Urban Archeology 31 - Toys
Instalment 31 of Urban Archeology - a feature exclusive to Original Headz, where James shares artefacts and ephemera from both the UNKLE/Mo' Wax archives and his own personal history.
"This month, I'm sharing some unreleased production drawings of a toy design I developed with long term collaborators Giovanni Estevez, with whom I have recently collaborated on Studio : AR.Mour, and Mo' Wax designer Ben Drury.
In 1998, I started developing toys. The first was a promotional Pointman figure for Psyence Fiction - the first of its kind. It was made of resin. These figures were beautiful, but very easy to break due to the material.
As we developed ideas further, we started working in soft vinyl plastic, due to making limited edition production runs. These were some of the first of what were to become known as designer toys. We collaborated with a manufacturer introduced to me by Japan's OG toy company Bounty Hunter. The first was the Money Mark figure, which again was released originally as a promotional item.
We then developed more ideas and set up Mo' Wax Arts (M.W.A.), a subsidiary to create more art-based projects within the Mo' Wax universe. This was headed up by staff member Andy Holmes, who had been running the label with me and whom I had originally met at Slam City Skates where he was working at the time, and artist/director Oliver Payne, who later went on to work with labels like Supreme.
Over the course of a few years, we worked on many projects, some released and others like the Giovanni toy unfortunately were not. These were the early days in this style of collaboration and design and it was much harder than now to realise some of our ideas.
Our projects included collaborations with:
I met Gio when I first went to Supreme in New York, when it had just opened its doors. We were introduced by Supreme founder James Jebbia. We immediately hit it off, becoming lifelong best friends. Gio was running (and still runs) the original Supreme store, then in Spring St, where I would hang out for the duration of its time there. He was also a brilliant artist and I started collecting his work, and we started collaborating on various Mo' Wax releases starting with the cover text for UNKLE's 'Berry Meditation' single.
Gio was also a brilliant skateboarder, featuring in the seminal Harmony Korine and Larry Clarke film Kids. I wanted to design a toy based on his drawings of a skateboard-inspired character. The designs below include Gio's original sketches and Ben's production designs:
"This month, I'm sharing some unreleased production drawings of a toy design I developed with long term collaborators Giovanni Estevez, with whom I have recently collaborated on Studio : AR.Mour, and Mo' Wax designer Ben Drury.
In 1998, I started developing toys. The first was a promotional Pointman figure for Psyence Fiction - the first of its kind. It was made of resin. These figures were beautiful, but very easy to break due to the material.
As we developed ideas further, we started working in soft vinyl plastic, due to making limited edition production runs. These were some of the first of what were to become known as designer toys. We collaborated with a manufacturer introduced to me by Japan's OG toy company Bounty Hunter. The first was the Money Mark figure, which again was released originally as a promotional item.
We then developed more ideas and set up Mo' Wax Arts (M.W.A.), a subsidiary to create more art-based projects within the Mo' Wax universe. This was headed up by staff member Andy Holmes, who had been running the label with me and whom I had originally met at Slam City Skates where he was working at the time, and artist/director Oliver Payne, who later went on to work with labels like Supreme.
Over the course of a few years, we worked on many projects, some released and others like the Giovanni toy unfortunately were not. These were the early days in this style of collaboration and design and it was much harder than now to realise some of our ideas.
Our projects included collaborations with:
- Medicom Toys
- A Bathing Ape
- UNKLE
- Futura 2000 including the JL77 12" action figure, an alphabet print and his first book
- Mark Gonzales' original 'Priest' design
- 3D from Massive Attack, where we worked on a Euro Child toy idea
- Vacuum Records in Japan and their amazing Vinyl Killers
- the photographer Glen Friedman where we developed an unreleased large FUCK YOU HEROES / FUCK YOU TOO collage poster
- Contents Under Pressure limited edition catalogue with artists Stash, Lee Quiñones and Futura 2000
I met Gio when I first went to Supreme in New York, when it had just opened its doors. We were introduced by Supreme founder James Jebbia. We immediately hit it off, becoming lifelong best friends. Gio was running (and still runs) the original Supreme store, then in Spring St, where I would hang out for the duration of its time there. He was also a brilliant artist and I started collecting his work, and we started collaborating on various Mo' Wax releases starting with the cover text for UNKLE's 'Berry Meditation' single.
Gio was also a brilliant skateboarder, featuring in the seminal Harmony Korine and Larry Clarke film Kids. I wanted to design a toy based on his drawings of a skateboard-inspired character. The designs below include Gio's original sketches and Ben's production designs: