Artist and curator Jasper Wong, perhaps best known for ground-breaking Pow Wow street art festival that has become a global phenomena, has teamed up with Heavy Cream to bring his FOMO MOFO NFT project into the physical domain. The upcoming FOMO MOFO blindbox series features a collection of cool kids (FOMIES) fueled by their relentless passion for popular culture.
FOMO MOFO draws its name and concept from a near obsession with keeping up with the pace of culture, from watching the latest episode of the hottest show, reading the newest comic before anyone else, to beating the latest game. Collecting toys is part of this frenzy so it’s only natural that the project would have its very own toy series. Jasper Wong relates that “As digital art surges due to the advent of NFTs, we cannot deny our love for physical objects. In particular, our own love of toys. Seeing 2D art transform into 3D sculptures has always been magical. When we released FOMO MOFOs earlier this year, I immediately connected with Bradley and Joshua to create a blindbox series. We felt it’d be the perfect way to bridge the both worlds together, especially since NFTs are a great way to bring together art, tech, and community.”
While some blindbox projects might be challenged to come up with say twelve strong designs, FOMO MOFO enjoys the opposite problem. So, many choices. of As a generative NFT project featuring 8008 unique designs—created via assigned visual traits—only a tiny fraction of the FOMIES could make the cut. Rather than coming up with a top-down process, the project team embraced a fun, organic approach as detailed by Jasper Wong: “One daunting task did await us, how do we choose which designs of 8,008 will be turned into a toy. The answer was to tap into the community and ask them to share their own stories of their FOMIES. We had hundreds of submissions and these are the special ones we chose for this inaugural series. We hope you love them as much as we do.”
In the end ten collectors’ background stories about their FOMIES were selected as winners with the prize being inclusion in the series. Here’s a preview of three of the upcoming figures including a stoned 3D-movie fan with a love for Moana and Hawaii (submitted by D4Rk – FOMO MOFO #80), an astronaut who got a little too close to his rocket (submitted by Deezok – FOMO MOFO #7513) and a blue-haired daredevil with a need for speed, extreme heights, adrenaline and more (submitted by Chivente – FOMO MOFO #54). Quite the characters! Under development, the FOMO MOFO series is expected in 2023.
Finally, looking forward to the coming release, Jasper Wong reflected on the ongoing process of collaborating with Heavy Cream founders Bradley Frank and Josh Divine to bring FOMO MOFO to life: “Both Bradley Frank and Josh Divine are legends and icons in my eyes. I have admired and collected their work for years. They both have supported artists and contributed to the growth of the art toy industry in a myriad of ways. It is an honor and pleasure to collaborate and partner with them on this project. I absolutely can not wait to hold these in my hands and be a part of their legacy in some capacity.“
Deezok is my hero. Who is yours??