November 5th marked the 6th and biggest year of DesignerCon, the world’s premier designer toy (and related ephemera) extravaganza. For 7 hours, artists and toy collectors converged on Pasadena. Words were exchanged, credit cards were swiped and future plans were made. The next day, as quickly as we’d all arrived, we left with junk in our trunks and suitcases swollen in excess of carry-on capacity. Let’s make this a 2-day affair for 2012, yeah?
Oh: I’m trying out a new WordPress plugin that lets me embed multiple photo galleries within a post. I know you guys aren’t crazy about having to sit through slideshows or click tons of thumbnails, but it was the best solution for getting this posted in a timely manner. Seeing as it’s 2:45 AM, maybe that didn’t really pan out. Oh well. Please click the little arrows underneath the pictures, and you’ll see more pictures. DesignerCon was a lot of fun, and I already look forward to returning next year.
Like many people, at the strike of 10AM, I made a beeline for Circus Posterus. (The other popular 10AM destinations seemed to be Lulubell and Paul Kaiju’s booth.) If you think that CP’s tables look a bit bare in these photos, it’s because hands were grabbing and items were disappearing. I had to get in there too so pardon me if my photographic composition is lacking. Circus Posterus collective artists attending DCON included founders Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters as well as Amanda Spayd, Chris Ryniak, Doktor A and newest member Dril One. That’s another reason why we need a second day at DesignerCon, by the way. I didn’t get to see much of Chris or Dok, and I missed the entirety of Dril’s hazing. I hope someone will post it to YouTube soon. Congrats to Dril One on joining CP!
Sergey Safonov may have been the DCON exhibitor who traveled the furthest to get to Pasadena. The Moscow-based designer showcased a table full of new resins, including his first resin mini-series, The Flirps (in green, blue and red). The Flirps were joined by Pillowpina, Gooma and Friends, new mini Lunos, airbrushed Godots and more Moon Wanderers for whom I can’t get enough. (Check out more photos of the releases, and a really cool animated gif, upon which I worked tirelessly, here.) We also had a surprise reveal: Gooma in Boat (Four Seasons). I’ve been working on these with Sergey and MAQET, and it was really exciting to see such a positive response to the prototypes. Expect Plastin Goomas to sail into shore sometime very soon… By the way, if you’re in the Bay Area, Sergey is hanging with me through Wednesday night. Then he’s off to New York for a few days. Get in touch with him if you’re around!
[Begin unsolicited advice] Thinking back to Sergey’s table, I almost want to advise artists who might be reading this post to consider springing for a booth of their own or at least a shared table. It’s nearly impossible to appreciate and differentiate your work when it’s crammed into one of those Detolf cases. And forget photographing it with the glare on that glass. [End unsolicited advice]
Speaking of Plastin, MAQET was all over DesignerCon. I already told you about Sergey Safonov’s upcoming Gooma in Boat. MAQET also appeared in Scott Tolleson‘s booth by way of the recently released trio of Bernies. It was especially cool to see Scott’s Plastin Nosellots alongside his self-produced plush Nosellots. To paraphrase October Toys’ George Gaspar: holding MAQETs is a real gamechanger. I hope lots of people got to pick them up at the convention (and you can also pick them up online here). MAQET’s DCON surprise came in the form of an edition of “sore-bet” mini-Heathrows by Frank Kozik. There were five flavorways (plus a short run of black “DesignerCon is Stupid”) of a smaller, cuter Heathrow. The new hedgehogs were available at the Toypinionated booth and directly from my messenger bag. I drove the unclaimed Heathrows back home with me, and at the time of this sentence, just two excellent green collectibles remain available. Holler at me.
If you stopped by Toypinionated to check out the mini-Heathrows, you would have seen new work from Vanessa Ramirez, Yosiell Lorenzo, Troy Stith and Gary Ham. If Toypinionated was a musical, Matt Hisey would be Daddy Warbucks and Vanessa, Yosiell Troy and Gary were the orphans getting a seven-hour reprieve from their otherwise hard-knock lives. Check out the photos to see their new customs, resins and colorways, and then visit their online shops to see what’s still available. And hit up Toypinionated to see the new Yosiell Lorenzo logo that The Sucklord called “smug”. Maybe Matt will notice a spike in his traffic and write us a new post.
Wisconsin-based sculptor Scott Wilkowski had some of the most talked about releases of DesignerCon with his Skin Deep resins. Scott re-cast toys by Frank Kozik, The Sucklord, Luke Chueh, Scott Tolleson, October Toys and Buff Monster; then subtracted from the model until he achieved the skeletal structure. The results look like fossils: fabulous, wonderful toy art fossils. If you weren’t able to pick up a skeletal Labbit, Sucklord, Possessed, Otis and Otto, Gwin or Buff, you can try to get on the list for when Skin Deep travels down to Lulubell Toy Bodega on December 9th and then up to Screaming Sky Gallery on February 23rd (2012).
Click through for more pictures (and just a few words) of various DesignerCon delights.
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