Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Breaking the Mold | Billy Rush: Lost in Time

01.29.2020 – The Resurgence of interest in Designer Art Toys in the Philippines introduced a revival of previous toy sculptors and customizers that has been making great Art Toys in the past that were mostly had limited niche market is also slowly gaining prominence. This also gave a spotlight to the new faces in this community.

There were also new creations and unannounced drops that were revealed in the recently concluded Mold Break. One of the those new faces is Mikko Rosales aka MIKOSWABE and if you haven’t heard of him the recent Art Toy PH: Toy Festival held last December 2019 will give you an idea on his previous project.


There were tables set up in a specific area and one of them was just behind a crowd waiting to see some of the auctioned pieces and one-off grails to be sold in this event. MIKOSWABE is one of the exhibitors who unveiled their latest art toys at Mold Break and it was his very first original creation.

The artist revealed that he did not post any image of his latest project on social media and it slowly received a following when he unveiled Billy Rush at his table, which he also handed out free stickers to people he has met during the event.











From Toy Customizer to Designer Art Toy Maker

For those unaware of Mikko’s humble beginnings started off in the well-known online toy forums most notably in the Action Figure Philippines (AFPh) founded by the late Don Razon (a legend himself for his action figure toy customs) in the mid-2000s.

Mikko using his forum alias ‘MIKOSWABE’ has been his moniker ever since and continue to hone his craft customizing action figures using parts from Marvel Legends back in the day. His recent project put him in the spotlight during the Art Toys PH: Toy Festival 2019 presenting his version of the AstroTEQ63 representing a local toy group in the exhibit that also featured the Custom Dunny Show as its main gallery.





Billy Rush to the Multiverse

His latest creation is Billy Rush which was one of the unannounced drops at the Mold Break event last Saturday. The character is an amalgamation and inspiration from iconic popular science fiction properties that he followed and admired.

Billy Rush is a time traveller existing in a multiverse with Mikko’s plan to expand the art toy’s colorway and for the reason that there was a one-off Evangelion version that was auctioned during the tail end of Mold Break. The character features key elements that inspired Mikko from the movies he grew up like “The Rocketeer” and “Back to the Future Trilogy” as evidence of the helmet and hoverboard accessory.

There were only limited quantities of Billy Rush art toys that were produced for Mold Break and as Mikko teased he plans to also released a comicbook to accompany his latest creation that will also going to be released in a limited run soon.

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