by Alex Wells
We love an artist who is in it for the pure love of the game and Tammy Nicholls is a recent LA transplant who makes toys that never were and that no-one can buy. Nicholls creates nonexistent 1980s figures, complete with packaging, based on pieces of nerd creativity like Warhammer 40,000 that never reached mass—kiddie-market saturation, but that nevertheless hold a place in many fans’ hearts.
The total lack of capitalist motive only adds to the eccentricity of Nicholls project, which seems to material out of an almost utopian vision of LA where everyone has the time and energy to indulge a weird passion for invention just for the hell of it.
So first if you could just introduce yourself—your name, what you do for a day job (if any) and anything else you want to say about your background.
Hello! My name is Tammy but I go by the moniker Tears of Envy. I’m a Brit who moved to LA about 18m ago to work at Riot Games in Santa Monica to do intellectual property strategy. I’ve previously worked for Warhmmer in the UK. In my spare time I love sculpting action figures and other weird toys, which often look like products from the 1980s.
So as far as I can tell these toys are 100% real things—there’s no digital manipulation or AI involved, right? You design the card and everything?
Correct. There is no AI involved, but digital is a step in the workflow. The figures are sculpted using 3D software then 3D printed and hand-painted. I sometimes post renders to Instagram which people can mistake for AI images, but they’re not. All the card artworking is done in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I love the almost archaeological research I sometimes have to do to find old bits of art. I often have to retouch, extend or color balance the old images a bit to make them fit the backing card. I also love recreating old logos using Illustrator, which is a beautiful program I’ve been using for over 20 years.
Can you tell us about the sculpting and color process?
The first step is to gather as much research material as I can, which often involves scouring the internet for images. Sometimes finding images of, say, the back of the character I want to make is hard, so I have to interpret the design a bit. For those figures based on things like old miniatures, eBay is a godsend! The photos people upload there are often excellent. Then I sculpt the figure in Blender (a 3D modelling program). I sometimes do a test print part-way through to check proportions and sizes. When I’m happy with the sculpt I print the figure out using a resin 3D printer, and then paint this physical print using acrylic or lacquer paints. The colors are usually pretty defined by the artwork, but sometimes (as was the case with the Giger “twins”) I need to make educated guesses.
And also, from what I can tell, you don’t sell them—this is all just for the fun of it?
Correct—they are not for sale. My professional field is intellectual property management, so I’m well aware of the hurdles I would face if I did want to sell them.
Do you have any other weird hobbies?
Ha ha—how did you guess I might have other weird hobbies? I love vintage cycling and I currently own a 1977 Raleigh bicycle which I enjoy peddling around Santa Monica. I also collect vintage Nikon cameras, and often wear vintage clothes. So, you could say I’m pretty obsessed with vintage. When I’m wearing 18th century breeches and people ask me, “Why are you dressed like that?” I just say all English people wear such clothes. This tends to confuse folks and they mutter and walk away.
How did you get interested in Warhammer?
My father is a bit of a geek and he himself grew up with Lord of the Rings, a lot of pulp fantasy and the old British Hammer Horror movies. He kind of passed this on to my sister and I. I was initially drawn to Warhammer by the artwork, which was (and still is) a benchmark in the industry. Their weird, creepy characters in bizarre quasi-medieval worlds really grabbed my attention and were like nothing else I’d seen. I ended up working for Warhammer (in Nottingham, in the UK) for 11 years, so it was kind of a dream come true.
Did you play with the Star Wars era toys yourself? Or yearn from afar?
I’m of the age where every child owned Star Wars toys. They were pretty ubiquitous in Britain in the early ‘80s and I had a few. I always liked the C3-P0 because he was shiny and his limbs came off. My sister and I also loved the Ewoks cartoons. I know lots of people hate the ewoks, but those cartoons did exactly what they intended to—enthral younger children. This totally worked on us, and we used to dress as ewoks (with little hoods and bows and arrows made by our parents) and play with the plush ewok toys. Man, to this day I still love ewoks! I think I want to come back as an ewok when I’m reincarnated.
Are there other folks that inspired you or are in your “scene”?
Definitely. I’ve been a fan of custom toy makers for a while, with the most famous being The Sucklord, whose work is wonderfully funny. There are also some great folks working in the Star Wars space, including Paleetoy, Greeblerelf and Cardboard Galaxy. Their work is a little more serious and more closely resembles real products that could have existed. Regarding the fake background history I write, authors like Charlie Brooker (of “Black Mirror” fame), a graphic design project called Scarfolk, and a very weird YouTube channel called Bosnian Ape Society are big inspirations.
Do you play Warhammer 40k or its related games?
I do but not frequently. Finding the time is hard.
I understand you’re recently moved to LA—how do you like it?
It’s…big. It’s hard for an American to understand the scale difference for us Brits coming to this fine country. We are just not used to this amount of space, and how big you Americans build things as a consequence. I love hiking and landscapes, so my mind is still getting blown by the vastness of Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Because we British consume so much American culture, coming here is a bit “uncanny valley” where it’s all stuff I recognize, but have never seen outside of a TV screen. After 18m here I think I prefer mountain life to, say, desert of beach culture, so maybe moving to a mountain town is something I’d love to try in the future.
Tammy can be found at instagram.com/tears_of_envy
Images: Courtesy of Artist