Ume Toys – The father of the Geekwok
My first story in the “what I discover” section will be about Ume Toys. The reason why might not be as obvious as some might think.
The mastermind behind Ume Toys is Richard Page, who tells the following about himself on his website:
Hi my name is Richard Page a creative professional whose background is founded in graphic design as a team lead working for global brands on projects across all delivery platforms. UME-Toys came to life as a joint effort with my daughter (You&Me) to serve as an outlet for our ideas. Always a keen doodler I began to turn my sketches into finished resin collectables. In 2014 I won the prestigious Clutter Designer Toy Awards for best resin toy with his cute GeekWok character. Never content to sit still I’m always keen to learn new skills and techniques and get involved in projects big or small. If you’d like to have a chat please get in touch.
© Ume Toys – Scamwave
Many of the people I know are aware of the fact that I love Star Wars and some might even know that I have Ewok tattooed on my forearm. What most people don’t know, is that the source of the image is a resin designer toy from Ume Toys. When I asked Rich if he was okay with me getting his Geekwok tattooed, he drew me a sketch and e-mailed me a hi-res picture. Bertina, at Swallow Ink Tattoo, used this sketch as a stencil when creating the tattoo. Small fact: The Swallow Ink Tattoo website will soon feature in the “what I create” section.
I have “collected” quite a few Ume Toys resin figures over the last few years. Most are Geekwok variations. Last year, I even won a one of a kind clear Geekwok in a raffle.
Although I am thankful for the above creations, this is not why I feature this story. I am most thankful for a creation that I never got to buy (Still feel a little sad about this). A few years ago, Rich created an interpretation of Soundwave (as pictured on the right). After seeing the figure, I just had to search for “Soundwave” on Google and I “discovered” an image of Masterpiece Soundwave. Until that moment, I never even heard of Masterpiece Transformers and expected to find vintage G1 toys. It looked awesome! Buying the Masterpiece Soundwave “toy” was the start of my Transformers Masterpiece “collection”. For the first time since my childhood, I got back into (playing with) transformer toys. Now, many months later, both my Ume Toys collection and Masterpiece Transformers collection, put a smile on my face on a daily basis.
Please give Ume Toys a visit at some point, links over on the left. Maybe we’ll be able to share stories sometime in the future.
Gallery:
