A.G Paper Toys

Good news everybody

2011-06-04T07:50:00.000-07:00

I've ordered a second design P.C. so I'll be back up and running like never before. I'm planning to do a 24 hour design sitting once it's all hooked up to get 10 new toys ready to release, then I just need the site to put them on.

I'll be talking to the web guy on Monday.

This blog has hit all all new low in views so I'm going to make sure that the new site has papertoys popping up like mad.

A day of adventure

2011-05-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

Today I did a lot of paper related stuff, however none of this involved designing toys, I had a meeting with the business side of A.G.papertoys, and later on in the day a lot of opportunity appeared.
I'm so tired I might fall to sleep at my desk, but it was worth it.

Win a lucky Claw from the Monster Workshop

2011-05-20T06:14:00.000-07:00

Two new paper toy's have been added to the freebies page for Monster Workshop. So go download them, make em and then send us a pic of and you could be lucky enough to win a mini claw for your efforts!

Entries will be posted on our blog as well as our facebook and flikr pages.

P.S I'm aware of the problems with scale with one of the paper toys, I hope to get it fixed in the future, but for now you'll just have to make do.

I really never posted this?!

2011-05-19T13:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of myself (before I looked so scruffy) and the meter tall globe head toy I created for doodle day 2011. This was a picture taken by photographer turned papertoy designer Peter Fox in the middle of Leeds. On the way to transport this toy back to the safety of the car, he was bombarded with wind, crowds and rain. He has since been resting in a collage display, he's melted and deformed a lot since this picture, but that's just a reason to make a new one.

Stitches and Glue toys out tomorrow

2011-05-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

I'm sure some of you remember the Tonk toys and competition I ran with the amazing plush designer Paul Vincent over at Stitches and Glue and Monster Workshop, well here come a bunch more craft-able critters for you to cut, fold, glue and enjoy.

I especial enjoyed designing the stitched together toy, I think the clash of colours and movement creates a real character. This was also the first project I used my new style rules on... I decided not to limit myself to having just 1 style that I would use on all projects but toy change the style for each set or batch of toys.

These toys will be available on the freebie page on the Stitches and Glue site tomorrow.

Here's a picture of Tonk just in case you've forgotten. Or buy a real plush from Paul here.

(Image source)

Jurassic Park

2011-05-16T15:04:00.001-07:00

I was looking at the stats section of blogger today, it lets me see how many views the blog’s had and where people came from. For example if some one clicked a link on Paperkraft.net to find my site, it would let me know. The strange part is I had a whole bucket load of views from people searching for “Jurassic Park” on google, and some how finding my site. I don’t recall ever mentioning “Jurassic Park” and the only dinosaur toys I’ve done where “Candy the magic dinosaur”, and a few Cutzila customs.

Thinking about it, making a blog post called ”Jurassic Park” and mentioning ”Jurassic Park” a whole load of times isn’t going to help the situation is it?

Also here is a failed graphic for the blog, this is one of many concepts I've decided against for the new site.

Free toys on the way,

2011-05-15T12:55:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend sketching out paper toys, a lot of paper toys 20 or more paper toys. Some of these are for books and prints etc. But 15 of these toys will be free for download once they are designed. The toys I have been working on are a darker tone but just as playful as I wanted them to be, there’s everything from drug dealers, hobos, hookers and beggars. The first bunch of these toys is called “Starving Artists – Begging For Change” with artists begging for money, as the name might suggest.

So there’s at least 10 free toys to look forward to, and 5 no not look forward to.

I also designed some controversial toys I doubt I will release, when ever I design a toy with themes of religion they get very offensive, very fast. (My bad.)

The detail void.

2011-05-08T11:19:00.001-07:00

I usually do the majority of my design work between 1 and 3 in the morning, it means I am tired enough that I don’t obsess over details and get stuck in the “detail void” but I’m still awake enough to get the measurements right. However I can’t design toys at the moment meaning I’ve had to find something else to fill this time, so I’ve been doing a lot research into art and religion etc etc instead.

I finally think I know where I stand on most of the issues facing artists today.

(wondering what I meant by the “detail void”? If I add to much detail to a toy I find that the detail makes the shape look simplistic, so I either have to make the shape more detailed and make it more of a papercraft than a papertoy or make the graphics simpler. The void is when I get stuck between it looking to realistic and to cartoony. I have to pick one style or another, mixing the two doesn’t work.)

Thoughts on a fund raiser

2011-05-07T07:55:00.000-07:00

Thinking about it, if I can’t do what I want with office 2003 and 2010’s compatability issues, I’ll need a new design P.C. This isn’t all bad, it will just be awkward to get a P.C. that’s old enogh for office 2003 but new enough to handle the huge about of work I’ll be doing on it (my design files are huge, 2,3 GB).

It will also cost more money so I’m thinking of doing a fund raiser, selling a sets of pre-printed by a (professional printing service) paper toys. I’ve doodled up the designs I’ll probably get the opinions of the people on NPT first.

Re-desighning

2011-05-07T07:46:00.000-07:00

Before the death of my old design P.C. I was re-designing some old toys, toys like Skelatoon, Werewolf and Hockey Mask Murderer. I plan to re-design all my old toys to make them one piece toys I’ve already made Werewolf and Hockey Mask Murderer one piece where they were once two pieces. I’m also giving them the same banner at the bottom of the page saying A.G. paper toys and such. This way they look better when they’re printed out next to each other and they now look more professional.

Also here's a preview of a project I'm working on (a book) It's still got a long way to go but you get to see my attempt at more professional photos. I'll use a different camera to avoid bur in future.

Almost in the clear

2011-05-05T09:58:00.001-07:00

We’re almost there, I’ve now got a new P.C. with a touch screen and windows 2010. Now I just need to find a solution to the windows office 2003 problem and the P.C. upgrade is done. I have some fan art toys to give away as a free download including Tetris, Minecraft and Deadspace. I’m also working on at least 5 toys for a fund raiser and a bucket load of toys for a book. I’m also working with a great designer on joins and articulation (more on that soon).

However, I can’t do any of this until the P.C. upgrade is done. So close and yet so far.

Upgrade almost done!

2011-03-08T06:42:00.001-08:00

That's right, soon the upgrade will be done and that means free downloadable paper toys for everyone!

Making the day a little brighter

2011-03-01T03:30:00.000-08:00

This is a picture posted my Mr.Walkietalkie on the Nice Paper Toy photo section. It made my day (still upgrading).

Sigh, upgrade.

2011-02-21T08:49:00.000-08:00

I'm currently upgrading a.g.papertoy's equipment... it turns out that new computers and printers etc cost money. But once the upgrade is done the office will be running at twice the speed. Sorry for the lack of updates.

Here's a sideways picture

2011-01-29T06:19:00.000-08:00

Look what I found

2011-01-29T06:12:00.000-08:00

Someone sent me this picture the other day, it's of the toybreak team and I believe Brian Castlefort and Cooper (I think). I can't watch Toybreak any more due to how bed my P.C is but according to the person who sent this, it's a custom of my toy of Ayleen and it was exhibited at some show.... Lack of detail, but I'm sure it was good.

Working hard or hardly working?

2011-01-10T03:23:00.000-08:00

The frustration of not being able to blog and having to no doubt re-design a lot of projects is setting in. I have 5 or 6 commissions on the go not to mention personal projects and free toys. But at least it’s bringing some money in… or at least it will. I’ve also been doing some graphics that (for once) aren’t papertoys and just flat graphics. Soon I will have an interview to determine if I will get a place in university but the odds are stacked against me, so I’m trying to show I can do more than just papertoys. After all there are only 15 places and 90 or more people will apply all with 2 years on a pure graphics course. But I have never taken a graphics lesson in my life and can’t use Photoshop to save my life (PowerPoint 2003 is king). All this has made me a little stressed recently, but on the up side my paper toy monsters book arrived the other day and that’s helping to chill me out. Above is a graphic I've been working on... it needs some work.

2011

2011-01-04T02:53:00.000-08:00

So, it's 2011 and the future is looking brighter than a light bulb on fire. So what douse the next year hold for A.G.papertoys?

In 2011 there's going to be a lot going on, including some mass produced die-cut products.

Some smaller run toys and of course a whole lot of free toys up for download. The main thing I’m looking forward to is the new site with a shop and a whole lot of pages…and without “blogspot.com” at the top.

Simple day

2010-12-29T11:45:00.000-08:00

Today was an easy day of designing, I just had to do one part of a toy and even then it was more like designing a quater then copy pasting it 3 times if I'm honest. I spent the rest of the day watching Jurasic Park and drawing up ideas for free toys and mass produced products. I drew up a whoe line of toys.

Body building

2010-12-28T15:40:00.000-08:00

I designed the body for my project today, once again going mad with detail. I can now see the size this toy is going to be... and damn it's huge. Once this toy is done it will tower over other papertoys whilst they cower in its shadow. But first I need to adjust its face, at the moment it looks sad not angry. My blog posts usually have a picture at the top, so here's my design for a custom mungo mp3 player. It didn't get selected for production or even make it onto the site, but I have re-cycled the graphics time and time again so it all worked out.

New Skin

2010-12-27T12:30:00.000-08:00

Today I used a new technique for designing skin and making things look more organic. The picture above is a part of my new secret project, but I figured it was ok to show as there's no way you can figure out what it is from this picture. As you can (hopefully) see I used a lot more shadow and lighting than usual and covered the skin in little dimples of shadow to create an effect of age. Finally I added a few spots of brown to show more age and difference in colour. Not bad for something that will end up being tiny or something that was designed on powerpoint.

Boxing day

2010-12-26T10:14:00.001-08:00

I worked briefly on some graphics for a big project today, I added huge amounts of detail and used allot of skills I haven't shown in any of my free toys before... And I should mention this isn't going to be a free toy either. But for the rest of the day I visited relatives and watched movies I'll make up for it tomorrow.

It's Christmas.

2010-12-25T09:32:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas today so did the usual "oh thanks" to things you hate and the usual "this is delicious" to a poorly cooked meal, but that's all part of Christmas right? After all of the usual stuff I got back to work (bah humbug) sketching up a new project, a damn big one too. Also here's a graphic I designed for someone to send around there office... or from"the central quality assurance team" who ever they are. Merry Christmas.

Meetings on Christmas eve.

2010-12-24T09:24:00.000-08:00

Had a meeting with Stuart today, nothing to serious just making sure we know what we're doing and talked about some problems we might encounter. We also talked about the adventures his dogs would have if they could talk. It didn't feel like it was Christmas eve, perhaps I'm just not in the Christmas mood this year...

Custom Nani Bird in batch four.

2010-12-23T09:19:00.000-08:00

This is my custom Nani Bird called Pidge. It's inspired by the (not so) great British pigeon and mixed with a robot. I was happy to get into batch 4, and not only because it's probably the last batch. I tried to get into batch 3 back when I was first starting up but didn't, not that I can blame Josh Mckibblo my design was pretty crappy. You can get my custom along with 40 other designs by such artists as Shin Tanaka, Dolly Oblong and Horrorwood...HERE.

Meeting and mince pie.

2010-12-22T10:43:00.001-08:00

I met up once again with Stuart today for a cup of tea and a mince pie. We went over the usual stuff and more projects I can't speak about. I unlaced my inner nerd as we talked about trading cards, strategy games and old sci-fi shows, all for marketing purposes of course. I also brought along a toy that I released a teaser picture of over on Nice Paper Toys. It wasn't originally even meant to be a teaser but after my old buddy Luke Glood said "love it! the best teaser we have seen from you yet? yes." it became a teaser after all. The picture above is that teaser. I didn't finish my mince pie, I only have a little stomach my bad Stuart.

Day off

2010-12-20T08:29:00.001-08:00

I took a day off today, not that I wanted to believe me. The fact was it was just to cold. I was planning to start writing the instructions for a toy and about 10 minuets in I couldn't feel my fingers, and that was with gloves on. As much as I tried to keep working or go warm up then work I couldn't. I hate not being able to do things and I didn't want the day to be wasted so started sketching out another project. Also here's a picture of my pathetic snowman I made during the 2 ft of snow England has just recovered from. Enjoy.

Hunny I blew up, then shrank the toy.

2010-12-19T08:06:00.001-08:00

Today was a day full of the boring bits of producing a papetoy, but it wasn't without its challenges. I needed to make a toy 150% its original size then fit it onto A5 sheets instead of A4. It wasn't easy but I got the job done. I also tweaked the new joint system I've been working on by one tenth of a millimeter, this doesn't sound like much but now it grips better without gripping to much. Also here's a graphic of a snowman and Santa shooting at each other I made for something, I can't remember what, but they didn't pay me.

meetings and greetings

2010-12-18T08:36:00.001-08:00

I had a quick meeting today with S.R, well actually it was a long meeting but we didn't notice it was at the time. I can't say a whole lot about what we talked about (all top secret). But it went well. Here's a picture of S.R. looking like he's about to take over the world.

S.R is a great guy with a great mind (mainly because it works like my mind... so it must be great).

Sad Santa toy release

2010-12-17T09:00:00.001-08:00

Here's the Christmas toy for 2010, Sad Santa.

This toy is also here to fill in whilst all the other papertoys are offline, they will be back up for download once the new website is done so make due with the Santa. Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, been working on getting a new camera and a light box or something to take more professional shots. Get the toy HERE.

Chritmas cards

2010-12-16T06:10:00.001-08:00

Here's a picture of the papertoy christmas cards I gave out to my freinds, they where printed on A5 photo card and cute as hell. I bet you think I'm winding down for christmas right? Wrong, in fact I'm working on next years toys. Plus I should be releasing this years free christmas toy tommorow.

Doodle Day 2011 toys

2010-12-15T06:28:00.001-08:00

For 2011, National Doodle Day both myself and well known designer Jennifer Bryan (I hope I spelt that right) teamed up to offer something a little different to every keen doodler.

On top of the usual Doodle Day activities, you can make a small range of paper toys – designed especially for National Doodle day!

The theme was "me and my world" so I created Globe head a cute little guy with a globe for a head.... But I guess you assumed that from the name. I also created Stacketens these simple toys are aimed at a youner audience and customisers, they come blank so print off as many as you can and see if you can reach the moon by stacking (I bet you can't).

To get the toys you have to text in (info here) it will cost just £1.50 for a toy and the money goes to Epilepsy Action and The Neurofibromatosis Association.
Click HERE to get the toys as well as see more pictures and read the smallprint.

Ok, are we back online?

2010-12-14T10:18:00.001-08:00

Yes we are! Sorry for the lack of posts believe me if blogger hadn't been playing up I would have had a blog post every other day. Things have been moving at break neck speeds over here at A.G.papertoys there have been toys getting ready for printing, toys being designed left right and center. Plus there will soon be A NEW SITE! and this one is amazing, and not a blogger it's a real website registered and everything. Right but for now I am back to work on a secret project. I hope to get this years Christmas toy (Sad Santa - see picture) up for download tomorrow but I might not be able to, if I can't it can wait until next year right?

Can't post having blogger problems

2010-12-14T09:48:00.000-08:00

Custom shark paper ninja

2010-08-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

This is a custom of paper ninja I made a short while ago, you can take off the head to reveal a wise old man....well what els did you expect to find when you take of the head of a shark? P.S sorry for not posting in a long time having problems with blogger.

A.G papertoy custom Yubbi's release

2010-06-20T13:55:00.001-07:00

That's right the A.G papertoy customs of the Turkish toy Yubba (designed by Cari Akyurt) that were exhibited in the Istanbul's Milk gallery & design store in an exhibition called the Milk gone mad papertoy show are now available to download here. You can even download the blank template here.

Monster Workshop Competition

2010-05-14T07:07:00.001-07:00

Ive been working with Paul Vincent a talented Plush toy designer, now we're teaming up with Plastic and Plush and offering followers the chance of owning a bespoke piece of Plush Art.

Simply construct your very own paper monster, by downloading the patterns provided DOWNLOAD HERE (designed by myself) and take a photo of your creation and send it back to us.
The more interesting the better and we would encourage participants to be creative and inventive of their surroundings.

The winning submission will win themselves their very own,
one-off custom 'Monster Workshop' monster, selecting from a wide number of options available, with its own unique story. There will also be two runner up prizes of lucky monster claws.

Email your submissions to: mail@stitchesandglue.com

Each submission will be posted up on Plastic and Plush's website, our facebook fan page and Flikr pages.

The competition will run until Sunday the 13th of June. We look forward to seeing what you come up with!

One year in the making

2010-04-20T10:26:00.001-07:00

Its been a good year, infact it's my first year in papertoys! To thank the first site that hosted my work paperkraft.net I made a new exclusive toy Steam Rider. You can download him HERE.

Let the fight begin!

2010-04-18T23:47:00.000-07:00

The fights have been announced my toy lobsterman (see previous post) will be fighting Peanut brittle Pat by Cooper on the 26th of April. At the same time fighters Octavius and Mammoth will be facing off (see more here) and the semi finals will start on the 27th of April.

Papercut Custom from Abz

2010-04-18T08:12:00.000-07:00

A long time ago I made a blank custom toy called Papercut by Abz (Oh-sheet). But for many reasons the Papercut custom series was not released for download, but Abz has now released her custom of the toy. Download it HERE. Lets hope that the other artists in the series will put there customs up for download too (sorry guys).

Paper Fight Club

2010-04-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

I have entered the Paper Fight Club. The club founded by Zerolabor is a torderment of fighting papertoys, there have been two fights already the victors being Rise Upper by Mike P and Wu Xing by Zerolabor, now my fighter takes to the ring. Lobster Man (so the name isn't that great I admit) but here he is.

I don't know who I am fighting yet but I will keep my blog updated with any Paper Fight Club news. Be sure to vote for my fighter here on the big day.

Paper Puppets in Music Video

2010-03-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

his is a music video for Baba O'Riley by The Who, I made 9 puppets but only two made it to the final thing. We originally filmed a whole different section on a talk show but that didn't make it to the final cut either.

The video stars : Jack Owens, James Guy, Mike Haywood, Alexander Gwynne, Daniel Woodhead plus Meggan Thompson and Amy Borresford as extras

Enjoy the video HERE

A.G papertoy in Cat-a-lyst series 1

2010-03-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

Talented artist Morgan Gleeve has released his first wave of his platform toy cat-a-lyst. I was invited to be in the series there was also Luke Glood, Scott Schaller, Marko Zubak, Papermate and the super tallented Horrorwood in the set aswell.

Get all of them HERE

Slurg Contest Victory

2010-02-16T06:59:00.000-08:00

I found out that I won the Slurg contest, (even if I was the only entry) My entry was the Slurg Stomper.

This pair of robotic legs were made for walking, and that's just what they do. Slurg and I are currently discussing a collaboration.

Become a Papertoy Competition #1

2010-02-15T14:16:00.000-08:00

Thats right A.G papertoy has teamed up with plastic and plush to run the become a papertoy cometition!There will be 3 winners and the competition ends on the 8th of March.

Enter here

Toy Break paper round up

2010-02-14T05:15:00.000-08:00

Yet more pictures from the amazing Kraykit of my Toy Break paperytoys.

Im going to concentrate on the other toy im making for toybreak now. Thanks again Kraykit!

Dose this mean im famous?

2010-02-14T05:02:00.000-08:00

Wow would you look at that, 3 Eye Bear, Papermate and whats this? Alexander Gwynne?

That's right for some unknown reason I appear when you search nicepapertoys! Not that I'm complaining.

Ben is back for more

2010-02-13T06:20:00.001-08:00

Searching on the Toy break forum (specifically Episode 107 : Paper Break)I found this:

This is my papertoy of Ben from toybreak. It was constructed and photographed by Krakit ( A regular forum submitter) from Atlanta, Georgia.

You can catch the episode here, and download Ben and the rest of the team here.

Lost in translation

2010-02-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

Due to unforeseen events not only have I lost lots of papertoys but the few remaining have gone corrupt. I can only hope that once converted to PDF the parts will come together to make the whole toy.

Some of the toys lost include my Mycelium Man for Jennifer Bryan's book and my contribution for Project Renmen.

Fingers crossed.

A.G paperotys on Plastic and Plush

2010-02-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

The Plastic and Blush bear is avalable now here, if you build it up and take a photo sond it in (here) you can win a special prize.
plus im going to be running a competition on plastic and plush real soon. So keep an eye out.

A.G papertoys in Milk gallery & design store

2010-02-07T14:28:00.000-08:00

A.G papertoy's customs of the Turkish toy Yubba designed by Cari Akyurt were exhibited in the Istanbul's Milk gallery & design store in an exhibition called the Milk gone mad papertoy show.

Check out more photos and other artists work on this flicker streem.

A.G papertoys on Toybreak

2010-02-07T14:24:00.000-08:00

After I designed some papertoys of the three preseners of toybreak( George, Alieen and ben) A.G papertoys had a huge feature in episode 107-paper break (wonder why It was called that?

Catch the episode here and get the toy break toys here.