Gustavo "Caspy" Julian grew up in the southern California playground known as Anaheim, California. Heavily immersed in the lowrider culture from an early age, he remembers the older guys cruising down Anna Drive with their lowered rides, their crushing sound systems rattling the neighboring buildings with the sound of bass, providing a soundtrack for the warm California summers. He can still vividly recall the excitement that he felt when looking at the candy-coated paintjobs, the wire wheels, and the hitting of the switches. "It was simply amazing," he says, still in awe of the memories. Upon his very first visit to a Lowrider Magazine Car Show with neighborhood friends, "Silent," David, and Raul, he was hooked and fascinated with the culture. He fondly remembers watching "Bumper to Bumper Fixed Up Rides," and considers it "a great source of inspiration," as he began learning about building these fantasy machines that seemed so far away at the time. Due to their youth and financial status at the time, Caspy and his brothers could not afford to pay anyone to fix up cars, so they started working on bikes, slowly building their skills and mechanical training that would one day lead them to working on the cars they loved. His brother was the first to branch out, and moved to Abilene, TX, and found a job that would teach him about designing custom paint jobs for lowriders. Caspy was next, moving to Altus, Oklahoma in 1990, and bringing along with him his love of cars, candy, and chrome. He began fixing up cars, keeping true to his heart and aspirations, spreading his SoCal style to the Midwest street scene. Not long after arriving in Altus, Caspy decided to start his own car club with his brothers Tomas aka "Shorty," Francisco aka "Shotgun," and Jose aka "Pepe."
In 1992, the Illegal Toys Lowrider Car Club was born. Besides the Julian brothers, original members of the club include Chris Rollins, Alex Cubillos, Robert Revilla, Lanny Morgan, Andrew Gloria, Rene Dominguez, and William "Memo" Tomey. In 1998, Alex moved to Oklahoma City and continued representing the Altus chapter. Two short years later, the second chapter of Illegal Toys became official, including new members Pablo Lynch, Jesse Rodriguez, Paul Garrison, "Junior" Jose Martinez, "Chino", Erik Martinez, Miguel Lopez, Darwin Murillo, Daniel, Sergio Martinez and Joel Martinez. This year they look forward to establishing a new chapter in Fort Worth, TX, carrying on their 17 year tradition of excellence and honor within the lowriding community.
There is only one word to describe the Illegal Toys Lowrider Car Club: Dedication. Long nights and weekends, wrenches turning, bleeding knuckles, are all typical of great car clubs, but what makes this car club so exceptional, is their longstanding commitment, and dedication to the institutions of family and community. As a family, they work together helping each other out, passing down patience and valuable lessons throughout various projects. The children work on their bikes with their parents; the adults work on each other's cars lending their skills wherever they are needed. One member put it, "it's not easy with the current economic situation and people losing their jobs, but we will keep it positive, that's why it is always important that we help each other out. It makes things much easier. One way or another, we always make things happen, even if it is last minute." This club is a true example of what a community is all about. Caspy adds, "it's not just the one member putting their heart into the project, it's the whole club putting their efforts into it as well." Welders, painters, mechanics and upholsterers are all present in this self sufficient mid-west club.