I♥VinylToys

From Mod Mania

I♥VinylToys

~By Andy Chu~ 'Designers are the new rock stars, but without the drug habit because they're too busy designing. The Apple laptop has replaced the lead guitar definitely.' – Jeremyville

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Essay

In the 80’s the term ‘Vinyl Junkie’ would refer to turntablism; the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using turntables and a DJ mixer. Today, the term has changed from the music convention to a worldwide phenomenon known as ‘Vinyl Toys’. These ‘vinyl toys’ are simply plastic toys with an aberration: produced limited edition and designed primarily by musicians, DJs, illustrators, and graffiti artists. Due to its scarce production numbers, there are many communities and individuals around the world that would modify existing toys or redesign them. This sub urban culture is found via internet websites and forums, as well as street art, urban music and toy conventions.

The crazed designer toy movement began during the late 90’s in Hong Kong by the widely credited, Michael Lau. Lau’s designs were very unique; it stood out from what was in the toy industry at that time. They included the elements of street culture, music and skateboarding culture. The impact of designer toys had a significant effect on street culture, toy manufacturers as well as artists and musicians around the world. With the establishment of Urban Designer Toys, this began to influence many other artists around the world to create their own. When time reached the 21st century, vinyl toys became a major consumer product. In 2003, the big name company, KidRobot began to produce many designs and help spread this movement towards the world. After a year of its launch, KidRobot produced a wide collection of toys but in small production numbers. This encouraged graffiti artists, designers and musicians to collaborate and design their own editions. This developed a sense of connection between the different industries. A good example of such collaboration includes KidRobot’s Dunny, one of the most popular releases from the company. The Dunny is based on a rabbit in a more artistic and cartoon form; it is one of the many toys used as a medium used for expression. Many featured artists are invited to design their own in every release. The boom of custom versions of toys has made designer toys much more popular; many artists around the world modify their own toys.

Modification has become an increasingly popular approach towards today’s urban toy culture. As mentioned earlier, the vinyl toys are used as a medium for different artists to work on. There are thousands of artists who follow the “strip and paint” method. The method involves the artist to strip off the paint of the original vinyl toy and re-paint, print or draw over it. With the broad variety of materials and media available many artists didn’t just paint or draw over it, they also add and create extra parts to manipulate the original form. This brings modification to another level, by actually developing new form rather than printing on the surface of the original form. The range of materials used in this process can be anything found within a household. Modifying vinyl toys has expanded art form into a new path, allowing broader creative ways to express an artist’s intentions, aims and goals.

With popularity established how do these artists connect with the wider world? The powerful popularity and reliance of the internet has given artists a chance to exhibit, connect and collaborate with many artists today. Examples include www.deviantart.com, www.tomopop.com and www.spankystokes.com. These sites offer artists the opportunity to connect with mass society around the world. DeviantArt in particular is an example of what mass society really is. It has a huge user database that allows one to connect with other artists and viewers. Deviant Art is a great way for artists to connect with the vinyl community but it is a very broad art site, so to be more precise, Tomopop and Spanky Stokes are websites that are more relevant because they are both “collectible toy culture” based. Other ways that artists connect include toy conventions. Toy conventions are one of the best ways to connect to the world. Great events include ‘VTN Presents: DesignCon’ which is mainly based upon vinyl toys. Artists have the opportunity to exhibit and their own customised toys.

The rise and popularity of toy modification has led to major companies as mentioned earlier, KidRobot, Qee and Medicom to develop a new re-worked range of toy lines: Munny, BearBrick and Elements, in a DIY series. They are simply blank template versions of the original designs. They are usually sold in white and blue and come with a set of markers to draw on. The Dunny and Munny were the most popular models customised before the release of blank vinyl toys. The release of blank vinyl toys allowed artists and designers to express their ideas and imagery efficiently and more effectively without any bad paint cuts. With the toy modification community established, companies would often seek and invite some of the artists that are unknown to be part of their collection. The blank vinyl toys are more of a strategy for big name companies to find future projects and milestones to increase revenue. This is where mass society/communities connect with consumerism. Consumers have the ability to find what’s next in the coming season, in which connects with the other side of Urban Vinyl Toy Culture: the collectors.

The urban vinyl culture has not only established a modification culture but as well as the collector’s culture; individuals or groups who collect the work of artists and designers. Toy collectors expand an artist’s career by demanding more and more. A designer toy artist’s perception is to produce limited edition toys in small numbers. By expressing their views, messages, etc. onto a toy, it is a form of communicating towards a collector’s mind. Why do collectors collect these toys? It’s because there is an established connection between the artist and the spectator. This is how culture works; vinyl toy culture derives from the street culture perspective. People who have an interest of street culture connect with artists in that field. It is more of a pyramid hierarchy scheme: Artist > Consumer > Collector. The artists dominate the culture. All the ideas come from them but as they go they also investigate and research what collector’s want. This process then moves to consumerism. Consumers make reality happen for artists by spreading and selling the toys at the targeted audience: street-art, skateboarding and urban music based culture. Collectors also give a definitive response to their toys. This is where once again forums and internet websites come to mind; collectors critique the toys produced and artists grow and expand their creative output by developing a greater connection with the collector. As KidRobot founder, Paul Budnitz said, “These toys are like Pop Art -- they're like sculptures”, collectors of the designer toy culture do not only see these products as toys, they are more than toys. Collectors of course, have a sense of connection with the toy because the art form established on the toy expresses interests that are natural or were developed via innate dispositions. The audience of vinyl toys are not targeted at children, but rather adults. Adults have a stronger response towards these toys. “The designer toy collector, I think, is a whole other breed of customer; more pop, more ironic, more into sneakers and graf culture, more Dan Clowes than Tolkien and the genre is widening even further.” Jeremyville, artists and designer depicts adult toy collecting as a subculture to already major cultures such as shoe collecting, graffiti enthusiasm and even extended fantasy and action film and books. These toys are simply toys that aspire from anything that is popular or widely known. Toy collecting isn’t just a kid’s fantasy but also an adult fascination that separates their views from the norm.

Vinyl toys have extended from its roots to a culture of its own. From what separates them from any other toy is that it has appealed to certain groups of people. It has divided not into one single group but also many different groups. On the left side would be the artists and modifiers who create the attraction. With the ideas communicated through the toys, it then connects with the right side, the collector’s side. The collector’s neural pathways connect to the subject matter which develops a sense of beauty, beauty that brings an artist’s work to life. Vinyl culture has established many milestones, satisfying the hip hop, skate and also street culture.

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I♥VinylToys

I♥VinylToys

From Mod Mania

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Essay

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