Modern Toss and Toy Art UK: What We've Been Up To

We have been working with Jon Link at Modern Toss for a while now, and thought you might like to know what we have been up to yeah?

When Jon first contacted us it was pretty clear that the way forward with creating anything for Modern Toss was just to dive in and see what happens. Having already been involved with many projects to create physical incarnations of existing MT ideas it was clear that I was going to be working with people with a lot of imagination combined with the kind of humour that worked for me on many levels.

I have been a fan of MT for 20 years or so, and when they created 2 seasons of television work for Channel 4 it was clear to me how talented and creative they are and the addiction grew. So being given access to their I.P. and brought in to make 3D versions of their 2D work happen, it was genuinely a bit of a dream for me over the first few weeks of talking to them.

They decided on a couple of characters to work on and translate into 3D printable versions, this is where the outstanding talents of Seth (Kibooki) entered the frame and things moved quickly from there with Business Mouse and Gerry being turned into digital form quite brilliantly. Early stages we used a company in the USA who created fantastic 3D resin prints, and while these were incredible it felt like something wasn’t right on our end. So Jon bought a 3D printer and dived in, we also got our hands on the Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro and did the same. What followed was months of intensive prototyping and research which gave us the tools to print quickly and test print when we needed to, this was the missing part of the workflow and process overall and once this got easier it meant that we could try more ideas out quickly and refine just as quickly.

Now we don’t get everything right (far from it) but being able to throw ideas back and forth, try new materials, different printer settings and accept that every failure was an opportunity to learn and creating prototypes is far easier.

One thing I think that works particularly well between Toy Art U.K. and Modern Toss is the professionalism and mutual respect, we learn fast and the fact that Jon can now sculpt and quickly adapt his digital sculpts to work with the very special set of requirements that PLA+ filament presents is remarkable to watch.

We don’t 3D print with resin for now, that may well change in the future, and hand finishing achieves the look that MT requires for anything they sell. Given that their biggest selling 3D print so far is a dog shit bag bauble you might find that hard to believe - but EVERY detail is considered before items that are sold on their website are considered ready for sale.

I know I got lucky when being invited to work with Jon, he is a gent and we share a very similar sense of humour and approach to life which always makes these relationships much easier and more effective. Ideas and suggestions flow in both directions and given equal consideration which on a personal level I find very empowering and creates so many opportunities.

Lots of ideas in the shit pipe with many more to come.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE MODERN TOSS WEBSITE AND BUY MORE SHIT OR WE ARE ALL FUCKED