| View Larger Image | I Am Plastic: The Designer Toy Explosion | Hardcoverby Paul Budnitz (Author)
| List Price: | $40.00 | | Price: | $26.40 | | You Save: | $13.60 (34%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | "Harry N. Abrams, Inc." | | Edition: | First Editionth Edition | | Page Count: | 368 Pages | | Publication Date: | November 01, 2006 | | Sales Rank: | 77,205th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
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. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 17 reviews)
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Awesomely Artful Toys by Shelly (Australia)  5 Stars
October 09, 2009
This wonderful book is a visual exploration of the designer toy phenomenon. Starting in Hong Kong and Japan in the latter half of the 1990s; the movement has since spread around the world like wildfire, with artists working in Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. Artists and designers from various creative backgrounds have all contributed to this fresh and exiting contemporary arts movement; from comic book artists and underground illustrators to graffiti artists and those with a background in the so called fine arts, it is indeed a diverse and vibrant phenomenon. Coming in two basic forms; vinyl figures and plush toys, a bewildering variety of objects have been created that cater for all tastes... wood, resin, metal, cloth and latex designer toys are also occasionally made. On first glance many people would assume that they are just silly toys, but the closer one looks, the more one starts to appreciate that they are truly unique artistic creations; so don't let the fact that they are colourful, stylized and plastic fool you!
Made in relatively small numbers of anywhere between as few as 10 or even as many as 2000; they are highly sought after by the serious collector, and quickly become rare and desirable objects. Many designer toys also come in a selection of different colourways; also of limited runs of anywhere between 20 and 500 at most, and vinyl figures are made in a wide range of shapes and sizes too with some as small as 2 inches and others as large as 12 inches. For me vinyl figures especially appeal to my artistic sensibilities with their playful sculptural quality, and very postmodern sense of aesthetics, I also totally love the fact that they blur the line between what is traditionally considered highbrow and lowbrow art. Many designer toys play on the cute factor, but also have a darker edge, and others still challenge ones sense of what is considered to be beautiful or tasteful. Most of the toys are given a detailed back-story and history that greatly adds to their appeal; and in many instances there will be a related cast of characters as well, or slightly different variations on the same character. Although none are included in this book; three such examples are the two Scavenger Series by Kathie Olivas, Dave Pressler's two WWII inspired German and Soviet Angry Clobber Monkey's and Andrew Bell's confrontingly pessimistic The Giver of War and The Giver of Disease. An example that is included in this book is the Minitreehouse Series; created by the brilliant Australian artist Nathan Jurevicius, who is now based in Toronto Canada.
After barely more than a decade now the designer toy movement is still going as strong as ever; with more and more artists creating their own distinctive vinyl figures or plushies, which will make fans and aficionados very happy indeed! My only nagging fear is that large toy making or entertainment corporations might cotton on and try to muscle in on this phenomenon; and thus squeeze out the independent artists that have made this vibrant movement what it is today, but hopefully that is an unlikely scenario. Another name for designer toys; and vinyl figures in particular is "urban vinyl" with this term being influenced by the fact that many artists are inspired by hip hop culture, and that most of these artists, and those who collect their creations are trendy urbanites. Paul Budnitz's wonderfully cool book covers the work of many artists from all over the globe right up until the date of its publication (2006) there is also a short introduction in the first few pages that succinctly explains what designer toys are all about; and the rest of the book is taken up by a dazzling full colour portfolio that is categorized by region, and then by artist or company. The details of each artist or maker are included on the top left hand corner of every few pages, that provides important info and even websites. I also really hope that at some future date a revised and expanded edition might be published; or even better an I Am Plastic: Volume Two, especially considering how many new toys have been made in the intervening years. I Am Plastic: The Designer Toy Explosion is an amazing visual exploration of the designer toy phenomenon that will be valued for many years to come by collectors and artists alike; so if you are hip enough to appreciate the aesthetics of this fascinating postmodernist art form, this sumptuous coffee table book should definitely be on your wishlist.
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Enchanted by I Am Plastic by Laurentiu Todie (New York) 5 Stars
July 09, 2009
In an ideal world I would've bought the toys;
the way things are, the book is an inspired and inspiring substitute for a large collection that I cannot afford yet.
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Great one for any collector by G. Morton  4 Stars
June 26, 2008
This is a very very good book for any vinyl lover or collector, It's got so many examples shown. Only thing I would have liked better is more detail on many of the vinyls listed. This book is mostly pictures with only just a lil info on each. It would have been nice to have more info on many of them but still overall a wonderful book.
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I am plastic and spare by M. T. Montelibano (Alexandria, VA)  3 Stars
June 02, 2008
I was hoping this book would give me a little insight into the world of the designer toy. Instead, I got a pictorial, not a book...not a word of explanation, just pictures of the various toys. Too bad - it would have been more enlightening if the author included even bullet descriptions of the provenance of such toys: why are they called designer toys, when did this phenomenon start, where is it a craze, will it continue to be a craze and what makes one toy a hit and one not. This short review has more words than you'll ever read in the book.
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Great book by A. Holzmeist (Brasil) 5 Stars
December 28, 2007
one of the best toy art books around, lots of designs, this book is a must have
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