Toy links
Todd McFarlane changes another industry.
“Anybody coulda painted their toys like I did. There’s nothing that prevented any company for the last 50 years, prior to my entry, that stopped anybody from painting them, sculpting them or designing them the same way.” (YouTube, 41:10)
Tags: Interviews, McFarlane, video
Toy links
Jordan Butler, toy sculptor.
“One of the hardest things is interpreting a 2-dimensional figure into 3D space.”
Tags: article, designer, McFarlane
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Toys as collectibles.
“To me they’re a form of art … The attention to detail and the creativity. I would say they’re not too far off from sculpture or what’s considered ‘proper’ art.”
Toy links
McFarlane: artist as toy brand.
“Toys didn’t typically have creator names attached to them before he got into the hustle, so he became the industry’s first — and greatest — auteur.”
Toy links
McFarlane on the toy industry today.
“… I’m starting to see just a little bit of a pull-back now in some of the big companies, of doing some of the tricks that they were doing 20 years ago to save a nickel, that to me eats away at the quality of the product to the consumer.”
Tags: article, Interviews, McFarlane
Toy links
The 20-year-rule.
“Typically, about two decades after a particular toy is popular, the kids who played with it have become adults with a yearning to recapture their youth.”
Tags: article
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Adults at play.
“Toy companies have picked up on this trend and are digging through archives and vaults to produce new spins on properties that were popular in the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and early 2000s.”
Tags: article
Toy links
Plastic fantastic.
“What collectors are looking to find is something that represents themselves. When an artist produces a toy, it’s a piece of their soul …”
Toy links
On toy collecting.
“Humans have collected since the dawn of time … Our tendency to forget leads us to seek out tokens or memorials of experiences that have had a significant impact on our lives.” (See also.)
Tags: article
Toy links
Istanbul’s Toy Museum.
“Toys are a witness to their time. You see the history of humanity in a toy museum, from architecture to the conquest of space, from the Industrial Revolution to fashion.”