Interview: Jim Crawford of STRANGEco



L to R: Gregory Blum and Jim Crawford – STRANGEco Co-Founders

STRANGEco is one of the premier producers and distributors of designer toys.  They distribute toys from some of the top artists in the game including Pete Fowler and James Jarvis to name just a few and continue to produce amazing products including the forthcoming Minitreehouse vinyls from Nathan Jurevicius.   At this past Toy Fair in New York City we had a chance to sit down with Jim Crawford who along with Gregory Blum co-founded STRANGEco to discuss the company’s origins, its approach to creating toys and his take on what the future holds.

So let’s start of with the beginning of STRANGEco.  Who you formed it with, what the idea was, what you guys were doing right before the business.

Gregory Blum and I started STRANGEco at the end of 2002, but had been friends for many years before then – since our days in the dorms at UC Santa Cruz, actually. We had both been doing various things throughout the 90s, and then wound up living in New York at the same time in the mid 1990s. By 1999 we had both moved back to San Francisco and ended up working together at an online niche consumer electronics retailer whose product was a staple for musicians and journalists.



Shikito by Superdeux

In 2000, Gregory stumbled upon an article about Michael Lau and was intrigued enough to research what little information existed on the web at that time. While collecting Lau’s early vinyls on eBay, he became aware of the larger “HK Vinyl” scene (as it was often called then) and many of the artists both inside and outside of Hong Kong that became associated with it. He introduced us all to this odd hybrid of art and toys, which ultimately led to working on the Kidrobot website as a complimentary online retail shop to the one we were already operating.

In late 2002 the two of us struck out on our own, with the intention of moving away from retail and into product development and distribution. Since then we have produced over 50 figures and have distributed a ton of others. We’ve also had a strong focus on promoting the market here in the U.S., through our website, writing for magazines, developing special events like The Cultyard and working on book projects.

Was it a challenge to grow awareness of designer toys in the West?



Naal Night Edition by Nathan Jurevicius

It was a challenge, but not in a bad way. We had a lot of energy. There was no real information in English at that time, apart from Ningyoushi’s message board and little bits on websites here and there. So, while we were working on our first vinyl production (Dorbel by Jim Woodring) and our first distribution deal (the original Minitreehouse mini figures by Nathan Jurevicius), we decided to try and fill that gap by developing an English-language website with news and info about this whole phenomenon. We figured that all the work would ultimately help us build awareness of our company, as well as the small but growing market in general. As a result we ended up getting to know just about everyone that was involved in Designer Toys at that time. Gregory and I did the writing, Gregory took the photos and Antoinette Celes, a very talented artist and designer who worked with us in the early days, created the website design. All of this seemed to come at the right time and was super fun.

We were also very fortunate to make great connections with the editors of Playground Magazine, an insert in Hong Kong’s weekly lifestyle magazine Milk. Playground focused specifically on Hong Kong and Japanese fashion toys (as they were often referred to), and they gave us permission to host regular content from the magazine on our website. Every week or two we would post an update with what was new and hot overseas. It’s a cool resource that’s all still up on our website — I’ll occasionally look through it and be amazed at how much info is there.



Dero by Jermaine Rogers

So people were hungry for the news, it was a matter of gathering it and presenting it in English?

Right and it was also really early.  It took a lot of explaining to describe exactly what was happening.

Is it hard to manage the balance between the distribution aspect and the production aspect of STRANGEco?

At times – on the one hand it’s very satisfying to have the STRANGEco logo on a package, but on the other we have the opportunity to work with some truly amazing people and be a part of getting their products out. Our solution has been to try to take on companies and artists whose design we totally love so we can represent their products as if they were our own.



MARS-1 Figure

Which of the toys are distributed by STRANGEco as opposed to being produced directly by STRANGEco?

We’ve actually had a hand in producing most of the products that
we’ve sold. We’ve made figures by Bigfoot, Jeremy Fish, Sam Flores,
Friends With You, Nathan Jurevicius, MARS-1, Rocket World, Jermaine
Rogers, tokidoki and Jim Woodring, plus the Mini Circus Punks and The
Neo Kaiju Project. These are all projects that have already been
released; we have more in the hopper for sure.

As far as distribution, Amos Novelties, Friends With You, Rocket
World and Playbeast are our major lines. We also look after Clutter,
Hi-Fructose and Play Times Magazines and have distributed products for
Flying Cat, Burnco, Red Magic, Headlock Studio, Wonderwall, Presspop
and Three Zero. I’m sure that there are a few I’m forgetting in here,
too.




STRANGEco  in the Lower Haight (SF)

Are any of those distribution arrangements exclusive to STRANGEco?

Nearly all. It is certainly easier to work exclusively, and we have focused our distribution lines quite a bit over the past year. It makes a lot more sense for us to be less of a smorgasbord. I think we’ve generally done a pretty good job of selecting toys to distribute that fit with our overall aesthetic. Even with these disparate artists and styles, I think it all works in a collective sense.

STRANGEco
introduced the new Minitreehouse vinyls at Toy Fair.   As a unique
twist they each have two “modes”. Can you tell us more about them?

Let’s take the first figure, Naal, as an example. Naal comes with over a dozen pieces, so he can be transformed into two different outfits: Action Hero and Mushroom Lover. He also comes in multiple colorways – green, red and a rare "Night edition" – but each figure comes with all the accessories for transforming it from one mode into the alter-ego one. Bennzi, Seoop, Arkski and Heenie will also have have 2 modes like Naal.

This is a bit of an over-generalization, but you can almost think of the Minitreehouse series as channeling Mr. Potato Head for the art toy crowd. We’re really quite happy with how they turned out. It’s also been great working with Nathan. He’s the sweetest guy in the world.



Minitreehouse Series by Nathan Jurevicius


How would you describe the toys you sell and the business you’re in to someone who wasn’t familiar with it?

Artist based toys, usually done in limited editions… but not always. In terms of art direction, they have really strong character designs, created by artists from other mediums. Not based on an entertainment property. The character exists on its own. It’s a toy, it’s art, it’s affordable, limited edition sculpture. It’s taking a 2d object and turning it into something that has a 3d live of its own. I don’t know if that’s much of a summary (laughs). I probably sound totally crazy.

It’s a hard thing to describe.

It is, and it’s hard to explain without sounding like a complete freak. My other pat phrase is that the means of production are now in the hands of artists and companies to create cool objects from their own particular vision. I’ll throw that one in there on occasion, too.



Mr. Bumper from Jim Woodring

You mentioned that you were a fan of Woodring for a long time.
How do you decide which artists to work with in terms of producing
their toys. Do you go with who you like, who strikes your fancy? Do you
get a lot of submissions?

Gregory actually introduced me to Jim Woodring’s Frank comics more
than 10 years ago, so it was head-spinning for both of us to actually
be working with him.

In general, our special mojo for choosing projects is all based on
how we identify with the artist’s work. It runs the gamut, from
established artists to relatively new and emerging ones. I hope our
decisions remain as anti-corporate/market research driven as they have
been, because it seems a lot more fun this way.

And we receive a lot of submissions – a dozen or more a week these
days. We’re not as fast at replying as we used to be, because the
deluge is pretty incredible. But we do try to at least look at
everything that gets submitted.

Have you ever produced something that was based on a submission?

Superdeux, Dean Bradley and tokidoki contacted us directly. How awesome is that?



Turtlecamper by Jeremy Fish

In producing these toys, do you and Gregory have a lot of artistic input in terms of the look and feel of the product?

Our main goal with each  project is to  best realize an artist’s vision (usually 2D) in a 3-dimensional plastic form.  A lot of our "art direction" lies in our evaluating and selecting pieces by a particular artist. Once we begin development, our involvement varies considerably from project to project, largely depending on the nature of the art as well as the extent of the artist’s vision.   We will make artistic suggestions  if we come up with a clever idea or feel a change could enhance the design, but we are mindful of not compromising the original spirit of the source material.At the end of the day, however, the primary concern is always the practical:  the need to keep a balance between the vision and physical reality.  Take Dean Bradley’s Mainframe toy for example.  If you’ve seen Dean’s original art, it’s a computer that got up and started walking.  Being able to make the limbs wirey to convey the feeling of a living computer  is something that Gregory was able to put together by consulting with the engineers at our factory together. He worked with Dean to  stay true to the art while at the same time ensuring that it was a functioning toy that stands, that operates, that’s poseable, and that looks good.

For the Mainframe toy, did you arrange for a sculptor for Dean or did he do that himself?

No, we arranged for the sculptor. We frequently work with Brin
Berliner, a local San Francisco sculptor and all around rocking
character. He’s done a number of projects for us, most recently the
Invisible Plan series by MARS-1. Because he’s based in San Francisco,
it can make the communication a lot easier.



Mainframe by Dean Bradley

What’s been the biggest challenge or surprise in running STRANGEco?

I knew it was going to be a lot of work.  (laughs) That wasn’t a surprise. But damn – we work hard!

You
had a clear vision of where you wanted to take STRANGEco but over the
years has there been a moment where you needed to change directions or
focus from the original plan?

We’ve seemed to hold our course pretty well, but I’d say the biggest changes have revolved around balancing the content portion of our website, having regularly updated news and info, with the growing demands of building the distribution network. There have been a lot of challenges in terms of how to match these up. Our "Features" section has been moving at a snail’s pace, but we hope to have it moving faster in the next couple of months.

It’s also a challenge to say no to really good ideas that we can’t take on because of our busy schedule. But sometimes we do have to turn things down. And as we go along, it’s becoming increasingly more important to consider how to make this stuff appealing to boutique toy stores as well as a lot of other markets – as a lifestyle product. It’s all about finding the right balance.



IWG Rocketship Playset

You mentioned it’s a challenge catering to multiple markets – the collector and maybe a slightly more mainstream audience?

It is. We’re trying to serve our core audience of collectors with really special things, while at the same time trying to create innovative products, with much more going on creatively than a licensed entertainment tie-in, that can appeal to a broader market. It’s hard for me to imagine STRANGEco being Marvel or anything like that, but I’d love to see these great designs grow bigger than the current niche. Things are growing, too. There’s considerably more interest than when we started out.

That leads me to a question that we often ask.  How do you feel
about limited editions?  How important are limited runs to what you do
and to the future of what designer/art toys will become?

It’s going to continue to be important, even as the growing market changes its dynamics. We will always offer limited-edition products; there’s a lot more freedom is to make what you really think is cool that way, and collectors like low runs.



Invisible Plan figures from MARS-1 (rust colorway)

At the same time, we’re also working on products in larger edition sizes but with the same emphasis on aesthetic. I don’t believe that this is a mutually exclusive concept for collectors and, at the end of the day, I hope that if people like what we offer, that they’ll want it no matter how many were made.
"Limited Edition" is all relative, too – in terms of toy manufacturing, production sizes of of 1,000, 2,000 or even 5,000 are screamingly small.

Would it be fair to say that as a trend, you see edition sizes getting bigger?

Yes, overall. Multiple color variations can make a larger run look smaller, too – 200 of this color, 700 of that, etc. I think it’s funny when it gets really detailed, like "come get this special color variant, only sold under redwood trees when the sun shines in just this way". I exaggerate, but you know what I mean.



  Jim Woodring’s Dorbel (poster by Rick Altergott)

Out of all the toys that you’ve distributed or produced, is there one toy that’s like your baby? That stands out for you?

Personally there are several toys that are special to me. We have a
really strong relationship with MARS-1 and we love Mario.  I love the
Observer.  I think it’s really a great product. 

Then there’s Dorbel.  Dorbel is special to me because it was our
first product.  It was very rewarding to see it go from an idea to a
technical drawing to all of the different stages and then finally to
have it in our hands.  It seems to me that over the course of the past
six months there’s been a real resurgence of interest in the Dorbel.
The continued popularity is amazing for us. We  feel we did a really
good job with it.

Another pet question:  Where do you see designer/art toys/this whole niche industry being in say two years?

I think it’s going to continue to get bigger.  With the successes of
a handful of companies and with the rise in youth culture there’s
likely to be increased interest from mainstream oriented media
outlets,  larger chain stores and similar venues which should translate
into some additional growth.  As a result,  there’s going to be a lot
more product on the market.  Collectors are going to need to be a lot
more discerning because there’s going to be so much more to choose
from.  Retailers are also going to need to choose product carefully as
well because there will be so many different kinds of companies
soliciting products to them.



HATE Mini Circus Punks by Peter Bagge

Demand might end up plateauing in the near future.  I anticipate
more interest in ancillary products such as books and art prints
particularly from boutique outlets and the hard-core collectors.  As an
overall driving force, if you don’t lose sight of what the people who
have been collecting and do collect this stuff really want, I think
there’s room to grow.

Is there anything that you haven’t shown here that’s in development?

Most of what we’re releasing in 2006 has been displayed at the New York Toy Fair, but there are a few additions – new things from tokidoki and Jermaine Rogers; more I.W.G. minis; some products based on Hate comics by Peter Bagge, the rock poster mini series and another multi-artist mini figure series that’s still too early to really announce. We’ve also begun distributing Maywa Denki’s Knockman wind-up toys from Cube Works in Japan, and Amos, Friends With You, Playbeast and Rocket World all have new stuff in the works, too. 

Thank you very much.

Sure.  I hope that works for you.

6 Replies to “Interview: Jim Crawford of STRANGEco”

  1. who’s the dude on the left with the goofy hat and second set of skinny arms that look just like mine?

  2. who’s the dude on the left with the goofy hat and second set of skinny arms that look just like mine?

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