JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

Harlancore and Scorpidio collabed on some dope little paper toys they’re calling Uncanny X-Punx. These little guys are super fun & free for download on their site. Make sure to poke around the site and check out their other rad creations too! Lots of fun stuff for sure. Via Pristina

I was first turned on to the artwork of Ryan Bubnis a couple years ago at our friend Dave Smith’s, inaugural group show at Limited Addiction Gallery.  Lucian picked a piece by Ryan, and we’ve since followed his trajectory in the contemporary art world.  He’s a great artist and seems to have won the respect of some key peeps, as evidenced by his recent release for kidrobot, Heroes and Heartbreakers.  Awesome to see. Grab ‘em while you still can.

Our good buddy Jeremy from ToyCyte dropped us a line regarding this radical art/toy show. Here’s the dealio:

Jailbreak Toys, makers of the Barack Obama Action Figure, will present ART + ACTION = Obama 08 at Toy Tokyo’s gallery: The Showroom NYC on October 17th. Contemporary artists, toy designers and graf writers like Bigfoot, Mars-1, Peat Wollaeger, kaNO, Brin Berliner, Brent Nolasco, Suckadelic and Voltaire are just a handful of the customizers who will go to town on unpainted DIY Obama figures. Billboard bandit and pop surrealist Ron English will also be signing Abraham Obama posters at the show. ToyCyte is the media sponsor of ART + ACTION = Obama 08 and will be posting exclusive news and previews of the customs every day counting down to the event.

The SOFT&FURRY™ show has come down from Plastic Chapel and moved on over to our very own studio/store front.  We’ve also put all of the toys on our online store.  If you didn’t make it to the show, this is a great way to see all the toys (huge thanks to Adam Mattivi for the photos).  These toys are all one of a kind and crafted with love!

Check out the store here.

SOFT&FURRY™ went from nothing to something due to a simple phone call.  We owe a debt of gratitude to Dea Webb and Dave Wendt for ringing us back in April, or maybe it was early May and asking us to show some of our work at their little Plastic Chapel.  It was their interest that inspired this project.

We’d dreamt (as silly as it sounds) of making our own toys since early 2004.  The notion of creating our own canvas and providing it to our friends, both near and far has been one of those little motivators that’s kept us pushing through the rough, not so creative days.  We fully realize that the fruition of S&F™ is a relatively insiginificant accomplishment compared to a great many others, Hilary and Barack for example, but nevertheless the process, most importantly,  will remain forever dear to our twisted little hearts.

An extra-special thanks goes out first and foremost to Kristian Kluver, Mike Dunn, Steven Elmes, Markham Maes, Josh Holland, Shannon Bontakis, Brian Krezel, Joseph Shaeffer, and Scot Lefavor.  For without their continued trust and support we never would’ve completed our strange little quest while at the same time maintaining a vague semblance of sanity and balancing our commercial workload.

Anyone who’s ever been involved in any sort of creative management knows well that wrangling nearly 50 artists/designers for a common goal is no easy feat.  And, it’s these artists and designers from every habitable continent on the globe that made this project a reality.  They’re our real source of inspiration and fuel our passion as creatives, artists, and designers.  We’re truly proud to have provided a platform to highlight their talents and their passions and share them with a great many others.

Those artists include : DeadVolt / deadvoltage.com / DENMARK, DGPH / dgph.com.ar / ARGENTINA, HELLOHIKIMORI / hellohikimori.com / FRANCE, ILK / ilkilkilk.com / FRANCE, Galaxy Bunch / galaxybunch.com / HONG KONG, Morten Andersen / m-andersen.com / DENMARK, StupidLove / stupid-love.com / ARGENTINA, Tilt Design Studio / tiltdesignstudio.com / GERMANY, TOKO / toko.nu / AUSTRALIA, Pulco Mayo / pulcomayo.com / FRANCE, PHU! / phuek.blogspot.com / SINGAPORE, Via Grafik / vgrfk.com / GERMANY, Zeptonn / zeptonn.nl / THE NETHERLANDS, Adam Haynes / stickfort.com / BEND, OR, Celeste Prevost / designis-fine.com / MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Dave Franzese / daveisdrawing.com / BROOKLYN, NY, Dookie-Poo / dookie-poo.com / MONTCLAIR, NJ, Eighthourday / eighthourday.com / MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Grant Gilliland / seegrantdraw.com / SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Mint Condition / iammintcondition.com / MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Lifter Baron / lifterbaron.com / MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Mike HYP / myspace.com/mhyp74 / PORTLAND, OR, Sketchbot / sketchbot.blogspot.com / BROOKLYN, NY, Toothjuice / toothjuice.net / MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Alvin Gregorio / alvingregorio.com / BOULDER, CO, Amanda Marie / artbyam.com / FORT COLLINS, CO, Brian Krezel / briankrezel.com / FORT COLLINS, CO, Chris Ericson / DENVER, CO, Chris McNally / chrismcnally.com / BOULDER, CO, cypher13 / cypher13.com / BOULDER, CO, Dea & Dave / plasticchapel.com / DENVER, CO, Derek Friday / finndustry.blogspot.com / BOULDER, CO, Jason Thielke / jasonthielke.com / DENVER, CO, Joseph Shaeffer / studiojoshephshaeffer.com / BOULDER, CO, Josh Holland / www.josholland.com / BOULDER, CO, Josh Wills / wearesuperordinary.com / DENVER, CO, Kristian Kluver / rocket-fly.com / BOULDER, CO, Magnet Mafia / magnetmafia.com / DENVER, CO, Markham “Shitty Kitten” Maes / shittykitten.com / DENVER, CO, Matthew Doubek / LAFAYETTE, CO, Mike Graves / DENVER, CO, Oscar Woodruff / oscarwoodruff.com / FORT COLLINS, CO, Regan Rosburg / reganrosburg.com / DENVER, CO, Scot Lefavor / scotlefavor.com / DENVER, CO, Shannon Bonatakis / shannonbonatakis.com / BOULDER, CO, Rafa Jenn / rafajenn.com / DENVER, CO, and Ray Young Chu / rayyoungchu.com / WESTMINSTER, CO

Without futher ado… or anymore touchy-feely crap, here’s some pics thanks to Adam Mattivi and Steven Elmes. The super-pro pics are Adam’s… sorry Stevesy - you know we love you:)

Reed and Zach from inkmonstr installing the vinyl and Dave Wendt of Plastic Chapel.

Josh Holland constructed the huge furries for us (there were 3 in total)!

Lucian arranging toys.

Guy with the awesome hair in back is the one and only Oscar Woodruff.

Man in the hat - Dave Smith, owner of Limited Addiction and David B. Smith Gallery.

Markham Maes’ insane diorama he built for DOO.

Hand sewed from StupidLove in Argentina.

Plastic Chapel has everything you need!

Colorado local, Ray Young Chu!  Thriller!

Lucian Foehr, Scot Lefavor and Alex Henry.

Oscar Woodruff’s stunning illustration.

Close up of GROOND.

Close up of LOOFT.

Close up of DOO.

Megan (aka Miz Astrid) and Charlie on the decks!

From Via Grafik in Germany.

The 3 Universal Truths - Hunger, Rest, and Fornication from Dave Franzese.

The cypher13 team.

Making toys!

3 Mythical Beasts by Scot Lefavor.

Dea (back) getting her swerve on.

Left to right: Mike HYP, Amanda Maire and Kristian Kluver.

From Denver local, Mike Graves.

Close up of Markham’s diorama.

Berger and Lefavor, kicking it.

Full house all night!

Markham Maes’ GROOND.

Markham Maes’ insanely detailed mushroom.

Brian Krezel representing Fort Collins.

All three Soft and Furries!

An additional extra-huge thanks goes out to Miz Astrid & Charlie (Lucian’s sister and brother’n'law) for bringin’ the beats to the evening.  You guys are rad!!!

NOTE: Front and back photos of each and every custom (including Josh Holland’s mega-plush) will be up on www.softandfurry.com real soon.

Pics from S&F™ at Dea Webb’s and Dave Wendt’s Plastic Chapel coming later today…

Toy guru, extra-rad guy, and Editor-n-Chief of Toycyte,  Jeremy Brautman recently interviewed us (c13).  He wanted to know a bit more about SOFT&FURRY™ and get some inside cypher beta.  We’re seriously psyched to have been interviewed by Jeremy, and featured on Toycyte alongside so many amazing artists, designers, and brilliant little vinyl, and plastic, and wood, and resin figures.  Toycyte, is where keep our urethane covered little fingers (at least as of late) on the pulse of the toy world.  It’s really wonderful to have some of our stuff up there.

You can read the interview in its entirety here: cypher13 featured on Toycyte

A couple of LOOFT’s made it to Paris over the past two months or so.  But, only one went to HELLOHIKIMORI.  And it was special one… made more special by what just might be our favorite European design team.  We can’t wait to hear all about LOOFT’s adventures in Paris!!!

To round out the S&F™ DIY toy line created exclusively for our toy exhibition at the Plastic Chapel, we’ve added a stash of DIY goodness (along with some help from GROOND) as well as some mystery kits…  They’re cute and fun.  We hope folks like ‘em.  They’ll be in play tomorrow night along with a stash of some of hottest most original customs from all over the golbe - that we’ve ever laid our eyeballs on.  And, yes we’ve got some paint on our eyeballs from laying them on the toys…

Adam Hansel is Deadvolt.  An expat artist/designer residing in Copenhagen, Denmark.  He’s good.  Real good.  He just added a LOOFT to his portfolio.  We’ll show off some of his new work next week.  It’s fresh.

Typical.  Alvin Gregorio produced another beautiful, timely and insightful piece of art.  This go round it his canvas was GROOND, realized as Filipino Warrior King Lapu-Lapu.  Alvin is calling his toy design, “lapu-lapu awaits magellan.”

Here’s what Alvin had to say about his recent work, “Filipino Warrior King Lapu-Lapu, on April 27th of the year 1521, killed the pirate Ferdinand Magellan in the Battle of Mactan. Lapu-Lapu is known as the Philippines’ first National Hero. For me, he is a symbol for the fight against “big business”, which at that time was known as colonialism-in the name of religion. More simply, he is a symbol i use for keeping life close to the root. Word!”

Perfect.

Mike Graves has all three of our S&F™ DIY toys, LOOFT, DOO, and GROOND.  We’ve been super anxious to see what Mike’s been up to, as he’s one of our favorite artists, particularly when it comes to customizing toys.  We just got out first glimpse of GROOND, and the painting that accompanies him.  Frikin’ great shit!!!  Mike kills it.  We can’t wait to see what he comes up with for LOOFT and DOO!!!