Rubber Lucky

Brian McCarty photographs action figures. And real female figures too. Nice gig.

It would be hard to find a geek out there who hasn’t photographed his toys at one time or another. Dioramas of battling G.I. Joes. Bowed shelves stocked with a mostly-metal Transformer collection. Then there’s that hidden stack of four-by-sixes. They feature a manga import figure your Mom didn’t know you had and Ken’s corvette (borrowed from your sister). To this day, those pics show an impressive recreation of Tawny Kitaen’s Whitesnake video. Though we’re pretty sure in the real version Tawny was clothed.

There was one kid who started taking pictures of toys and never stopped. Mixing commercial sensibility with genuine geek love, Brian McCarty has turned his passion for toy imagery into a globe-trotting art adventure that mixes high-brow and low-brow influences with equal glee. Forgive us for being suspicious, but the guy works with multi-nationals (Mattel), cutting edge artistic concerns (KidRobot), and hot ladies in his photo shoots. Has this geek who made good held on to his roots? “Well, aside from having an apartment that could give the Silver Spoons kid a run for his money,” he said, “I also let my nerd flag fly through a weekly D&D game…” Geek test: passed.

And to prove he remembers what it’s like being a penniless geek with taste, Brian gave us a copy of his crazy-good book Art-Toys to give away to you, our fellow geeks! (Hit us up on our Facebook to enter.) The tome features amazing vinyl art figures in unusual, cinematic settings. While there are few in the world who can say they transformed their childish things into a livelihood, McCarty has done so. Learn about his influences and inspiration in our exclusive interview. And at the end of the book, there’s a section that shows you how he gets his images, in case you need an excuse to still play with your toys (“What honey? No. I’m making art.”)

Pick up your Art-Toys on Amazon now. And don’t forget to enter our Facebook contest to win your own copy!

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