The Loz Boz, please visit: www.hausofboz.co.uk

Top-left: “Big Fang” and “Little Fang,” both 2014 Top-right: “Tippy’s First Squirt,” 2015 Bottom (left to right): The Horseman series, left to right: “Famine,” “War,” “Death,” and “Plague,” all 2014

CRISIS AVERTED: HOW BOB AFRICA HELPED AVOID DISASTER FOR KIDROBOT

BY MARC DEANGELIS

It’s not a stretch of the imagination to say that the entire designer toy industry would be in hot water if Kidrobot went under following their troubles in 2013 and 2014. Whether you’re a fan or not, it is undeniable that the brand is the backbone of the scene.

While most fans were relieved to hear that the company had been purchased

by NECA, a high-end collectibles business with a great reputation, the story of how and why Kidrobot was sold has not really been clear.

Kidrobot is at its core all about art, but they are a business, and it takes more than artists alone to produce longterm sustainability. That’s where Bob Africa, President of Kidrobot, comes in.

Heading up what’s happening behind the curtains, he is the man behind the veil of a 20-strong team based in Boulder, CO. Clutter Magazine sat down with Bob to reveal what it takes to run an artbased business, the dynamics that put Kidrobot in jeopardy, and how they were able to pull themselves out of a dire situation.

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Bob Africa at Kidrobot HQ.

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I was a vice president of Pearl Izumi (a $100 million cycling company), and oversaw all product creation and product marketing. I’ve also worked at some small design houses, one [in particular] called SidFactor7, which is a product design agency. So I’ve worked with a few different brands, but first and foremost, I’m all about building killer products and building great teams.

A

A lot of people know the names Paul Budnitz and Frank Kozik, but not as many may be familiar with Bob Africa. What does your job as President of Kidrobot entail?

We’re a small crew here, so we all wear a lot of hats. At its highest level, my job is to maintain the vision of the company - bringing art to life - and to stay true to who, and what we are. I focus my time on making sure the team here is really aligned on our shared vision, where we’ve been and where we’re going.

I’m a product and brand guy at heart, so I do spend time working with the creative and marketing team, making sure everything we’re doing is on point. At the same time I work closely with the back of the house: all the finance, operations, logistics, development, and sales. I touch every group on a daily basis, from the vision to the not-so-sexy stuff.

I think a lot of people have this misconception that art and business are diametrically opposed, but you’re an example of someone who comes from both sides. [laughs] Yeah, it’s not all concept cars. We’re not sitting here drawing all day and kicking our feet up. It’s now a well-run, profitable business.

My focus has always been on product creation, design, and development. I don’t draw per se, but I’ve got creative elements in me. I (think I) walk that line of operator and creative quite well. It is key for a brand like this to really understand the artists’ side of things and let that flow, but also be able to walk the other side and make sure that things are run properly and sustainably, so that we can be here tomorrow and a decade from now.

What was your background before Kidrobot?

I’ve always been a brand guy, so I’ve worked with both big and small brands. I worked with Salomon Sports [a skiing, snowboarding, and mountaineering brand]. They had a really cool design center in Colorado, so I worked there for a few years and then worked with them in Europe for a few years where I got a cool global view.

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What attracted you initially to Kidrobot?

I lived in Colorado, so I had known the brand for years and respected it. I had always seen it as a reference with the product creation teams I had worked with. We’d check it out, go to the store in SoHo, and look at it in terms of design aesthetic and how they brought product to market. Then I got a call and was told, “Hey,

“When I looked behind the veil, I realized that there were a few things that were concerning as far as the viability and sustainability of the business...”

Kidrobot is coming to Boulder, Colorado.”

Someone approached me about an opportunity, and I was ready to look for something new, different, and interesting. I loved what the brand was all about from the outside looking in. One thing lead to another and I joined the company.

I sat down with Paul Budnitz and talked to him in depth, got to know him really well, as well as the team that moved out here from New York, which was instrumental in building the new Boulder team. Paul was in the office for the first year or so, so I spent a lot of time with him, which was interesting for sure. I was really able to understand his vision, hear his story, and hearken back to the early days of how the brand came to life.

When it became clear that the brand needed to be sold, what was your role in putting Kidrobot into a sellable state?

I had joined the company to oversee product and marketing, and then transitioned into the presidency a year and a half after. At that point, two private equity groups oversaw the brand. When I walked into the presidency, I was really able to look under the hood and see where the business was, had been, and where it was going. Prior to that, I was a little bit removed from that level of detail.

an major apparel initiative, an e-commerce strategy, and UK and European business. The business wasn’t able to support the necessary infrastructure to keep so many initiatives moving forward, so we had to say “no” and start cutting things out pretty hard.

Kidrobot x The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Collaboration, 2016

When I looked behind the veil, I realized that there were a few things that were concerning as far as the viability and sustainability of the business, so I spent a lot of time with the board of directors, which included those two groups. They had opposing points of view on how the company should grow, at what pace, and how to go about doing so.

With those conflicting views at that highest level, it was clear that it would be difficult to move forward. With this said, they had both invested a significant amount of capital into the company to get the company to the point where it was, and understandably there was fatigue on their side when it came to investing any further. Without go-forward capital, the brand was going to be in a tough situation.

That’s when it became crystal clear there had to be a change.

From the outside looking in, people were saying the brand was crumbling and falling apart. Those were not fun or enjoyable times.

“...it wasn’t enjoyable, but it was all about keeping the brand alive and keeping it as what it was meant to be. It became this real plight for me to keep this piece of pop culture alive.”

We had to make some really difficult but necessary decisions about where this company was headed, and what irons we had to keep in the fire and which ones we had to walk away from to keep it alive, sustainable and moving forward.

There were quite a few different strategies in play that had significant infrastructure around them: flagship retail stores, events calendar,

Again, it wasn’t enjoyable, but it was all about keeping the brand alive and keeping it as what it was meant to be. It became this real plight for me to keep this piece of pop culture alive. It wasn’t about a title. It wasn’t about dollars. It was about the people in the office, all the people that had come before me that helped bring the brand to where it was, all of our amazing customers out there, and all of our fans. It was a matter of the ends justifying the means, and that’s when we said to the board of directors, “OK, if we can’t align on where we’re going and you guys can’t join forces and get behind it” - and no deference to them whatsoever - “we need to make some hard changes to make the company profitable again.”

So there was a decision made to sell the brand.

Myself, and a few others, led the charge by packaging the company and hitting the streets to find the best possible partner. It was our fiduciary responsibility to realize the greatest return on the investor’s investment, but it was also about finding the best home for the brand.

I’ve got more gray hairs because of it than I’d like. It was a wild time. But I had an amazing team around me to help support our efforts.

There was a lot of tension, late nights, tough words, arguments, and blood, sweat, and tears, no doubt about it. It became way more than a job. That’s when it became a way of life.

It wasn’t fun or easy all the time, but looking back now, I can sit here and say it’s really rewarding to see that the brand is alive and thriving. We’re actually hiring people, we’re growing, and we’re doing what we’re meant to do. And that makes it all worth it.

Before the brand was sold to NECA, some were concerned about a possibility of splitting up Kidrobot’s IPs and selling them to different companies, rather than selling the brand and all of its creative assets as a whole. Is there any truth to that?

There were conversations of what made the most sense, and you go through every possible option when you talk about selling a company.

But at the end of the day, that “end” was really about keeping the brand - the IP and the people - in tact so that it could successfully go through a change in ownership, transition, and be reborn. Teasing it apart wasn’t something I was personally interested in.

What was the interest like once Kidrobot was on the market? What types of Clutter 37 | 23

companies were looking to buy the brand before you ultimately landed a deal with NECA? There was a lot of interest from all types of companies, from private equity, to venture capital, to individuals. Interest versus cutting a check are two very different things, and at the end of the day, it came down to just a few groups who were seriously interested. But we ended up partnering with NECA, which was a great choice. It wasn’t my company, so I didn’t have the ultimate call, but I’m very pleased with where we are.

How has your job changed since Kidrobot partnered with NECA? I’m accountable for a lot of the same things, but my day to day has changed. With transition and acquisition, there’s a lot to do and you kind of have to take your eye off what you really want to drive, which for me was building the brand and the team, as well as connecting with the fans.

Now that some of that dust has settled, I’ve been able to get back and focus on the creative, the team, and the brand. So it is different, but it’s way more enjoyable to focus on leadership and making cool shit, versus trying to save something. There’s nothing more enjoyable than taking a vision to reality: talking about a cool idea, seeing that ideate and come to life in 2D, and then launch. That’s cool. We sometimes move fast and forget about how much goes into that, and how much bandwidth and creative horsepower it takes.

I always say that great brands are about great experiences. It’s not just about “pile it high and let it fly” and it’s not just about selling a bunch of products. It’s about continuing to build an awesome lifestyle brand, continuing to be a part of pop culture, and making history.

What do you think put Kidrobot in a rough spot in the first place?

A lot of it was before my time, so when I walked into it, I was like, “Yup, there are definitely some issues here.” And given the leadership and ownership structure, it wasn’t going to be able to continue the way it was.

The brand had been through a lot of leadership changes in a short amount of time. That’s hard on any company. Paul was always a constant, but with so many changes comes multiple directions and a lot of different initiatives put into place, not that any were right or wrong, but the culmination of all of them was just too much for the company to bear and it got bloated.

Frankly, there were way too many employees, too many stores in very expensive locations, 24 | Clutter 37

and the overhead was significant given the business model. A lot of what we do is about selling beautiful, limited edition art pieces, and with that we always say, “We want to produce one too few or have one person left in line” [in order to generate hype], and it’s hard to scale against that. There was a lot going on, and maybe not the best decisions were always made as far as how to balance brand and business.

“...we ended up partnering with NECA, which was a great choice.

It wasn’t my company, so I didn’t have the ultimate call, but I’m very pleased with where we are.”

There’s always a tension there. With a brand like us, you’ve got to really mind that. We like to say, “Yeah man, that’s crazy. Let’s go for it!” but you’ve also got to make sure that you can sustain yourself. We had to get back to what we do well, focus on that, and rebuild.

The decision to bring on Frank Kozik as creative director was a bold choice.

At the time some saw it as a publicity stunt, and didn’t really believe he would be as involved as he has been. Whose decision was it to hire Kozik, and did you go through many options, or was he a clear choice given his history with the company?

General Tso’s Nightmare by Frank kozik, 2016

come to life. It’s fun to see it drop on the web and to see it in stores. I love to go to events like Comic-Con or a signing and being the guy in the corner watching that magic happen, because there is magic to this brand. I’m a bit more behind the scenes here than Paul was, but it’s not about me. It’s about our team, the artists we work with, and the fans.

What projects that you’re currently working on are you most excited about?

Mishka x Kidrobot Dunny Series, 2016

When I joined Kidrobot six years ago, one of the first things I did was hit the road and meet with different artists, visit all the Kidrobot retail locations, meet with employees, attend all the cons, and listen to what people had to say. Frank and Tristan Eaton were the two first stops as far as visiting artists and asking, “What’s working and what’s not”, getting their point of view on the industry, and on Kidrobot.

Since then we’ve worked a lot together, through some great times, and some lean ones. He was definitely very close through all those trying times. He was extremely supportive and always championed the brand.

We were going through some changes with our creative team and we had these discussions

“No one’s going to like everything we do and that’s OK. They shouldn’t because it’s art. We’re psyched about where we’re going.” about if it made sense [to bring Frank on board] given his experience; he’s kind of the godfather of Western vinyl. It was my choice and we didn’t put out a job description as a call for hire, so it wasn’t like I interviewed or met with a lot of people. It really organically happened. “Publicity stunt?” I mean, to each their own, but that was definitely not my intention. It wasn’t about PR. It was about getting the right people in the right seats to do what we needed to do.

That’s like asking who your favorite kid is! We just announced the Andy Warhol Foundation collaboration. That’s something that’s been in the works for quite some time that Frank, myself, and some others have been really driving, so that’s super exciting for us. Andy Warhol is one of the most significant and influential pop artists of our time, meshing his work with Kidrobot’s iconic platforms is a true honor.

The upcoming release of the first 5” Dunny is super exciting, with the first pieces being by Sekure D, and Dolly Oblong’s 5” Dunny will be out a little bit later. Bringing in that new size is cool because it’s an iconic form but with a new price point, so we’re having a lot of fun with that.

We have a big collaboration with Crayola that will launch in a few months, including MUNNY highlighting the custom, DIY side of the brand.

Crayola is synonymous with creativity, so putting our iconic Munny with their iconic tools is exciting.

The Otto Bjornik chess set coming up is a different formula for us. They come in a full set, or a two pack with one piece a windowboxed pawn and one hidden royalty piece, which is amazing.

The MGM movie project is huge. That’s been six-plus years in the works, and continues to gain momentum.

Anything you would like to say to all the fans of Kidrobot?

What’s your favorite part about working with Kidrobot?

We appreciate the continued support from everyone. We’ve had ups and downs, but we’re totally back. Haters will hate; I’ve learned that from day one at Kidrobot. No one’s going to like everything we do and that’s OK. They shouldn’t because it’s art. We’re psyched about where we’re going. There’s some really incredible products in the pipeline, and really cool projects on all fronts. Shoutout to everyone out there, through the good and the bad: We appreciate the support!

It’s definitely the people, both internally and externally. I love interacting with the artists and seeing what might be a sketch or an idea,

For more information on Kidrobot, please visit: www.kidrobot.com Clutter 37 | 25

THE BLANK SHOW A CUSTOM DESIGNER TOY EVENT

July 9th - Aug 5th, 2016 Participating Artist Include: 2Petalrose • Artmymind • Buff Monster • Camilla d'Errico • Charles Rodriguez • Daniel Fleres • Doktor A • Dolly Oblong • Fakir • Huck Gee • J*RYU Jamie Lee Cortez • Jason Freeny • Jenn & Tony Bot Joe Ledbetter • Jon-Paul Kaiser • Jonathan Legarte kaNO • Luke Chueh • MAD • Martin Hsu • Otto Björnik Quiccs • Rsin • Sket-One • Squink • TADO • Malo April Jump Jumper Ant • Frank Montano • Kevin Gosselin Jesse Hernandez • Goreilla & many more...

163 Main Street, Beacon, NY 12508 Tel: (001)212-255-2505 cluttergallery.com

THE HARE & HAT-TRICK

BY NICK CURTIS

When a magician produces something, classically a rabbit, from a seemingly empty top hat, that illusion is called a hat-trick. And artist Peter Kato has performed a hat-trick of his own, producing the wildly popular Bedtime Bunnie figure out of - seemingly - nowhere.

Having been involved in designer toys, one way or another, since near the beginning of the U.S. scene, Kato’s journey is one of trial, tribulation, discovery, and - in the end - magic.

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Above: Resin Bunnie Box heads, 2015.

Opposite: Drafting table display.

Lead us through your journey from an artist on the Apollo Smile comic to resin toy creator…

geek that loves toys & comics [as you do] and that you should be grateful for the attention they give you.

In 1995 I met with the Apollo Smile team, which was an indie multi-media project that covered anime costumed live music, merchandise, and comic books. We had a five-year run, traveled all over the states to conventions, comic book events, and anime expos. We got published, and — in the end — the members of that project are my best friends today.

So how did you get into designer toys?

It was here where I learned some very important lessons that make a difference today in my opinion. Our project motto was “Presentation is Everything” and it went beyond how our products looked or how our booth set up was; it also meant how to treat fans/customers with sincere respect and enthusiasm. It was the reminder that standing across the table from you is the same nerdy

After Team Smile, I landed a job at Toy Tokyo.

I think it was around 2000, and [I] worked there happily for around seven years. During this time, I was definitely more a store manager than an active artist, but I saw the beginnings of the U.S. designer toy scene when Lev [Israel “Lev” Levarek, Toy Tokyo’s owner] brought over some figures from Hong Kong.

Wow. Do you remember the first pieces you saw? What did you think of them at the time?

They were the first Michael Lau figures, from a PARCO exhibition. Actually, Bounty Hunter was one of the first along with Michael Lau that was present in my introduction to this world.

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That was followed by Eric So, and then I was introduced to the blind box phenomenon by Medicom’s first Kubrick series, which was the SWAT series.

These toys were priced much higher and came in lower quantities than other mass produced toys but displayed this original, fresh freedom in design that just could not be denied…

So how did you transition from enjoying designer toys to making them?

My co-workers at the time were actually participating as indie artists going through the struggles of getting recognized. Artists like Healeymade [David Healey] & plushPLAY [Mariangela Tan] were making their original creations, getting into group shows, trying their best to make something happen. Everyone was “doing” what they were passionate for, I myself felt more and more “on the bench,” not really 30 | Clutter 37

knowing how to proceed.

After leaving Toy Tokyo, I fell out of the community for a minute. I remember falling into a rut and not being happy about my position as an artist. Spending nights for hours on the Internet, I came across some toy blog interview with Uamou’s Ayako [Takagi]. They asked her what advice she had for any starting artists. There were three answers, and the last one was “action,” to take action. Win or lose, the commitment to take action and let yourself be a part of the process to either succeed or fail was crucial. I think it was the bit of inspiration I needed to snap out of my rut.

Soon after, I was sharing space at Cortes Studio and beginning my studies into resin casting, hand sculpting, and mold making. I didn’t learn everything at once, I learned every aspect separately over years and a lot of it was self-taught. I took many years to learn and

Computer work space.

Painting station & Twitter bench.

produce my first micro figure series, Pocket Powers.

You mentioned Cortes Studio. What is it exactly and what do you do there?

Lev taught me so much about the retail side of [the] toy business and it was this retail knowledge — the research given to me about what sells and why — that gained the attention of Cortes Studio. Many of the sculptors there were customers of the store and told me Dave Cortes was interested in meeting me. This meeting would again, like my “meetings” before, change the direction of my life.

Cortes Studio is a professional Rapid Prototyping sculpture studio, Dave’s clients include: Marvel, DC, Mezco, Art Asylum, Toybiz, Star Wars, Dark Horse, the list goes on. Myself and one other artist there work on our own, but provide Dave with freelance

assistance in a variety of services. In the beginning, I was more of an extra hand overseeing new interns, but over the years as that changed to hiring freelancers, my services to Dave are less needed. So, primarily, I work mostly on my own stuff.

It seems there was a point that your artistic direction took a major change, would you agree?

There really was a shift. In the beginning, I was excited by the idea of making my versions of toys that I loved. My first line of designs were more or less inspired by actual toys I played with or grew up with. Homages. Turtle Tetsujin was my version of Gigantor (Tetsujin 28), Man-Nie [was] a character from He-Man [aka Masters of the Universe], and many of the Pocket Powers series were Transformers.

I think this was during the time when I was Clutter 37 | 31

first hand-sculpting, so I was trying to make whatever I made somewhat recognizable to see if people would even see what I saw. I think that’s it, I made things in the beginning as characters that would be recognizable, like that one looks like Starscream or Chewbacca. I think this was the time of confidence building for me.

I think your works started feeling more personal around the release of the Mogu-Tank. Was that intentional?

Yes, Mogu-Tank for me was the shift. After a few years of making micro figures, I started to think about improvements in design that I could start applying. I read interviews with my favorite artists, and visited a lot of modern art museums and indie comic book shows, like MoCCA. At one of the shows, this artist had a panel about the silhouette in product design, about how the product’s silhouette should

be powerful and recognizable. I looked at my Uamou figure keychain and realized its design was so well thought out, the natural-ness of it was so pleasing to me that I loved it the first time I saw it. Uamou — Ayako Takagi — is literally my muse in the designer toy world.

I began designing and making figures with this in mind. And I wanted to make very original designs that explored more emotional themes.

I wanted to share something more private, more adorable. It’s a huge side of me that’s always existed, but I wondered if my audience would respond [to it]. Everything I made up until Mogu followed a path that made sense somewhat, like that’s a bad guy robot or that’s a good guy hero. Mogu-Tank was me taking a chance.

A baby-like kaiju that gets driven around like a drill because he’s sleeping all the time? That description alone seems like it doesn’t make

Assorted 4” Bunnie resin casts.

Studio space

sense, but it did to me and I wondered if it would to others. His debut was at NYCC, and they did great. Mogu allowed me to go in this new direction to explore more private, more emotional, more personal ideas and themes.

It didn’t all come together for me personally until one failure opened up inspiration to another design... involving bunny slippers late one night.

Wait, what?!? What failure led the way to the Bedtime Bunnies?

Okay, failure may be a strong word, but the figure that I’m talking about is the Ghost Butler. When I first created him, I literally thought I did it: I’d created that perfect me version silhouette, an Uamou-level original figure design. I showed my studio mates, my besties from Team Smile, and everyone was like, “That’s a winner, Pete!”

When I previewed the figure, everyone on the toy blogs and social media was into the figure, the response was amazing. Emails came in asking when the figure would be available.

When the figure was up in my shop, the visit count to my site was the highest it had ever been. To my surprise, not even one sale happened. Actually, I was totally shocked, “Why didn’t even one figure sell?”.

I was traumatized at the time. It was even tougher because of the positive sales I was having with the Mogu-Tank. It put me in a very emotional and analytical state. For nights I was up really late, drawing different variations of little Totoro-like sleeping fairy creatures. They evolved over the next few days, and started to look like bunnies. They were making me laugh, and then I put bunny slippers on them, and was like ‘wow, these just look really cute!’.

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Opposite (Clockwise from top-left): Custom wall display containing work since 2008.

FrightBite figures, 2011.

Turtle Tetsujin, 2011.

(Middle left) Big bunnie box.

Eti the alien nurse for Cubo NY, 2014, + unreleased figures.

Bunnies by Yoko Furusho for exhibition in Japan, 2014, + Turtle Tetsujin.

MoleTank (including special UAMOU MoleTank, 2013).

Taco Cube figures, 2012.

Below: Drafting table display of Bunnie’s.

That is a truly inspirational story that I think our readers can relate to, and maybe even take a life lesson from. So you made the Bedtime Bunnies and they were a huge success...

(Laughs) The debut weekend, the Bunnies sold out in a day — a first for me!

Building off of the Bedtime Bunnie success, you’ve also done the lovefilled Eye Heart Bunnies and the lying down Sleeptime Bunnies… Do you think you’ll continue to evolve your bunny characters into new forms?

Absolutely, it’s extremely fun to be able to give the Bunnies different forms. And it’s great practice for me as it continues to challenge my skills to make something work each time. I have many ideas I’m working on right now that will be released this year.

Speaking of new forms, this year saw the debut of the vinyl Bedtime Bunnie figure with, well, us! How do you feel about this leap from resin to vinyl?

I am so happy and super excited for this transition & collaboration into vinyl. It’s been a dream, of course, to have one of my figures turned into vinyl, and to have Clutter Magazine as a partner in this adventure is beyond

perfect. I had been approached by other companies that offered to place the Bedtime Bunnie into some form of mass production, but the deals that were offered were in my opinion not fair. And each time I refused because I was able to make the resin batches on my own, in smaller quantities, of course, so I was in no hurry. I found it easy to wait.

Eventually, I figured I would do it myself, but Clutter approached me with so much respect and enthusiasm for the project [that] I was blown away. I still am. Not only was the deal fair and generous, but the ideas you had for the project were completely in sync with mine. The experience from preproduction, to troubleshooting, and everything in-between, right through to holding the actual production piece in my hand has been a blast.

What else can we expect from you in 2016?

I’m hoping to be able to find that sweet spot for more illustrated type of work. I’m starting to get something going with this newspaper comic strip – inspired daily thoughts kind of thing. I just want to be able to share that side of myself this year too.

For more information on Peter Kato, please visit: peterkato.com

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LIFE AFTER DEATH

BY NICK CURTIS

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Texas-based artist SE7EN, also known as RxSeven, has a talent for transforming simple pieces of vinyl into objets d’art, creating wholly new and unique sculptures that explore the fragile relationship between life and death. Adorned with visages of exposed skulls, one can easily mistake his work as a fascination with the macabre, while in truth, he is exploring the afterlife through his artistry. Crossing the thin line that veils what lies beyond this natural world, we enter the universe of creatures created by SE7EN. Opposite Left: “Estrella Amando (Beloved Star)”, 2016

Let’s start with the obvious question: RxSeven or SE7EN? You’ve used both, so which do you prefer and why have the two?

I have always had a crazed fixation with the number 7. I was writing SE7EN before I became active on the internet. When I started using social handles, I had no intention of establishing myself as an artist, or of using SE7EN as an online moniker. I decided to use RxSeven as a play on to my obsession. I took the “Rx” logo from prescription bottles and attached that to Seven. To me it translates to “a dose of seven”. I prefer SE7EN but I still associate with RxSeven.

The first designer toy I laid eyes on was the “Turtle camper” by Jeremy Fish. I was lost in awe and can honestly say ‘it was love at first sight’. Form and aesthetic are what drew me in. The thing I love most about designer toys is seeing the artist’s vision come to life in a three-dimensional form. I guess my approach to creating is somewhat reminiscent of my first

Now that that’s cleared up, who are you and what’s your art background?

I’m weird about letting people know who I am. I like seeing my work stand alone without having to attach a personality to it.

So social media is somewhat of a challenge and it’s currently a work in progress. As for my background in art, I’m self-taught. I was lucky enough to inherit some artistic ability and up until now I’ve been refining my skills in whatever art form I’m involved in. I’ve also taken some courses at a university, but didn’t like where the program was leading me, so I decided to take some time off. During my break, I had the chance to discover what I really love and enjoy doing: sculpting. Right now I plan to return to school with hopes of finishing a BFA in Sculpture.

Right: “Celestial Safari”, 2016

What attracted you to creating designer toys? Especially considering you’ve opted — from the beginning — to radically resculpt the forms rather than straight-up use them as canvases…

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encounter with designer toys. I feel that the abstraction of my creations are perceived better through form, rather than a paint application.

I’ve been translating a lot of my visions on to platforms and creating custom work right now, but I look forward to creating more original work this year.

For your recent Celestial Safari custom Dunnys, you created resin accessories that fit over the vinyl form to change the appearance. What spurred this wonderful idea and do you plan to continue evolving it?

I’m sure everyone at this point knows that casting platform parts is considered “bootlegging.” I get the politics behind it and I know everyone has their own opinion on the subject. To avoid any speculation, I made the decision to create masks and accessories rather

than cast the whole. I personally don’t like working small scale, but this saved me time and sanity. I intend to release two more series this year on the Dunny platform which will incorporate skull masks.

Celestial Chirp, along with the 20” Dunny you did for the DTA Dunny Show 2, incorporated acrylic pegs to make parts seem detached from the whole.

What does this new element in your visual vocabulary mean?

I’ve actually been playing with the concept of floating skulls within my paintings. Most of these painting have sliced fruit beneath the levitating skull. I think organic life is a beautiful contrast to decaying bone. I managed to cross this idea over into my threedimensional work and the outcome is more than I could ask for.

There are quite a few recurring elements in your pieces: keyholes, skulls, stars, exposed innards, three-eyes, etc.

Are you creating your own visual iconography with these? Do they hold special meaning within your artistic vision?

Most of my pieces play loosely with the idea of “Life after death” and I continue to use the juxtaposition between the both. I have a couple of pieces where the skeletal system is emerging from the creature’s body, but if you look closer you can see a story of life continuing through its eyes. With these recurring elements, you can say I’m creating a theme or backstory, a place where these creatures coexist. In

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Above: “Estrella Amado (Beloved star)” Custom Dunny series, 2016 Bottom: “Untitled”, 2015

this universe, I’ve created a character called “Shivers.” I see him as a gatekeeper, one who holds the key to creation.

What draws you to explore the concept of “life after death”? Is this something you believe in or are you just playing with concepts?

From a young age, I’ve always been drawn to the stars. My first panic attack occurred around the age of 9 when I became conscious of the fact that my role in the universe was insignificant compared to the planets and stars up above. Since then my views of this life have been blurred with the idea that life would end here on earth. As far as religion goes, I know that astrology has played a big role in it over the centuries. Subconsciously, I think I’ve applied this idea to my work, and I would like for the subject to be more appealing rather than frightening.

Last year you released your own original designer toy, inHAREted. What inspired you to make this piece? And why has it been almost a year without new versions?

I teamed up with my local vinyl store ATAMA to produce this figure. InHAREted was a great learning experience and a first for a lot of things. This was my first character design

as well as my first time casting and molding.

Everything with this project was handmade and produced in-house. Only 40 are in existence, with some color variations and customs in the wild. Being my first release, I wanted to keep it limited. Currently, I’m working on a second version that fits well with my new body of work.

Great news on the new version of inHAREted! What will differentiate the new version from the older one?

Well, I intend to re-sculpt the figure and give more depth to it. I really want to dive into the concept and incorporate a lot of the elements I’ve been working with lately. The name “inHAREted” still plays within the realm of life after death.

What else can we expect to see from you in the future?

I’ll be leaning away from customizing and pushing more towards original sculptures and paintings. Perhaps a solo show where these mediums can coincide. Oh, and talk of a production piece is up in the air… (Smiles)

For more information on SE7EN, please visit: instagram.com/rxseven

Right: “Ecliptic”, 2015

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BY JOSH KIMBERG

1/6th scale toys have been a source of artistic inspiration ever since GI Joe and Action Man landed on the shores of our bedroom floors in the 1960’s. Fast forward thirty years to 1999 when Michael Lau dropped a bomb on the world with his Gardeners series (99 customized 1/6th scale toys), not only revolutionizing the world of 1/6th scale but almost single handedly creating the designer toy art movement. In the last 25 years since, entire universes of highly detailed, intricately designed, and sought-after collectable 1/6th scale figures have been unleashed.

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A legion of fans, all over the world, crave and covet these 1/6th gems of imagined realities, both grim and beautiful, terrifying and elegant. Discovering the genre can be like walking into an unfathomably complex curio shop of dystopian comic book characters, disaffected sex slaves, mutated science fiction heroes, and soldiers facing the horrors of war.

One of the new kids on the articulated block, 1000toys (pronounced Sen Toys) have thrown down the gauntlet, making some of the most articulated, over the top 1/6th figures ever. Merging Manga sensibilities with a seemingly limitless budget for molds and production, we are seeing a new wave of toys that are making the old guard sit up and take notice.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. I think a lot of our readers are still getting to know your brand so I thought we should start at the beginning, how did 1000toys get its start?

I founded 1000toys in 2012. I am a hardcore threeA fan [threeA is Ashley Wood’s collaborative brand with ThreeZero, a 1/6th scale brand, integral to the scene, who have set the standard of excellence for many

years]. When I flew to Hong Kong for Reventure [a threeA fan event] in 2012, I couldn’t help but notice how Ash and Kim’s eyes seemed lit up with joy because they had the freedom to make toys they believed were the coolest toys in the world.

I took a good look at myself at that moment and saw I was someone in the toy industry who was making products I had no passion for. I asked myself in that moment, “Is this how I want it all to end?”. That’s when

I decided I wanted to make awesome art toys with Japanese artists, just like Ash and Kim. It’s been a long and tough path since then, but I’m enjoying it.

What is the difference between 1000 toys and TOA Heavy Industries?

1000toys is the name of our company, while Toa Heavy Industries is a

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brand that we work on with Tsutomu Nihei-san.

Along with Toa we have Izmojuki, a 1/12 Mecha series brand we work on with Junji Okubo-san.

Our third brand is Kugutu, an original design 1/6 articulated figure series that we are working on with Takeya Takayuki-san.

Where are you from originally?

I was born in the rough side of Tokyo.

To be specific, an area near the famous Asakusa sightseeing district called Sanya, but our side is a rough area full of day laborers who struggle to get by.

Are you personally an artist? What made you want to make toys?

MechatroWeGo

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I’m not an artist, my role is what we call a planner in Japan. In reality though I’m not just planning items, I talk with creators, do promotion, control production and check the QC. In some ways I think I’m involved with everything, as I imagine a movie director would be. For our next project we would be interested in working with a US creator to make a new toy.

received in Japan?

What’s it like to work with Tsutomu Nihei? His work is incredible!

Once the modeling was almost done, we took a look at the CG data together and realized that the face would look sick if we made a human flesh mask for it [like Leather face].

I was a huge fan of Nihei Sensei in high school, so the fact that I’m working with him right now gives me goosebumps. Nihei-Sensei’s work and ideas are always full of originality, even now I get surprised when I see something new from him.

The Synthetic Human is amazing, was that a Tsutomu idea? How was that

My original concept when I asked NIhei-San for a design [of what ended up as the Synthetic Human], was to create a 1/6 base body that would look so good we could sell it as a stand alone character. Then he gave me that awesome design and the rest is history...

For 2016, I’m aiming to release a female version of the Synthetic Human, as well as a large scale motorcycle.

Regarding Japan, even though you can’t buy it here, there’s a famous

Synthetic Human

picture floating around Twitter of the Synthetic Human standing on its toes that still gets retweeted over and over, so I’m pretty sure people liked it.

The 1/6th Anti CaRB Squad Ouma is so sick, what was the inspiration?

The 4 types of the Anti-Carb Unit are categorized by their personal colors - Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. Each comes with a different weapon. Some people guessed it from the colors and weapons, but in my original concept I sent to NiIhei-San, I mentioned the Ninja Turtles as you might guess.

scale, so the designing wasn’t as hard as you might think. The concept when we started the 1/35 was to build a robot toy that would feel like a high class toy car. The concept for the 1/12 was different; we paid extra attention to making it look more like a toy by adjusting the color of the material. We used diecast parts, and had the eyes light up to make it seem more like a real child’s play toy.

Of course, most of the people who will be buying these are adult collectors like me, so I made sure the range of motion was impressive for them [he laughs].

We love the MechatroWego! It has so many points of articulation it’s incredible. Was it very difficult to engineer?

Do you consider how people will display the toys you create in their collection?

We already had the smaller 1/35 version out when we did the 1/12

When you collect toys the inevitable question that comes up is, ‘what do

you do with them when you run out of space’, right? [he laughs]. Since most people end up stacking them around the TV, or on their desks, we figured people would like it if we included a transparent case that would not only hold the toy as packaging, but would allow you to stack them up with minimal use of space.

It’s just a small present from one toy collector (me) to another!

Is Takayuki Takeya your sculptor?

What is like to work with someone with so much experience?

Takeya-san is a freelance sculptor and isn’t a member of my company.

I was only 19 when I first saw his incredible works in his book Angle of the Fisherman. I was really shocked by the work he was doing.

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Until then, to me, the sculpt of a figure was only one of the factors that forms a toy, but I realized it could be heightened to the level of art in the right hands.

Does Izmojuki do all of your modeling?

Are they a studio?

IZMOJUKI is a brand of the creator Okubo Junji, who designs all of the items for it. For the actually designing of the toys, it is done by a toy designing company called T-Rex.

something that will sell”, and I would fight with him over ideas and other things everyday!

It was one of the hardest times in my life to tell the truth, but I learned a lot from it. Now that I’m allowed to freely create new products, I love my life.

I can honestly say I’m happy I left Bandai from the bottom of my heart.

How does the whole team work together?

One question we always ask creators in the US is, do you consider toys art?

I really want to know what you think.

The Japanese perspective seems a little different than the American outlook.

I used to work at one of the companies that were part of the huge Bandai Group in Japan. Back then my boss would tell me “Just make

I’m of the opinion that toys are like Hollywood Movies in that respect and they should be considered composite art. Many pieces need to come

together to form art. In our case the artist creates the character while the sculptor shapes it, and the painter brings the color to it.

At the factory in China a lot of people are involved in making the mold, painting, assembling, as well as doing QC to produce the best product they can make. I oversee each part of this, and I feel my job is to heighten the product to a level that it could be considered a piece of art by our customers.

Do you see the US market as different than the Japanese market?

Funny, but it’s not that I think the US market is different, it’s the fact that I think the Japanese market is so lacking, or to use a better word, [is not] “unique”. That’s one of the

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reason’s that I started 1000toys.

For example, in Japan figures of teenage anime girls sell really well. I mean really well. It seems crazy but that’s the truth.

What are your plans for the US? For our future plans in the US, I can’t give a name yet, but we’re planning another awesome 1/6 series with another famous Japanese Creator. We plan to announce this at SDCC this year, but believe me it’s going to be awesome!

What’s next? We’re so excited to find out what you are planning.

I’m not sure it will be announced by this issue, but just as a hint, we will be releasing a Toa Heavy Industries take on a major US Licensed product that I’m sure will excite our fans!

For more information on 1000 Toys please visit: 1000toys.jp Images by Matt Dorcas.

Synthetic Human

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Whats huge, articulated, lights up, and popular in Japan?

It's the 12� MechatroWeGo!

12 MechatroWeGo Aqua Retail Price: JPY16,000 (Shipping Included) Release Period: July, 2016 Purchase:

m-wego.com/ece To learn more: FB:@wego Instagram: @Mechatro_wego @WeGo

@Mechatro_WeGo

What is MechatroWeGo?

“MechatroWeGo” is a fictional single-seated MECHATROBOT, developed by CHUBU MECHATRONICS, Ltd. Designed by MODERHYTHM/Kazushi Kobayashi it was originally released as a 1/35 scale toy in late 2014 and has already spanned over 20 variations as well as 3 custom displays shows in Japan.

Where to buy?

Versions seen above will be sold at the NSURGO website http://nsurgo.com/ They willl also be available at Wondercon on March 25 to 27, Los Angeles Convention Center!

To learn more please check:

FB: @wego | Instagram: @Mechatro_wego

BEAR IN MIND May 14th - June 3rd 2016

163 MAIN ST, BEACON, NY 12508 T: 212 255 5050 E: INFO@CLUTTERMAGAZINE.COM

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