Just a quick chat behind the Korean hotdog stand with JonInterview with Jon-Paul Kaiser

• Posted on: November 13, 2011 @ 9:02PM
• Published in: Interviews

Jon's signing at NYCC

So Miri, my lovely wife, had a chance over NYCC to interview a few artists and we've finally transcribed some of the video we shot and posted it below. Jon-Paul Kaiser is our first, but there are a few other we'll be posting up in the coming days. These were fun and hopefully we can start making this a regular thing.

Thank you very much for letting me ask you some questions, especially here at NYCC behind the Korean hotdog stand. You’ve always had great success with your custom toys, and more recently production toys, can you talk a little bit about that transition and about your relationship with Toy2r?

I reached a point with my custom toys where I wanted to finance it and get some made, but I didn’t have the financing. I approached a few companies and most of them gave me just a straightforward quote but that would be it. Then I got in touch with Kevin at Toy2r and he gave me a quote but he also said ‘we’ve been looking at your stuff, you have great stuff, why don’t you do a few designs for us and we’ll see what we can do” and literally I sent a few things through and a few weeks later he had approved three or four of my designs. So this was two or three years ago and we went from there.

That’s incredible. So how many designs total did you submit to him?

We went back and forth a few times to pin them down, but the first two or three I sent were… straightaway he loved them. I’ve done maybe 50 or so designs now. We go back and forth by email. Every week we’re chatting and I’ll send him a few more.

Well the new Mini Qees obviously look really amazing, they’re awesome, and the way you do your customs there’s really a lot of detail in the beautiful black and white illustration… and actually as a side question Keegan and I were wondering (as were many fans on the internet) how you got shunned from the Kidrobot 2Tone Dunny series?

Yeah, that, well I’d sent some designs to Kidrobot before I approached Toy2R and I had a dunny approved for a series, this was in 2008, but it fell through. They said ‘if anything new comes up, don’t be shy…’ So when the two-tone were coming out I heard about it on the Kidrobot forum, and I was just… not upset... but just ‘awwwh, that’s not fair’ so I emailed them ‘Please is there any chance I can get on this series? It’s what I’m known for!’

I think other people on the forums said the same thing, I remember reading what felt like a consensus that someone was clearly missing from the series…

Yeah I was disappointed, but they emailed me back saying that at that they’d love to but at that point it was just too late. They’d had the ball rolling on the series for a couple of years and when they were approving designs I just wasn’t on the scene, or they didn’t know I was. That’s why I wasn’t in it I guess.

How long have you been customizing toys?

Five years.

And how did you discover them as a medium? Are you a collector?

Yeah. Yeah. I started out with Muttpop actually, I didn’t get into dunnys or other platforms for a while, it was mainly original sculpts. So it took me a little while to get onto Dunnys and things… but not too long.

Do you look to your collection for inspiration?

No. I try not to. If you do you take somebody’s idea. On my shelf at work I have dunnys and quees and kid stuff, you know, lego figures, all kinds of stuff… but if I look at them for inspiration, it’s derivative, I try not to at all. It wouldn’t be worth it, anyway, especially because people would recognize that and then they’ll flame you on the forums.

So all your characters have sort of an edge to them, you know, they’re not dark necessarily but they’re…

A bit menacing.

Yeah, they’re tough guys. Can you talk a little bit about where the characters come from?

When I first started customizing at the time, it was in 2007 or 2006, everything was cute, there was nothing even slightly off, and I tried to do that but I couldn’t. I felt like I didn’t have my own style, and then I realized that I do, it’s just not what I was drawing. Then there was a competition and I did a few that were just like how I draw in my sketchbook and um, yeah, I took second place my first time out and I thought ‘I think I’ve got something here’ and I mean, I guess I do. People keep buying them. Maybe out of pity.

Oh look at that poor man, he looks so sorry, I guess I’ll take these toys off his hands

He’s trying, he’s really trying

So I guess in closing do you have any big scoops for us, what’s coming up next for the great JPK?

No big secrets. I’ve got some more coming with Toy2R, there’s another version that’s in development at the moment that I’m really really pleased with. I mean, the Captain is just perfect, but this next one… is really exciting.

Even more perfect?

Yeah!

Thanks again for talking to me and I’m looking forward to seeing what you have coming next.

Thanks.

Artist Portfolios

• Jon-Paul Kaiser

Manufacturer Portfolios

• Muttpop
• Kidrobot
• Toy2r

About the Author

keegan

Blake and I started Trampt back in 2010.. We love pouring all our free energy into more features, and soon we'll have... [more]

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abusethesystem.com and @trampt

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