Art of Toys Blog
What is the difference between a collector and a hoarder?
What is the difference between a collector and a hoarder? Organization! I love to see how people organize and display their collections! In this day of internet I found these three interviews on youtube with three very different collections but all three have a lot of...
How Condition Affects Value for Collectables
How Condition affects value for collectables Well the obvious answer is the better the condition the more value. In these days of ebay and shows like Antique Roadshow and American Pickers thou many are buying toys and just leaving them in the package so this is about...
Christmas in July…ho ho ho
Christmas in July...ho ho ho It is hot outside, 104 today, and it is hard to think about the holidays but this is the time of year when retailers have to start making commitments to manufacturers and artists for the holiday season. Every year it is a guessing game as...
Artist Doll Market of the 90’s- Where did it go?
Artist Doll Market of the 90's- Where did it go? I have collected dolls since I was five so when I went to my first West Coast Toy Show in Pasadena , California I was obsessed with the blossoming new market of doll artists. I was a sub-rep to a handful of artists with...
What is Toy Assemblage?
Assemblage is an artistic process. In the visual arts it consists of making three-dimensional or two-dimensional artistic compositions by putting together found objects ...Wiki Go Forward, Johann Dieter Wassman 1897 So in the world of Art Of Toys this means taking...
SPAM
Sorry to have missed a few days but the site was hit with a explosion of SPAM (not the food) ...drove me nuts! We were so excited to finally get the Review tab functioning correctly so you could start listing your wonderful reviews and comments directly but...
Paper Toys
Paper Toys Paper toys have been around since the mid-1600s when they were called Pantins. Almost every toy can be found in a paper or cardboard version. American companies began turning out paper toys by the thousands around 1900. McLoughlin/Milton Bradley, the most...
Shop The Grid
For all you people who read the blog and do not know what the grid is in Sacramento, California, where the gallery is located, it is the downtown area that was designed to be on a basic square grid. This makes it really easy to get around Sacramento unless you do not...
Keith Haring Artist of the 80s
I LOVE the simple lines of the graphic images of artist Keith Haring so much that I imported toys from France with his images! I was amazed to discover how few people know this talented young artist, Keith Haring Artist of the 80's. Keith Allen Haring was an American...
Art Copyright – Who Retains the Rights?
Art Copyright - Who Retains the Rights? Art Copyright is the right to copy or reproduce an artwork and consequently sell, exhibit, etc. If you are an artist who has created an original work of art (it could be a drawing, an oil painting, a photograph, a digital art...
Can Monsters be cute?
Monsters are wonderful for the artist for there are no boundaries in creativity... anything goes! T. Oliver Kopian of Creatures Delight has been creating cute monsters for years but since Disney did the Monster. Inc. movies I hear oh that is just like "Monsters Inc."...
Collecting Toy Reference Books
Collecting Toy Reference Books I love buying old toy reference books at the local used book store...I guess I have started a collection of toy reference books...help me! Yes I know there is the internet but guess what someone has to put it on the internet first and I...
Toy Blocks
Toy Blocks Blocks the universal toy that are a treasure in the simple lines of design that can be discovered by all ages and cultures. I was surprised to find that, according to Wiki, the first historic mention of blocks was not until 1693 by English philosopher John...
Who is Monster Painter Jared Konopitski?
Who is Monster Painter Jared Konopitski? This month at Art Of Toys in the Sacramento Gallery it has added the creative work of local artist Jared Konopitski in a series of fun monster paintings. We first met Jared thru in house artist Chris Cinder who suggested we try...
G.I. Joe
G.I. Joe It is Fourth of July weekend so I thought I would touch on a American icon toy of the 1960's, G.I. Joe produced by Hasbro and first hit the market in the summer of 1964. It was sold as a toy designed to take rough play of boys not a collectible... today it is...