A Conversation With Chuckboy By Paul Budnitz

New York artist and featured 2tone Dunny designer, Chuckboy kicks back and chats with KR president, Paul Budnitz.

PB: Hi Chuckboy

CB: hi paul!

PB: Hi!!!!!!! I love your design in the Dunny 2Tone series. Can you tell me a little about it?

CB: it’s basically your average furry critter dunny that’s been rebuilt to be better, faster, cuter.

PB: I’m laughing.

CB: i hope so!

PB: What inspired the design?

CB: i’ve always loved sci-fi and robots… so it wasn’t hard to create this type of character.

PB: Was it difficult to work with (mostly) only black and white?

CB: the original design featured some color but when given the opportunity to make it monochrome, it wasn’t very hard as most of the mechanical parts were a grey color to begin with. besides, i love grey.

PB: I’m a giant fan of your work, as you probably know because I bought one of your customs myself. How did you get into customizing toys?

CB: i am an avid model builder, so when i first saw a munny, i thought, HEY i could customize this! (i didn’t actually see the DIY toy label)

PB: That’s hilarious.

CB: yeah, it’s funny and embarrassing at the same time. sometimes we don’t read labels, eh?

PB: I never read labels… or manuals.  Which leads to extreme situations with Bluetooth headsets sometimes.

CB: yeah i like to feel my way around to figure out stuff.

PB: Anything you are working on now?

CB: an 8″ version of my lion dunny from the endangered! series. i’m also trying finish a pinup version of darth vader.

PB: You have such an amazing level of craft to your work, it makes whatever you do very special.

CB: i sometimes think that a simple design is sometimes more complicated that a complex one.

PB: It is more difficult.  It has to be perfect because you can’t distract people with complexity.

CB: right!

PB: Actually it’s funny, because when I see first illustrations of your Dunny designs (before we make them) they often look quite plain. And then the end result is really amazing, vibrant. Immaculate really.

CB: i think simplicity or a plain design can be very, very effective. sometimes i’ll sketch something. i’ll even draw something on the shower room wall when there’s steam… but sometimes because i have a clear image in my head, i’ll start to sculpt something just to get an idea.

PB: Thank you for doing this interview. I will change what you say so that you sound totally different than who you really are, and take credit for things you didn’t do.

CB: oh that’s ok i’ll just say i was under the influence of drugs.  :)

PB: Me too! What a coincidence!

CB: hey that model glue…

PB: Laughing again.