Who is Jack ?

[A Jack is a creature that keeps the Vinyl Pulse wheels a turnin’. Though he loves sticking the camera in your face he seems to hate attention. Here’s a picture of him in his natural setting.

A few things I know about him are.....

-lightweight boozer

-messy peanut eater

-evil laugh

Like you, the viewers I crave more information about this dude. So let’s tie him to the chair and ask him. – Amanda Visell. ]

Hello sir I will be doing an interview for Amanda Pulse and I was wondering if you would be interested in answering some questions for our viewers.

How long have you been doing Vinyl Pulse?

I started Vinyl Pulse at the end of March '05 so it's been almost  four years now.

Why did you start it?

I started collecting vinyl towards the end of 2004.  I still remember thinking $100 on eBay for Tristan Eaton's Black Voodoo Dunny was insane, but I just couldn't help myself -- way too cool.  So since I'm slightly obsessive I wanted to learn more about the scene, the artists and the toys.  Being geeky I did a few google searches looking for vinyl news sites.  When I didn't find any really, I thought it would be fun to start one.  I would like to say it was purely a hobby back then but it was also an experiment of sorts -- playing with Typepad for blogging and Google Adsense to see if I could cover my hosting fees.

So since you've started you think you've been thinking about toys every single day?

I've never really thought about it that way, but yes I think that's true.  I pretty much do VP 7 days a week, so yeah my days are filled with toys.  It's  rough :)

We're you obsessed with toys before you started Vinyl Pulse?

Not really.  I had my fair share of toys when I was a kid but I didn't really collect them per se.  I didn't really obsess about toys or collectibles really until I saw one of the crazy Tokyo Guns vinyl figures in Import Tuner of all places.

You have a lot of toys, so many you hide them in a secret facility. What do you really like to collect though?

Secret Facility.  You make a storage unit sound so glamorous --- thanks.  I have a few artists that I like to collect -- Tristan Eaton, Itokin Park, and Touma to name some.   I tend to focus on larger toys these days -- mini-figs are hard to display in a way that makes them look appealing.   Kaiju is growing on me -- I like Blobpus.  i figure if you're going to buy monster figures they should creep people out.  I've started collecting Michael Lau (waaaaay behind), and I'm enjoying that.   But really I collect what catches my eye.

Top 3 toys from last year?

• WWR Bertie by Ashley Wood -- sick toy.  a toy nerd's wet dream come to life.  The finger articulation alone was incredible.
• 1:3 Pain by Coarsetoys -- Mark Landwehr's extreme sports aesthetic is great and works really well on the large scale.  Like everything he does, the quality is top notch.
• T9G's Loveless figure -- the spotted animal print one.  Sick.  T9G makes wild figures -- his trademark doll eyes are just plain weird and hey I can respect that.

Top 3 toys you're looking forward to?

     Of the stuff I can safely mention without fear of instant death --

• Ferg's Squadt Line -- love the combination of military 1:6 ish style and designer toy stylings.
• Jeff Soto's Walker -- I know, I know... but hey it could happen,  right ???
• Brandt Peter's Peacemaker 32.9 -- love how it looks like a metal toy.  Just gives me the desire to reach out and play with it -- which is pretty rare these days.

Pet peeve in toy design?

Uh oh.  You're a troublemaker! One I've been thinking about lately has to do with blind-box artist series.  I think it's  really important to make sure that the customer knows who designed the toy they opened.  Some companies make it a point to include collector cards that identify the artist and also list their website.  On the other hand, some blind-box series make it exceedingly hard for someone unfamiliar with an artist to figure out who did the design.  That's a serious no-no in my book since arguably artists do platform mini series to get exposure.

Favorite dog named Horrible?

This is a trick question.  I do dig your dog, Horrible, but Peanut is pretty dope as well.

What are the odds of you eating a vegetable today?

It depends on what your definition of a vegetable is, particularly in terms of portion size.  Even then, not so good.

Thanks for the keys to Vinyl Pulse, I'll lock up when Im done. (editors note: yesterday I heard Jack tell Horrible that he loved him).

Posted by Amanda Visell @ 01:10 PM in Interviews | Permalink  | Comments (0) |