Custom by Buff Monster

Heads up, los Los Angelenos. Your chance to catch a pre-Comicon peek at the pre-eminent prime minister of pink is upon you. That’s right! Hateball favorite Buff Monster has taken some time off from devastating the international art scene to curate a custom toy show at Giant Robot 2 in Los Angeles. And you all just happen to be invited.

I’ll go ahead and get it out of the way: I have a pretty deep personal affection for The Man with No Name, but this is no shill, friends. I think his artwork is just totally stunning, and I am consistently blown away by his paintings, toys, and printmaking technique: the guy is a drafting table soldier.

Credited (by my wife) as ‘That Asshole Who Got You Into Those Japan Toys’ (not really: she loves him, but the joke was there), Buff’s undying love for japanese vinyl rubbed off onto me a few years ago, and the rest is, well, thoroughly documented. His own toys, in various shapes, sizes, and incarnations, enjoy a high degree of success in a wide range of toy ‘scenes’: so much so that he decided to pass a few around to other artists who he admires, respects, and knows, to see what they came up with.

To commemorate this thoroughly non-heinous (or is it heinous in B & T-ese? Whichever is the ‘good’ one) event, I kicked a you, me and dupreemail back and forth with the man, the myth, The Monster and he answered a few of my dumb questions.

If you’re in LA this Saturday, July 10th, and you’re even SLIGHTLY interested in toys or art, you should definitely check out the opening. Details below.

Custom by Alex Pardee

If you had a gun to your head, what ‘style’ would you group your art into? There is obviously your street art roots, but I’ve heard it referenced to as ‘flat’ or ‘superflat’…what do YOU call it?
I guess it fits into all of those categories people like to come up with. I don’t consider myself any particular type of artist; I’m an artist.

You’ve been making these Buff Monster toys for a while now…what about right now made you want to get a bunch of artists to do their thing with it?
I actually don’t know why I’m doing this show now. I guess it just made sense. I had a bunch of my toys on hand, and I had been talking to some people about doing this show, and Giant Robot said they’d do it with me, and the show was born.

Custom by Paul Kaiju

How did you feel about the response you got from artists in the community? Did you find that you responded MORE to customs that modified the sculpt of the toy, or customs that tried to completely re-imagine the toy?
The customs that have some sort of additional sculpting might be my favorite. I rarely change the sculpt of a figure, so I appreciate it when someone does. Either way, I’m really happy with the pieces in the show; there are so many good ones!

What are your favorite toys to customize?
I’m quite fond of customizing my own toys just because the finished piece gets to be 100% Buff Monster. But I also really like customizing Kaiju toys, especially my favorite brands like Gargamel and Blobpus.

What is a toy that you’ve never had the chance to customize, but would be most excited to try?
I’d love to customize some Kaws toys. I’ve thought about buying some just for me to paint on, but I haven’t done it yet.

Custom by Brian Ewing

Comicon is coming up…what are you most excited to check out? Anybody releasing anything new and exciting that you’ve been waiting for?
I have no idea who is releasing what. No clue whatsoever. Its always more fun to see it in person for the first time. All I know is that I’m releasing my first plush figure there. It’s small and cute.

Custom by Buff Monster

I know that you and I share a deep and demanding love for the blobPus. If you were hunting any toy in any colorway, what would it be and why?
I have a few super awesome blobpus toys and I’m pretty happy with what I have. I don’t even know what all he’s released in a while, but you, sir, certainly have some amazing Dokugans.

Thanks Buff! Hope the show goes great. Now back to re-organizing my collection of vintage gay/lesbian dopefiend paperback cover scans. Until next time.

- Hateball