January 31, 2008

Freaky Awesome Spooky Daddy

spooky_daddy_groupshot.jpg
[via]

Seriously, it's freaking me out right now how awesome Spooky Daddy's plush toys and creatures and whatevers are. Actually, thanks to his awesome Flickr photostream, it's been gnawing at me for months now, like a plush Prometheus getting his plush liver plucked out by a plush eagle every day.

When I first saw Spooky Daddy in the exhibitor lineup last fall for Crafty Bastards in DC, I realized I'd seen his Skull Bunny dolls around before, but they're the tip of the iceberg. In an increasingly crowded crafty marketplace, Spooky Daddy stands out in a lot of ways:

  • he's one of the few guys making plush, not to mention one of the few dads.
  • he's one of the few people who make toys that could conceivably be played with; he stitches everything down so it can't be chewed off by, say, his now-2yo in-house product tester/son.
  • his work's kind of edgy. As the lone buyer of a rather meanlooking Bunny Foo Foo plush a couple of Christmases ago, I think there's still not enough edge in the plush world, not even close.
  • he's a tatted up punk/work-at-home-dad who does plush so he can be involved in raising his kid. If he drove a Cadillac station wagon and had a stash of old, mod wooden toys, I'd hand him the keys to the site right now.

    spooky_coney_gang [via]

    But a man's only as good as the plush creatures he sews, so let's take a look. The Coney Gang? I guess it makes perfect sense: if you make plush Mr Tum Tum characters [above], who live inside of everyone and help sort out the nutrition from the poo, then you're eventually going to be making plush meconium creatures, too. And since they're underdeveloped, they'll just look like one-eyed tadpoles. Mm-hmm. [$20 apiece on etsy, btw]

    spooky_tumtum.jpg
    Roaming Eyeballs of Doom: self-explanatory. I just grabbed a couple of these, actually. They seem so harmless and playful, just plush balls that happen to be eyeballs. [also $20]

    spooky_eyeballs.jpg

    Looking at some of the more elaborate monsters, though, I'm just blown away by the high quality finish and detail. We'll see if it holds up in person, but I don't worry too much about it, frankly. There's an attention to detail, both for the production, but also for the expressiveness. I mean, check out this hobgoblin and, uh, this cosmic brownie. [I have no idea]:

    spooky_goblin_nose.jpg

    According to the description text, the hobgoblin is for an upcoming three-artist plush show/concert--a "plush hoedown," apparently--called Forest Party, which will feature Spooky Daddy along with two other indie plush pioneers, Heidi Kenny of My Paper Crane and Jenny Harada. Forest Party kicks off Saturday, Feb. 9 at Emmaus in Gettysburg, PA.

    [I'd ask how Gettysburg became the Detroit/Seattle/Nashville of the plush scene, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around an art and live music venue that also includes a private bowling alley and the city's largest thrift shop. I think this calls for a DTQ&A...]

    Spooky Daddy Toy Company [spookydaddy.com]
    the etsy shop, the flickr stream [etsy, flickr]
    the invite for Forest Party, 2/9 at 7pm [flickr, vinylpulse]

    Previously: Crafty Bastards 2007: are crafters the new carnies?

  • 3 Comments

    I'm constantly searching for new ways to disappoint my in-laws; a skull bunny looks like the next step.

    [glad to be of help, be sure to tell your in-laws you got your parenting idea from "some blog" -ed.]

    Have you seen the make a monster at FAO?
    http://www.fao.com/catalog/boutique.jsp?categoryId=672

    expensive... but pretty cool!

    In your quest for edgy plush have you ever checked out Chateau Bizarre, a site that gives you "small business at its strangeness." If nothing else your children can achieve true goth before the rest of their preschool does.

    Google DT


    Contact DT

    Daddy Types is published by Greg Allen with the help of readers like you.
    Got tips, advice, questions, and suggestions? Send them to:
    greg [at] daddytypes [dot] com

    Join the [eventual] Daddy Types mailing list!


    Archives

    copyright

    copyright 2024 daddy types, llc.
    no unauthorized commercial reuse.
    privacy and terms of use
    published using movable type