Reactor-88’s Custom Corner: Fakir

 

Welcome to Reactor-88's Custom Corner. For the month of April we are highlighting Fakir, a full-time artist based in Paris. Fakir has a range of talents- illustration, character design, painting and of course custom toy making. He has also self-produced his own DIY toy, the Rabbit Qbiq. When I first saw Fakir's customs, I had mistaken them for production pieces. His paint application is super tight- even on the smallest 3-inch Dunny. But paint is only one part of the equation- he has a fantastic range of fun characters that are perfectly suited for each platform he chooses. I really enjoy his work and it was extremely hard just choosing a sampling to show here, so if you'd like to see more, head over to Fakir's website.

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Reactor-88’s Custom Corner: Stuart Witter

Welcome to Reactor-88's Custom Corner. For March I'm featuring the very talented Stuart Witter. Stu hails from London and is a self-proclaimed mercenary artist-engineer- which means he makes whatever cool stuff people want. Some of his clients include Hasbro, Sony Records, WOW toys, and Games Workshop. When it comes to custom toys, he has his own brand called Lowlife which has collaborated with the likes of Jon Burgerman and David Blandy. I first came across Stu's work many years ago during the Kidrobot Mini Munny Mobile contest. His "Batmun" custom took the Best in Show award. I knew at the time he'd be someone to watch, and he hasn't disappointed over the years. From the sculpting to the paint application, each of his figures looks like it's a prototype for a production run. They're ultra-clean and ultra-impressive. I also love the sinister expression that you find on most of his pieces- it's all in the eyes… As a bonus, Stu has graciously given me the exclusive on his newest custom, The Goodnight Panda (above). Stu tells me we'll see more collaborations with UK toy artists from Lowlife soon- I for one can't wait… To keep up with Stu, be sure to like his Facebook page, and to see more of his custom toy work, check out his Flickr photo stream here.

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Reactor-88’s Custom Corner: Grimsheep

Welcome to Reactor-88's Custom Corner. To close out February, I'm featuring one of my favorite custom artists, Owen DeWitt, probably better known as Grimsheep. Owen is a full-time toy artist who also squeezes in a little illustration, painting and web design. He currently resides in Maine by way of Montreal, Canada. I remember seeing Grimsheep's customs a few years back and what initially drew me to them was the line work. I know firsthand how much time and effort it takes to get precise, symmetric shapes and lines with just a paintbrush, so I'm always impressed when I see ultra-clean work like his. Since I'm also a big Star Wars fan, his Stormtrooper customs caught my eye as well. I really liked how he took the iconic character and blended it with his own unique style, as opposed to just rehashing the original design. But Stormtroopers are just a small part of his arsenal- from Woodland Style customs to his bands of animal assassins, Owen has a wide range of designs for everyone's tastes. To see more of Grimsheep’s work, check out his website.

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Reactor-88’s Custom Corner: MAp-MAp

Welcome to the first edition of Reactor-88's Custom Corner. Since I got involved with custom art toys back in late 2005, the art toy landscape has really grown and I'm constantly amazed by some of the custom toys people create. So my goal with this recurring feature is to highlight one artist's stand-out custom toy art. It might be a single piece or a complete body of work.

For this inaugural post, it's the latter. Matthew Platter, aka MAp-MAp is a traditional and digital artist based out of the UK. The first time I saw his work I was blown away. He pairs some really awesome sculpting abilities with excellent use of color to make his characters come to life. Where a lot of toy artists can sometimes go overboard by sculpting a piece beyond recognition, Matthew gets it right- his additions really enhance the original toys and take them to a new level. What's also nice about Matthew's work is that while each piece is very unique, they all have a cohesive feeling and you could imagine them all living together in some strange, far-off world. So if you like his creations as much as I do and want to keep up with him and his work, check out his website.

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