Designer Toy Awards 2012 — Toy of the Year
11.09.2012 by Roisin McGuire
Following up on our overview of the Artist Of The Year nominees, we come to the other top prize of this year's Designer Toy Awards — Toy Of The Year. Let's face it, this is THE prize to win, after all the awards is all about toys.The winner of this award is selected by The Board — a mysterious group, initiated on the basis of their expertise in the field. The Board is a select group of Designer Toy professionals - artists, producers, commentators and others - who bring a special expertise and perspective to choosing the winners. Meet The Board members here.
OK, before we start, we are going to be controversial... there are only two here that have any chance of winning. Will it be Ron or will it be Tara? But so as not to gloss over the others — all great in their own right, but overshadowed by the top two — let's go through the five nominees.
BENNY THE DREAMER by OKEDOKI (VTSS Toys)
This polystone resin figure, standing at an impressive 11.5" tall, limited to 200 figures worldwide, each including an actual embossed leather scarf accessory and coming encased in an immaculate laser-etched bamboo box with engraved metal plaque proclaiming the production number is an immaculate example of the toy as a collectable piece of limited edition art. It should win on the basis of "attention to detail" alone... but it won't as even with its many eyes (which makes it a bit creepy) it is just too damn cute.
SQUADT FROG S001 & K11 SPOT (SWAMP DWLLR) by FERG (Playge)
The name of this is daft and unless you know the world Ferg creates with his Squadt project this will just look odd and unfamiliar. Look more closely and you'll see the very well tailoring on the figure and his pet. Whilst the production and QC is probably second to none as a product it doesn't relate to anything other than itself. There is no comparison to be drawn here and nothing else to reference it against.
THE ICE SCREAM MAN by BRUTHERFORD (Brutherford Industries)
We all scream for ice cream... occasionally. It's an ice cream that's been dropped on the floor to never fulfill its purpose in life. Dead to the point its cream has turned into a skull. We all love skulls. Skulls are cool. They remind us of life and the inevitability of death and the preservation of our essence in its stripped down to the bare bones form. Long after we are gone, our skulls will remain, to be crushed under the foot of a cyborg robot. In that future, there will be no ice cream.
FAT TONY by RON ENGLISH (Garageworks Industries)
Ron has had a huge amount of presence across the vinyl toy world this past year, possibly too much and for some of The Board overactivity will be a reason to knock off points against this bad boy. Fat Tony, derived from his Cereal box intervention art pieces that were dotted around supermarket shelves making statements about the foodstuffs we feed our children in the name of "a healthy start to the day". The message is decent enough and has probably had an impact on the breakfast cereal market. If Ron has saved one kid from ADHD then his work is done.
THE ICE SCREAM MAN by BRUTHERFORD (Brutherford Industries)
We all scream for ice cream... occasionally. It's an ice cream that's been dropped on the floor to never fulfill its purpose in life. Dead to the point its cream has turned into a skull. We all love skulls. Skulls are cool. They remind us of life and the inevitability of death and the preservation of our essence in its stripped down to the bare bones form. Long after we are gone, our skulls will remain, to be crushed under the foot of a cyborg robot. In that future, there will be no ice cream.
FAT TONY by RON ENGLISH (Garageworks Industries)
Ron has had a huge amount of presence across the vinyl toy world this past year, possibly too much and for some of The Board overactivity will be a reason to knock off points against this bad boy. Fat Tony, derived from his Cereal box intervention art pieces that were dotted around supermarket shelves making statements about the foodstuffs we feed our children in the name of "a healthy start to the day". The message is decent enough and has probably had an impact on the breakfast cereal market. If Ron has saved one kid from ADHD then his work is done.
Ron prolific releases reflects him as an artist, a constant stream of ideas being realised into paintings, which in turn get turned into limited edition art products. There is no doubt Fat Tony is on point with the toy as art cross over, but will The Board say it is the hands down winner?
LILITU by TARA MCPHERSON (Kidrobot Black)
As part of the shadowy Kidrobot Black product line, a higher end art range whose minimal colour scheme means emphasis on sculptural quality, Tara McPherson released Lilitu. The female demon comes from ancient Jewish mythology — which makes all sorts of statements about empowered women and the danger of sexual promiscuity. Plucked from one of Tara's paintings and turned into a head turning piece of vinyl limited to just 200.
Its mix of matt and gloss black, a striking contrast to the firey red hair and emotionless eyes and the overall alluring intimacy put this way up there as an art toy for adults to collect.
The online buzz over this brought back a lot of attention to Kidrobot, where it had previously dwindled into a sphere of the same old Dunnys and endless licensed property as mini figures. Pieces like this are make or break for any company — fortunately Kidrobot were on to a winner. And that is where we place Lilitu — she will devour the competition!
So we have made our very first prediction... tell us what you think of this year's line-up in the comments below.
