Five Points Festival recently wrapped on their third year at the Brooklyn Expo Center. The show put on by Clutter Magazine is a celebration all things indie from designer toys, street art, pins, patches tattoos, and beer.
Many of the artists work across multiple mediums and with different styles. As I mentioned the line between traditional art and designer toys was blurred however as I typically do I’ll be splitting my coverage up based on more traditional companies and artists and their own companies.
Below are some of the amazing designer toy exhibitors that attended Five Points Festival
1000Toys
https://1000toys.jp/Founded in 2012 and based in Japan 1000Toys produces 1/6 scale and 1/12 scale art toys. Their featured products include the “TOA Heavy Industries” line featuring their very popular Synthetic Human. There was a display of products 1/12 scale Synthetic Human in varying skins, MechatroWeGo, Hellboy, as well as their upcoming Robox 2 and 1/12 Zoichi.
Also returning this year was their Toy Showcase exhibiting a slew of popular artists they collaborate with including Desktoy, Mesi Style, Kaori Hinata (Hinatique), Eimi Takano, Yasu (Ebineko-ya), Sushi LA, and Sun-Min Kim and David Horvath
Toy Tokyo
https://www.toytokyo.com/
Toy Tokyo, a store that opened in 2000 in NY and has grown into a mainstay collaborates with some of the hottest talent in the designer toy industry and have gained a reputation as having unique items from Hong Kong and Japan. For Five Points Festival they had a display of truly unique figures
Martian Toys
https://martiantoys.com/
Online designer toy and pop surreal art retailer specializing in one-of-a-kind, custom designer vinyl pieces.
At Five Points Festival they also had the premier of the Designer Toy World Cup with ANA TOY custom show with artists from around the world creating custom one-of-a-kind figures.
Strange Cat Toys
www.strangecattoys.com
Strange Cat Toys is a Designer Toy Shop based out of Tampa, FL providing the latest Urban vinyl toys, Art toys, Customs, Plush toys, and more.
Strange Cat Toys also had a Fractured Bloom custom show with many artists including Tara McPherson, Klav, One-Eyed Girl, Horrible Adorables, Josh Mayhem, and more.
Creeping Death Robot Club
http://www.creepingdeathrobotclub.com/
Original creations and customs by Kevin Derken (klav), Creeping Death was back again this year. You can see his style in the Dunny Show and in the Strange Cat Toys Fractured Bloom show. It’s been interesting to see the evolution in his work from his first year working on kits that he would then customize and paint through now with a much more focus on designer figures.
Josh Mayhem
www.joshmayhem.com
Josh Mayhem a Los Angeles based artist showcased his “Blown Away” series. A process where mass-produced forms are covered in strands of resin and layers of acrylic paint creating a blown drip effect in a wide array of colors.
David Assel’s Creature Clan Collectibles
www.DavidCreatureAsselArt.Blogspot.com
Creating original Monster and Creature Statues, Kits, and Comics. David was on hand at Five Points Festival with a few original pieces including a 12″ Tall Ghostly Bride figure and other original designs Vesper The OtherWorldly, Manta Mutant, and Rockabilly WolfMan.
Bindlewood Shop – Chris Ryniak and Amanda Louise Spayd
https://bindlewood.com/
The official online shop of artists Amanda Louise Spayd and Chris Ryniak. These two have a nice following with their resin figures, Thimblestump blind boxes, enamel pins, art prints, and more. A friend of mine had me stop by their booth to pick up a resin figure and I relly liked the styles and coloring.
Horrible Adorables
http://www.horribleadorables.com/
Home of Textile Designer Jordan Elise and Christopher Lees their faux taxidermy curiosities, feature strange creatures and wonderful wonders! Based out of Ohio the married couple painstakingly arranges felt scale patterns onto hand carved forms. The figures are truly gorgeous pieces of art. While checking them out see their Ballyhoo: A Game of Familiars and Foes beta test game and let them know what you think.
Mecha Zone
www.mechazone.com
David White is a illustrator and designer specializing in the design of robots and mechanical objects like toys. His robots have a designer toy feel but in a robot form. I really liked his Chimera figure and would have considered buying but was sold out by the time I got to his booth mid-day Saturday.
Seed Arts & Housegoth Curiosities
www.seed-arts.com
Aimee Cummings had a wide variety of toy and figure artist designed to be touched and handled. Her pieces act as a companion for emotional or meditative moments. She’s also working on a new doll series Lesser Saints with Saint 00 being the first. Also with a small part of the table Housegoth Curiosities (Mandy Szewczuk) has begun broken out from being Aimee’s assistant and begun sculpting toys of her own. Her Wunder Takers, Mietus and Greetus collecting once-loved but forgotten items.
twelveDot Studios
www.12dotstudio.com
TwelveDot is a graphic designer based in Seoul who loves to create sketches, illustrations, portraits, caricatures, and just plain ol’ drawings and scrawlings. Their May the Troops be with You Stormtrooper APO and Hellfrog pieces really highlight this artists unique style.
All Nighter Productions
http://www.upallnightstudio.com/
Artwork of Erin Rosenzweig, including work for tabletop RPGs, board games, video games, and doll-making/sculpting. Another returning artists to the Five Points Festival I found her resin statues quite interesting and really liked her Bakus figures!
Concrete Jungle Studio
https://concretejunglestudio.com/
An animation, digital sculpture and illustration studio created by Steven Cartoccio [Concrete Jungle and based out of New York Steve creates resin figures based on music artists such as Run The Jewels, Kool Keith and CZARFACE.
Ghost Fox Toys
https://www.instagram.com/ghostfoxtoys/
Michelle Delgado and Gino Ybarra combines the cute and the grotesque to produce unique soft sculpture toys and resin toys. Their Little Chingaso and Doom Bunni of the Apocalypse figures drew me in but I was hooked by the Big Burt Munny Custom.
Assembly Required
https://assembly-required.net/
Assembly Required is a a designer, bootleg and art toy expo in Asheville, NC. On hand at the Five Points Festival the booth had a variety of figures and vinyl toys on display. I really enjoyed the bootleg Star Wars dead squad commander and shellshocked imperial gunner as well as the Saturday Morning Horror Showoffs Don Corleone and Michelorangelo.
James Groman
https://www.instagram.com/jgroman60
James Groman is a Ohio based Sculptor, Illustrator, Toy and Animation Character Designer crating Kaiju and other creatures. Some really fantastic designs.
My Plastic Heart
https://www.myplasticheart.com/
Established in 2004, myplasticheart began as one of the first online shops to focus on the burgeoning designer toy scene. myplasticheart also features a gallery that hosts monthly exhibits showcasing contemporary underground pop and urban artists and illustrators from around the globe. I was really tempted by their Cuppy Fox Series by OKLuna.
The Outer Space Men, LLC
www.theouterspacemen.com
The classic 1960’s sci-fi action figures THE OUTER SPACE MEN have returned! The original line which consisted of 7 figures has grown to 21 as of 2018 thanks to Onell Designs innovative Glyos joint system. With the help of Gary Schaeffer, Mel Birnkrant, and Clutter Studios LLC they are now producing the first ever 12” vinyl OSM characters starting with the 12” Colossus Rex.
Nicky Davis
www.nickydavis.com
Nicky Davis a Houston based artist works across multiple mediums. His customs on display were really cool but I really liked his skateboard deck.
Paradise Toy Land
https://www.paradisetoyland.com/
Based in Taipei Paradise Toy Land has been importing products from Japan, Hong Kong, Europe and the United States including designer toys, fashion dolls, Japanese food, animation, American hero toys, Hong Kong’s 12-inch dolls, and more.
Mighty Jaxx
https://mightyjaxx.rocks/
Based in Singapore, Mighty Jaxx is an award winning design studio specializing in developing art collectibles. Llimited edition collectibles are designed in collaboration with world renowned artists and international brands such as DC Comics, Cartoon Network, MTV, New Balance and more.
Punk Drunkers
http://www.punk-d.com/
“Uncool is Cool”. Punk Drunkers takes pride in their own identity and taste creating items full of originality and surprises. Their items are full of characters and may even bring out your unique personality.
Gallery of Hakaba – HAKABA NO GAROU
hakaba-gallery.jp
Kaiju and other Designer toys from the Gallery of Hakaba
Knave
http://blog.knavebrand.com/
Established in Shinjuku Tokyo in 2005 Knave creates custom designer toys.
