"Hold Your Breath"! A SpankyStokes exclusive interview with THE BOTS!!!

We are totally stoked to be bringing you this exclusive interview with Jenn and Tony, aka THE BOTS, as we find out what they have been up to for the past few months as well as what they have planned in the future... not to mention, a little bit of light was shed on the very mysterious new toy company 'Broke Piggy' as THE BOTS are the first to work with them on an amazing looking custom Dunny series titled "Hold Your Breath" that is slated to drop at Designer Con 2015! So sit back, grab a beverage, and enjoy a ton of exclusive photos and info... straight from THE BOTS!

"Aquatic" design by The Bots... and yes, that 3" custom
has a built in glass face plate! ("Hold Your Breath" Series)

SPANKY: Let's kick things off... we saw the really fun teaser video posted a few days ago. You have our curiosity and attention. Tell us about this custom series: "Hold Your Breath", what is the inspiration behind the series?
THE BOTS: Hold Your Breath is a collaborative custom blind boxed series created by us that features the submitted designs of: DrilOne, Scott Tolleson, Leecifer, Otto Bjornik, Jeremiah Ketner, Sergio Mancini, and MAD. In all there are 16 unique designs, 9 by us and 7 that were collaborations. Each custom in the series uses the ocean as the thematic backdrop asking you to hold your breath in anticipation of what lurks beneath. Conceptually speaking, for a collaboration, it was the perfect theme. The sea has always connected the world and together we created a series that features ideas and designs from all parts of the globe.

Art that was submitted by Jeremiah Ketner for the "Hold Your Breath" series

SPANKY: WOW, super impressive!!! You have a lot of big name artists involved in this project. What was the process in selecting these artists, and more importantly, how did you get them to be involved?
THE BOTS: Being that the collaborative nature of this project was a lot different than most, there was a lot of interest from other artists to not only be involved, but also to see how successful a series like this could be. The pitch itself to get all the artists on board wasn't difficult. The hardest part was narrowing down who to ask in the first place. We had a list--a massive list--of talented artists who we were interested in working with. Ultimately it really came down to two things: who was available and whose style meshed well with ours.
SPANKY: How did you approach designing and sculpting another artist's artwork?
THE BOTS: It really was no different than working on a piece of our own. We started with the sketch each artist sent us, made a game plan of how to go about putting on the clay, and moved forward with the project. Being that we work primarily with commissions, we have grown accustomed to creating a vision that is not only ours, but also someone else's. The real challenge for these pieces was keeping the integrity of their unique styles and mixing it with our own. By referencing their work we were able to put together a clear picture of what truly makes each of these artists unique and we drew inspiration from that.

SPANKY: It would be super tough to carry over each artists styles and interpretations... that being said, which designs were the most challenging?
THE BOTS: We were faced with varying degrees of difficulty with every design we worked on. The looks of each artist involved are so iconic that it really leaves little room for error and it was initially quite an intimidating task! Specifically speaking, our biggest challenge was perfecting the Bjornik eyes and matching the color palette of Ketner. We really felt that messing up Bjornik's eyes or muddying up the Ketner colors would be inexcusable to the collectors.

WIP of some type of sea creature... hmmm, I wonder who the artist behind this design is?!?!

SPANKY: What feelings and experiences do you want the Hold Your Breath series to evoke?
THE BOTS: The one thing that we want people to see when they hold our pieces is how much time and effort goes into everything we do. This project was a massive undertaking and we took it on simply because we wanted to do something cool that left a lasting impression on the scene. Each of our pieces serve as memories in our lives as we remember every one made and every detail of what we were doing when they were created. Hopefully our collectors experience the same feelings and have the same memories whenever they open a new piece from us.

The GOLDEN TICKET mini-fish Labbits! ("Hold Your Breath" Series)

SPANKY: Dunny fans love the golden ticket. Is that something we can expect with this series?
THE BOTS: It is! When we started putting the series together with Broke Piggy we knew we wanted to do something comparable to the golden ticket. We discussed several options and decided that the addition of some fun mini-fish customs to 5 lucky boxes would really complement the series and round out the blind box experience perfectly.
SPANKY: How did you get involved with Broke Piggy? How was it working with such a new toy company?
THE BOTS: Early in the year one of the members of Broke Piggy came to us with an idea of how we could collab with other artists. Being that we use hand mixed colored clay as our medium the idea of a custom collab has been virtually impossible. Broke Piggy pitched us an idea of a new way to look at a collaboration and we were immediately excited about the potential of the project.

Working alongside Broke Piggy has been a great experience. It was as much as a collaboration with them as it was with the other artists. The passion that they have for this project really shows and I suspect that we will see many more exciting projects from this group in the future.

"Hafgufa" custom by The Bots... just hitching a ride. ("Hold Your Breath" Series)

SPANKY: You are a two person team, do you both create the design and sculpt each piece? How long have you been designing and creating art? How did this all get started?
THE BOTS: The two of us have been working together creatively in one fashion or another for 14 years now. Customizing designer toys is relatively new however as we have only been doing it full time for the past three years. Interestingly enough, for our senior project in college we designed our first vinyl toy and created an entire blind boxed series around it. That project really marks the start of our days as customizers and it just kind of took off from there. Our first customized toy was a Droplet and since then we have made almost 400 unique customs.

As for our process nothing has changed since the very beginning. The two of us work closely together from the start of each project to the very end. We collaborate on all ideas, on all sculpting options, and on all details. Ultimately though Jenn is the sculptor and Tony is the graphic artist. Neither of us could do it without the other and we have really grown to use each other's strengths to complete every project.

2013 "Love Sick" custom Dunny by The Bots

SPANKY: Thinking back to all the work you have done over the years, are there one or two pieces you loved so much you wish you could have kept, but they were sold or commissioned? If so, which pieces were they and what inspired that special love of them?
THE BOTS: There are so many pieces that we have made over the years that we would love to have in our personal collection. We have very few of our own pieces as the majority of work we do is sold before it is even made. The one piece that we would have loved to keep was the original lovesick custom Dunny. It isn't necessarily our favorite piece that we have ever made, but it is the one design that we are constantly revisiting and tinkering with. It encapsulates everything our art is to us…that no piece is ever complete and there is always something to strive for and make better. I really think we could work on that one design nonstop and we would never view it as perfect and that's a good thing.

SPANKY: What are some artists you like to collect in your personal collection?
THE BOTS: The walls of our studio are filled with pieces from other artists. We are indiscriminate collectors, collecting anything and everything we like no matter who does the work. If the character design is strong or the piece unique, we are going to love it. With that said, there are a few artists that we seem to heavily gravitate towards. The Ham brothers, Greg and Gary, both have a large impact on our collection and we have a nice space for a few Jennipho customs.

SPANKY: What's in store for The Bots in the future?
THE BOTS: It's amazing how packed our upcoming year already is. We just recently finalized the details for our second solo show which will take place at PiQ Grand Central in August. We have plans for a plush and a resin release. We have our largest custom, a 20" Dunny, showing at Clutter for the DTA show in January. And there may be a huge surprise or two that we can't talk about quite yet!