Cavy the Urban Hamster

Mathias Bax lives in a small village called Edermunde in the middle of Germany. He works as an architect and adesigner. He has always liked drawing, and in his younger days, he did somegraffiti. Drawing and comics were his biggest hobbies, and through comics,he found toys. Star Wars were his favorites, but expensive as a kid. (Justlast year, he bought the 70cm Millennium Falcon!) It was through trips toHong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore that Mathias discovered urban vinyl.

Mathias wanted to fuse the spirit of urban vinyl and DIY toys witharchitectural simplicity and have the result also be appropriate for hisyoung son. To that extent, he created two versions of the hamsters: one witharticulated arms and one with fixed arms (no small parts for kids to eat).And so it was, that after getting home from work, Mathias spent time withhis girlfriend, put his son to bed, and then went to work again--this timein his toy lab.

"Casting resin was not hard to do, but very expensive by trial and errorlearning," he said. "The Hamster form needed to be simple and flexible so itcan be made into something wholly new...perhaps a Stormtrooper, Hellboy oran Easter Egg. As a result, the Hamster has no eyes: the mind of the Hamsteris therefore neutral. But the idea of artificial teeth make him laugh..."