Quitting the Game...?

For those people that actually read my blog and enjoy my posts, this will be somewhat different. I'm going to lay it out there and say I am very close to quitting the custom/art game.  Without going into too much detail and drama, let's just say that with many rejections, delays, wasted time and efforts, it's enough to put a toll on anyone and make you lose some of your passion and drive.  This is how I've been feeling for the past few weeks; at one point I want to continue to create and push myself, but at the same time I find myself wondering if there is a point.

I may take some time away to focus on myself and explore new options. We'll see what happens.  If you do appreciate my work, I'd love to hear some comments. Thank you all for following and reading my blog!

"Eyes of the Dragon" Mystery Machine in Action!

Just a quick post -here is a short video of my "Eyes of the Dragon" Mystery Machine in action! Just put a few gumballs into the head, insert a quarter and turn - gumballs come out! Enjoy!

AW177 "Eyes of the Dragon" Mystery Machine for the Tenacious Toys Candy-Coated Custom Show!

I was invited by Benny of Tenacious Toys to be a part of their first custom toy show, the Candy-Coated Custom Show. The show was held on April 21, 7-9pm at The London Candy Company, 1442 Lexington Ave. New York, NY 10128.

The theme of the show was either candy or something British; I decided to focus on doing something totally different than my usual work. I wanted to create a piece that not only would allow people to view it but also had them play with it. After much deliberation and trial-and-errors, I decided to concentrate on making a real working gumball/mystery machine.

 This was created using a 10" Mad*L and incorporating parts from a gumball machine into it. There were many obstacles in making this:
- getting the base of the figure to hold the slot/wheel
- getting the wheel to work correctly
- getting the quarter to fall into the correct place in the back
- getting a way to get into the figure to grab the quarters and locking it
- getting a way to put gumballs into the head - getting the head to have the gumballs fall into the base correctly
- etc. etc.

At the show, the idea would be to put a quarter into the slot, turn the wheel and catch the gumball that comes out. I placed 2 marbles (the "eyes of the dragon") inside with the gumballs and if you were lucky to grab one of the marbles, you would win a prize (one of my "Circuit Death" t-shirts).

Throughout the night, people were popping in quarters and only 1 person won a shirt!

See what you can win w/ only a quarter? Congrats to Barb for winning my shirt! Enjoy!

This was probably my most ambitious and first functioning custom vinyl toy. I chose to not do too much paint work on the figure and keep it more to a mystery machine. Character on the front says dragon, one on the back is my last name. My piece will be up for sale here: http://www.tenacioustoys.com/The_Candy_Coated_Custom_Show_s/176.htm

Also at the show, I tagged up Benny's poster, along w/ some of the other artists and non-artists (mine's at the bottom left hand side, power skull ninja):

And a great shot taken of all the artists by Matthew Siegelbaum for Strongtree Images Photography (I'm in the middle w/ the blue jacket in between Mike "Nemo" Mendez and Sucklord):

I hope people enjoyed my machine because I'm not sure if I would tackle something like this again! Props to Benny & Steph of Tenacious Toys for putting a great show together and allowing me to be a part of it!!!

AW177 x RAWRS Custom Dragon Lunar New Year Bitsumo!

A collaboration effort between AW177 (Allen Wen) and RAWRS (Dai Tran), this is a one-off custom Dragon Lunar New Year edition Bitsumo resin figure.

Bitsumo is a hand casted 4.5" tall resin collector toy. He has 7 points of articulation and a hand-tied mawashi. Metallic gold dragon painted on the back and completed with a slight gloss finish.










Dragon Lunar New Year edition Bitsumo will be on sale at the RAWRS store: www.rawrs.bigcartel.com

AW177 x SoSo Happy x Toy2R Custom MonQ - Mar10 Template

For those that are curious of my design process, this is the template that I designed and used to create my custom Qee.

AW177 x SoSo Happy x Toy2R Custom MonQ - Mar10

I was one of the lucky artists invited to customize an 8" DIY Toy2R Qee in the fashion of the SoSo Happy (http://sosohappyonline.com) theme using my style/look.

The SoSo Happy folks will take the customized Qees on tour to different locations/conventions for display. There is also the potential opportunity to have some of these Qees made into production.

I chose the character Mar10 from the Kiibots line. I added a few of my signature Chinese motifs, including the double happiness character in the back. Circuitry lines for the arms and legs and larger animated eyes. Gloss coat as a finish since this is a robot!

I would love to have this become a production toy, so if you like it, please let Toy2R/SoSo Happy know!

You can click to enlarge the pics or visit my Flickr.

AW177 "Dragon Ninja" Custom Play Imaginative/Disney Mickey Mouse!

I was asked by Play Imaginative to custom one of their 6.5" Mickey Mouse vinyl art figures. This piece will be displayed at shows by Disney/Play Imaginative and will be up on their website (http://www.playimaginative.com/disney_custom.html#page=page-1).

To celebrate the year of the dragon 2012, I made Mickey into a "Dragon Ninja", complete with equipment belt, shurikens, pouches for gear, striking/climbing knives, dragon claws on feet and hands, and nunchucks! You can place the nunchucks into the back for storage. Dragon symbol on the upper ear, black outlines to give it a more animated/cartoon feel.

This custom is based on one of the designs I submitted to Play Imaginative/Disney for possible production, so if you like to see it made, please let them know!

Click on the images to enlarge or view at my Flickr.

AW177 x Bad Applez "I'm a Bad Apple"!

This is my custom creation for the "I'm a Bad Apple" online group custom show presented by Bad Applez Inc. Going live on February 14, 2012 (Valentine's Day), the show will feature over 30 artists customizing 3"-5" plastic apples that were picked up at a local craft shop.



My custom concept came from the idea of "sticking" good into something bad, or "throwing" some good into bad - I don't really have a direct explanation for my piece, it's pretty much what you make of it. I wanted to try something new and different, something metaphoric: the apple is rotten and bad and the shuriken is gold and good.

The shuriken has the Chinese character of "good" on it (both sides) and the apple has the word "bad" on it (both sides, hard to see).







The apple was pretty light (made of plastic/Styrofoam), I decided to weigh it down by cutting it in half and filling it w/ a little Super Sculpey. The shuriken was made from Super Sculpey as well. Spray paint was used for color.

The show will be hosted at http://www.badapplezinc.com and every piece will be up for sale.