Today Brian Castleforte and 14 of the top papertoy designers from around the world introduce a brand new crew of papertoys to the universe. Say hello to PAPERTOY GLOWBOTS–full of papertoy robots that (you guessed it) GLOW. To get us in the proper glowbot mood, Associate Editor of Workman Children’s Books Justin Krasner chats with the creator of this book series, Brian Castleforte. Brian discusses how exactly one gets into papertoy creating, his answer to the ever debatable Papertoy Monsters vs. Papertoy Glowbots competition, and his favorite glowbot.
Happy reading!
Justin Krasner: Do you remember the very first papertoy you made?
Brian Castleforte: Absolutely. It was my original NiceBunny “Tagger” character back in 2006. NiceBunny was the reason I started making papertoys in the first place, as a way to get him into people’s hands. It was a huge success. It was also the very first papertoy (as we know them today) to be released in the U.S. The only other artists making toys like these back then were Sjors Trimbach from the Netherlands, with his Brick Boy papertoy that inspired my first designs, and Shin Tanaka from Japan.
JK: Who’s your favorite glowbot in the new book?
BC: Ha! I believe everything is possible, except choosing just one favorite Glowbot. Seriously, there are just way too many amazing designs in this book. I’m so proud of it and so grateful to all of the talented artists involved.
JK: If you could create a real life glowbot, what would it do?
BC: It would illuminate the world with love and light. Using clean energy, of course.
JK: Who would win in a Papertoy Monster vs. Papertoy Glowbot throw down?
BC: Well that would all depend on which Monster and Glowbot were throwing down. But if I had to bet on one, it would be Hugz. He would just hug that monster so tight, it would no longer want to fight. And if that didn’t work, he’d just squeeze tighter until that mean ol’ monster screams “uncle!”
JK: Where do you start when you’re designing a new papertoy?
BC: That all depends. From scratch, I usually start with the design of the character first. But sometimes the toy evolves out of combing new and pre-designed shapes and then character details are added afterwards. If the character is already designed, I’ll start by designing the paper shapes best suited to that character.
JK: If you could replace one hand with a robotic one, would you do it?
BC: Only if my human hand was no longer working. Robotics are cool, but they are no substitute for the miraculous engineering of the human body–not for these hands anyway.
JK: Rock, Paper, or Scissors?
BC: Paper Rocks!
JK: Are you secretly a robot?
BC: I’m a robot programmed not to know I’m a robot . . . with a very human heart.
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