I have always thought that woven rugs like these bear a peculiar similarity to 8 and 16-bit video game graphics, but none I have seen have come as close as these amazing Afghan War Rugs. Some may think it a sinister comparison, but these rugs remind me of a rug I had as a child, with streets, roads and car parks set out for my Matchbox Cars.

I have become very interested in making work that is placed flat on the floor, or drawn or painted directly onto the floor. It conveys the sense that you could just 'jump in' and transport yourself to another world. Perhaps that is why I find these rugs slightly sinister, as that 'other world' reveals itself to be a very dangerous reality. But I suppose children, and particularly young boys, love their toys and games to have a sense of danger!

For much more, visit Rug Review and WarRugs.com.

More toys that influenced me at an early age. I really liked the way they changed between two different shapes, and at the time they looked so streamlined and futuristic. While a lot of sci-fi toys at the time were very fantastical and OTT, the way the Starcom toys referenced existing military hardware with a futuristic twist was really distinctive. I never really watched the TV series, but one of the kids at school had the full set of these and I was always bugging him to play with them!

Thinking of revisiting some of the toys you had as a kid? Go here for a MASSIVE collection of images. They have everything, from Play-Doh to G.I Joe.

While conducting some web-research for my own custom toy work, I came across this website today, an incredibly complete collection of Kinder Egg toys, owned by a man named Thore.

If you're not familiar with Kinder Surprise, they were hollow chocolate eggs with a plastic egg inside, containing a toy. You usually had to follow instructions and assemble it. The toys were of a particularly high quality, snapping together in a very satisfactory sort of a way. There were also solid figures, which, while you did not have to assemble them, and were not quite as fun, were actually hand painted!

I loved these as a child, and it honestly brought a tear to my eye as I looked through Thores collection, recognizing the very toys that had captured my imagination at age 5-7.

Here are some of the toys I remember:

...but this only scratches the surface. Check out Thore's Website for more, and I will be posting more Kinder Surprise toys I find on the web in due course :)

Here's some research I've been doing for my current custom toy project, a Coarse Toys Paw, commissioned by Nicocato from the KR Boards.

I've been mostly looking at images of feathered dinosaurs (which by their nature are artistic imaginings), mythical feathered reptiles like the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, as well as reptilians from conspiracy theories, revisiting a theme from a previous post, the fantasy worlds created by paranoiacs and schizophrenics.

Part 7 in a series of posts of things that interest me or have influenced my artwork or custom toy work. Today, here's some of my favourite military formations.

Part 6 in a series of posts of things that interest me or have influenced my artwork or custom toy work. Today, some interesting graphical glitches.

When he died in 1964, pastor James Hampton's landlord discovered this in his garage.

It is made from broken furniture, old light bulbs and other assorted junk, meticulously wrapped in gold and silver foil. Very little is known about James Hampton, although it is known that 'The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nation's Millenium General Assembly' was intended as a learning aid to teach children about the bible. It is accompanied by volumes of encoded text that have yet to be deciphered...

As a toy customizer, I find it interesting that this amazing work was created for children. The 'gestalt' impression is very grandiose and austere, but when you explore the details some charming touches are revealed, like the foil-wrapped lightbulbs, which playfully allude to the 'light' of revelation.

(Image source)

While tragic and no doubt torturous for those who suffer from them, there is something about the hallucinatory fantasy worlds of the insane that has always fascinated me and resonated with my own work.

The Airloom is a mind-control device imagined by James Tilly Matthews, who is considered by psychiatrists as the first documented case of paranoid schizophrenia.
In 1810 John Haslam produced this illustration of Matthews' hallucinatory device and published it in his book, Illustrations of Madness.
Matthews believed that a gang of criminals used the device to remotely influence his thoughts, and to perform bizarre magnetic procedures on him, which he called 'Kiting', 'Lobster-Cracking', 'Bomb-Breaking', 'Stomach-Skinning' and 'Apoplexy-working with the nutmeg grater'.

In 2002, artist Rod Dickinson painstakingly reconstructed the Airloom from Haslam's illustrations, installing it at The Laing Gallery, Newcastle.

Captain Bucky O'Hare, one of my childhood favourites. Unfortunately I never owned any of the toys!

Tesla's Death Ray...