MAQET

MAQET is honored to have Heathrow the Hedgehog named one of the top ten “Fan Favorites” in the 2012 Designer Toy Awards! Heathrow is Frank Kozik’s newest original character design, and we’re so happy to know that he resonates with collectors. Our humble Hedgehog is in outstanding company in this publicly nominated category, where just being nominated is a real honor. Heathrow was born, modeled and manufactured in the Bay Area too. (Check here for availability of collectibles.)

The Fan Favorite award “celebrates the single toy that has most captured the attention and imagination of the Designer Toy community during the eligibility period. The Fan Favorite is a piece that has a wide-spread appeal, as well as demand that has not wavered after it was first released.”

You can help Heathrow take home the trophy by registering for the DTAs and voting daily for Heathrow here. The winning toy will be announced at New York Comic-Con in October 2012. Thanks for your support!

Noah Scalin started an innocent enough project in 2007, and since then, he’s been making skulls every day. The project has grown to include a book, website and prints. In honor of Scalin’s very first skull on June 4th, 2007, today is Skull Appreciation Day. Celebrate by telling someone you love their skull or Creating Your Own MAQET!

MAQET is happy to celebrate art history with a limited edition series of MAQET bears customized by Howie Green. Each collectible bear is an homage to a 20th century art movement.

The 20th Century Art Bears series includes MAQETs dipped into a batter of Pop Art, De Stijl, Art Deco and Psychedelic colors and patterns. Each 5-inch MAQET Art Bear is an edition of 50 pieces, priced at $50 each. Visit the MAQET shop now!

What’s the story on that 5th bear? Howie throws in a wrench with a Whites Stripes bear covered in the band’s signature red and white. The White Stripes bear is a “two-for” for art and music fans, as it reflects the aesthetics of both the band and De Stijl; the latter being the title of the duo’s successful 2000 album. Available now here.

We know you love creating your own MAQETs with our online character designer. (Check out some fun creations in our Facebook photo album.) Starting today, there’s a new boss in the DIY sector, and his name is Bernie Cotton. Designed by LA-based artist Scott Tolleson, Bernie came to life as a collectible plush doll and then together, we turned him into a trio of collectible Plastin^® MAQETs. Bernie Collectors Series 1 is now sold out. You can still buy Scott’s Artist Editions individually here, OR you can see if you “take a cotton” to designing your own!

Create-Your-Own Bernie is priced at only $30 for an original 4-inch figurine designed by you in collaboration with Disney’s own Scott Tolleson! Want to skip all this wordiness? Start designing here!

Since this is MAQET and we believe in co-creation, you can choose to bedazzle your Bernie in the graphic stylings of Shin + Nao, Yosiell Lorenzo or one of our other artists who have given us stamps and brushes. Don’t forget you can always use our digital drawing and painting tools or download the template and work offline!

Below is a blank, untouched template. Click it to go to the Character Designer where you can work online or off. Here are tutorials to help you out. What will YOU create? Create-Your-Own Bernie by Scott Tolleson and MAQET is priced at just $30 for your own unique 4-inch work of art! Click here to get started!

The Art Hustle Series 3 roster was recently announced, and we’re extremely pleased to have several of our current and future MAQETeers involved!  Among the names on the incredible list: writer, Jeremy Brautman, doodler Jon Burgerman (coming soon), sculptor Eric Nocella Diaz (CPK!), artist Dirty Donny (coming soon), character designer Hariken (coming very soon), creator of Emily the Strange, Rob Reger (coming very soon) and toy designer, Sergey Safonov (coming soon)!

The niche card series features artists, designers, photographers, filmmakers, writers and gallerists from the contemporary art world. The Art Hustle cards are designed to be traded and collected, just like in the old days. Each wax pack contains a stick of gum and holds the possibility of rare, autographed and customized art cards!

Here’s a collection of autographed cards we found online! We’re very proud of all the hard-working creatives who are being immortalized on trading cards in The Art Hustle Series 3. The new inductees will join previous series artists including Heathrow the Hedgehog’s creator, Frank Kozik and Bernie Cotton’s creator, Scott Tolleson.

Volkswagen sent over some photos of the winning customized car prototypes from the recent Design-Your-Own Polo contest. Amateur and professional designer alike used MAQET’s character design software to create their own dream vehicles, and 40 winners were chosen to have their designs turned into scale models. You can now see 10-inch, 3D-printed versions of the multi-colored design by Boston-based artist, Howie Green (above, right) and the happy bear camouflage colorway of Tokyo-based super-couple, Shin + Nao (above, left).

We actually think that VW’s choice of winners was quite well-picked. MAQET is all about enabling other people’s creativity, so to us, success is seeing the execution of original ideas–even those that might initially make us say: HUH?! For instance, the Polo covered in kisses (above, front row, far left) seemed an odd idea at first, but then it hit us: The designer is saying (in a very straight-forward way), “I love you, VW Polo! Pick me!” Of course, we’re extra proud of our MAQET artists who made the final cut, and Howie Green has another design (above, front row, far right). His rainbow ride is all about happiness, not just for the driver, but for everyone whose path crosses the car.

Even though we make models and work with 3D printers every day, everyone at MAQET HQ still enjoys the magic of seeing a fully formed, full-color prototype emerge from the ‘pixie dust’. Click through to watch the 10-inch Polo prototypes being born at the VW Headquarters. And remember: All 40 cars will be exhibited at the Danish Design Center in Copenhagen on May 25th. During the opening event, Polo will announce which winner will receive a real car with his/her design to drive for two months over the summer. The suspense is killing us!

Click through >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

read more »

Head’s up Hedgehog fans: Full sets of Frank Kozik’s Sore-Bet Heathrow the Hedgehog MAQETs are now sold out. These Plastin^TM Heathrows are bright and clean with interior Kozik & MAQET logo hits. If you’re wondering about the “sore-bet” / “sorbet” flavorway thing; it’s just a little pun-fun.

Each of the 5 colors are limited editions of only 6 pieces. You will not see them again in this size and color combination. The Heathrow figures stand almost 5 inches tall. Seaberry (blue) is sold out, and Watermelon (pink) is almost gone. Passionfruit (purple), Lime (green) and Lemon (yellow) are still available now.

We know you prefer real photos to renderings, and we’re working on it! So here’s a photo of Frank Kozik and a full-size orange Heathrow from SDCC. Just stare at something pink or purple or green or yellow and then look back at this pic for the sake of comparison. Go get ‘em!

We wanted to take a moment to congratulate MAQET artist, character designer, fashion icon and proud papa, Scott Tolleson (and his wife Kathy of course) on the birth of their second daughter, Piper. We are sure that big sister Lyla (who sold her first original painting at the EARTH MOVEMENT show) will take the new arrival under her wing. Congratulations to this adorable, artistic and argyle family!

We’ve always maintained that MAQETs are egalitarian art objects. When we were 15, we hated 21+ concerts. And now that we’re grown up, we find it terribly unfair that we can’t ride the kiddie rides at the carnival. (How awesome are these cars???) So we made MAQET with everyone in mind: From Scott Tolleson, a professional designers working for Disney (Check out his Bernie Cotton MAQETs) to Camille, a 5-year old girl who already possesses a keen sense of color theory.

With some assistance from her (proud) papa, Lee, Camille chose Nao’s Dankeschoen Create Your Own Character template, and immediately went to work with magic markers on a paper printout. Lee and Camille enjoyed the ability to view the bear in 3D before ordering the collectible. Once satisfied, the bear was given a name (Rainbow), and dispatched to the worker elves at MAQET HQ.

Please take a look at Lee’s post about MAQET on Howdy Kids: The Magazine for Parents of Exceptional Children. Here’s his verdict!

For special occasions or gifts, it’s really exciting to see your child’s artwork translated into 3 dimensions. We’re already brainstorming what our next creation will look like. If you’re not the artistic type, you can also go rogue and cover your figurine in photographs of a family vacation or quotes from your favorite book. Anything you can illustrate by hand or compose in a computer graphics application can be placed on a toy. For the cool factor alone, MAQET’s offerings are totally worth the price.

Thanks for sharing your MAQET, Camille! We encourage parents to check out the Howdy Kids website for all its great content AND our special discount code for free shipping on your next MAQET.

MAQET is incredibly proud to announce that three designs from our very own talented roster of MAQET-makers were chosen among the Top 40 customized cars in The VW Polo Principle contest! VW received over 1400 entries by all levels of artists from all over the world. Each individual designed his/her personal vision of a Polo automobile using our original character designer software.

Boston-based Howie Green and Tokyo super-couple, Shin + Nao are advancing to the finals with their colorful cars. Along with 37 other lucky car customizers, their designs are in the process of being 3D-printed as incredible 10-inch Polo prototypes. All 40 cars will be exhibited at the Danish Design Center in Copenhagen on May 25th. During the opening event, Polo will announce which winner will receive a real car with his/her design to drive for two months over the summer.

What an incredible opportunity. It’s time to make sure those driver’s licenses are up to date! Howie, Shin and Nao, we’re rooting for you!