Designer Toys

Designer toys are a complex world to dive into, and even more complex and bemusing to explain easily. My name is Nick, and I am the human behind Toy Art UK - the one who makes the choices that affect others every day. I want to tell you all what designer toys are to me, and you can take from this what you will - I can promise to be honest but I can’t promise that we will agree if you already have an idea in your mind about designer toys.

My first encounter with designer toys was when my partner bought me a small blind box figure which she knew I would like, truly knows me better than I know myself - which isn’t always a good thing. It was a Blind Boxed 2.5” Phalanx Creative 2006 Nanospore Bean HEP series by Ben Lee and Paul Hwang, and I was curious, it made no sense and that made me smile - the fact that an artist had taken the time to create something like this intrigued me and I needed to find out more.

This is probably the first time I heard references to vinyl being anything other than a record, and it got confusing very quickly as I started to realise that designer toys could (and should) be made from many different kind of material, predominantly vinyl but resin other materials play a strong part in designer toy productions as well. Then I discovered that (similar to pieces of art) designer toys would regularly be available as either one offs or as limited edition numbered runs, often never to be remade in certain colour ways or finishes.

And this is where the value started to become apparent, your favourite designer toy artist creating one offs or short runs adds a value to the piece you want to find and buy. Often group shows around these designer toys short runs would be themed and multiple artists work around that central theme to create their own unique version of that designer toy platform. A designer toy platform is a designer toy which has been created purely for artists to work on and customise, a 3D canvas.

I am adding to this as time goes along, come back soon - Nick

Also, if you think there is something I need to add to this page then please get in touch using the form HERE or in the usual way on Instagram, link is at the bottom of this website.