The Future Is Vinyl

By: JOHN DENNING
Date: Saturday, September 23, 2006

After last week's overview of urban vinyl, it's time for a few case studies on where this post-modern toy industry is taking us. The more urban vinyl grows, the more it's going to collide with the traditional toy market and the two will have to try and reconcile with the best of both worlds to build a better toy.

This has already begun with Uglydolls. As the 2006 winner of "Best Specialty Toy" from the Toy Industry Association, Uglydolls have done their part to bring underground toys into the limelight. Like Michael Lau's Gardenergala, Uglydolls started as personalized art shared among friends, in this case, more than friends. The first Uglydolls were doodles in letters from David Horvath to his girlfriend Sun-Min Kim in Korea, which she then made into a plush figure as a gift for him. From there, the two created several more characters and marketed it to little designer toyshops. Sales expanded with vinyl versions of the characters, with new characters periodically introduced, and international media coverage. While collector uglydoll bottlecaps were being sold in Japan, the main character from the children's film Zathura was running around wearing an uglydoll T-shirt pretty much the whole movie. If the film had been as big as E.T. was for Reces Pieces, there wouldn't be a kid in the U.S. that didn't have an uglydoll hiding in his or her closet.

While the growth of toy companies into monstrous oligarchies has allowed for new lines of megatoys to spring up overnight, most of those companies started small. The difference is that toy companies got their break filling a niche in the toy market. Barbie grew up from little girls' desires to play with dolls that had adult proportions and G.I. Joe stepped in when little boys wanted dolls of their own. The modern market of designer toys, however, starts with a personalized aesthetic that earns a wider audience. Uglydolls is undeniably a success story for designer toys- and a charmingly romantic one for Kim and Horvath- but it's following a familiar path in the toy industry that's been laid down for decades.

The toy line itself is what earns a name and sells the product. While both David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim have other toy projects, these remain in a specialty market for collectors who enjoy the artist's work. Horvath's involvement in Kaiju for Grown-ups series is thoroughly rooted in the urban vinyl scene, with only 100 pieces of each Mothman design available, usually at convention events. Produce 10,000 more and put "From the co-creator of Uglydolls" in big print on the front of the package, and see if they don't take off. Although Uglydolls are a victory of traditional toy marketing, it's a different sort of name recognition set to change the way people buy toys.

A while back there was a debate about printing the names of the sculptor or modeler of action figures on the packages. Many collectors and artists in the industry were active proponents for the change. Much like journalist bylines redefined journalism by making the journalist part of the story, making the modeler part of the marketing would empower the artist. Not surprisingly, the idea didn't catch on with larger toy companies, whose financial interests were better tied to the brand name rather than their employees. Urban vinyl and designer toys, however, can take advantage of their grassroots nature and continue to keep the artist's name at the forefront.

One of the great examples of this is Pete Fowler. As a freelance illustrator, he's done work in a number of different markets, including his more noteworthy album covers and music video

animations with the band Super Furry Animals. His work remains distinctive in whatever form it takes as, like other recognized designers, he puts his mark on everything from stationary sets to drink coasters. Monsterism, his own created world of colorful characters, has its own animations on his website at www.monsterism.net, and the toys have run the range from mini fun boxes to the giant-sized Snorse. The world even has its own soundtrack available on amazon.com. Pete Fowler has run every avenue that designer toys has spread through and made his name the selling point. While he is still very much an underground artist, creators like this would need only one animated series or film to hit a worldwide audience that's fixated on moving pictures.
When a kid walks into a toy store, it's likely the first words out of his mouth will be exclamations of their favorite brands, with cries of "Spongebob!" and "Look, mom, Star Wars!" Toy companies usually know what they are doing when marketing to children, and firmly installing your logo in their minds is the quickest way to inspire that "have to have it" response a business is looking for. Already adult toy collectors are seeking out figures based on their designer, whether it's the overt styling of urban vinyl or doing a little research to find out who sculpted your favorite figure from DC Direct. Designer toys and all the peripheral art connected with it are making the artists the key selling point, and the first one to make their name and their brand equally popular is bound to surpass the sales of any other toys in recent history.
We started this two-part column on urban vinyl suggesting that toys and comics are parallel in many degrees. If you consider how companies like DC and Marvel have finally begun to sign writers and artists to exclusive contracts, you'll see that name recognition has become a driving force in the industry. With the highest comic sales going to the titles that have the most popular characters merged with an acclaimed creative team, how long will it take for the toy industry to do the same? It's a comforting thought to think that some day kids may be informed enough to enter a toy store and say, "Look, mom, Pete Fowler's Monsterism!" and not just insist on getting their favorite character, but their favorite artist, too.