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Designer Toys
Designer toys is a term used to describe toys and other collectibles that are produced in limited editions (as few as 50 or as many as 2000 pieces) and created by artists and designers.

Designer toys employ a variety of materials; plastic and vinyl are most common, although woodmetal are occasionally used. The term also encompasses plush, cloth dolls and latex. Creators of designer toys usually have backgrounds in graphic design, illustration or self-described low-brow and art; some are classically trained in art and design, while others are self-taught. Designer toys first appeared in the 1990s and are a flourishing industry.



Examples
A definitive example of designer toys are the Qee series, produced in Hong Kong by Toy2R.

The standard size of Qee figures is 2" high, but 8" and 16" figures are also produced. Qees 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. Variations of the Qee are the Toyer with a head that resembles a cartoon skull; the Knuckle Bear, which was created by Japanese character designer Touma, and resembles a graffiti-style caricature of an anthropomorphized bear; and the Qee Egg, a bird's egg with arms and legs. Blank Qees are produced in 2" and 8" sizes; these figures may be of any Qee sculpt, but are packaged unpainted, as do-it-yourself pieces. Each piece is designed by an artist and carries its own aesthetic theme. Each 2" figure is packaged with an optional keychain attachment.


Dunny
Another popular example of designer toys is the Dunny series, produced by the American company Kidrobot.

Dunny figures may be considered the Western counterpart of Qee. Dunny are a series of figures that resemble anthropomorphized rabbits in a cartoon style (a design originally illustrated by graffiti, stencil, and comic artists) which are produced as 3" or 8" figures. There is a variation of the Dunny figure called a Munny, which resembles a monkey. Both styles have unpainted versions, offered as do-it-yourself pieces.


Creators
Prominent creators of designer toys are Hong Kong-based Michael Lau, credited with the establishment of the Urban Vinyl movement; Devilrobots.

Devilrobots is a five-person design team from Japan, known for their television character named TO-FU; American concert poster artist Frank Kozik's Mongers series; and British illustrator James Jarvis' cast of characters, produced as vinyl figures of varying sizes.

What is Urban Vinyl?
Urban vinyl is a type of designer toy, featuring action figures in particular which are usually made of vinyl.

Although the term is sometimes used interchangeably with the term designer toy, it is more accurately used as a modifier: not all designer toys can be considered urban vinyl, while urban vinyl figures are necessarily designer toys, by virtue of the way in which they are produced. Like designer toys in general, urban vinyl figures feature original designs, small production numbers, and are highly sought-after by collectors, predominantly adults.

Michael Lau
The urban vinyl trend was initiated by artist Michael Lau, who first created urban vinyl figures in Hong Kong in the late 1990s.

Other well-known creators of urban vinyl figures are Japanese artist and designer Takashi Murakami whose work has been exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Australian designer Nathan Jurevicius's Scarygirl, based on characters from his comic of the same name, and produced in conjunction with Hong Kong company Flyingcat.

Designers
Urban vinyl figures are designed primarily by musicians, DJs, illustrators, and graffiti artists from urban areas in Asia (especially Japan and Hong Kong), North America (especially the United States), and Europe.

An offshoot of hip hop and youth-oriented popular culture, urban vinyl often depicts real-life figures from Asian and American culture, particularly artists who perform in a hip-hop or related styles. Noteworthy examples are Lau's depiction of the LMF rappers from Hong Kong, and figures based on the members of the virtual electronic band Gorillaz, produced by Jamie Hewlett and made by Kidrobot.

Toy Design
A toy may be designed entirely by a single artist, including the body, clothing, accessories, and paint applications, or one artist may create a sculpt for a figure and another artist may apply paint and other finishing details. Some pieces are a collaborative effort, with as many as 12 different artists contributing to the final design.

Eastern and Western Vinyl
Urban vinyl is commonly designated as either Eastern Vinyl, including anything designed and produced in Asia or Australia, or Western Vinyl, encompassing pieces which are designed and produced in North America, South America, or Europe. Urban vinyl figures have become highly collectible. Rare pieces may sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Plush or plastic?
Designer plush, a subcategory of designer toys, are soft, stuffed dolls created in limited quantities by artists and designers.

Common designs include anthropomorphized animals or fantastic human likenesses, although designer plush dolls often feature entirely unique character designs. Designer plush dolls are usually given names and personas, with their distinctive personalities described on their tags or in booklets included in their packaging.

Friends with you
One noteworthy producer of designer plush is Friends With You, a commercial art and design collective based in Miami, Florida.

Their work is characterized by a cute yet bizarre aesthetic, and exhibits a hand-made quality, even in pieces that are machine-made. In addition to their plush dolls, Friends With You also create modular wood toys, and motion graphics for companies such as Sony, MTV, Nike, and Columbia Records.

Ugly Dolls
Another significant contributor to the popularity of designer plush are Uglydolls, created by independent toy designers David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim under the label Pretty Ugly.

Their first products were 12" plush dolls based on drawings by David Horvath’s, and handmade by Sun-Min Kim. As a result of their commercial success, Pretty Ugly has also produced 7" versions of their character designs, called Little Uglys, 24" versions called Giant Uglys, 4" miniatures intended for use as keychains, and in a departure from the plush medium, 7" Vinyl Uglys.

Shawnimals
Aside from Uglydolls, there is another major player in the designer plush world known as Shawnimals.

Originating in Chicago, Illinois, Shawnimals have grown to be loved all over the world. With designs such as "Pocket Ninja", "Splug", and "Son of Moustachio", Shawnimals are a cute alternative to normal plush toys. Also, Shawnimals wil be releasing a line of micro-plush blind box toys under the name "NinjaTown". The characters involved all revolve around the ever-popular Wee Ninja. They will be available at most designer toy stores, and are manufactured through a well known designer toy store called Rotofugi.

More designer Plush
Other examples of designer plush include Hellhounds, created by Japanese character designer Touma and produced by Play Imaginative; the Gloomy Bear collection by Japanese graphic designer Mori Chack; the Furilla series by American artist Toren Orzeck; the Doudoupop brand by French designer Jamous; the Swedish Spök-spök brand by designer Daniel Svanberg, presently consisting of four characters named Spök-spök, Spökelina, Toofhairy, and the ever angry Baron von Kon, living in an ideal world that's a hybrid of fond childhood memories and traditional Swedish iconography; and Circus Punks, knockdown dolls (simple dolls with round, sand-filled bases used in carnival games) which are screen-printed and sewn by hand, each featuring a design by a different artist.

Mimoco Designer Consumer Electronics
A recent addition to the world of vinyl toys, Designer Consumer Electronics is a subcategory started by mimoco, whose mimobot Art Toy Flash Drives proved that there was a market for Urban Vinyl products with a purpose.

Like other platform art toys, there have been mimobot designs by a wide variety of artists, including Mori Chack, Sket One, Devilrobots and Jon Burgerman. The appeal of Designer Consumer Electronics in flash memory form tends to be the addition of a digital canvas, allowing affiliated artists to create much more in-depth characters, complete with animations, music, etc.

Designer Consumer Electronics are not limited to mimobots; in 2007, Medicom brought out a Be@rbrick USB Flash Drive, and Marka27 debuted their highly anticipated Mini Gods urban vinyl toy speakers.

Another very new product that is part of the designer electronic toy world is the nabaztag rabbit. It is a wi-fi capable toy rabbit that can read you stock quotes, emails, blogs, websites, etc.. The connection with the nabaztag to the designer toy world is the fact that there are "artist series" versions of the rabbit.

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