Designer toys is a term used to describe toys and other collectibles that are produced in limited editions and created by artists and design. They are a new platform for affordable Art & Design and have been embraced not only by geeks and kidults but also the mainstream.
Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines a kidult as: ‘an adult who like doing or buying thing that are intended for children. (Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 1991)
There is a very strong relationship between geeks, kidults and toys. The embrace of geekdom accelerated towards the end of the nineties with the digital revolution (The Electronic Beats, March 2008, p.48) and, about the same time, the first designer toys appeared. (Crawford, 2005, Introduction)
Collecting unrealistic figurines of their favourite super heroes and cartoon characters is one of the peculiarities of geeks. Jeremy from Jeremyville is an artist, toy designer, an animator and a self-proclaimed geek. This geek has collaborated with MTV, Coca Cola, Lego, Converse, Adidas, etc. Too good to be true for a geek? When I asked whether he saw himself as an outsider or an insider on an email interview on 04 May 2010 he answered:
I always have been the weird kid ever since I was a child, playing with Lego, model airplanes, spending hours commanding an army of toy soldiers in my bedroom with the curtains closed. Today I’m the result of that misspent childhood...I love weird people, freaks, outsiders, geeks, difference. I’m still a geek. I’ve just learnt to fake ‘normal. (Ville, 04 May 2010)
And if it was mainly graphic designers and illustrators who worked with this new form of art, fashion designers have recently shown their interests in them as well.
A Karl Lagerfeld toy
A set of Bearbrick by Tokidoki
A set of Bearbrick by Anna Sui
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