Designer Toys
Designer toys are made in very limited quantities by artists and designers. They are often made of plastic or vinyl or resin, in small runs of different color variants. They can be painted by the artist who designed them, or by another customizer, or not at all.
Custom bunny suit for PaulKaiju mixed part Mr. REE, 2015.
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Custom PaulKaiju Patsy Batsy, 2011.
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Custom PaulKaiju Vanilla x Smoke Mr. Ree, 2015.
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Paul Kaiju X Melancholy Kitties collaboration, FluffBun Mr. REE, 2015.
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FluffBun REE was an edition of 15, on one of three suit colors: pink, white, and pastel swirl.
Packaging design for FluffBun REE, 2015.
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Vinyl Blanks
These vinyl toys are mass produced and sold blank, as they are meant to be customized. I like to dress mine as well.
Custom Frankenstein Creatology blank, 2012.
Custom bat Creatology blank, 2012.
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Monster Mansion
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While not your typical toy customization, the Monster Mansion is a project I took on which combined just about all of my loves and remains one of my favorite projects to date. My son Gideon and I have a tradition of watching Mad Monster Party? around Halloween and one of our favorite things about it is all of the monsters getting together in one place. All the best movies are about monsters getting together! Even though I love dollhouses and Gideon didn't, I realized that a haunted house full of monsters would be amazing for *both* of us. We had a small collection of Mezco Monster Mez-Itz that we really liked, and I noticed that they were in scale with Playmobil toys (very roughly 1:24 or half scale). I thought immediately of a toy I have long coveted: the Playmobil Grande Mansion. Though no longer being produced, I found a Grande Mansion (5300) secondhand and set about completely customizing it since it was far too bright and cheery to house monsters. |
I painted and re wallpapered every interior and exterior wall. I painted on wood floors and antiqued every last inch of everything. We used a combination of Playmobil, Sylvanian Families (or Calico Critters), and other miniature things to furnish the house. Again, I aged everything. We cut the head off of a toy moose and mounted it on a wall.
We have made it a new Halloween tradition to add something new to the house. This year, I added some vintage Renwal Furniture and a boar head. I have happily discovered that Re-Ment's Pose Skeletons are perfectly in scale the house and a family of them reside there now, too.
We have made it a new Halloween tradition to add something new to the house. This year, I added some vintage Renwal Furniture and a boar head. I have happily discovered that Re-Ment's Pose Skeletons are perfectly in scale the house and a family of them reside there now, too.
Monster House interior, 2010.
Monster house exterior, 2010.
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There are more pictures of the Monster Mansion in My Flickr Album.