NYCC: The Weird World of Bootleg and Art Toys

While walking the floor at NYCC last weekend, I made all the usual and expected stops. I made my way through the crowds to visit the Mezco booth to get a glimpse of all the upcoming One:12 Collective figures, I hit up the NECA booth to check out the TMNT offerings, and I couldn’t wait to hit the Super7 booth to check out the new ReAction figures and to maybe get a peek at their upcoming Masters of the Universe releases. All good and all fun. But it was as I wandered from the Super7 booth that a booth caught my eye displaying and selling figures I had never seen before. On display were dozens of artist-created action figures that actually had me laughing out loud at times. The booth was DKE Toys, and what they were showing just blew my mind. But first, the rock I’ve been living under for the past decade:

In my defense, I have heard of Sucklord and Suckadelic Toys. When I was hardcore into 3A around 2011 I had seen his name and I saw a pic of the “Gay Empire” figure. But it quickly left my mind and I hadn’t given it another thought in years. See, in Portland I was pretty far removed from what Sucklord was doing in NYC, so I feel as though I’ve missed out, especially after seeing everything DKE had on display.

The Gay Empire figure is celebrating its 10th anniversary currently, and Sucklord is observing it by reissuing the original “Homotrooper.” One of his earliest experiments and his first true success, Sucklord has stated that he created this figure as a big F-U to anyone who thinks homosexuals shouldn’t be fully and naturally integrated into everything, so the idea of a pink, gay stormtrooper coming after America’s supposed “family values” appealed to him. I love the reasoning and the initiative it took to produce such a figure.

In a nutshell, one of the kind representatives at the DKE booth explained to me that what I was looking at all started with Sucklord, and as his name and reputation spread, other artists got in on the act and began casting and producing action figures of their own. Now, DKE isn’t a “toy company” per se. What they do is provide an avenue through which these artists are able to sell their figures. I made my way around the booth in complete awe, taking picks of the figures that stood out to me the most. With a lot of these figures, the packaging is every bit as important as the figure itself, and in some cases it’s actually more important since the figure itself is pretty crappy (and I mean “crappy” in the most punk rock context possible).

Star Wars is a major source of inspiration for many of these artists, so above we see Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat as Stormtroopers — complete with removable helmets. And then there’s Warhol’s famous Brillo piece turned into what I guess is a Gonk Droid. I thought that was pretty clever in execution and one of the more fully realized figures in general.

Next is another offering by Sucklord — The Star Bong. I always thought Jabba had a hookah next to him, but I guess it could be a bong. And here it is offered on its own. This is a good example of the product being all about the packaging because the actual figure/accessory really isn’t much on its own. But altogether the overall presentation is pretty funny.

This one absolutely slayed me. The idea of taking an X-Wing and applying the deco from the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill album art is inspired genius, mashup or not. And I love that it’s the Death Star Droid, IG88, and C-3PO dressed as rappers from the ’80s. Both Christmas and my birthday are coming up — I WANT THIS.

This pair is another example of the packaging being the main draw. They look awesome together, and despite some pretty basic-looking figures, the overall presentation is aces. Communist propaganda art is a great idea for satire since the Soviet Union was often portrayed as an “evil empire” to us kids in the ’80s. It’s a perfect fit for Star Wars.

I am so tired of anything having to do with The Walking Dead, but this mashup had me cracking up. The idea of an evil killer Ewok is too perfect, and this is a case where the actual figure looks like a solid offering and can be displayed on its own even without the packaging. And the blood. I’m dying.

This one is just plain bizarre and awesome. I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be Lando as Blacula or Blacula as Lando, but either way it’s clever. One of the most well-known characters from the “blacksploitation” era mashed up with Lando Calrissian — the movies, comics, and novels practically write themselves!

Here we see several figures that take their cues from Star Wars and apply that sensibility to other properties, like Tron and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And that is definitely the smallest action figure ever offered, at least the smallest on a unique blister card.

These all caught my eye for obvious reasons. A Guantanamo Bay G.I. Joe figure? The idea seems so obvious, but it’s brilliant at the same time. And the Mr. T TMNT figure is another that had me cracking up. “I pity the Foot!” That is so perfect! The figure is so crappy that it’s worth a chuckle in and of itself, but the overall presentation is so awesome.

And finally, for all you hardcore-as-nails Star Wars fans who really do believe George Lucas is Jesus, this may be up your alley:

There was so much more at this booth, including some very NSFW offerings. And there is so much here that appeals to me, but it mostly boils down to the attitude of the artists. Sucklord is someone who couldn’t break into the toy industry through the usual means, so he didn’t let that stop him — he made what he wanted to make and created his own niche in the process. I think that’s awesome, and I can see myself getting way into this stuff. But, more than anything, it’s inspiring and I’d love to learn how do do this all myself.

What do you think about this stuff? Love it? Hate it? Just don’t get it? Sound off below!