Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Scairy Hairy Toys Hand-Made Mask (circa 1994)



back side of mask info

Finally Robert Speray was kind enough to pass on an unopened hand-made silk screen mask made by the Scairy Hairy Toy Co. in San Francisco, California which was really awfully cool of him.

Click on the above images for blow-ups.

Here's a bit of an email he sent me that gives a tad more information on the store and the people who worked there.
All the stuff they made was playful, fun, and visually
interesting. Going into the store was always a treat.
The store's open space and display window had monthly
themes. Each month the store was turned into
a walk-in game space.

Flower (Frankenstein)
worked in the back making
the stuff. It was her ideas and designs and
manufacturing work that created the output.
They sold other things too, interesting
alternative items from standard distribution
channels such as limited edition prints.
Bruce managed the place. They
seemed to be a fun couple that got along
ok and were doing something together that
was fulfilling and carried them ok. Later I
heard they had broke up and the store was gone.
I lost track of them, and the stuff I had
bought was put into my room of stuff and got
buried and forgotten.

Four years ago I ran across a few games and
wondered what had happened to Flower and Bruce.
I googled their names and found that Flower was
doing some other things now, and Bruce seemed
to be around doing his thing. I never got
in contact with them. Recently I googled them
again, and Flower has a strong web presence with
a blog and a book. Before, there was zero references
to the store or the games. Then on a recent search,
it was your blog that showed up as the definitive search
result for the name, and the games.
Thanks for putting it up. I hope you'll continue.

3 comments:

  1. Not to boast, but only to set the record straight... I (Bruce) designed a vast majority of the toys, and ALL the silk-screening. Not to take away from what Flower did. We both designed and we both produced, stuffed, packaged and we both worked our asses off, which was the main contributor to the break-up. After over 5 years of this we produced 100's of different "stuff"... too bad there never was an archive put together... we never really got any notoriety, but your postings for the board games and such are appreciated! Much Thanks! Bruce

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  2. I have a Death by Miniature Golf set which to this day still I find unreal that I have one of the only twenty ever produced. It's still in fantastic condition.

    Thanks for sharing!

    Matt

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  3. I stumbled into Scairy Hairy in 1997. It was the greatest thing I experienced in the entire 1990s. The store seemed impossible. Like it could not have existed. I was surprised to find this blog and discover that it did exist.

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