I Am Plastic: The Designer Toy Explosion

by Paul Budnitz

In barely a decade, the designer toy craze, which originated in Hong Kong, has taken the world by storm. Children and adults, celebrities and design aficionados now line up to pay anywhere from five dollars to thousands of dollars for these highly inventive designer creations.

I Am Plastic provides a colorful visual history of the phenomenon, which has energized not only the toy world but the global art community as well. Fashion designers, comic book artists, underground illustrators, graffiti and fine artists now lend their creativity to the task of coming up with innovative and striking new toy designs. Artists and toys featured in this stunning overview include Frank Kozik, Dalek, Gary Baseman, Bounty Hunter, Junko Mizuno, Jason Siu, Devilrobots, and Pete Fowler.

Genres: Art, Design, Nonfiction, Art Design

368 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2006

Reviews

[Dee Shihab · Rating 5 out of 5]

A visual history of vinyl toys. Nothing to read in this book, only pictures. If you like vinyl toys, specially the DIY ones, this book can inspire you with your design work.

[Vidura Barrios · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to designer toys.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly just pictures

[Elaine Meszaros · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was kind of vaguely aware of designer toys, having been dragged through numerous comic shops by friends. However, the "figurines" from popular comics cannot compare to these pricey gems. Divided by designer, I Am Plastic showcases some of the fantastic and bizarre creations from companies across the globe. Created in tiny batches (hundreds at most) and with painstaking detailing, each of these "toys" costs a small fortune. Often based on nothing more than an artists imagination, the designs run from smoking bunnies, unhappy tofu driving cars, teddy bears attacking people, and anthropomorphic beings of all sorts. Creepy, funny and crazy stuff.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possibly the greatest collection of designer toys EVER! This book is great to get the creative juices flowing and requires regular revisitation purely for enjoyment. There's a toy in this book for EVERYONE!

[Neko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well worth picking up if you're into toy collecting. The vinyl craze has been around for a while now so this book is great to go back and look at some of the older toys from when vinyl was just lifting off in a big way.

[Mary]

This was a gift from Beulah and Justin.

[PJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mind-boggling array of toy figurines in delicious techni-colour; wonderful coffee table book for people who love individualistic toys.

[Captain Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

an amazing array of vinyl toys made by kidrobot! very cool!

[Bobby Dixon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect.

[Marc Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

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