1. DRAGATOMI

2. BAY FITTED

3. JAY222

CONGRATULATIONS and thank you for participating and giving us your time!  Stay tuned to see what Dragatomi does with our wall!

NAME: Dragatomi (represented by Dril One)

PHOTO OF ENTRY: The torpedo really shoots out! (Pretty far too… almost lost it!)

WHAT THEIR BUSINESS IS ABOUT: Dragatomi is a retailer for some of the coolest designer figures and items inspired by art and urban culture.  They carry many rare and limited collectibles from some of the top artists and companies in the toy industry.  In addition to being a retailer for some of the coolest “Art Toys”, we also carry a selection of books, magazines, apparel and prints.  They also have a gallery within our location to showcase some of your favorite artists featuring one-of-a-kind works.  Dragatomi – Your one stop shop for collectivle designer figures, art prints, and more!

Dril One is a custom toy designer that specializes in making blank vinyl toys awesome!  Not only is he an artist, but he also curates many of the customized toys show throughout the nation.  If you need to know more about the toy modification world, you need to contact him.  Check out his blog: www.drils.com.

LOCATION: 2317 J Street (x 23rd and 24th), Sacramento, CA

WEBSITE: www.dragatomi.com
EMAIL: sales@dragatomi.com

Shopwars is here!  An event where local Bay Area businesses compete for creative recognition for a good cause!  The participants received a blank toy to customize as their heart desires.  The voting party is this Friday, September 25th, 2009 from 7:30 – 10:00pm and we need your help!  We need you to come to the gallery and vote for the one that tickles your fancy.  Did we also mention that this is a charity event?  A percentage of the sales of the competing customized toys will go to Project Open Hand.  As a special treat, Adobo Hobo, Brazilian Bites and Wholesome Bakery will also be on site to satisfy your appetite!  Let the party… er, I mean, the games begin!

Q&A

How did you come up with the name 64 Colors?
Well, we both started out with a box of Crayola crayons. There were 64 in the pack so… 64 Colors.

How did you guys get your start in custom toy design?  Who/how were you introduced to it?
It’s a by product of having so many toys in the studio and having a toy that just released.  “Marshall” which we designed and was produced by Rotofugi and Squibbles Ink in Chicago.  Check out www.marshalltoys.com. Through that, we met Ryan Crippen from Reactor 88 who introduced us to Alex Dril. Alex was kind enough to let us create a  custom for the IWG show
he curated. Super nice people!

What are your inspirations?
Nature, art, Japan, cartoons, toys, seeing great work by other people.  Everyday we see inspiring work!

What training have you had to bring you to this point in your  career?
Both went to art school. Lot’s of live model + painting classes. Classic training we suppose. Also work as a design, illustration studio and do a wide range of character design, packaging, illustrations and graphic design projects.

How do you guys know each other?

Met in art school, got married.

Do you guys ever get on each other’s nerves?

Yes! One of us is generally calm while the other is a bit high strung. There are occationally shouting matches but we have short attention spans and forget quickly.

If you had to designate roles to each other, what would they be? (e.g. who is the slave driver, the visionary, etc)
Depends on the project. It’s really a 50/50 collaboration. No one is in charge and maybe that makes things work best for us.

Tell us something that people don’t know about you guys but you want them to know.
Ummmm, Hmmmm, Uhhhh… :\ *draws blank*

When you were given the task of creating a piece for “Into the Darkness”, how did you interpret it?
Moonlight, creatures of the night, loneliness, wandering, dreams, nightmares, tree branches, wind, wonder and dark colors. Then wrap that into one character with a back story. We hope that our customs project personality and emotion as that is what we try to do with each piece.

How long did it take to make a piece like “Night Mary”?
About 3 weeks total. The project gets placed into our regular work flow and we toss it back and forth so the piece evolves over time.

For your Munny customs, who is your muse/model for the eyes (e.g. Natural Beauty and Night Mary)?
That’s just how Laura paints them. No particular muse or model. Just a style developed over time and trial and error. The eyes are the window to the soul you know.

Can you tell us what our fans can expect from 64 Colors in the next 5 years?
5 years is a long time. More customs, paintings, toys, animation, some books.  We hope our work will improve and opportunities will happen that will allow us to work on a wide variety of projects all over the globe. That sounds good to us!

Quick Answers to Your Favorite…

… Toy growing up

Laura: Barbie / Eric: Legos and maple blocks.

… Toy now
Laura: Friends with You Super Malfi / Eric: ThreeA Squares (I love Malfi too!)

… Artist (dead or alive)
Laura: Tamara de Lempicka / Eric: Mark Ryden

... Magazine
Laura: High Fructose / Eric: Giant Robot

… Books
Laura: Science Fiction/Fantasy / Eric: Biographies/History

… Place to go to get your creative juice flowin’
A museum, a car ride, a bike ride… could be anywhere and we always carry a sketchbook.

… Kind of Coffee
Laura: No coffee, Rootbeer / Eric: coffee black from anywhere as long as it’s good.

by 64 Colors...visit www.marshalltoys.com

"Night Mary" by 64 Colors @ 1AM SF Gallery

“Into the Darkness” exhibit will be at 1AM SF gallery through July 3rd.  Come on by or visit www.toyjunkiesf.com.

How would you describe the evolution of the designer toy world?

The Designer toy world has evolved greatly, when I started there was not a lot of companies. Now there is many companies, and the mainstream companies like Mattel & Hasbro are trying to get a piece of the action. It also is becoming very mainstream as Martha Stewart and Rosie Odonnell did Munnies, not sure how i feel about it. Definetly not underground anymore.

When did you first get into this constantly evolving toy scene?

I got into the Designer Toy scene in 2005 when I saw other graffiti artist with designs on Kidrobot Dnny series 1. Then I saw the KidRobot messageboard which got me into customizing  toys.

How would you describe the inspiration for your work?

Inspiration comes mostly my environment, thoughts, childhood, experimentation, and various other things.

Can you give us some hints to what you’ve prepared for this ITD show?

I did a Military rusted Ewok Horselington and 5 skull paintings.

What advice can you give anyone wanting to jump into toy modification?

Practice, practice, and more practice. I would say read and study the Kidrobot message board Munny section. there is a lot of tutorials on there.

How will “Into the Darkness” be different from other exhibitions you’ve been involved with?

This is my 2nd show I am curating,  so i am more experienced. The artist are some of the top customizers out there and this might be one of the larger custom open toy platform shows in the bay Area.

What was your favorite toy when you were younger?

Voltron, G.I.Joe, Lego, and Transformers.

Tell us what makes your creative juices flow?

My brain always has ideas, sometimes too many. Time is my worst enemy but i manage to participate in 12+ shows this year, and also curating 3 shows on top of it add a family and a 9 to 5. Yeah I am busy.

Can you tell us what our fans can expect from Alex Dril in the next 5 years?

I would like to push shows to the next level, not sure how but i will figure it out. And I would like to evolve as a artist too. Stay tuned!

Check out www.toyjunkiesf.com, “Into the Darkness” for art pieces from the show.

Military Horselington – Visit www.toyjunkiesf.com “Into the Darkness”

Last Friday (6.5.09), 1AM hosted the opening reception of “Into the Darkness” with DrilOne.  The custom vinyl toys were out of this world.  Over 40 artists are participating in this show representing their interpretation of “Into the Darkness”.

Besides the art pieces, the cool thing was that a lot of the artists were there kickin’ it with the common folks.  They were chillin’, drinking beer, answering questions about their art, admiring other artists’ pieces, taking lots of pix of each other, and talkin’ about whatever came up in discussions.  Big ups to DrilOne, Leecifer, Brian Colin, Gatchbert, Leonard Amaral, Phoneticontrol, Delicious Drips, Gray and Lily Black.

Come on by and check out the show at 1AM SF gallery.  The show will run through July 3rd 2009 or you can visit www.toyjunkiesf.com “Into the Darkness”.

Here are some photos capturing the evening (visit  http://tiny.cc/3osny for more pix on Flickr):

The Usual Suspects - the Artists -

Into the Darkness Opening ReceptionKids in Awe of Lily

Wall Mural was a big hit...watch for it in blogs, tweets, fb, etc

Leonard Amaral taking a moment to pose by his "Deep Into the Darkness Peering"

Brilliant piece... "Shroud of Darkness" by Brian Colin

Meeting of two worlds...Lily Black and Delicious Drips

The Lineup.