Toys.
The word seems to change a bit as people grow with it.
One moment it refers to stuffed animals and dollhouses, the next action figures and Barbies, and then it becomes electronics and gadgets like Ipods and laptops then cars and even gas grills.
People are always looking for new pieces to add to their collections, and the latest phase of the collectible chameleon plays on that.
Designer vinyl toys, also known as artist toys, are reminiscent of toys from childhood and have been compared to the prizes that come in McDonald’s Happy Meals, according to George Lamontagne, senior in graphic and industrial design. He said many people compare the two because they have the same feel and smell, but according to Lamontagne, artist toys are more like fine art.
“In a way they are more like paintings than they are G.I.Joes. As a kid you play with these little action figures like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the G.I.Joe stuff, and it’s like that only in the fact that it’s made out of a similar material,” Lamontagne said. “You put [artists toys] on a shelf and you look at them. You don’t really interact with them much for fear of damaging them really.”
Lamontagne was first exposed to designer vinyl during a project for Tony Brock, one of his design professors, the first semester of his junior year. He was supposed to design packaging for a toy that he created, and he decided it would be a better project if he actually made his own toy.
Brock suggested that any student interested in making their own toy check out what was already on the market at Wootini, a store in historic Carr Mill Mall in Chapel Hill.
According to their Web site, Wootini specializes in three dimensional art, such as designer vinyl, and also acts as a gallery, holding in-store showings of local artists’ work.
Casey Robertson said he was a customer and exhibiting artist before he becoming an employee at Wootini, and credits the store for getting him interested in designer vinyl.
“I happened into [the store] and had noticed that there was a figure or two that were designed by graffiti artists that I liked,” Robertson said. “So I was like, ‘wow I’ve never seen that’ so I picked up a toy and then it sort of started from there.”
Lamontagne said his first foray into Wootini did it for him as well. Since his first exposure to designer vinyl he has begun to learn more about the toys, and the artists behind them.
“I’ve sort of just started discovering artists,” he said. “I collected the Damon Soule series, the InVentsville stuff, a lot, but pretty much any series of Dunnys is going to excite me because the Dunny is a pretty simple shape. But I like the fact that they get these series together and all these artists have sort of a common thread.”
He referred to the latest set he collected, the Dunny Azteca series, which was done by a group of Mexican artists. He said he loved how a person could collect a group of toys that look like they go together, but all have their own individual characteristics.
According to Robertson, the artist toy craze has caught on, but may not be catching up.
“It’s caught on in the sense that a lot of people are aware of it. I don’t think too many people really have a lot of personal interest in it,” he said. “Some people are really into it and some people just don’t get it at all. So it’s kind of a really varied response.”
And Robertson said even those just beginning to collect already have an idea of what they want.
“There are so many different characters and so many different personalities when it comes to the collectibles that people sort of almost find their own path when it comes to what they want to collect,” he said.
Lamontagne said he thinks the toys will grow to be more popular in the upcoming years, because they have already started selling them in more fairly mainstream places, such as Urban Outfitters.
“That’s the direction people will go in the future because it has collectibility and it has aesthetics and overall they are just fun,” he said. “I think that’s sort of the key.”
