Remember that famous line from Mean Girls, “On Wednesdays, we wear pink.”? I’m not sure with you guys but I think that’s stuck with me forever. Not that I always follow suit but whenever I see pink on Wednesdays, I just can’t help but remember The Plastics. And with that, I’ll be presenting that shade in its cotton candy tone.
The Company
Just a brief background on how this cuteness all started, Connor McConnell is the main man behind Abominable Toys. He’s based in Pennsylvania and started doing business when he was in freshman year. Going into the Designer Toys world, he drew inspiration from Reis O’Brien’s Tiny Ghost and the first sketch of Chomp was about 2 years ago. It was in his Trigonometry class during junior year of high school when he started doodling this character. He just turned 19 this year guys. 😎
Connor McConnell
Chomp was brought to life by animator Benjamin Su who Connor knew through comic books. Ben turned the rough sketch into what Chomp is today and he’s been helping a lot with designs throughout. The initial sketch was really rough and didn’t even have a mouth or anything. Eric Johns came in and told Connor that he could help him with modeling for a figure if ever he decided to do one and that really helped him bridge the gap of what would be needed to do next. Alain Viesca is the sculptor who Eric linked him to. He did the first Chomp figure which was released December 2018 and he’s also in charge of the upcoming sculpts that will be coming out very soon.
This is actually one of the boxes that I want to protect and keep for the rest of my existence lolz. The presentation is just on point! It just suits Chomp’s fun and loving vibe with that abundance of chill. The figure is carefully placed inside a custom foam insert so it won’t bounce around. The box is the same with the other variants except for that distinct sticker. Everything is hand-painted at the factory and this version is Connor’s personal choice.
I had the pleasure of interviewing the artist behind this adorable character and like Chomp, he’s an artist with an abundance of chill too!
Why Chomp? Not exactly referring to the name but I’m thinking you’ve made other doodles before so why him? Why start with this character? Fond of Yeti?
The design I originally sketched was initially made for a logo for a collectible company I ran with my dad. But once I posted Ben’s version, I was asked by a lot of people if he’d be a pin or a figure so I decided to make Abominable Toys for Chomp and make him his own thing instead. I do definitely like Yetis though so it all kind of went together well.
How long does the process take from making the sketch digital to the final vinyl output?
From an idea to fully produced product, it usually takes 3-4 months. But sometimes, we try to do a group at once so we can release them over a longer period of time. Manufacturing is where we have the main delays and least control. Sometimes, there are holidays or the figures get stuck in customs and we can get random delays that are really hard to account for. We’re trying to move towards ordering a lot more variants at once so there’s less of that but on timed editions, we found out that the delays are part of it. We’re still working on a better solution going forward for those type of releases though.
Was it your decision to make it this big? (5”)
Yeah! I wanted him to be at least decently sized. In the beginning, I was heavily inspired by Reis O’Brien with his creation Tiny Ghost so I based some stuff off his development as well.
Should we expect a new character any time soon or maybe Chomp but a smaller version? Anything that you can share about what’s next on your career.
Yes! We have Chomper (Chomp’s little brother) figures coming out hopefully by the end of this year in blind boxes and we also have another small character in the early stages of development. Eventually we’re planning on expanding with other lines of characters as well. As for what’s next career wise I’m really enjoying what I’m doing now and I’d absolutely love to do this for as long as I can. I’ll have side projects, but right now and in the foreseeable future my main focus is Abominable Toys.
Aside from vinyl figures, Chomp is also available as stickers, enamel pins, shirts and luggage tags. Make sure to check out his website and Facebook Page for updates. See you later! 😘🦄
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