Artist Reveals the Awesome Anatomy of Toys

On paper, the idea of someone dissecting a toy to expose its skeleton and organs sounds like a child’s worst nightmare—but in practice it’s actually pretty neat. By combining his love of sculpting, toys, and anatomy, in 2000 artist Jason Freeny created a series of illustrations that showed what inanimate objects would look like on the inside. That project gave him the idea to break out an X-acto knife and clay to test the concept on three-dimensional vinyl figures. 

The project continued to grow, and soon Freeny was sculpting anatomical dissections of pop culture characters from his childhood including Mickey Mouse, LEGO minifigures, Super Mario, Popeye, the Smurfs, and Bugs Bunny, as well as more contemporary characters and designer toys by fellow artists Ron English and Luke Chueh. Freeny has said that the anatomy of his figures isn't scientifically accurate, but that doesn’t make them any less impressive. 

Freeny also designs and sculpts his own original figures and toys: He has produced a Rubik’s cube in the shape of a brain, a 41-piece anatomical gummy bear model kit, and a set of custom LEGO minifigures. Check out his interview with the guys over at Tested below and head to Freeny’s website to see more of his cool creations.