Yeo, my name is Ricardo, and I am the founder of IsmToys! Here is my journey over the past few years and how Ismtoys and GolemZ got started.
Growing up I have always been fascinated with collectibles and art. At the age of 15, I started my own lawn mowing business and snow removal business called LawnISM. I went door to door to grow my clientele.
When the workload became too much I dragged my father along during the winter season for exercise. At its peak I managed 20 clients per season.
One day while scrolling through Instagram I found the funniest bootleg toy made by a guy called DanoBrown. He would kitbash old toys to make new ridiculous bootlegs.
At that point, I knew I needed to learn how to make my own toys. After some serious research, I decided that 3D printing was the best way for me to start making toys. So I used my savings from LawnISM to buy my first printer!
Each NFT is algorithmically generated by combining 120+ unique traits across different categories. There are only 13 legendary NFTs available for grabs.
I began making toys that entertained my odd sense of humour. The first meme I had to bring to reality was a cross between Yoda and Obama. I kit bashed the 3d model and then made my first toy.
- I started off using my room, which then got too cluttered. Then, I moved to the ground floor washroom, this did not please my dad as he had to take his shits upstairs.
- I eventually saved enough to buy a shed in the backyard and expanded my operations to 3 printers. At this time Covid hit and my Mom's Acupuncture clinic was forced to close, so as a family we painted toys at the clinic.
Growing up I have always been fascinated with collectibles and art. At the age of 15, I started my own lawn mowing business and snow removal business called LawnISM. I went door to door to grow my clientele.
When the workload became too much I dragged my father along during the winter season for exercise. At its peak I managed 20 clients per season.
As I started winding down my meme toy empire, I was contacted by an awesome digital magazine label. They asked me to do a toy for a huge rapper named 6lack! Being a big fan of old Kenner star wars toys, I decided to make the packaging resemble the Kenner style. To my amazement, we made 40 numbered toys which sold out in 6 mins.
Shout out to Anthony @ Preme Magazine!
We then started doing more toys for artists, influencers and some celebrities. Each getting numbered toys all hand painted.
My toys began gaining interest by a variety of influencers. During a pitch call, which always made me nervous, one of the potential clients (that ghosted me after) asked me if I realized that the RUSS toys were being resold on Ebay for $500. Looks like the price came down a bit now just selling for 4x what we originally sold it for. At this time my dad suggested doing something with NFT's to prevent counterfeits.
My toys began gaining interest by a variety of influencers. During a pitch call, which always made me nervous, one of the potential clients (that ghosted me after) asked me if I realized that the RUSS toys were being resold on Ebay for $500. Looks like the price came down a bit now just selling for 4x what we originally sold it for. At this time my dad suggested doing something with NFT's to prevent counterfeits.
As I was busy pounding the emails and trying to convince other artists to let me make their toys, a Bored Ape Yacht Club member by the name of Phil replied! I was shocked by this email as I knew how hot the NFT space was and I sprung into action. Phil's Ape!
GolemZ is the first PFP project to link each NFT to its own physical 1:1 variant merging the metaverse and physical world.
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