Jan 27th 2013

Hello everyone~ happy new year & hope you are all doing well. I haven't been on the grid(IG, Facebook, twitter) or the Indie Toy scene in awhile, have been really busy with my recent studio space-expansion. All is going great, tons of construction and custom interiors being worked on or built. Due to this I won't be able to work on any new items for the webshop for awhile. As the schedule looks for now I feel I will finish construction & be up and running again at some point in March 2013. Thank...

 Nathan Jurevicius Scary Girl show is rescheduled & refocused with a new goal. Beginning tomorrow Nov 9th, 2012 6pm, the show that now has over 130 artists participating (wow!) looks amazing and now will have 10% proceeds of sales go to help those in need from the Hurricane Sandy disaster. So many are still in need of help so any help you can give( whether buying from the show or donating funds, volunteering , everything is appreciated & needed) spread the word!

Here are my contributions to the Scary Girl festivities! Limited edition to 5 pieces, are these "Blister" using...

NY Comicon is here again~( Oct 11th~14th) & for the last few months I have been preparing for it.

Here's a look at brand new sculpted items as well as classic figure new variants, hope you enjoy~

TAKO-CUBEs : sized at 1.5 inches in height these guys are the grunts of the Space Army series I am beginning to flesh out starting this month. They are small and tough but not too bright they are commonly used as cannon fodder in battles. They are more dangerous in numbers and as a...

 So my daytime job is at this artists studio in NY called John Derian Co. where we focus on producing handmade decoupage plates, platters, paperweights, coasters and bowls . His designs are sold at upscale home stores, in catalogs, and gift shops worldwide. It's a wonderful place to work where the people are very good to me. I get to assist in design & production and have learned many unique skills that I otherwise would not have gotten to learn had I not worked here. Artist HealeyMade actually worked here first( as one of the skilled artisans in production) & got...

 Here are some pics sent to me from SDCC 2012(GiantRobot booth #1729). Wish I were there this year but had to focus everything for some future Productions.

Along with the GiantRobot Turtle Tetsujin exclusive , there are also Tasty Rainbow editions of my other figures & free pins with purchase available at the booth.

Tasty Rainbows~

And free with purchase peterkato x giantrobot pins~

Also I was asked by Toysrevil to give a top-ten toys from SDCC wishlist. Checkout...

Now , I haven't tried to do a haiku in like, a million years but I recently saw one of my favorite instagram accounts(mohojung) post an amazingly cute picture. Which inspired me. She titled her photo "philosophers' soba"

あつい　なつ

ひやし　そば　たべ

カワコ　すき

hot summer

hiyashi soba eat

kawako loves

Let's have a great summer everyone!

 For SDCC 2012 I will be teaming up with Giant Robot for an exclusive Turtle Tetsujin release.

Cast in sea-foam green( chosen by Eric Nakamura of GR) and have accents of goldleaf & clear green paint. The torso this time around will have the Giant Robot Logo: Big Boss Robot imbedded inside it. I have long wanted to work with Giant Robot and am very excited about this collaboration.

They will be $20 each limited to 20 pieces. SDCC booth #1729

http://www.giantrobot.com

Here's a discovery I found on instagram. It's called the little red door & the artist here makes these cute ceramic mini houses in a variety of choices. Whether its a gnome-like house, cherry bushed house, or customizable alphabet houses ( like the ones I had ordered) they are all hand-made, all beautiful. They reminded me of the Valentine Day Turtle Tetsujins I had done earlier in the year. Toni the artist of the little red door had included some wonderful gifts, candies, postcards and to my surprise extra houses! I got a great red house with a little black...

To my surprise earlier in the week I had received a tweet from the Design Toy Awards group. I found out that my Japan Charity figures , the Hinomaru Turtle Tetsujins had been entered into two catagories for this years awards: Best Self-Produced & Best Toy of the Year.

To be included on the list with so many veterans in this industry is really amazing. I honestly thought it was a mistake of some kind( like some twitter-hacking prank or something), but as I checked the link to the DTA 2012 pages I saw that my figure was up there...

 Today I had gotten a tweet by the University of Muscle, a site dedicated to all things inspired by Kinnikuman Muscle figures and such. I had seen the site many times before ( especially when I was buying up those mini muscle figures to increase my personal collection).

The site had done an article about my Man-Nie figure. It was such a thoughtful , well written article covering so many aspects of the figure. The only other time I had experienced such interest in that particular figure was when I first got contacted by Niall of what was at the...

 Here are two wonderful instagrammers that were nice enough to make fan art of my characters:

First up is Bodz Zaman ( IG handle: bodzilla ) who loves to draw( like me). Here is his drawing of FrightBite floating through a forest scene:

Next up is an amazing IG collage-weaver mo LaPastequeBleue( IG handle: mohojung ), I had never scene anything like her work on IG before & I'm so lucky that she likes my characters enough to incorporate them into these great little fantasy scenes. Her themes vary from comical to...

 We're finally here & the discounted Blue Harvest stock is all here~! This sale is the first of a "Memorial weekendish Annual sales event", the only difference with this sale is that the stock is all new specifically made for he theme! Enjoy~

 I'm one of the artist in the upcoming "Game Over Video Game Culture Art Exhibition" at GiantRobot2 in LA, opening reception is this Saturday June 2nd from 6:30-10pm. The show runs till June 27th, so if you are in LA at the time please check it out !

June 2 -  June 27, 2012
Opening reception Saturday June 2th 2012, 6:30-10pm

GR2 – 2062 Sawtelle Blvd LA, CA 90025 www.gr2.net 310 445 9276

Giant Robot 2 (GR2) presents: Game Over

Video Game Culture Art Exhibition

Artists include:

Aaron Brown, Albert Reyes, Alex Chiu, Ana...

 Please check out my artists interview on myplasticheart ! This wonderful little store has been so supportive of my work from day one!

Big thanks to Jessica for the interview~

  http://www.myplasticblog.com/interviews/interview-with-peter-kato/

                (above Specimouse with creator: Anney Fresh!)

Was very excited to have Anney Fresh in the show, I've admired her work years back with her giant Space Kitty costumes ( you guys have to check: www.anneyfresh.com ). Her piece grabbed a lot of attention opening night & you can see why~!

Q: what was your inspiration for your piece?

A: I'm obsessed with cats and mice so I wanted Buddy to catch some kind of mouse creature. I was thinking about how cats...

(above: Rosie Mounted Head)

Amos Hemsley has been a professional sculptor in the industry for over 9 years and has been a life-long geek. It was growing up with comic books that lead him to his professional and artistic career.

Q: Why Rosie?

 A: My inspiration for this piece came from my love of movies, before learning
...

 Today we will focus on a trio of talented artists who actually shared pieces on the main west wall ! Mariangela Tan, Jaz Harold & Abby Denson. These artists have really interesting insights on their pieces for the show!

I have known Mariangela Tan for many years & I have to say she has one of the most amazing creative minds in her field. Her stuff is always unique & is always different from her last pieces. You never know what she'll come up with!

Q:Your inspiration for the show piece?

A: The majority of my needle felted work is...

 Here are some follow up tidbits of the artists who participated in the Buddy's Den show( each day I will write about a few):

Rob Benevides is an artist of many trades( photography, painting, sculpting) & excels at each skill. When we approached Rob to join the show we never knew what he was going to turn up with but we were very pleased with the results.

Q: What was your inspiration for your piece?

A:  my inspiration for the piece is a White Walker from Game of Thrones. We haven't seen them...

 Me & Bridget still on a high from last night's Buddy's den opening woke up this morning to do a little street drawing for the Buddy's Den show! It's a beautiful day today come on out & see the awesomeness of the artists pieces in the exhibition!

 Friday night opening reception was an awesome party at Buddy's Den fantasy taxidermy artshow! Place was packed with a very fun groovy crowd! Thank you artists & friends! Show is running till May 18th 2-7pm!