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Designer toy large scale? or Smaller scale?

Large scale 

Rubber Duck (sculpture) in Hongkong 

Kaw holiday edition

Happy Balloon dog sculpture in Covent garden 

Smaller scale 

Popmart blind box 

Come4art

BJD dolls

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Primary research

Questionnaire for the popularity of designer toys, because I believe the reason for the growth percentage of designer toys is based on the increase of modern art trends that produce from the youngers because a lot of people found it interesting and the purpose for the artist designing this is to attract the audience betters; For example question..

Female or Male

Age Group (Target audience)   under 20      20-30     30-40       40+

Do you know about designers toys?

Do you own any designer toys?      Yes        No

Then how many?   0         1-5        5-10        10+

What do you see in a 3D art compared to 2D art? (like the difference)

What does it attracts to you?

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Jeff koons

Jeff Koons one of the most expensive American contemporary artist which got known as his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-finish surfaces. His famous project is the “Balloon Dog” (Orange) in 2013 that has sold with US $58.4 million dollars and the “Rabbit” in 2019 which sold US $91.1 million dollars.

His innovative fabrication of exquisitely crafted objects became a icons of art history, for example of his Rabbit, 1986. That cast in highly polished stainless steel from an inflatable Easter bunny novelty, the sculpture’s mirror-like surfaces have the eerie effect of including the viewer in their cool reflections.

Koons collection is unrivalled globally, his balloon animals were also piled up in his apartment. He glued them on the mirror and called them the art installation, many of Koon’s art show a child’s perspective, and these toy inflatable piece have collected by many celebrities and hype up as the most expensive art in the world. In its celebration of consumer goods and its questioning of the notion of “good taste,” Koons’s art has been critically received as an ironic comment on the decadence of the 1980s and of capitalist culture. 

Jeff Koon with his Rabbit

Balloon Dog (Orange)

Play- Doh

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Kenny Wong

Kenny Wong a Hong Kong artist who explore the character of Molly. Kenny found Molly at his participate in fundraising activities of the International Fund for the Protection of Children. Molly figurine created by Kenny Wong, it was originally inspired by a young child. She has emerald eyes, a pouting mouth, and cute temperament. The first time Kenny met Molly, she was with a beret hat, an artist apron, a colour palette, and brush in her hands. That's how the little figurine artist was born. She is stubborn, adorable, smart, proud, and fun. With such a lovely personality, along with various designs and outfits, she has won the hearts of numerous fans that have made Molly one of the most famous pop culture toys.

Kenny Wong

Molly wedding series

Molly 400% large figure

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BE@RBRICK/Akashi Tatsuhiko

Akashi Tatsuhiko is the founder of MediCom. He has different identities: interior designer, illustrator, fashion photographer, etc., and has worked in the computer manufacturing industry (this also lays the foundation for making toys in the future). The plain life makes him feel dull. Behind him is ZAAP, a friend's toy shop! Working part-time, which inspired him to change the direction of life.

At the beginning of its establishment, MediCom Toy, like many Japanese toy experiments, focused on animation and animation figures. Until the millennium, when the LEGO building block man's patent expired, MediCom Toy launched a Lego-like building block man toy Kubrick, with three sizes of 100% 400% 1000%. The subject matter still revolves around animation, movies, games, etc.

Kubrick have achieved great success in the market. In 2001, Akashi Tasuhiko created BE@RBRICK inspired by the silhouette of a teddy bear. Compared with Kubrick, BE@RBRICK has increased by 50% more mini, and there are also rare sizes such as 200% and 2000%. The price of the doll is proportional to the size.

BE@RBRICK has always combined trend elements, street culture, and movies across borders, and cooperated with artists, designers, and popular brands from all over the world to launch unique limited edition and special edition trend toys, which are loved by global trend toy collectors.

This bear is like a modern canvas carrying classic art paintings, which can blur the boundaries of art and make a refreshing and gorgeous transformation one after another.

Bearbrick version of Van Gogh’s The Starry Night

BE@RBRICK series blind box 

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Brian Donnelly/Kaws

KAWS is a street artist from New Jersey, USA. He has a keen interest in graffiti since he was a child. KAWS’s iconic "XX" eyeballs with bulbous roots and skulls appear repeatedly in its art works through spoofs. In recent years, KAWS has extended figures of toys of various sizes, and even giant installation art. Transform the graphic artwork into a tangible and interactive entity image, so that the audience can feel the artistic atmosphere at a deeper level.

Kaws' work can be characterized by an emphasis on colour and line, distinctive graphics, such as the repeated use of "x”s on hands and nose and ears, and the appropriation of pop culture icons such as Mickey Mouse, the Michelin Man, the Smurfs…His characters are generally depicted in a shy and/or powerless pose often with their hands over their nose.

Brian Donnelly (4 November 1974)

Painting, graphic design, sculpture, graffiti, toys, collectibles

Kaws passing through

Kaws black companions 

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Philip Colbert

Philip Colbert is a contemporary British artist and he work across the mediums of painting, sculpture and clothing etc. A fantastic pop artist who created the lobster sculpture toy and his work powerfully explores the patterns of contemporary digital culture and its relationship to a deeper art historical dialogue.

Philip Colbert 1979

Lobster sculpture 

Fashion collection 

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How collectible designer toys became an art form.

Designer toys is a modern version of a art form, it is also called by art toys, urban toys and collectibles created by artists and designers. Artists use a variety of materials such as vinyl, ABS plastic, wood, metal, resin, plush etc. The earliest designer toys were made from Japan and Hong Kong. 

A typical example of designer toys are the Qee series which produced in Hong Kong by Toy2R. Qee vary in their design, usually with the same basic body type, but with head sculpts that may be of a bear, a cat, a dog, a monkey, or a rabbit. 

The starting point of designer toys movement is used to attracted to kids and it is also remained the same since they were first introduced in Asia in the mid-1990s by creating a character that can interact with children in order to rise up a companies familiarity as the character acted on behalf of the brand; the  example of Disney’s Mickey mouse and a food chain of McDonald's mascot Ronald McDonald which all successfully advertised their own branding. 

Collectible designer toys isn’t just targeting to kids, the evolution of the designer toys has evolve every time of era due to the change of social media and the development of new trend and the combination of different art movements, the twist of adding something more exquisite, edgy, more adult. Then, curb their availability by releasing limited editions—make them precious. Through toy brands, artists can design the same character in different sizes that sell for different price points, from the standard 8-10inch, which typically costs between £100-£150; to a 3-4-inch-tall mini at the price ranges of £20-£50; to a mystery blind box for £8-£12. But those artists often also make larger, more costly versions of their characters in materials like bronze or fiberglass, for gallery shows or commissions.

In fact are designer toys an art? That’s a question that has followed by many artists and the answer has always been “yes.” It’s the art development and catching up the changes in times. Artists believes this is because fine art and pop culture are moving closer together.

Qee Series

Dunny & Munny

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Reference biography:

Anna_Tsing_The_Mushroom_At_The_End_Of_The_World.pdf

- anna-lowenhaupt-tsing-unruly-edges-mushrooms-as-companion-species.pdf

- donna-j-haraway-anthropocene-capitalocene-plantationocene-chthulucene-making-kin.pdf

- peter-mccoy-radical-mycology-a-treatise-on-seeing-and-working-with-fungi-1.pdf

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Lino final development, The small community down forest! The Matsutake society .

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Whether it's the Anthropocene or the capitalist society, it essentially means a large-scale irreversible destruction is underway, either for humans or other creatures. Donna. J. Haraway, a feminist philospher who is more willing to describe the era we live in today as "Cthulhu" or "Monster world". Cthulhu was originally a monster described by the writer Lovecraft, Haraway use Cthulhus to emphasize variety of tentacles strength and influence that are entangled; control the time and space. Which she criticize the "dictatorship of man and capital" based on this. She mentioned that today world is full of refugee but with no refuge. All existences interact and depend on each other, human must "makekin" which means, as mammals we need to bond, adapt and form each other with biological and non-biological symbiotic collaborators.

Anna Tsing also believes that the chaos of the Anthropocene is not the result of the human species but the result of the rise of Modern capitalism and the society impact of progress. In fact, the key to collaborate coexistence is to pay attention to those nature fragmented landscapes, multiple temporalities and the ever- changing combination between humans and non-human. Actually many people nowadays are already paying attention to those marginalized people and their beliefs, and we should also focus on the relationship between humans and non-humans. She emphasized the "art of attention", which we can open up imagination started from the fungus e.g. Matsutake picking. Anna Tsing' "Mushroom at the end of the world" embodies a kind of eco-feminist thinking. From the perspective of eco-feminism, the patriarchal world has three characteristics-dualistic thinking, value hierarchy concept and ruling logic. The idea of ​human ruling nature comes from the idea of ​human ruling human. Therefore, eco-feminism advocates replacing the traditional dualistic model with multiple perspectives, and ultimately establish an equal society. Tsing mentioned in "Mushroom at the end of the world" that in the traditional American dream, survival is to save oneself by defeating others. Richard Dawkins once put forward the "selfish gene". Genes, organisms, and populations promote evolution while looking for their own interests. But in fact, survival is always related to others, and our own evolution is also contaminated by the history of encounters.

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Results of Lino prints

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Crafting lino, further development. From deforestation to the mushroom of nowadays ~ Matsutake movement! From deforestation to worldwide.

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Screen print experiments, idea inspired by Japanese Hiroshima atomic bomb. Apparently, after the atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima in 1945, the first creature to be revived in the destroyed landscape was matsutake. Domination of atoms is the peak of the dream of mankind's control of nature, but it is also the beginning of the destruction of this dream. The atomic bomb on Hiroshima caused many great changes. Suddenly, we realized that humans have the ability to destroy the habitability of the earth, whether it is accidentally or deliberately. This knowledge became clearer after we witnessed pollution, mass extinctions and climate change. Half of the existing sense of instability is related to the fate of the planet: what degree of human interference can we withstand? Regardless of sustainability, how much capacity do we have to leave a habitable environment for future generations?

Coexisting with instability requires not only blaming those who let us fall here . We might have to look around, observe this new world, and might have to expand our imagination in order to grasp its outline. And this is where Mushroom can help. The resilience and perseverance of matsutake that stretches on the bombed surface helps us to explore the ruins that have become our common home today.

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Water colour experiments, Matsutake forage to smell, clean and to sell...

"Matsutake the smell of autumn.... "

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"Life in Capitalist ruins, a highly original study that turns the commerce and ecology of a rare fungus into a tale of environment renewal... " Matsutake has very strict requirements on the growth environment, it can also grow in ruins and human interference. The spores must form a symbiotic relationship with the roots of the pine trees and this tree must be over 50 years old in order to form hyphae and pond. A quality Matsutake will often take 5 to 6 years to grown completely and cannot be desmestical. Matsutake has a globalized commodity chains which distributed worldwide but mostly in Japanese market, China, Vietnam and American etc. Matsutake also create auction affect, due to media factors, auction often achieve the promotional effect of certain commodities such as Matsutake which capitalist function of pushing economic.

Matsutake shipping scheme? Scale? :

Intermediaries 👉🏻Trader i.e. Canadian Asian exporters 👉🏻shipping to Japan 👉🏻 Japanese individual merchant.

Japanese government actually encourage people to chop down tree for firewood and building materials, they are committed to restoring the forests back to rural period.

Fact~ Candy stick Allotopa （a type of botanic）always grow near Matsutake!!!