The best fake toys on the Internet go to a fake museum

Photoshopping a meme is easy. But hunt in thrift stores, find the ideal character for Frankenstein with another toy, design it and incorporate it into a slightly off but credible product, and dragging it to a store shelf requires a little more work. Both have the potential to become viral, but memes are lost in favor of ruthless Internet sand, while weird and bespoke toys can remain a story for the next person who stumbles upon them.

Since 2015, Jeff Wysaski makes fake boards and toys and lets them in the real world so that people can find them. Some of his recent, seemingly obvious creations range from dubious finds in dollar stores, such as Garfield's Mobile Suit, to conceptual ones like an empty plastic bag filled with Muppet screams.

The project attracted more than 600,000 online subscribers and became the full-time job of Wysaski. He sells his favorites on an online store, but for several months, Wysaski has been working on more than 100 items to post in his next pop-up of the Museum of Toys in Los Angeles, where he is based. I've talked to Wysaski about how he creates his toys, prepared for his first event in person and creating fake products in a fake news company.

This interview has been modified for clarity and length.

Jeff Wysaski

How many toys do you actually make on the shelves?

I leave almost everything except for food, because the FDA laws are pretty crazy. So I'm just going to take a picture of a food and take it with me. If it's an article I'm selling, I'll just take the picture and take it with me. But I initially left some of the first toys in a store.

Have you ever been caught by someone?

I have been doing it since 2015 and no one has ever told me anything. This makes you understand how unconscious people are. For example, I will go in with a bag of giant product and put it on the shelf, and nobody tells me anything. People do not expect someone to bring something into a store.

How many of your items do you actually sell?

I do not sell a lot, actually. These are just specials that I'm really happy about. If I have the means to do 15 or 20 of something, I will do it. But the majority of toys are just unique pieces. And since a few months, I work on the realization of this museum and so I need a piece to appear.

How was born the idea of ​​the museum?

It's sort of an evolution of Evident Plant. I started making fake panels and leaving them on street poles. And then, I moved the signs to the stores, and this has evolved into making fake products and leaving them in the stores. So, thinking to challenge me to move to a higher level, the idea was to create a fake shop full of counterfeit products. But then I thought, "Oh, that's a lot of products to make. And if I preferred a fake museum, could I create one of each thing? This was the next evolution of the trajectory I followed with the fake articles.

All toys will have small signs next to them. The idea is that it's like a fake toy story. So, you enter and, chronologically, there is the first toy in history, a stick.

I have somehow felt that it is different from many other things that are called museums today, like the Ice cream museum.

In one way, it is one of those fake ephemeral museums. In some ways, I do not care how they became implacable. Whatever it is, it follows this pattern in many ways. There will be instants Instagram, but subversively. So, the obvious plant takes a pop-up like the ice cream museum.

I think there is probably a very large audience for toy lovers, but also another audience who likes memes. These two audiences might not always be the same group of people. Have you ever heard collectors of vintage toys and people disappointed that something is not real?

I use a lot of older toys and, from time to time, some of the comments look like this: "I can not believe you ruined that." Anything, you know? Like a $ 10 thing. Or if they recognize it from their childhood, most people say, "Oh, I remember!", But they are not angry or anything.

So, do you often go looking for toys?

Yes, I go to thrift stores and if something that I find inspiring, I can say, "I do not know what I'm going to do with that, but it's really cool. I will take it home and pay $ 3 for it. And then turn it into something really strange and fun.

Have you ever bought something that you would turn into something else, but then you searched for it on Google, and you found out that it was really expensive or a collector's item?

No, I do not think so. Thrift stores usually have newer toys from the last 15 years. But I will also go to the flea markets, I had some business there. I will do a lot of research on eBay if I am looking for something specific and I already have an idea.

Who do you think is the audience for this museum?

I'm a bit curious to see. It's an experience because I have quite a few fans, but how many of them are in Los Angeles? And then I have a little a small community of illegal toys. I will definitely do a little promotion to attract a wider audience of people who do not know my work, or who may be a little less aware of the real idea. I'm curious to see if people will come and think it's a real toy museum, and then be disappointed when it's invented.

I mean, if you advertise in local magazines, people who do not know that your work can come.

It does not bother me because it's a bit like what I do in general: leave something in public. And then, for people to find it and discover it as something that it is not really. I will not have any problem if people come and I will not have a problem if they are disappointed.

Your work on obvious plants is very light and should not be taken seriously. But do you sometimes feel that when you make these fake things and present them as real, you contribute to a culture in which people are fond of fake things online?

Yes, it has happened. The very idea of ​​Indent Plant is to make the world more strange. So the idea is to make things a bit more surreal in people's daily lives – to make them laugh, like when they shop or do something boring. I really appreciate when people online are led to think that something is real. It's fun for me because it means I did my job well.

But in the end, I do not want to contribute to a society of false news. I put my label on everything for someone to point out to me that it is a fake. I want people to joke that these things I create are wrong. And so the people who know me and follow me are in the joke, and they have the opportunity to visualize with me that someone finds this in the real world. And then at the back of the package, as if someone found it in the store. I write something like "This product is not real, nothing is real". So, if someone looks at him hard enough, he will realize that this is not real.

The Museum of Toys will run from March 1 to 17 at 2270 Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles. Tickets are $ 10.