Top 10 Toy Designers by Paola Mendez
Summary / introduction
In the summer months toy designers are busy showcasing their designs for the upcoming season. The toy community is inundated by previews and prototypes revealing this year’s slate of new releases. As we experience this influx in toy prototypes it becomes hard to sift through all the releases to find high-quality fresh designs.
As we celebrate Netdiver’s 10 year anniversary, consider these 10 designers. With such an array of different styles and diverse talent, surely there is something for everyone.
Julie West
Review: Julie West 
is an amazing illustrator/artist from the UK. Her work frequently
appears in art exhibitions worldwide. She brilliantly adapts her style
to any platform, customizing and designing production toys including
MADLs, Kanizas, Munnys, Teddy Troops and many more.
Her style is colorful, cute, clean and sharp. Enjoy in awe!
Veggiesomething
Review: Veggiesomething
is the creator of the toy line: House Of Liu – Protect & Destroy.
These modern ninjas, shaolin monks and emperors will melt your heart
into submission. They have round, simple and bold features and an
aggressive stance ready to fight. These characters have a complex,
historically based, back story taking place during the Qing Dynasty.
Tim Tsui
Review: Tim Tsui
is a Hong Kong toy designer, illustrator and creator of Da Team Bronx.
Da Team Bronx is a series of vinyl, ape-like figures with a graffiti
element. His designs have sharp facial features, and tend to include
interchangeable accessories, giving you the ability to modify them to
your preferred personal taste.
Colorblok
Review: Juliana Pedemonte, also known as Colorblok 
is an Argentinean designer dedicated to creating motion graphics,
illustrations, designer toys and cool products. Her vinyl toy, Mono, has
been customized by renowned artists worldwide including Tim Tsui, Buff
Moster, and French artist Skwak.
Her style is bright, whimsical and uses simple shapes to create incredible details.
Patricio Oliver
Review: Argentinean artist, Patricio Oliver
is the designer behind kidrobot’s recent 8 inch Zombie Dunny. He has
also developed Ci-Boys for toy maker Red Magic and has his own line of
toys in the works. As a toy designer, Patricio has a range of different
styles.
For his latest figure, Priotcia Levori, he combines an antique look
with a modern concept. Priotcia wears a Victorian suit with a bowler hat
and has several versions including the Clockwork-Orange edition.
Tokidoki
Review: The exploding brand known as Tokidoki was created by
Italian designer Simone Legno. His LeSportsac bag designs always
include toy charms such as qees or his original character Adios. His
extremely cute collage style has been embraced and can be seen not only
in toys, but products such as MAC make up, soccer balls, flash drives,
jewelry and so much more.
His original line of toys was the Cactus Friends. These were adorable
characters dressed in Cactus suits with colorful pricks including the
famous Bastardino and newer designs Carina, Bruttino & Polpettina.
To peek into the Tokidoki empire visit his online store.
Kathie Olivas
Review: Kathie Olivas
is an artist from Tampa, Florida. She portrays innocent youth in
horrific situations with zippers as mouths and tentacles as legs which
she calls Misery Children. Kathie became known for vintage customs of
her characters. Her style is a well executed blend of
antique-meets-mutated, retro and creepy.
Her first mini series, The Scavengers, was hailed as one of the best
mini series of 2008 due to its perfect lines, sharp paint job, intricate
packaging and original sculpts. To see more of her works go to the Misery Children website.
Peskimo
Review: Peskimo is
illustrators David & Jodie from the UK. Peskimo have made a career
of bringing their happy, colorful Monsters to life. They illustrate,
animate and make toys of their adorable monster catalog.
Earlier this year, they released their mini figure series BambooZoos
and have an original vinyl figure in the works called Monster Burp.
Luke Chueh
Review: Luke Chueh
designed the most sought after toy of 2007: Possessed. Possessed is a
white bear with bloody hands, controlled by a hovering devil, who
controls the bear via a joystick plugged to the bear’s head. His toys
translate from his paintings retaining the same feeling of bittersweet
characters in situations of misfortune.
He uses few, dark colors for backgrounds and bright endearing personas at the forefront.
Mars-1
Review: Mario Martinez, a.k.a Mars-1
is a San Francisco based artist and sculptor. His work resembles sci-fi
aliens and landscapes lingering in a dreamy surreal aesthetic. His toys
tend to be extraterrestrial with numerous minute details as seen in his
Invisible Plan mini series or his latest life sized bronze sculptures.
Netdiver asked all fab scouts to answer same 3 questions..
#1 – Biggest hurdle overcomed?
Balancing all the craziness that comes with having a full time job and owning a store.
_______
#2 – Greatest moment?
Pinkghost’s 1 year anniversary festival was so gratifying! We saw all
our local supporters come out and celebrate our achievement with live
bands, an art show opening and good old fun.
_______
#3 – What next?
Keep a look out for pinkghost brand products coming out soon.
artwork / PinkGhost logo
Biography
Paola Mendez is the owner of designer toy store/gallery PinkGhost in Ft.Lauderdale, Florida which carries designer toys, books, art and apparel. She curates art shows at pinkghost once a month, promotes local
artists, does computer programming on the side and spends her spare time
making polymer sculptures.
-> next scout
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