Robert Rodriguez, bootleg toy maker

Action figures may be made with children in mind, but we all know that adults love to get some toys of their own. And as people recognize that there's more to figurines than youthful playtime, bootleg resin toy makers have come to make some art of their own. Robert Rodriguez, who works under the name Scraped Resin, is a local figurine maker who breaks down old toys and reconfigures them with his own parts to craft Mexican wrestlers, retro video game characters and just about whatever else he feels like creating. We asked him about what drove him to join the resin toy scene, the inspiration in lowbrow art and why he decided to make Mayor Kevin Johnson into a toy.

Why figurines over any other medium?

I definitely collected and played with action figures later than most people. I've always just been completely fascinated with them. Even in my early 20s, when KB Toys was going out of business, we'd buy all of their 99-cent Marvel and wrestling toys and smoke a blunt and stand them all up. When I could see that I could make my own, just something as simple as making a G.I. Joe figure that was clear, I had to try it. Once I did try it, I wished I would have found it years ago.

How much original sculpting goes into your toys?

Generally, they are almost all repurposed toy parts, but I've started to incorporate sculpted elements in my latest projects. The godfather of the resin movement, a New York artist who goes by the name The Sucklord, started by making bootleg hip-hop Star Wars figures, and one of my favorite aspects of his work was how good he was at mixing parts from different toy lines together into something that was both familiar, but completely new. He used toy parts as a language, which resonated with a lot of people, especially those of us who grew up in the '80s. Inspired by him, I put a ridiculous amount of thought into kitbashing [repurposing commercial figures] and troll eBay regularly looking to uncover an old toy line or figure that works for something I'm trying to do, and that hasn't been used yet. That said, I'm trying to teach myself to sculpt, which is tough, but I've started experimenting with a new sculpting wax that I'll be incorporating on my next project. 3-D printing has also become a recent obsession.

Did The Sucklord popularize the kinda janky look of many figurines?

When he first started, there was no one else doing it. He had to teach himself, and his first toys really were bad. They were extremely shoddy, and when he put them out, he put them out with this sort of pride, saying, “These are really crappy, I'm The Sucklord because my toys suck.” I'd say a lot of people, including myself, were really inspired by him.

So there’s some jank in your own stuff, then?

You know those types of toys you run across at flea markets? You see, like, a four-pack with Batman and Spider-Man, and whatnot? I love those, I always have loved those. The parts are wrong, the paint's weird, Superman's eyes are all bugged out—I think a lot of that goes into the resin scene.

It seems like an elevation of all things lowbrow.

Part of the resin scene, the fact that it's lowbrow, it's this pride—we all consider it art. When you go to most art galleries, if you see a piece that you like, it's gonna cost hundreds of dollars. Most people just don't have money for that, can't afford to have art in their living room. These toys are generally put out for under $100 and we try to make as much as possible, 10 or 12, and the idea is that this is art, and that this is affordable.

And is that what your Kevin Johnson figurine is about?

He's one of the few local figures that actually had a plastic version of them made in the '80s. [Johnson was featured as a figure while playing for the Phoenix Suns.] I started with figures that I thought would look cool, like Mexican wrestlers wearing suits and that sort of thing, but as I'm progressing, I want to put a lot more thought into what I'm doing and at least attempt to make art. I thought about the fact that Kevin Johnson is our mayor—I'm definitely not very political, but the fact that Sacramento elected him, it seemed a little bit like that movie Idiocracy. … I wanted to make this figure that captures that idea of, “Is he really the best guy to be leading our city?” I don't know. I look at his Wikipedia page and there's a lot of crazy stuff in there. Obviously, he was really cool in the '90s. I remember my dad watching him the playoffs, and he's in NBA Jam! That's supercool. But I just don't know if that necessarily translates to being the best leader for the city that I live in. And maybe he is, I don't know. I called the piece “Keeping Score,” because we definitely need to make sure that we're thinking about this.