PLUSH!!!!

Welcome to a new RAMPAGE blog posting!!! I hope this finds you all well, and surrounded by mounds of RAMPAGE toys and other such awesomeness!!!

Anyway, after being in the works for ages, the RAMPAGE plush series is in production and out for sale. These cute, cuddly, fuzzy (and ankle-biting) fellahs are up for sale at Monster Art and Clothing (<--click for more info) in Ballard, Seattle. They will also be up for grabs on the new RAMPAGE TOYS Etsy page (http://rampagetoys.etsy.com/). Bear with me while I get things up there, and do feel free to contact me if you need a cuddly companion immediately!

Marketing jargon aside - here it is: the first run of the RAMPAGE plush line - fresh off the sewing machine!!!! We've got Choco-chip, B-Scotty, Cupcake and Jellyo (who you'll be introduced to in an upcoming post - I know, you were worried).


Above: my wonderful RAMPAGE assistant, hard at work on the Singer! Making toys is FUN!!!

Also, don't forget t get you RAMPAGE TOYS t-shirt! You can send me a blank shirt to screen print, or put in an oder for a size and prefered color.

Just e-mail rampage.toys@yahoo.com !!!!!

Storytime Continues!

Time for more RAMPAGE profiles!

This time around you'll get the nitty-gritty on Devil Dawg, Choco-Bar and Choco-Chip - the 'Choco-Fiend-Trio'!!!! So, without further ado:

Devil Dawg: Cast from the depths of HELL (actually the subburbs of Northern Jersey, but what IS the difference really?...) by plaintive neighboors, after throwing one too many wild parties, Devil Dawg fled to greener pastures in the greater Pacific Northwest. Free from a stressful existence amidst his Drakes Cakes Fraternity (<--yes, this is hyperlinked), he discovered the wonders of the mountains and the relaxing company of new friends. Devil Dawg now spends his days plotting world dominion and sipping Mac'n Jacks along with his partners in crime: Choco-Bar and Choco-Chip.

Choco-Bar: At some point, this tasty fellah' found himself boarding a ship in Brazil bound for Portland, Oregon. What attracted him there? Was it the vibrant music scene, the myriad of watering holes, or the moderate climate? - all of the above? What we know for sure is that Choco-Bar knows how to rock out on the drums, and his penchant for loud music eventually led him to team up with Devil Dawg and Choco-Chip to form the 'Choco-Fiend-Trio.'

Choco-Chip: Grandma Fruxbee of the UP, Michigan was terrified when one day she opened her oven to behold Choco-Chip and his sharp pointy teeth!!! Like many hip Midwesterners who yearn to escape lulling boredom and snowy winters, Choco-Chip joined the western migration to Seattle (<-- also hyperlinked). The long rainy season of his new home provided ample opportunity to hone his rockin' guitar skills. Choco-Chip loves mexi-fries and pop!





Up Next: Punkin' Pie and Jell-o, and some tasty RAMPAGE plush!!!

KAWAII !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hallo!!!

This post will be short but colorful. Yay! As I mentioned in an earlier post (10-29-2009), Japan is just littered with cuteness, and what better way to preserve the vivid memory of kawaii (Japanese for 'cute') than in the semi-immortal form of a plastic toy! After all, plastic will outlive all of us (in a purely chemical sense)...

So, long story short, the Tokyo bus system mascot looks like this:

As soon as my wife saw this cute little guy, she mentioned she just might like to see him in toy form (she thought Santa's Elves just might make him...), and here he is! Enjoy!

The head is that of a Kidrobot Minny Munny, and the body was salvaged from a rather ugly Kidrobot Dunny (you never know what you'll get in a blind box...).

The wings, antennae and little-red-tail were made from air-dry sculpting putty, thin steel wire (wing outlines), transparency paper (wings) and armature wire (antennae).

I'll return to the RAMPAGE characters' stories soon. It's been a busy time - in a good way. A lot has been happening, and production is ramping-up in the RAMPAGE TOYS world!!! Much more to come SOON.

RAMPAGE TOYS in BALLARD!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Prior to the Christmas Holiday RAMPAGE TOYS were unveiled en Masse at MONSTER Art and Clothing in beautiful downtown Ballard. This super cool shop stocks a ton of fantastic art - all creations of local (to the greater Seattle area) artists. Stop in (5000 20th Avenue Northwest) or check out the website (www.monsterartandclothing.com), and get yourself some RAMPAGE TOYS!!! Don't delay - the first edition of RAMPAGE is a limited run (numbering about 40 total), and they are selling like hotcakes!!!

Motivated by popular demand, the characters that are RAMPAGE TOYS will begin to develop personalities, and you'll learn all about them right here on the RAMPAGE blog. I'll cover a couple toys in a series of posts over the coming weeks. So, without further ado:

B-Scotty: This timid fellah has a soft side - but he'll still eat you! (a little at a time... if you let him...) B-Scotty weighs in at a massive 12.3 ounces; where DOES he put it all... so fit and healthy. WATCH OUT! He's gonna bite your little toe! Truth is, B-Scotty comes from a small town in Southern Italy, but has recently moved to Rome where he rents a nice hollowed out bust. He speaks Italian and a little german - this helps him handle all the tourists. His favorite movie is "Attack of the killer Tomatoes," and his favorite food is kittens - which he finda a plenty on the streets of Rome.

CUPCAKE: Sweet as can be, and full of chocolatey goodness, Cupcake is perhaps the star of the RAMPAGE series. With his razor sharp teeth and 15 ounce mass (he's a bit hefty.... but he IS snack food after all!) he can easily overwhelm unsuspecting infant mice, which just so happen to be his prefered dietary staple! Cupcake was born and raised by a family of Vanilla cupcakes, who shunned him and sent him out to face the world alone after realizing his ingredients would just never been like theirs... He now roams the streets of Seattle searching for something to make his life more complete. What is it? Will he ever find it? Will he even be happy if or when he does?....

Stay tuned for more RAMPAGE TOYS profiles and a Christmas Custom Munny! YAY TOYS!!!!

HALLOWEEN and a MURDEROUS I.W.G!

Hello Peoples!

Well, now that Seattle has reverted to full blown poo weather (as is the case during most of the Fall and Winter months), many of us Seattleites are retreating to our warm abodes and doing things like watching movies, reading books and MAKING ART!

Halloween brought with it the annual punkin carvin' fun, and here's what RAMPAGE TOYS (in collaboration with Lizzie - my ever patient wife) came up with:

Aside from holiday festivity, I've been wrapping up work on a custom toy that has been more or less sitting in the planning phase for 6 months (yeah, toy making takes the back burner to much needed sunshine in the summer and early fall months!). And here it is: a ROCKET WORLD I.W.G. Baby-Cubs Custom!!!!!!!!!! ( http://www.rocketworld.org/)

This baby panda is almost 100% flocked, so he's soft and cuddly. BUT DON'T BE FOOLED! HE'LL GOUGE YOUR EYE OUT! YIKES! But seriously, the toy is based with acrylics, and then flocked with like color flocking powder of varying textures. The muzzle is done with a particularly coarse material (intended for architectural model use) to give this guy a gnarly bearded look. The eyeball was painted using gloss acrylics. SCARY! (that's what my wife thinks...). Enjoy the photos, and don't forget to e-mail if you want a rad custom handmade by RAMPAGE TOYS!!!!

Rampage Toys in Japan!!!

Hello Loyal Fan Peoples!

Well, here it is, the end of October and finally time for a RAMPAGE TOYS update!

In recent news: Japan is awesome!!! Not only is Japan awesome, beautiful and home to some cool and crazy people and places, but it's basically the capital of AWESOME toys and toy designers! In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Japan is the capital of design in general - what with kids and designers pumping out the cutting edge in style and other such craziness, and flaunting new fangled (and old-school) styles in a way few Americans (or even Euros) would feel confident doing. Need I repeat the word: AWESOME!!!!

Much anticipated in my travels was a quick visit to one of the ALL TIME BEST toy and graphic designing collaboratives in the world: DEVIL ROBOTS! These guys are amazing! They manage a balance between the standard (and requisite) Japanese Kawaii (= cute) and cool and edgy designs. They merge these two elements wonderfully and have come up with some of the most enduring and FUN characters in modern toy and graphic design - to name a couple: DeviRob (a gangly and mysterious guy who wears a helmet with BIG RED horns) and Tofu Oyako (the marvelous little cube-headed figure loved world-wide by kids, adults and all ages in between). Here are a couple of shots of the Devilrobots studio - LOOK AT ALL THOSE TOYS!!!!

Above: Devirob in the top middle on the table, and Tofu Oyako bottom left in the red one-zee!

The DR head-cheese (Shinichiro), and his second in command, were incredibly welcoming and even threw some free schwag our way. How awesome is that! Check out Devilrobots on Facebook or take a gander at their website (http://www.dvrb.jp/w/) - though Japanaese proficiency might help on that end of things - not much English on the site. I would also highly recommend visiting these guys if you are EVER in Tokyo!

Anyway, what would a RAMPAGE blog posting be without some RAMPAGE artwork!?!?!? So, here it is, inspired by Hyo Myazaki (possibly the most talented person in animation - "creator of Spirited away" an "My Neighbor Totoro") - my take on the Makuro Kuroske - those Cute little dust creatures that live in your attic and keep evil spirits at bay. Everyone can use a little extra good luck hanging around! These guys are made of felt and yarn - oh so soft and cuddly.

ENJOY!!!

Ollie the Munny-World Entry Munny

Yo!

Ollie here (named in honor of my wife's dearly departed and beloved goldfish of many years) didn't quite make the cut in the Munny World Contest, but He did make the first spot in the 'check out these cool 'other' customs' list!

Ollie's fins and tail are made from armatron wiring and masking tape (simple in theory , difficult in practice). The paint-job is primarily the result of layering with orange, white, gold and silver spray cans, and the face details and portions of the tail are sculpted with green stuff (a 2 part epoxy-like sculpting putty - no baking required). Enjoy!!!

The full frontal view. Check the subtle coloring on his belly!

A 'little bit o' detail' shot. Put this guy in water, he could swim with those fins!

Congrats to all the winners - whoever you all are. Rampage Toys will keep chugging away, and maybe they'll do another one of these comps!

As alway, send any inquiries about t-shirts, stickers, customs or any questions to:

rampage.toys@yahoo.com

Up next - some plush and a ROCKET WORLD I.W.G custom. Yeeah! Give me a couple weeks though...