Do you ever wish you could bring the Silly Little Guy from that one piece of media you’re obsessed with everywhere with you, and have them actually be useful? Look no further than Gatherers’ Tavern’s ARTY bags, which turn your favourite characters and items into cute carrying companions fit for any journey.
Long-time fans will be familiar with our ARTY bags of Fblthp and Loot from Magic: The Gathering. We've recently released two new designs for MtG – Chatterfang the Squirrel General and Lathril, Blade of the Elves. As our ARTY line continues to grow with future designs for Yu-Gi-Oh!, Avatar: The Last Airbender and more, let us explore the whimsical and practical world of our ARTY bags.
Year after year, crowds of fans spend thousands at artist alleys on merch of their favourite characters. If you were to stop and look, most convention visitors sport accessories that show off their fandoms. In schools and universities, students cover their laptops with sticker merch in curated compositions. We’ve witnessed the rise of trinkets, with clusters of keychains and toys dangling from every bag and purse.
Trinkets and merch serve more than decorative purposes – they distinguish the individual from the crowd with unashamed displays of one’s interests, allow fellow fans to identify and bond with one another, and act as reminders of the things that bring you joy. For many, what sparks joy is some Silly Little Guy.
We all have that one Silly Little Guy stuck in our brains. It goes by many names – your oshi, your scrunkly, your blorbo from your favourite show. This being lives rent-free in your head, rotating like a microwave plate in your mindscape for one reason or another. Maybe you’re casual about it and just think that it’s a cute "litle creacher”. Maybe your room has become a shrine to it with how much merch you have. Maybe you want to metaphorically kick it down the stairs. Maybe you just need it in your life and you don’t even know why.
The ARTY bag takes your favourite character and condenses them into the form of a portable and useful Silly Little Guy. With the detachable strap, you can bring them wherever you go as your sidekick. Pat its fuzzy flocked head and squish it like a plush when you need to fidget with something. Swing it around when the cuteness aggression gets to you. Stack keychains on it to hear the jingle-jangle whenever you move. The choice is yours on how you’d like to treat your ARTY-fied Little Guy.
It may be easy to think that ARTY bags appeal only to those with a cutesy style. However, there’s an endearing humour in pairing ARTY bags with other unexpected styles. Tying into the Japanese concept of “gap moe”, contradictions between someone's outward appearance or persona and other unexpected aspects of them create a certain charm. The challenging of initial expectations leads to interest and complexity.
Imagine Vraska biking around with an Aetherdrift Loot ARTY, or Lathril with her mini-me Lathril ARTY on her office desk. And we all know deep in our hearts that Yami Yugi would absolutely carry his cards in a Kuriboh ARTY bag. In all these examples, the ARTYs’ cuteness juxtaposes with the more serious and edgier elements of these characters, highlighting their softer sides.
We too can emulate this through wearing outfits inspired by characters. By pairing these with the more recognisable, referential ARTY bags, the ARTYs clue in fellow fans as to which character we’re subtly dressing as without wearing full cosplay. That is what makes ARTY such a great piece of merch – it can complement all-out displays of fandom like cosplay, or it can subtly convey one’s love for a piece of media as an everyday accessory.
As for less traditionally "cute" ARTYs like Chatterfang's, his bag has the ugly-cute feral charm of a Labubu doll that meshes well with edgier alternative styles. But what truly endears it to me is its potential for humorous scenarios.
If anyone points to your Chatterfang ARTY and asks, “What the hell is that?”, you can turn to them and explain that “Chatterfang is a veteran squirrel general who rallied his fellow kinsmen to fight off invading drakes. He single-handedly took down over a dozen drakes and now wears their teeth as a necklace. Put some respect on his name.”
In a world that tries so hard to look ‘cool’, the ARTY bag defies such notions with the simple whimsy and approachable confidence of a Silly Little Guy. That’s what we need sometimes in life – a companion to join us on adventures big and small.
We’ll continue to expand our ARTY lineup with characters from different media and a wider variety of bag types. Follow our socials @GatherersTavern or join our mailing list so that you’ll be the first to know about and get your hands on them. Do reach out to us on our Discord and social media to let us know which characters you’d like to see next! In the meantime, browse our current array of ARTY bags and pick a partner to accompany you on your journey. We hope you have many happy times together!
Zahra Aliyah, Gatherers' Tavern