The Art Behind Designer Toys

Everyone loves to be entertained, toys are one of the purest forms of entertainment, especially for children. However, as children become adults they begin to see toys in a new perspective. The 1990’s introduced designer toys to the toy industry. The limited quantity of designer toys made/produced, showcasing that toys didn’t just have to be made for profit but for the love and the affection of the toy. The toys played with as children became collectibles and displayed in galleries. Woodrow Phoenix, wrote in his book: Plastic Culture “The real truth at the core of our fascination with toys: It’s about dreams and the desire to catch them in a piece of plastic.” The purpose of designer toys is to bring ideas and imaginations to life, from sketches to a tangible three-dimensional object. Designer Toys allow artists to create original objects that come from a personal sensibility, and focuses on artistic touch rather than the creation of amusement and merchandise.  

In Hong Kong around the mid 1990’s an illustrator  Michael Lau dramatically impacted the movement of designer toys. Bringing a whole new element of designer toys to the table. Michael Lau transformed hard-plastic action figures into heavily influenced pop culture figures. Lau would tear apart body parts of old G.I Joe and other mainstream figures.  Sculpting his own plastic custom heads, hands, and feet. Ripping apart these old toys was a form of appropriation, taking something and incorporating it to become something new and original, and made his own thats what makes his toy so beautiful. Arthur Lubow of The New York Times said in Cult Figures “Lau had created skateboarders, surfers and snowboarders, decked out in baggy shorts, camouflage jackets, tentlike sweatshirts and of-the-moment sneakers, adorned with chains, earrings and tattoos, their hair in dreadlocks or pressed beneath bright-colored caps.” to create a whole new group of characters, He called the “Gardeners” (characters that originated in his comic The Gardeners a year prior to his collection). Lau brought street culture and introduced it to the designer toys scene. Creating urban vinyl, a mixer of high end art and action figures design. Urban vinyl carried a graffiti style, which opened the door to the numerous amounts of topics, styles, and showed that appropriation was not stealing but a way artists could portray pop culture in toys.

Not all toys have to be made for childrens entertainment They can be made to be admired and loved for the craftsmanship. These toys are so different. Toys designed for children are made to educate, entertain, and promote young media. These type of toys are a direct result of media merchandising. Commercials are made to advertise these mass produced products. Which are then manufactured to be sold to the children across the world. Seeing all these television, film, comics, and videogames represented in toys, shows the lack of originality child toys have. The toys played with as children are replications of the media. There is no appropriation to make these toys unique. Paul Budnitz,Founder of Kidrobot, states in an interview with Skillshare “When we appropriate something we add to it, we change it and tweak it in a way that makes it a commentary. It doesn't have to be really specific, it doesn't have to be clear what we are talking about. But it somehow says something more.” Artist can take whatever they want whether its pop culture, history, what have you and manipulate it until its no longer stealing but appropriation. The problem with appropriation is taking things too literally it becomes just a replication of a product, much like children toys. The word product is what divides children toys from adult toys, children toys tend to be just products when adult toys represent an artistic culture.

When looking at a teddy bear holding a heart what is being conveyed is “cute”, designer toys have more meaning. They’re an art form and expression of creativity. These toys are meant not for play but for display. In  an interview by Skillshare Paul Budnitz’ says “When you’re children we really feel one thing at a time. If you spend time around kids, kids look to have like a cute toy and a happy toy. But really all their toys have one specific through line of emotion.” These types of toys don’t say much, when comparing these emotions to an artistic standpoint viewers don't see much of a message or idea. Designer toys differ from the so called action figures or stuffed animals. Adult toys/designer toys are made with the art sensibilities in mind, with a huge influence on sculpting and design. “When we get to adult toys and designer toys usually there are two to three things going on at the same time, that's because as we grow up as human beings we start to experience the world in more complex ways. We see the world in contradictions.” At first glance a teddy bear just says cute, but adding a contradicting theme to a cute teddy bear, like some blood and dark eyes makes the toy art. Because no longer is that bear just cute but it’s scary and dark. These two things being displayed in one object starts to play with the mind. “That sense of two things not quite fitting together is what makes designer toys art and not just another product.” found on a shelve.

A large factor of designer toys was the combination of graphic design, illustration and sculpting. Hence the word designer in designer toys. Contradictions actually play a major role in the overall design, that guide the direction of the colors, shape, and the general feel of the toy. If you look at Paul Budnitz’s Kidrobot, Dunny a blank bunny figure part of Budnitz’s D.I.Y figures. Notice that the head is cut at somewhat of an angle, making the back of the figure have a hunch alwaying the head to turn which gives the bunny figure a more menacing feel, more articulation, movement, and emotion are shown. Even with a blank toy that emotion comes through, the posture gives life creating more depth within that character.

The grand thing about designer toys is that its a medium that combines other forms of art, making it a very compelling and hands on art form. Michael Lau in an interview with Vinyl Pulse, says that “Through the development I transform from one role into another.  That’s rewarding because I don’t want to do just one thing but everything.  To be able to do each aspect of a character is much more satisfying.”  For Michael Lau to be able to merge multiple forms of art into on medium shows why what makes designer toys so unique and great. An artist to take graphic design, illustration, sculpting, painting and mold making and bring them together to form an art medium shows the world the impact that toys could have and reflect towards an individual. Showing that toys are simply a pleasure to just simply admire.

Designer toys have now become vastly popular in american art culture and continue to be collected and admired around the world. It is defined in the dictionary that toys are “an object for a child to play with.” But if we learned anything from this paper it’s that the dictionary got it wrong, toys are an art form specifically designer toys. That combined multiple art mediums, uses contradictions and appropriation to greater backup its artistic standpoint. The truth is that toys no longer have one single purpose. Best put it  Budnitz’s says “What draws a person to an object is not always an idea — it might just be an intense love for the material reality of the object itself.” Designer toys brought out the deeper meaning behind plastic toys allowing its audience to see them more than just childs play.

Bibliography

Video:
Budnitz, Paul. Paul Budnitz' Beautiful Plastic: Training Your Eye. SkillShare. Published March 18, 2014.Youtube.com. January 27th, 2014

To Paul Budnitz designer toys are truly an art form. Budnitz says that juxtaposition and appropriation are recurring themes from 20th century art movements, that have resonated in almost all designer toys. If you look at a teddy bear Budnitz says all that toy really says is one thing which is...cute. When you look at a kids toy, if it’s a action figure, stuffed bear or whatever, you can look at each of those toys individually and they usually only have one throughline of emotion, whether it's happy, sad, angry, etc. Designer toys usually have 2-3 emotions going on at the same time. Using juxtaposing characteristics and contradicting emotions is what makes designer toys art. Budnitz believes that it is because of these themes that divides childrens toys from designer toys. “It makes designer toys art and not just another product.”

Book:

Budnitz, Paul. I Am Plastic, Too: The next Generation of Designer Toys. New York: Abrams, 2010. Print.

Website:

Curtis, Nick. Designer Toys 101: What are Designer Toys?. SpankyStokes. May 29th, 2012. Published Article.

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Curtis, Nick. Designer Toys 101: What makes Designer Toys art while normal toys aren't?. SpankyStokes. August 14th, 2012. Published Article.

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Heller, Steven. "Toy Story." The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2007. Web. 20 Feb. 2015.

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Jack."Vinyl Pulse: Michael Lau Ten Years, Ten Questions." Vinyl Pulse: Michael Lau Ten Years, Ten Questions. N.p., n.d. 21 Sep. 2009.Web. 20 Feb. 2015.

WebSite:

Lubow, Arthur. Cult Figures. New York Times: Magazine. Aug. 29th, 2004. Published Article.