Draw Every Day 3/15/12: Munny-Based Raspberry Pi Case Preliminary Sketch

I'm pretty much obsessed with the Raspberry Pi SoB (System On a Board) computer.  I ordered one ($46 shipped!) but it won't get here until August.  But I'm so  obsessed my brain has been flooded with potential uses for the thing.  My favorite so far is a portable rig, complete with a 5" display and mini keyboard, both held by an 8" Munny blank vinyl.  I just need to find a cheap portable 5" TV and an equally cheap (<$50) mini keyboard that will fit in the Munny's hands (I'm thinking a max width of 6").  The whole rig would run off of 4 AA batteries which would be mounted in the Munny's body while the RPi, itself would reside in the head, along with all the extra cables.

1st Draft of a custom mini Munny I'm designing for a friend. Done in SketchbookX on my iThingy.

1st Draft of a custom mini Munny I'm designing for a friend. Done in SketchbookX on my iThingy., a photo by thepetecom on Flickr.

Right now it looks very traditional, but I'd like to make it more feminine, I think. Kind of a hard trick considering the facial hair daruma usually have. Ah well, it's a good start, I think.

ThePeteToys: Chalky!

My first ever custom toy made way back in 2006:
[simpleviewer gallery_id="2"]
Chalky started out life as an 8-inch KidRobot Munny blank. I used blackboard paint and chalk (big surprise) and he really works as a blackboard! I still want to do a Munny that allows for dry-erase markers to be used on it :)

toys.thepete.com: CyniCat (3" Cat Qee from Toy2R)

toys.thepete.com: CyniCat (3" Cat Qee from Toy2R), originally uploaded by thepetecom.

Completed in April of 2007, this was my second ever custom toy design.
He was painted with Sharpies and began life as a blank Cat Qee from
Toy2R. I'm definitely a cat-person, in general, so I knew I had to pick up this blank up. :) And since I am very cynical, the design made sense, too. Annoyingly, I applied the clear coat too heavily and his hairline bled a little :( Not bad for number 2, though.

Working on 3 inch figures is particularly tough, in my opinion. I don't recommend it using regular-sized Sharpies. I wish I had the super-fine-tipped ones for this piece.

Check out my Flickrset for all the pics of CyniCat here: www.flickr.com/photos/thepete/sets/72157600092707667/

toys.thepete.com: Bob Bocksy v1

toys.thepete.com: Bob Bocksy v1, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

Bob Bocksy started out life as a Shrinky Dink project done while watching "Wal*Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices". The movie was great, but Bob Bocksy didn't turn out so well. I plan on recreating Bob as a Papercraft project in the near future (eventually).

Obviously, I didn't think Bob would shrink perfectly smoothly. My
thought was that he would definitely get a little mutilated in the
shrinking process, but I had hoped for him to be at least vaguely
humanoid by the end. Sadly, he ended up a a small pile of hard, flat, bits of plastic. :(

Check out the entire Flickrset, including the horrific "post-oven" shots, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thepete/sets/72157603658598683/

toys.thepete.com Chyuu-san Vimobot

toys.thepete.com Chyuu-san, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

This is my second entry into Mimoco's Vimobot design contest (check out my other here: toys.thepete.com/toysthepetecom-end-life-crisis). The only part of this guy that I'm not happy with was that I didn't just do the kanji on his face in Sharpie. I cheated by printing it out and then glue-sticking it to his face. Sad. "Chyuu" means loyalty in Japanese. Since the eventual goal was to have these designs turned into thumb drives, what better adjective to describe a thumb drive?

Chyuu-san was done with my standard weapon of choice, the Sharpie. I used a small screwdriver to hold him steady (you can see the metal rod part of the screwdriver in some of the shots).

I still like the idea of replacing faces with kanji, so I may reuse this element some time in another piece. Either way, I'm generally happy with the way this came out (despite it not winning the damn Mimoco contest). I do plan on doing the kanji-face with a Sharpie at some point--I was just on a deadline. :)

Check out the full Flickrset, including progress shots and an early sketch, here:
flickr.com/photos/thepete/sets/72157601666770824/

toys.thepete.com: End Life Crisis

toys.thepete.com: End Life Crisis, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

I designed this for the Mimoco DIY Vimobot contest. I didn't even place :( But I'm happy with the design nonetheless. I think I do pretty well with a few sharpies and some vinyl. :)

See, the idea of the contest was to create a design that would be used for one of their thumb drives. My thought was that the metal electrocution cap on this guy would be the cap of the USB so when you plugged ELC into your USB port, he'd look like he was all nervous about being plugged into your computer--like the 3 volts a USB port puts out was going to kill him.

I guess not everyone has the same sense of humor about capital
punishment that I do.

Check out more pics of my End Life Crisis piece, including progress shots and even some original sketches for this and other Vimobot designs, in the Flickrset for this project:

flickr.com/photos/thepete/sets/72157601673268083/

toys.thepete.com Mini-Self!

toys.thepete.com Mini-Self!, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

A few years back, one of the first custom toys I did was this one--before I was even a blond, I took a blank, Toy2R Devil Baby Qee Toyer and made this self-portrait. I turned the Toyer's teeth into my beard. I used to wear a leather motorcycle jacket and a red T-shirt. The shoes are accurate to some sweatshop friendly Chuck-ish shoes I still wear today. :)

That belt is a mystery though...

Check out the full photoset on Flickr here:

flickr.com/photos/thepete/sets/72157601666664644/

toys.thepete.com: Rainbow Peace Fighter

toys.thepete.com: Rainbow Peace Fighter, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

I did the Rainbow Peace Fighter back in late-ish 2007, not long after visiting the Palm Springs Air Museum. When ever I come face to face with my old passion of military flight (I got as far as my pilot physical) it is immediately attacked by my current anti-war sentiments--it's a hard dichotomy to reconcile. However, trust art to find a way! Enter the Rainbow Peace Fighter!

The Rainbow Peace Fighter started out life as an F-16 balsa-wood-based puzzle from Puzzeled.com--of course, I bought it at the Palm Springs Air Museum. I'm sure you can find one of these elsewhere. The instructions are wonderfully vague. Each part is numbered on the instructions and you put the pieces together in order--sounds easy? Not quite. It ended up being a lot of fun, though.

In the end (sort of), I'm happy with the color scheme, but the wood absorbed a lot of the Sharpie ink, so after these pics were taken, I ended up spraying her down with several primer coats and started over. Right now she's fully redone, but still packed away from the move to NYC. I'll take pictures of her soon and post 'em.

Check out the rest of the whole set here: flickr.com/photos/thepete/sets/72157601489194858/

Toy2R Includes ThePete as One of 66 Contributing Artists from Around the World!

Ah, this is kinda sweet :) I was included as one of the 66 contributing toy artists for Toy2R's custom, 36" Qee Bear that they put together during the 2008 Hong Kong Award for Industries ceremony. According to a recent post on the US Toy2R blog, Qee4All.com, they were named the Grand Winner in the category of Innovation and Creativity.

That sounds awesome, doesn't it? Well for them it does--but I got to be included in the fun, too. Back in December I was approached by Toy2R for future collaboration on a toy design or two. In the meantime I was asked to provide a sticker design to be included in the 36" Qee Bear project put together at the HKAI awards ceremony. Now, I looked at the pictures of the finished Qee Bear (here and here) but couldn't spot my logo. But hey, I am psyched and honored just to included at all.

I design custom toys because it's a blast to do. The fact that someone who makes toys for a living thinks my stuff is good is like a whole separate cake I get to eat (not just the icing on the cake).

So, thanks Toy2R!! You guys rock!

toys.thepete.com: Charlie Mad

Charlie Mad started out life as a blank Mini Munny from Kid Robot. I bought him, opened the box and found some horrible person had already done the same thing, only they'd managed to break his arm off before putting him back in the box.

Lame!

However, rather than taking him back to the store, I thought I'd use it as a design element. I was thinking about doing a piece about anger, so I decided he'd had his arm lopped off by someone. The bat was taken up as a revenge tool and I'm not sure where I got the black frame for his face--it started in my head as built-in running lines. I added the wonky shirt stripe for irony.



Sorry I don't have any progress shots. For some reason I didn't take any. I just sort of blew through this one almost in one sitting. Go figure.

Check out the Flickrset here: http://flickr.com/photos/thepete/sets/72157608716855297/

toys.thepete.com: Ja Ne Neko

Translation: See Ya Kitty!

Ja Ne Neko, as a project, came about when I was in an Urban Outfitters and spotted a beaten up, unboxed Hello Kitty covered in pastel-colored hearts. She had been marked down to $3 so I figured I'd take her home, give it a few coats of primer and then see what I could do with her.

As you can see in the early shots, she started out a but more sexually oriented but then I decided to go the Clockwork Orange route (got the idea from a Kylie Minogue video). :) I'm happy with the results, though I wish I had a lighter gray to work with--perhaps that's a limitation of working with permanent marker.

Check out my Flickrset for "Ja Ne Neko" or keep reading for more pics and details about this piece:

ThePeteToys: Stripe-B

Stripe-B Flickrset, originally uploaded by thepetecom.

As my long-timers know, one of my passions is custom toy design. I don't do it as much as I'd like, so I guess it ends up being a hobby thanks to that whole "pursuit of money" thing. But get me in a room with a blank DIY vinyl and a wad of Sharpie pens and I'm a happy, happy guy.

So, here's another piece from the archives--I finished it back in January of 2008.

"Stripe-B" started out life as a blank DIY Baby Qee Devil Toyer from Toy2R. He was created because I wanted a counterpart to Stripe-R whom you can see at the end of the photoset or you can check out Stripe-R's own photoset here: flickr.com/photos/thepete/sets/721576014 92854661/

ThePeteToy EyeRobot (in progress)

When I'm not blogging about politics and current events, I like to have FUN by designing custom toys. There's a great feeling of control you get from drawing on a white piece of pre-molded vinyl or plastic. It's a feeling you just don't get from everyday life.

You know, that feeling you can control anything at all, ever. :)

Above is a screencap of a Flickr photoset I just created featuring progress shots of a piece called "EyeRobot."

He started out life as a blank Egg Qee I picked up at the Giant Robot store here in Manhattan.

Not sure where I was coming from as the design developed in my head, but I started drawing and the first thing that came to me was that big eye.

He's basically done, but I have to apply a clear coat and then put him together.

See the pictures in my Flickr photoset here: http://flickr.com/…394893430/

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ThePeteToys: Daruma-Kun

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a bit of a Japanophile. So, naturally, Japanese themes pop up in my art, regardless of what it is. My novels often have Japanese elements in them and, likewise, my custom toy work does, too.

This piece is called "Daruma-Kun." It combines a couple of different elements. First, it takes a blank Baby Toyer Qee (the Toyers have a skull-head) and then adds the karate uniform (I should have gone with a yukata, a common robe, like a kimono). The head is my interpretation of a daruma.

A daruma is a Japanese doll (really just an oddly shaped, hollow ball) painted to look like the founder of Zen, a guy called Bodhidharma.

The eye-sockets are left blank until you are ready to make a wish. As you draw a pupil on the right eye you wish for something. Once your wish comes true, you fill in the left eye. Then, on the next New Years Eve you go to a shrine and set your daruma on fire as an offering to god(s) to prove you stuck with your wish.

Maybe "wish" is the wrong word. "Goal" is better.

Normally, daruma don't have arms and legs, so Daruma-Kun is a little different. Also, I won't be burning this one as he's made of vinyl and might be the messiest daruma at the shrine. There is a bit more to daruma rituals that you can check out at Wikipedia.org here: http://en.wikipedia.org/…iki/Daruma

I'm thinking about making more of these and selling them on eBay--I love the idea of things that help you stay true to your goals. I've seen that Japanese film and television productions will often have huge daruma around to symbolize a successful show or movie. I really dig that.

Anyway, so you can check out close ups of Daruma-Kun at my toy site: http://toys.thepete.com/
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ThePeteToy/Hack: The RoBunny USB hub+Flash drive

Here is another one of my custom DIY vinyl toy projects. This one is called the RoBunny and not only is he a toy, he's also a hack! He started out life as a blank DIY Baby Qee bunny from Toy2R. However, when I held my Ridata-brand flash drive and 2-port USB hub combo up to this guy's head I realized that I could hack him into a cybernetic toy. ^_^

Now he works great as a triple purpose accessory for my desk of gadgets! It's a toy, a USB thumb drive AND a 2-port USB hub! Pretty, cool, huh? OH yeah, he's also got an evil looking eye that lights up when he's plugged in, which I really think is cool.
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ThePeteToys: Stripe-R

When I'm not writing fiction, bitching about the world, or messing around with my XO laptop, one of my hobbies is doing custom DIY blank vinyls. These start off life as a blank, white toy made of vinyl. The idea is that you buy one and apply your own character to them. Think of it like working as a painter, only instead of canvas, your medium is pre-formed vinyl. :)

Another thing I like about custom vinyls is that they are mega-brand-free. While many of the companies that make blanks are corporations (who isn't these days?), none (that I know of) are owned by mega-corporations like Time-Warner or Viacom. A few have done deals with bigger companies for franchise licenses, but the blanks I use are just that--blank.

No brands.

You just use your imagination and create the toy you want. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be a character. I'm a little too control-freakish to turn a blank into abstract art, but I've seen it done. In this post I'm calling attention to a piece I finished a while back which I call Stripe-R based on the most prominent design motif on him--the thick, red stripe down the middle of his face. He's about as abstract as I think I can get ^_^

I've got more custom toys and a section on my website dedicated to just toys that you can check out at: http://toys.thepete.com/ It's pretty sparse right now as I just recently created it. But I'll be posting more of my own creations as well as non-custom toys in my own collection.

Hey, I can't write about politics and movie reviews ALL the time, can I?

Stripe-R started out life as a Baby Qee Toyer, which is a model of blank toy from a company called Toy2R, which you can check out at their website: http://toy2r.com/

Check out my Flickr photo set for Stripe-R here: http://flickr.com/…492854661/

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One of my Custom DIY Toys in Progress

I posted the other day about having a love for custom toy making and here is a progress shot of something I'm working on right now. It's the head of a glow-in-the-dark, blank Munny figure that I am applying my own design to. The piece, over all, is very close to being done--but I need to pick up some sort of spray-on clear coat before I can be completely done. The Sharpie I used for the silver there is still very sticky. :P

I've got plenty more pictures of my customs that I'll be posting soon for anyone who wants to see more. :)
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Ever Wish You Could Design Your Own Custom Plush Toys?

I have--but I don't know the first thing.  Now you can go here: 

Plushie:An Interactive Design System for Plush Toys

If you've got a Windows machine and a mad posh to design plush toys, there's an app at that link that will help you easily design a plush toy in 2-D.  One of these days I'll get back to designing custom toys--until then, why don't you give it a try?

My Latest Blank...

Found this blank the other night at a weird store in east Hollywood called Soap Plant Wacko. It's an I,WZL blank that I've been wanting for about a year but they were sold out or too expensive at any of the online vendors I usually buy from. SPW had it for $6 because it was a display model. It is a little dirty, but once it's under a layer of Sharpie ink, it won't know the difference. ^_^

If anyone wants to see what I've done to other blank, DIY toys, check out my customs collection on Flickr, here: http://tinyurl.com/yte5x4
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