Is it art or graffiti?

It’s not often that a toy company’s products get related to art at a national museum but Maisto has done it.

As part of a “Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture” exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution, Tim “Con” Conlon and Dave “Arek” Hupp were commissioned to create graffiti art for a corridor. A Smithsonian magazine article about it mentioned that the duo had also painted the decoration on some Maisto die-cast trains. See the story at www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/aerosol-200802.html

The Enamelized line of defaced graffiti-decorated trains is no longer in production but you might still be able to locate them at retailers. They are a series of 5″ long freight and passenger cars that were made under the direction of Roger Gastman who wrote the Enamelized book (enami.htm)