TOYS ARE WE? Asks the existential question, “Are we toys?” Put your feet in a toy’s shoes for a minute and ask, if you’re a kit-bashed toy? Are you even considered a toy to begin with? Or are you glorified trash? Better yet, are you art? There has been a flood of artists and toy creators making “art toys,” a version of their original characters, and presenting them as collectible toys for display in the toy-loving and collector community. However, my approach is somewhat the opposite of that: combining existing toys and toy parts (kit-bashing or toy bashing) to produce a new character, not just for display, but something you can really play with. It’s not an art toy; it’s TOY ART.

Ever since I was a kid playing with friends, I could always remember breaking some of these toys while playing roughly with them. Dropping them from a high place, dropping something heavy on them, burning them, accidentally breaking them, and, with the help of firecrackers, even exploding them, I was your typical “Sid” from Toy Story even before seeing the film.

But the similarities don’t stop there; like Sid, I too created “new toys” from the parts that survived. I could always remember this toy I had where both of its arms fell off, and I replaced them with shoelaces. He ended up being one of the most played-with antagonists for my hero toys. And then there’s the occasional toy whose head will pop off, to which I can easily find a substitute from just about anything, such as a pumpkin sculpt from a decoration, which I replace the headless toy’s noggin’ with, creating my very own Jack O’ Lantern.

To this day, at the age of 40, going back to this old talent of mine, it has not faded one bit. It never left me, and it has always been a part of me. This kind of creativity is what artists are made of, creating something else out of something, combining things, mixing and matching… and just plain having fun. Being a kid again or just realizing the kid in all of us never really left. And now with new toys to play with and a mission to awaken other people’s forgotten creative side. –Marius Black

A total of 80 toy artworks, kit bashed and assembled from 2023–present by Marius Black .