Huck Gee is an artist and toy maker whose work is in the permanent collection at the MoMA. Here's his Wikipedia page. Well, his latest custom toy is a liontaur!
Here are more pictures of this beauty from the artist's e-newsletter, and the toy has been featured on the Clutter blog and on the A Little Bit On The Awesome Side blog. Also check out this "Koalataur," another liontaur toy by Huck Gee.
On his blog, Gee says, "But before you all go jumping to the obvious conclusion, Koalataur does not actually have any relation to a Koala. He was born a Liontaur (AKA a wemic, urmahlullu, lion-man) but due to the strange coloration of his fur was labeled an outcast at an early age and banished from his tribe." So you see that "Koalataur" is a liontaur too.
I just wish I had 850 bucks to spend on one of these! Only ten liontaurs are being offered for sale.
Pictures of both taurs together are at Collect3d.
Update [18 Aug 09] I wrote to the artist and asked about his inspiration. He wrote back:
What inspired me? I was a D&D player in my youth and still an occasional Forgotten Realms reader ... always loved the mythology of Wemics. I suppose I could've named my little creations Wemics but I have a feeling that particular name may be the intellectual property of whomever currently owns the rights to D&D. That's fine, Liontaur is just as appealing a name.
I may have one more set of these up my sleeve ... the pride needs a female companion. But I have a few other projects on my plate to knock out first.
Many thanks to Huck Gee for the comments!
