Human instinct dictates that when we see a toy, we want to open it. It’s why old toys that are still in their box are so valuable. Everyone who bought them as a child opened and played with them, making ones still in the package much rarer. But what if there were toys that went against that instinct? Toys not meant to be played with. Toys meant to be displayed where the packaging is as much of the experience as the figure itself, if not more so?
That’s exactly the type of toys artist Adam Perocchi makes. A New England resident and native, under the name “Readful Things” Perocchi makes art in the shape of a toy, package and all. It’s a way for him to explore a love of pop culture, as well as sculpting and painting. “I’ve been painting/drawing since I was a kid [and] I got into sculpting about eight years ago,” Perocchi told io9. “I wanted a way to combine my sculpts with my artwork, so I thought carded action figures would be a good way to marry the two things.” Which he now does almost daily, working on five or six pieces simultaneously, sculpting a figure as well as doing the artwork for the package.
Perocchi covers all types of subjects, from classic pop culture to new favorites, or even sometimes things that are much more specific. “Occasionally I’ll do some current pop culture internet zeitgeist thingy (Pop Tart being cooked alive, Star Wars Cerveza Cristal, etc), and those will supersede everything else,” he said. In this slideshow, you’ll see a bit of all of it. We’ve hand-selected just a taste of Perocchi’s incredible work, running the gamut of genres, eras, and more. And to see even more, you can visit his Instagram where he showcases most of his work, or his official site, where he occasionally does art without the toy.