I am a self taught artist out of the U.S.A. I paint and listen to Gorillaz. I love painting and hope my arms never fall off so I can paint forever. I go by two names: “zdenek55″ and “sense”

I am currently working as a full time artist out in the woods of Maine. I split my time between Boston and San Diego. I work with my wife of “maytreeark handbags” in our “floating studio” We recently collaborated and are working on some plush dolls for an upcoming show at Monkeyhouse Toys in L.A.

What is your favourit DIY Toy?
My favorite DIY toy is the 10″ MadL, it is such a cool platform and I tend to like any MadL I see! I also love to customize the DIY Hazel by Kathie Olivas. But it all started with the munny.

Where you get your inspiration from?
I get my inspiration from nature and the people all around me. I am also inspired by all the great artists of the world from architects to musicians. and finally by the drive to be something better everyday.

Since when are you doing Vinyl toys?
I started painting on toys in 2004 when I got my first munny. I haven’t stopped since.

How large is your private Vinyl toy Collection?
My vinyl collection has grown and shrunken often over the years. I love to have new toys but sometimes it gets out of control. I try to just keep what I really love, and for some reason that is alot of Glow in the Dark stuff. I still wish I had my Mr. Bunny by Joe Ledbetter, that was definitely a favorite of mine.

What will be your next Project?
I am expecting a release of my Qee design sometime soon. I am also currently finalizing some sketches on a new figure and hope for a 2010 release.

http://www.zdenekjanda.com

Today we did a Spotvisit at the Hong Kong Designgallery where actualy the Qee Saves the Earth Exhibition takes part. We got some Videoshots from the location. Sorry for the Hiddencam Style but officialy it looks like filming isnot allowed. I saw there as well some new Products of Toy2r like stationary etc. Furthermore i bought 2 Exclusives from this Exhibition one i will set up for a Price to all the followers on our Facebook group.

Date: 2009 November 2 to November 16
Venue: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, “Hong Kong. Design Gallery”

The selected designs will have a chance to be exhibited in various locations around Hong Kong and the first show are now available at HKTDC Design Gallery, the show will carry on in Taiwan December 2009.

These exhibited designs may even be produced as production pieces as part of Toy2r’s 15th Anniversary releases next year. Through this project students will have the chance to apply their design knowledge in a business context as well as learn through integrating design with business through using products, event promotion, and green Marketing.

Raymond Choy, the founder of Toy2R is very supportive of this project and visited the VTC campus on Sept. 25, 2009 to deliver a brief to BDM’s students. Not only is he supportive in their actions but Mr. Choy was pleased to offer scholarship opportunities for the students with the best designs.

Project: ECOQEE saves the World Scholarship:
1st Award Scholarship HK$3,000
2nd Award Scholarship HK$2,000
3rd Award Scholarship HK$1,000
Merit Award Scholarship HK$500 x 8

Favorite DIY Toy:

My favorite platform to work on is actually a Dunny which doesn’t come as a blank toy. I’ve made dozens of Dunny’s and I find that the form lends itself to innumerable modifications and possibilities. In my work I try and bring something new and innovative to every piece I make thus I try and think about the platform in a new way each time and the Dunny has worked out really great for me so far. Though I have yet to tackle one of the many I have, the DIY Bambaboss by 3A is probably my favorite DIY toy right now. It is huge—13 inches—it comes with 3 interchangeable faces and he just has the potential for so many different things. I have several commissions at the moment that are keeping me from starting a Bambaboss.

Where I get inspiration from?

Most of my recent work has been commissions so people have come to me with ideas. This way of working is very familiar to me as a Graphic Designer because this is typically the way work comes to us from large corporate accounts. They basically know exactly what they want and we put our creative spin on it. The way I ended up gaining so much recent interest was I created a series of 3” Dunnys based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles…and that idea came from something that I draw a lot of inspiration from —my life and life experiences. I feel that since no one alive has lived the same life and had the same experiences these differences give us all a unique point of view and thus most peoples work will be inherently different.

Since when have I been doing vinyl toys.

While I was living in NYC from January to March 2006 Kidrobot released their very first Munny and had their very first Munny paint contest. The piece that entered was the very first vinyl toy I ever painted and I still have it displayed at my home. I was living in a room in a share on the Lower East side and didn’t have the space or resources to really attack the piece like I wanted so I painted the whole thing with sharpies and paint pens. My piece didn’t win but ever since I have had a deep rooted interest in customizing vinyl toys. I didn’t do another one until I moved back to Atlanta where in the following year I did Munnysaurus Wrecks and Munny Raptor. I started doing pieces here and there for shows and ever since my Ninja Turtle Dunny’s dropped in March of this year I’ve been super busy with commissions.

How large is my private collection?

I spend a good deal of money on my toy collection. You could say that all the money and more I make painting customs goes into paying for materials and buying more toys. I still collect Dunny’s but mostly because I can use anyone I don’t want as customs, but the majority of what I buy now are from Super 7 and 3A. I love the Zombies put out by Super 7. Not only are the sculpts fantastic but the paint applications and diversity are awesome. The Monster Family pieces are really nice too. And I’ve been collecting the World War Robots from Ashley Wood ever since the first Bertie was released at NYCC in January of 2008. I have several of the 1/6 robots as well as a number of the 1/6 action figure type pieces including Blanc De Plume, Tomorrow King and Boiler Zomb. I sill buy specialty pieces from particular artists and other things from Real x Head, Gargamel and Secret Base… so I guess for the most part I get things that I like and try not to pidgeon hole my collection but I have been tending to lean towards Eastern Vinyl. Ultimately, my collection fills out almost all the free shelving space in our apartment including 2 Detolfs and I still have some things put away in storage. It’s a decent collection but I’ve definitely seen people whose collection makes mine look pathetic.

What is my next project.

I am currently working on bunch of commissions that will probably take me into next year. I’ve been really lucky because based on the work that I’ve done people with similar interests and aesthetics have been coming to me with really great ideas for customs. That’s a great thing about working with other people is you get to work on things that appeal to you but you may have never thought of as a custom. Beyond my commissions I am in the process of trying to put together a collaboration series with another amazing customizer who frequents the Kidrobot Forums. That could be taking shape in the early months of 2010. I am also trying to put together a show that would probably be in March or April of next year at a vinyl shop in Louisville Kentucky called Ultra Pop( HYPERLINK “http://ultra-pop.com/” http://ultra-pop.com/). I’ve got some ideas for a few other Dunny series but right now they’re gonna have to be on the back burner. It is still not for sure, but I hope to be a part of the Discussion Board Artist Series 2 on the Kidrobot Forums. Series 1 is almost a wrap and will be dropping in less than a month and I have a piece in that series so I hope to do Series 2 as well.

Art Toy Industry Inside Report – Michael Kwong Part I
Art Toy Industry Inside Report – Michael Kwong Part II

Thousands of toy fans came out to support real vinyl toys on the streets of NYC today. Thanks to everyone who made it out, we just wish we had more stuff to give away…and that we could do this in more cities!

Update via http://kronikle.kidrobot.com/