Matt Walls aka MattyBoomBatty of ‘A.O.I Toys’ outta Convict Town aka Australia is a rare breed in the art toy scene – a man very much unafraid to tell it like it is. From initial challenges, to success and the issues in between.

Matt’s simple advice to burgeoning toy makers: “If you LOVE it, do it. If you don’t, stop…it’s that easy.”

(Picture below of a pile of ION Men by ‘A.O.I Toys’)

Most famous for his ION Men series of 7 part mini vinyl toys, he initial gained a foot hold in the scene, and experienced his first challenges and success, via his first company ‘Smash Tokyo Toys’.

So get up to date on Matt Walls history -with ‘Smash Tokyo Toys’; and future – with ‘A.O.I Toys’, by reading the Art Talk below…

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Well these last few years i have gotten into the seedy, degenerate world of bootleg-action-figures-as-art. “WTF?” I hear you say… Well… BASICALLY dudes collage existing action figures, into ‘new’ art-pieces. How? By taking apart existing action figures, casting the necessary ‘parts’ wanted, adding a bit of extra sculpting to the casted parts, then BAM! A new ‘bootleg’ art piece is created. Simple to do, BUT damn hard to do well.

Once of the best in the game is KILLER BOOTLEGS, run by Peter ‘Wheatstraw’ Goral outta Loves Park, Illinois, USA.

To this end i shot Peter some questions to try to peel back the psyche and process involved in being a degenerate, underground toy-bootlegger.

(Photo below of KILLER BOOTLEGS ‘Frankenfett’ piece)

Get to know Peter Goral + ‘Killer Bootlegs’ in the interview below….

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