Vinyl Toys
From Mod Mania
The vinyl toy collecting community are a very open community, they are not defined by the way they dress or the cars they drive. They have them on display in their houses, bedrooms and offices. The child in them creates this lust for toys, however they are not used for play, they are displayed. Placing them in the “boys” room, possibly something that their friends will be impressed by. The toys are often made by artists, designers and illustrators and often pay homage to childhood icons like Sponge Bob, Ren and Stimpy, Gundam and Transformers. Similar to people who collect Star Wars and Transformers figurines, the toys are a tangible element to their passion.
The toys, mainly because of their price are an accessible piece of art for the every day man or women. You can pick them up for as little as ten dollars Australian. However there is also the drastic end of the scale, where toys are selling for excess of five thousand US dollars. These toys are considered highly exclusive not only because of their price, but also the limited numbers released. For example the Kaws/OriginalFake four foot companion series. Released over a number of years, in small amounts, in limited stores around the world. The hype based around the dissect companions which show a companion, sliced in half showing its insides caused some die-hard fans to camp out to be able to purchase one. In Australia, as I know, there were only 2 of each member of the series released at Someday. Two greys and a black edition. There was a balloting system to become the buyer because there was such high interest.
This phenomenon is quite small in Australia. Largely because of Australia’s inability to sell a huge amount of vinyl it is left with a small number of items making it even harder to purchase in a retail environment. This leads to buying them online which causes many problems. Fake items pop up all over the Internet, and even in retail. For example there is a shop on Chapel St which sells hundreds of so called “Asian Imports”. There you can pick up the medium sized companions for 40 dollars, which retailed for around 500 when released in Australia.
The other problems related with online sales are the resale prices, which occur when people buy the toys, knowing their exclusivity, and intend to make quick money. Resale prices can jump the price by well over 100%. We see the same process occur with scalpers for concert and event tickets and also in the sneaker/streetwear community. I consider this an immoral attempt at exploiting the devotion of fans and ripping them off.
The culture of toy collecting is most popular in Japan and Hong Kong, supported by industries like streetwear, anime and the eminence of cartoons. From playing with toys as a child, collecting figurines from movies and games, the vinyl toy culture grew. These toys allow grown ups to reminisce of their childhood, where everything was simple and carefree. This can be seen as the driving factor for collecting the vinyl. These figures can be seen as an escape from the stress of work, a trip back to childhood naivety and innocence. You can forget about work for a minute and relate back to a time much simpler.
The escapism back to childhood is exclaimed by the form of many of the vinyl’s. Some vinyl’s that are childish are the turtle camper, from Jeremy Fish, Benny Bard by Recon, Munny’s from KidRobot and Dunny’s. The Be@rbrick, possibly the most common known type of the vinyl toys is a very childish shape. The shape is often then covered by a character, or symbol like the above noted SpongeBob or Ren and Stimpy models. Although often childish the Be@rbricks also cover more mature themes like horror movies such as SAW. There are also bears under the theme of bands from Daft Punk to The Sex Pistols to The Rolling Stones.
Toys like Munnys and Dunnys from KidRobot have many different models, including a DIY model from each. This allows them to be customized by the everyday person. Creating something individual. It has also created a market for well known artists to create one of their own vinyl toys, where as they may not have had the chance to create a mass produced model, they can create one offs, pleasing the desire of the buyer of one offs to be seen as more individual like in the sneaker collecting and customizing cultures.
The struggle to be different draws people to become parts of sub-cultures. Once part of a sub-culture they then seek to be seen as an individual inside of that sub-culture. This leads to two things. One, obtaining the most rare object, often exclusive because of price, or sometimes plainly because of the limited amount of numbers, and two creating something unique to show your status in the community as of greater value.
The market for these toys is very wide. Fans can be bought into the culture by so many different things. A release of a be@rbrick of their favorite band might get them interested. They can then easily become a fanatic. There are also many artists who produce toys as a way of making their art affordable to the everyday person. Ron English, Jeff Soto Jeremy Fish and David Choe are some examples of this. Their prints and paintings can sell for hundreds even thousands of dollars. By creating clothes and toys they allow a much wider market to appreciate their work, and also be able to own a piece of it.
The vinyl toy collecting community will continue to seek their toys, whether rare or affordable, they will be on display in homes and offices around the world, displaying their obscure interests through the childish vessel, “The Toy,” or setting themselves apart from their friends and colleagues and taking them back to a time much more similar.
image source:blog.sirrolandproductionsinteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/blog.sirrolandproductionsinteractive.com/2009/08/complex_kaws-thumb.jpg
