There’s a lot of debate if his pieces are art toys or simply bootlegs, a question we’ll definitely come back to, but it wasn’t an overnight process for Phillips to find The Sucklord. In fact, the story really begins during his college years.I take bits and pieces of other toys, switch the parts around, sculpt pieces, thereby fusing it with an original meaning. And I make my living doing it. It’s kinda like an Andy Warhol thing, it’s like he had soup cans and I had stormtroopers.The Sucklord on Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, Season 2 Episode 1 (Bravo, 2011)
The History of The Sucklord
Having focused on a major in art, specifically concentrated on sculpture, Phillips did an independent study during his final year. And what artwork did he create with this freedom? He started making strange characters out of Sculpey, and playsets for them to inhabit.

Photo: Tom Lichtman, 2011

Photo: Dustin Fenstermacher for the Village Voice, 2011

Photo: Bill Dawson, 2015

Finding marginal success with this sculptural self-portrait, The Sucklord went all in. He inherited some money in 2005, which he invested in renting an art studio and buying the equipment he needed to self-produce resin figures. After experimenting with several new designs, The Sucklord ended up debuting his Gay Empire piece, which became a huge hit after Frank Kozik posted about them on the Kidrobot forum.

The next few years saw The Sucklord rise in fame, attracting the attention of serious art collectors, galleries, and even auction houses. And this all culminated with The Sucklord being on the second season of the reality competition program Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.
My Impressions of The Sucklord’s work
But the question remains, is what The Sucklord creates art or not? Now, I own quite a few pieces created by The Sucklord, but I chose the below-pictured four deliberately, the reasoning for which — I hope — will become clear as we discuss them.
This Autobot Protestor was one of ten that The Sucklord created for his Occupy Cybertron event. Held at New York City’s End of Century boutique in 2011, this was a Transformers-inspired parody of the Occupy Wall Street movement. In fact, attendees — like myself — were invited to wear robot masks and participate, with us depicting the protesting 99 percenters against Sucklord and his cronies’ 1% status.
And, from only about a month later, we have the Suckadelic Shit Prize. Available at DesignerCon in Los Angeles, fans had to play spoof carnival games, like Flip the Rat and Turdtoss, to earn SuckBux which could be exchanged for prizes like this one.
Is the common factor clear yet? It’s that I went to all these events. You see, while The Sucklord is usually given accolades as the originator of the bootleg action figure as an art toy concept, I think his artistic contribution is way bigger than that. He’s a performance artist that has found a brilliant way to monetize his performance art. These pieces aren’t necessarily his artwork, they are mementos of his performance art. And, even more impressively, he found a way to make his art meaningful to those that didn’t meet him in person.
Back in 2010, The Sucklord started creating a video series titled Toy Lords of Chinatown. A New Jack City-esque parody, this series concentrates on the toys Sucklord creates as contraband, and it introduces viewers to not only the physical figures but the cast of characters Sucklord typically focuses on. It’s a matured example of a classic formula: a kid watches a cartoon and wants the toy versions of those characters to play with. The Sucklord isn’t selling you an art object without context, he’s selling you a souvenir of experiencing his performance art universe.
And this concept brings us to the final piece I have here. Just released in February, this is the Sucklord: Lavender Chrome version 1 (2017). Now, let’s be clear: Sucklord didn’t make these. These pieces are injection molded, just like classic Star Wars action figures, and were made by Chad Herrington’s HasNoTalent brand.
For more information on The Sucklord:
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I've been trying to get my hands on the sucklord lavender chrome figure and if there is any chance anyone has one to sell, please let me know! Thanks kindly in advance!