Toy OTD: Mindstyle, Cameron Tiede 13 Tomadachi Figures: Edgar, Oswald, Agatha

It's so great to see a new design aesthetic emerge in the world of art toys - granted, these figures debuted two years ago, but Cameron Tiede's style still feels fresh and new! He had the good sense to team up with Mindstyle, one of the best in the designer toy game. The results are really special!

The sculptor did a wonderful job of bringing Mr. Tiede's very flat graphics into three dimensions. The chunky shapes are drawn into bold relief, and emphasized still further with color - faux highlights and cast shadows both create more dimension, yet also call back to the 2-D feel of the source art. The colors are appealing and true to Mr. Tiede's palette. Parts are separated along color lines for easy assembly, and to make the overall figure even richer in dimension.

The paint work is a skillful blend of large paint areas, dyed vinyl and smaller apps, creating a striking effect. There's some bleed-over here and there, but nothing too significant.

The characters are good choices for vinyl figure work - all of them have sufficiently low centers of gravity to minimize balance problems (display bases really aren't needed here!). I do recall that at least one piece was broken off upon opening the box, but in general the toys ship well with minimal damage.

The packaging is sturdy and quite attractive - you'll be tempted to keep (or re-purpose) the brightly-decorated drums that protect each figure. If not, they're made of cardboard, so at least they recycle easily.

These toys had a pretty small run - only three hundred of each! It looks like you can still get them (including the dog Roofus, which I decided to pass on) here at artoyz.com for €39.90 each. Good luck!

Photos From Vinyl Toy Network

I've been meaning to post these pictures for a while. Sorry for the delay...

(above) The door of mystery! I was a little disappointed in the size of the show, but to be fair, this is only its second year. There was enough that I wanted to buy as it was, though there wasn't any debuts or show exclusives that I recall.


The line wasn't too bad, though the show did open late. I did manage to get the goodie bag that I got up at 5:30 in the morning / flew into Burbank as early as I could stand to get. Ironically, I didn't want to keep most of the freebies, and wound up giving most of it away. Having to take everything you get at the show back on the plane (in your two permissible carry-ons) kept me from getting too crazy!


Lots of technology in line - not very surprising, really. If they've got money for designer toys, they're probably going to have gadgetry as well!


I think this is Michelle Valigura, who, along with Amanda Visell, comprise Switcheroo, an art/product company. Amanda made the hand-made Dragon Scout figure that I bought. Pricey, but it's closer to buying a drawing or a painting than a toy. Plus it's a great piece, of course!

UPDATE (10/24/08): Whoops! This isn't Ms. Valigura - it's Sarah Jo Marks, film distributor and wife of toy distributor Dov Kelemer. Pidgeonblog regrets the error.


The Strangeco table. I picked up the Ningyo Project Gosho figure (the traditional version) there. It looks awesome!


The Cardboard Spaceship table had a great selection of toys. I picked up the Mr. Capman Kanser figure there, which I'd been meaning to get for a while.


These are great mini-figures that had come out just recently, so I bought a few. In classic blind-box fashion, I didn't get any of my favorites. Oh, well!


Not surprisingly, Tim Biskup's Flopdoodle online store had a table there. His stuff is terrific, but I didn't buy any of it this time.


More friendly toy salsemen, more than happy to take my money. Not this time!


Cameron Tiede made an appearance, which was a nice surprise! His wife and I chatted while he drew my friend Brian a picture. I can't wait for Cameron's toys!


I bought a nice monochrome Booska & Chamegon vinyl figure set from the table right next to this one. The picture of that booth didn't come out, so this one'll have to do.


There were artier toy makers there, too, some working in other media.


Some people sold clothing and art prints as well.


All in all, it was a good show, and I had fun! Still, I don't know if I'll drop the cash for a round trip plane ticket again just for the event. If I can work it into a weekend trip, though, that'd be worth doing. Yay, toys!