JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

I’m gonna be in Chicago for a bit, and I’m extra-stoked to spend some time at rotofugi, one of the hottest spots for toy geeks on the planet.  They recently redesigned their site, and it’s great for hunting down little vinyl treasures.  Next time your in Chi-town make a point to stop by and peep their gallery, next door.  It’s really rad.  The whole rotofugi program is top notch!

A friend has asked me what am I doing in Cali? Well, Georgina and Shanana, here’s some picts of the warehouse space that I kick it at. More picts will be uploaded of some photoshoots, motorcycles and even airplanes and helicopters!

Working on a product photoshoot for L-R-G clothing. Man, they have a lot of clothes! That rack over there is actually only 1/8th of what they had.

Some retardly wicked toys.

Kelsey Brookes print in the background. Me with Playmobil dude.

2 prints by David Choe in the back.

They have another glass case with more toys like Mr. T, Planet of the Apes 12″ action figures. Do you think I should take more picts?

Toys are at least equally important to grown-ups as they are kids… On Saturday March 8th the Denver creative community rallied to support their own. Dea and Dave Webb(artists, toy collectors and owners of the Plastic Chapel), and Josh and Tran Wills(Super dynamic art & design duo and owners of the Shoppe and the Fabric Lab) compiled their collective creative forces to play host to one helluvah kick frikin’ ass DIY custom toy show. The 3100 block of East Colfax, more commonly known now-a-days as “The Block” was home to a stellar plastic inspired party. With over 120 custom toy entries all 3 shops were fully stocked. Folks of all ages and all sorts were out soaking up the vinyl love and the peeps participating were all mega amp’d. There was way too many artists involved to rattle off a list of names and the subsequent expected urls, so the pics (and they could be better) we’ll have to do. You’ll know who did what upon closer inspection… The Denver art scene is booming with definitive styles now more easily recognized than ever. On behalf of those of us at the Engine, we’d like to thank those who “run the block” for really steppin’ the game up and continuing to provide the creative arena they so wholeheartedly do. Word up to that shit.

Bax Bears are rad!  Series 1 is still available although kinda tough to find.  Hop on over to baxberar.com to get your fix and scope all the pics from the custom Bax parties.  Blank DIY templates and other Bax info is available here.

 We’ve got our designer toy geek back on and subsequently we’re bringing all sorts of cool new goodies into the shop, well, really for us, but there’s some for you too! The latest stash to arrive is pretty great. There’s a few in particular we’ve been waitin’ to see in person for quite a while and we’re stoked. The illuminative Seamour Sheep is awesome!!! He’s a vinyl USB powered LED… too rad. Amanda Visell’s Pink Elephant is vinyl, but looks like a traditional wooden toy. Munky King seems to have really stepped up their production game and it’s cool to see. Our FAVs are most definitely Miu Miu and Di Di by Crazy Label (who also produced Semour). And, we can’t forget about Crazy Label’s Birthday Treeson Box set. Baby Treeson is really cute. We threw a blank “glow” Sqwert in the pic for good measure and a couple of the sample Bax Bear’s Jason from Oso Design House sent over, cuz we’re feelin’ em. Get yur vinyl on!!!

seamoursheep.com | munkyking.com | Crazy Label | baxbear.com

We’ve got all sorts of fresh new toys to ring in the new year and lend to some holiday cheer. There’s a grip more on the way too. Every time the toy scene feels like it’s beginning to stagnate some great ideas are realized and new toys drop like they’re hot. Speaking of which, we’re currently working on a top secret joyengine toy design of our own in collaboration with a soon to be announced toy manufacturer. We’ve got our fingers crossed, and it’s lookin’ good so far. We’ll see… Until confirmation of that project hits, check out some of these little suckers, Carina, Brutino, and the Cactus Pups, toys by Simon Legno, creator of tokidoki, Pete Fowler’s Monsterism 4, Pets and Owners both for Strangeco, Thomas Han’s Pusher’s by Munky King, and the big guy in the back in all his cut and sew puffy vest glory, Mono by Kaching Brands. Stop by and smell the vinyl… trust us, it’s so, so sweet. Shit, stay for a beer and a hug from Mr. Henry. Why not, right?

tokidoki.it | monsterism.net | strangeco.com | munkyking.com | kachingbrands.com

The OSO Design House krew just sent us some Bax Bears. We’re stoked, this our first glimpse of these new toys in person and they’re really well done. We can’t wait to get nasty with the blank and send it back to the folks at OSO…

baxbear.com

Jason Pultz of OSO Design House just got in touch with us. OSO is a Canadian based design studio nestled in the heart of beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. Since 2005, OSO owner and designer Michael Zhu has created 2 unique figurines. The first, a cute round bear named Bax Bear. The other, a maple leaf named Thee. To make these characters more life-like and active he gave them accessories like skis, snowboards and hockey sticks.

Bax Bear and Thee quickly became a 3-dimensional canvas for many well-known artists from around the world. Winson Ma of Brothersfree, Tim Tsui, TOUMART, Camilla d’Errico, Alice Chen, Kei Sawada, Jason Pultz, Wade Baker and Jason Prain joined the design team and together OSO created an excellent Bax Bear Series 1. To let everyone else in on the fun Michael Zhu created an 8″ Do-It-Yourself version of Bax. Seems like we’re gonna start seeing a lot more from OSO on the designer toy front. We hope so, cuz there first series is right on.

baxbear.com

Of all the Kid Robot Dunny Series 4s that have been opened in our shop, Tara McPherson’s is by far the most FRESH. We’ve been waiting to see it in real life. Bailey, our 11 year old neighborhood toy maven came up lucky. JR offered him 6 of his “lesser” series 4s in trade, but the little dude held out. Next up, Huck Gee. When we see that little mischievious bugger we’ll be stoked, well, as stoked as dudes that are way to old to play with toys can get.

kidrobot.com | taramcpherson.com | huckgee.com

Our designer toy heroes over at strangeco just announced the release and subsequent pre-order of some serioulsy nasty-ass new toys by none other than San Fran’s Mario Martinez, aka MARS-1. The “OBSERVER” is back!!! The special edition Observer series features special color schemes designed by street art legends DELTA INC and SEEN.

DELTA INC edition: Hailing from Amsterdam, Boris Tellegen, a.k.a. DELTA INC, is one of the best known and well-respected pioneers of European street writing. His distinctive style incorporates geometry, architcture and three dimensions. Widely influential, Delta’s work is a particular favorite of Observer creator Mars-1.

SEEN edition: By far one of the most widely recognized and influential american street artists, SEEN is often referred to as the godfather of graffiti art. Active since early 1970s, SEEN has painted on New York City subway trains, is a master tattoo artist, an accomplished painter and toy designer. Limited to 400 pieces.

We hope to have both editions in the shop by mid-November. RAD!!!
strangeco.com | mars-1.com

UPSO will pull the curtain back on a new set of work for his solo opening at the house of vinyl…Plastic Chapel. UPSO designed a Series 2 Dunny (+ SDCC GID variant) and has also customized his fair share of vinyl figs. Beyond toys, UPSO has his hands in numerous art related projects including publishing the annual art magazine Faesthetic, managing a ’select’ line of shirts for “Threadless.com” and running a design studio (Studio Sans Nom) with his wife. Finally, he has shown his fine art in several shows including the recent Scion Be Square mini-art tour. I got the chance to meet him earlier today and aside from being a super rad artist, he is also a super nice guy. So if you’re in Denver, definitely go check it on out!

UPSO

We’ve had ‘em for a couple of weeks, but it slipped our minds to announce their arrival. So with no further delay we give you MAD’s Bent World Vandals. They’re sick. They come in new and used. I’m sure you’ve noticed that we don’t sell toys online anymore, but we’re stocked here at the store, so come on down!