Toy Story

The phrase vinyl junkie has taken on a whole new meaning with the rise of the new wave toy culture. Annie Bowles investigates this rapidly growing phenomenon.

'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.' -- Jeremy (Jeremyville.com)

Dear Santa,
My name's Annie. I've been a good girl this year and what I'd really like for Christmas is the following: an England's Dreaming Qee, a set of Pete Fowler's Monsterism Volume 3, Cardboy: the flat-packed freedom fighter, Scary Girl and an original Blythe doll circa 1972...

It strikes me as odd, when I think about it: being a grown woman in my thirties and wanting toys for christmas. Certainly the concept would be anathema to my parents generation, who at my age would be too busy with more pressing concerns such as raising a family, for such frivolous indulgences. In fact, maybe the reason I occasionally feel guilty about my designer toy habit, is that I have taken on board some of my parent's rather stark black and white view of things, which decrees quite unequivocally that toys, comics and toons are for all for kids and beer, fags, heartbreak and hard graft are for adults. And then I get to thinking that maybe us thirty-somethings have had it all a little too easy, but for the most part I think sod beer and fags, I'm off down to Magma or Playlounge to check out what's new in the bright, shiny, happy world of vinyl and plush.   

And I know I'm not alone. Indeed, it seems that the phenomenon of designer toys for adults, is something which has really caught on in Britain during the last five years. But in the Far East and Japan in particular, such toys are nothing new and their rise to prominence in the West seems to have come about as a result of Western creative types looking to Japan for visual inspiration.

I asked Aidan Onn, proprietor of new wave toy shop, Playlounge and Jeremy of Jeremyville.com and editor of what is perhaps the definitive book on what is now a worldwide phenomenon; 'Vinyl Will Kill' to give us their thoughts on the brave new world of designer toys.

'What seems to give the current vinyl toy phenomenon its appeal is its perceived sub-culture. There are now toys that are regarded as works of art and are collected as just that. There are a noticeably growing number of 'world renowned' artists now contributing to the culture,' says Aidan.  

Jeremy adds that   'toys offer a new way for graffers, designers, artists and cartoonists, to extend their creative output. And collectors who are into a particular designers work love that crossover and want to be a part of it. For example if I've seen a KAWS graf piece, and I have one of his t-shirts, chances are I'll want to collect his figures, or buy a sneaker he's customised. They embody the essence of the designer, and the 3D figures manifest the qualities of that artist.'

So why has the UK been relatively slow to catch on? And why's it catching up now? Aidan explains: 'it's largely due to the rapid development of internet communication. For decades adult orientated toy culture has been a fairly exclusive Asian preserve, rooted in Manga and Anime. Unless you travelled to Asia, it's very unlikely you would ever be able to buy into it. It's only in the past five or so years that the internet has allowed western culture access to a whole array of products in a global market. Perhaps it's also related to the enormous advance in technology which has uniquely grown up with this current thirty-something generation. The very basic computer games and film/ television licensed toys we played with as kids in the seventies, have maintained their appeal by advancing in sophistication and keeping pace with our evolving leisure interests as adults. It's that generation of children -- growing up with all the related film merchandise -- that now, as adults are the key demographic collectors for contemporary toys.'

Aidan also observes that, 'Britain has some very peculiar creative inconsistencies in this respect. It's true - that unlike Asia, America and our European neighbours, Britain has little regard for the cultural integrity of the comic book. And yet Britain's commercial advertising, graphic design and illustration output represents some of the best in the world. Perhaps it's a slow realisation by the current thirty-something design community that they can and should be participating in this movement, drawing   inspiration from the Asian comic book, video game and toy culture influences that have remained so dominant.'

'At Playlounge, we try to avoid the 'action /fantasy' genre, because there's so much other interesting material around. Hopefully we're cultivating the right kind of reputation for specialising in a more
sub-cultural and innovative product, and this does tend to create a broader, more universal appeal. That's not to say that there's a distinct boundary line between 'action /fantasy' and new wave toy culture. Like most things in life; there are opposite extremes, and lots of blurring in between.'

'I've never gone for those realistic fantasy figurines,' concurs Jeremy. '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; the latest noticeable trend Is the rise of soft "plush" toys.'

Maybe its a generational thing, but if you ask most toy enthusiasts directly where their interest in
toy-collecting began, the answer inevitably seems to be in their 1970s childhoods. For example, Jeremy's fascination started with, 'the Smurfs definitely, Astro Boy figures, Star Wars and Legoland people. I also had a fascination with my GI Joes and Frankenstein dolls. That worried my dad I think! A whole new crop of artists are revisiting their childhoods, and looking through their Mr Men books, Magic Roundabout, Richard Scary, HR Puff n Stuff, Maurice Sendak, Schultz, etc, and remembering how cool they really were.'

So how about the future? Does the designer toy culture run the risk of burning brightly for a brief period then disappearing completely? Jeremy has the answer:

  'I don't know how long the actual toy medium itself will last, I hope a while, but it was interesting to recently see Takashi Murakami doing his version of the Monopoly board game! Now that's 'crossover'.'

Aidan agrees that   'things will change: I think toys will evolve and integrate into a more mainstream form of product design. They will become part of the furniture and fabric of our lifestyles and living spaces. They'll be on our shelves and coffee tables as previous generations had porcelain. And our kids will probably throw it all away when we're gone!'

Extracted from a much longer illustrated article which appeared in Nude issue 5 (Dec 2004/ Jan 2005).
Images reproduced with kind permission of www.monsterism.net and www.rocketworld.org respectively.