Plastic Pimps 2 Interviewed

and so the Trexi-custom show Plastic Pimps 2 [blogged] is currently underway and if you aren't and/or can't be in Melbourne for the show (it ends 13 May), you can partake of online images of customs and event @ these cyber-venues:

- opening night of Plastic Pimps 2 @ Flickr
[all images via]
- event / custom pics @ GameAxis
- do lemme know if you have pics too thanks!

i had an opportunity to chat with organizers/originators Alex Mitchell (aka. Koan) and Matthew Younger (aka. A.I) about the genesis and future plans of Plastic Pimps
= *read the entire interview after the JUMP*

TOYSREVIL: how did Plastic Pimps came about? what was the genesis of this custom show?

ALEX: Plastic Pimps was Mat's idea, I've been doing a few shows here and there such as No Comply and Mat hit me up to get Nice Produce to sponsor his idea. We hit it off and next thing we knew, the partnership was formed.

It was shows like Plastic Pimps which gave us the idea to bunch everything we're organizing into the one month and use it to ignite a local and international festival.

MAT: Basically it was to (A) see what artists around me that i admired here in Australia would do with this platform or 3D canvas, (B) to help the scene in this country to grow and evolve so that more people were doing it and i suppose make these toys more available here in Australia.

So at the end of the day i saw this happening everywhere else but here, and thought why can't we play too and better.


TRE: personally i reckon tis pretty cool for this crossover of events + genres, as it introduces folks to stuff that they mayhap have not been into, if not aware of (IMHO) ... how has the response from the participating artists been so far?

MAT: The artists this year where amazing, they seem to be more knowledgeable towards the whole toy customization process and come up with the goods to make it a better show than the first.

ALEX: The level of artwork this year is nothing short of insane, its like the best from last year was used by everyone as the minimum standard. Its cool to see people feeding off each other creatively.

It doesn't hurt that the Trexi is so easy to work with too, a nice blank canvas.

TRE: how is the toy scene, or specifically toy-customizing scene in Australia?

MAT: The scene in Australia was non existent before we started these shows there was a small pocket of people doing it, but this has changed since the first show people know about this scene and its growing.


TRE: growth is good! evolution is inevitable LOL ... how has the response been so far for the current show?

ALEX: Awesome, you never know how many people are into the artists and something like customised toys until you put on a show, then the fiends crawl out of the woodwork and you realise how many people there are watching and digging what's going on.


TRE: da "pimpin' worked! (sorry, lame, i know ;p) how did the name "Plastic Pimps" come about? (lurve the name, btw :p)

ALEX: Hmmm, Mat, if I recall wasn't the first name going to be "Tagging for Toys"? I was like "Man, this is kind of a dis to allot of people in the show, we need another name". Mat had another name under his hat and Plastic Pimps was born.

MAT: Basically what Alex said. We got some complaints about the name and changed it.

TRE: would the trexis be for sale after the exhibition? if yes, where should peeps go?

ALEX: Niceproduce of course :)

TRE: are there any current plans to tour the show?

ALEX: Yep, we're working on it at the moment. The next big thing will be an online exhibition in the form of a downloadable screen saver slide show with details and shots of the entire collection.

TRE: coolness. what's up for next year? :)

MAT: DIY toys for everyone!

ALEX: More plastic, more pimping.

(cheers to Zaki for the image links!)