After attending the Academy of Art College in San Francisco during the late 80's and picking up a New York artist's rep, Mark embarked on a 10-year plus journey as a freelance commercial illustrator. Over the years he's worked with a diverse client list which has included Scholastic Books, Bantam Books, Harper Collins, Becketts Publications, Schlage Locks, AMD, Genentech, IBM, Square Soft, Activision, DC Comics, Sony, Galoob Toys, Lucasfilms, Hasbro Toys and numerous Advertising and Churning out hundreds of assignments over the years, coupled with deadlines from hell took a toll, both mentally and physically. "I had to reassess what was important in my life and refocus my abilities towards a new goal. " said Nagata. "I'd been collecting Japanese toys all along, and suddenly realized it would be cool to have a magazine of some type devoted to them. So it's no surprise that Mark ended up creating and co-publishing Super7 Magazine. After successfully building the Super7 brand for nearly 4 years , it was time to move on."I wasn't able to paint as much as I wanted, and I realized that the part of Super7 I enjoyed the most was creating toys and artwork " reflects Nagata. Thus was born Mark's new venture called Max Toy Company, named after his son Max. With a nod to the Golden Age of Japanese toys, Max Toy Co. will continue the tradition of offering classic Japanese character toys by all the best toy companies. Max Toy Co. also produces its own exclusive toys, both licensed and original. Many of the original toys offered are hand painted by Mark Nagata. A tradition that goes back to Japanese toy makers. Also most of the offerings feature unique artwork on the headercards painted by Mark. In September 2007 the first group Kaiju show in the United States featuring artists and companies from Japan, USA and South America was held at Rotofugi Gallery in Chicago. Called Toy Karma ( www.toykarma.com ) it was a historic gathering that featured many custom painted toys and art. Following on the heels of this event in October 2007, over 30 of Mark's original paintings, toys and a selection of his vintage toy collection were featured in Beyond Ultraman: Seven Artists Explore the Vinyl Frontier, at the Pasadena Museum of California Art , a joint exhibition with LaTda , Los Angeles Toy, Doll & Amusements Museum. This marked the first time in a musuem setting that the influence of Japanese toys on California artists was explored. And in 2009, Mark curated Mark Nagata and Kaiju Comrades art show in Tokyo, Japan, once again bring together artists from different aspects of the kaiju toy movement in this first of it's kind art toy show. From 2008 to the present Mark has also been selling his hand painted custom Kaiju toys via the prestigous auction houses Philips De Pury and Christies in New York and London. Mark's customs have sold in every auction and continue to spread the Kaiju art toy movement into new uncharted areas of the art world. In addition, Mark has also written and Max Toys have appeared in the Eiji Tsuburaya biography from Chronicle Books,the soon to be released, Kaiju Attack from Collins Books and Full Vinyl book from Harper Collins, Otaku USA magazine, and Japanese magazines, Hyper Hobby and KaiZine, Spectrum Fantastic Arts annual book, to name a few. More recently Max Toy Co. has teamed up with well known Art Toy distributor, StrangeCo .,to help wholesale and distribute its product to a much wider audience. "Max Toy Co. allows me to produce original artwork, sculpt new toys, and work directly with a lot of my talented artist friends." Nagata says.
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Contact Information : Mail to : MAX TOY COMPANY, LLC Please note we're a small company, so it's best to email us if you have any questions or concerns ;-) Email General Order Questions to : info@maxtoyco.com Phone: 415 - 337 - 6612 ( please leave a clear message with your name, phone number and item you are interested in. We will get back to you as soon as we can ) Contact Mark via email at: mark@maxtoyco.com ============================================ Wholesale Orders Email to : sales@strangeco.com
or Click here : http://www.strangeco.com/store/Shop_accountLogin.php Japan wholesale and orders contact One Up. :
========================================================= Mark's Web Sites and Blog : www.maxtoyco.com My Blog: Toy Karma blog - http://toykarma.blogspot.com/ Also check out these other sites:
http://www.youtube.com/user/maxtoyco
www.flickr.com/photos/chiaonagata www.flickr.com/groups/toykarma Kaiju Toy Shows :
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