Art Talk – ‘Blockheads Toys’, ‘The Resin Syndicate’ + the Ziegler Brothers

The Ziegler brothers Garrett and Jordan make up ‘Blockheads Toys‘ a new group in the art-toy scene making toys that hint at acid fueled violence…

Not content with being a lone entity, Garrett and Jordan were quick to link in with other art-groups ‘Edge of Doom‘ and ‘Goodleg Toys‘ to form, Voltron like, the umbrella art gang, ‘The Resin Syndicate‘.

(Picture below of the Sgt. Corpse Grinder figure by ‘Blockheads Toys’)

‘The Resin Syndicate’ gang will be debuting a stall at the 2013 Designer Con together…

So now is a great time to get to know the Ziegler Brothers, ‘Blockheads Toys’ and ‘The Resin Syndicate’ in the interview below…

Basics/Getting to Know

Name + D.O.B?

Garrett Ziegler 6/20/84

Jordan Ziegler 7/10/87

(Picture below of a, IG 666 figure, by ‘Edge of Doom’, painted by ‘Blockheads Toys’ – a ‘Resin Syndicate’ gang piece)

City, State n Country you’re Repping?

Simi Valley California U.S.A

Describe– a pivotal memory from yr life…basically trying to piece together Mr. Blockheads’ pivotal moments. Concerts, art, action-figures, women, school, college… ANYTHING man.

The memories we have would be growing up playing with our action figures together. We had everything and anything action figure growing up. And we were always battling it out.

Personal motto/quote?

“It never got weird enough for me” – Hunter S Thompson

Favorite band(s)?

pelican, atmoshphere, people under the stairs, between the buried and me, the black dahlia murder.

We listen to a lot of stand up comedy as well.

Favorite TV show(s)?

We don’t watch T.V.

Favorite sport(s) + teams?

N/A

Favorite movie(s)?

Fear n loathing in las vegas, house of 1000 corpses, sin city,

Favorite books and comics?

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. X-Men, Spider Man

Specifics on Art

Do you consider what you are making to be ‘art’, ‘design’, re-hashed crap?

We would have to say more “design mixed with a lil bit of that, re-hashed crap”.

(Picture below of the ‘Blockheads Toys’ Casey Voorhees figure)

When and why did you first start making ‘art’ (toys, drawings, paintings, anything)?

We started making “art” together about 9 months ago. We started making toys so we could trade other artists. Meet some people have some fun with it you know.

(Picture below of a 1-off figure from ‘Blockheads Toys’)

Why + when did you decide to go in on the art hustle?

We decided to go into the hustle when we saw that people took interest in our stuff.

We hit things into over drive tho once we found out our roommate was diagnosed with stage 4b maxillary squamus cell carcinoma, along with 4 four tumors all around her face. Shes no loner able to work due to the pain so we do what we can to help out with the things she needs.

We have been receiving a lot of help and its been nice. Too many to shout out but you know who you are !!!!!!

Any formal art training? Or pivotal moment/influence?

The lil brother Jordan has always had the artistic skills of the family. I think us working together is making him grow each day more as an artist. Everytime he paints he gets better.

Its nice to have someone make my ideas look pretty hahaha !!!

Company motto?

“Our toys are not perfect, because neither are we”

Favorite ‘other’ artist(s)?

Worst aspect of the contemporary art-hustle?

I would say finding the time to do as much stuff as we would like to accomplish.

(Picture below of a mechanical mash-up figure by ‘Blockheads Toys’)

Best aspect of the contemporary art-hustle?

Meeting all the cool people we have so far. We have got to work with some really awesome and talented people.

‘Blockheads Toys’ Art Questions

Describe the method of making a Blockheads piece? (dot point all o.k.)

We usually will hit up our local comic shop and spend an hour or two there coming up with ideas looking around.

Were lucky they have this bin full of random action figures that are all loose just waiting to be chopped up !!!

So we bring them back to the lab where we play farnkenstien with super glue and sculpey. 9 times out of 10 we don’t use what we make but sometimes we get that gem where we have to cast haha.

I know that ‘Blockheads’ toys is made up of yourself – Garrett Ziegler, and your younger brother Jordan Ziegler…

– what role do you each play within Blockheads?

Ok so pretty much I (Garrett) come up with originals, do all the molding, casting and packaging. Sometimes ill get a wild hair up my ass and paint something up.

Jordan helps out with orginals as well and does 99% of our paiting.

– what is it like working with family on a creative endeavor?

You know its really cool. We get to chill, drink beer and make art together. It can can tense sometimes but we work thru it and move on. Were family.

Your ‘Sgt. Corpse Grinder’ figure has been very well received…

(Picture below of the Sgt. Corpse Grinder figure, as painted by ‘Ersico‘)

– what was the inspiration behind the figure?

My lil brother and I were hanging out one night late making stuff and he kinda just became a toy.

We made him when were were fist farting around with the idea of making toys, so we weren’t really sure how people were going to think of him.

– what was the process in producing the figure?

Our first toys we produced we tried to do the original sculpt thing but people weren’t really feeling them. So we decided to try this guy out and we got positive feedback so we stuck with the bootleg side of things !!!!

Some of your recent mash-ups involve mechanical movement…

(Picture below of a ‘Blockheads Toys’ mash-up figure with mechanical movement)

– Why the decision to add movement to your art pieces?

We wanted to try and step out of the box for these mashups. Take 2 different types of toys and see if they can go together somehow.

– How do you add movement?

We used they toys called “hexbugs” then we just add on the parts we want and paint over !!!

‘Blockheads Toys’ General Questions

You are a member of ‘The Resin Syndicate’ an art-toy/sculptural gang made up of Blockheads Toys, Edge of Doom + Goodleg Toys…

(Picture below of ‘The Resin Syndicate’ Wu-Tang style logo)

– why did you guys decide to team up, Avengers style?

Well Justin And I (Garrett) were tired of fighting crime alone so we decided to team up and recruit a bunch of other great artist to work together and create something amazing !!!

In all honesty its fun to have a group of friends to feed off of and learn from. We all help each other.

– what roles do you each play within the ‘Resin Syndicate’?

I Would say I (Garrett) play the role as the V.P. Justin And I both agree on who we recruit.

Other then that there are no roles really just everybody rep RxS while your doin what your doin !!!

What are your thoughts on ‘The Sucklord’? – I ask as he is the UR toy-bootleger

Sucklord is cool. We respect him as an O.G in the game.

What are your thoughts on Peter + ‘Killer Bootlegs’ – I ask as he has promptly gone from a newbie in the scene back in early 2012, to a major presence today…

Fuck man that dude is insane with the his clean work !!! Someday hopefully we will be on his level.

(Picture below of the Rusalka carded figure by ‘Blockheads Toys’)

What are your thoughts on the current status of the art-toy ‘scene’, and why?

We like the way the current status is.

There are a lot of dope up and coming artist out there so its gonna be fun to see who puts out the next big thing !!!

Toy Questions

Is the rise of ‘art’ toys an indication of the changing nature of ‘art’? OR just a bunch of nerds with too much $$$ and time?

Def a change in nature. Art is what you want it to be.

Favorite toy/figure? (I’ll allow self promotion)

Grody Shogun All the way !!!

(Picture below of a very recent and un-named figure from ‘Blockheads Toys’)

What does your wife/girl/woman/family make of the whole perpetual adolescence/Peter-Pan/man-child aspect of toy art + toy collecting?

The lil brother is single so he doesn’t have to worry about that.

Im married but my wife is really cool with it. She helps pick out victims at the toy stores and she helps out with mashing up every now and then.

The Future

Any collaborations on the horizon?

We have some Resin Syndicate collabs coming up. But we are always open to work with people so don’t be scared lets make some toys !!!!

Any major projects you want to hype man?

The Resin Syndicate will be having a booth at Dcon this year so check us out if your going !!! gonna be some cool shit at our booth !!!

Links

Blockheads Toys – Instagram
Blockheads Toys – store
The Resin Syndicate – Facebook
Edge of Doom – Facebook
Goodleg Toys – Facebook

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