So … I just found out that I won this PRIZE! It’s the brand new, limited edition (only 131 produced) mechin 31 BUD from jamungo. In case you didn’t know, Jamungo is a designer toy company, and the BUD was their first release, followed closely by the NADE. At any rate, the prize is one of the new BUD toys, accompanied by a limited edition print. So I’m stoked.

To be honest, I’m not sure that I get the whole designer toy thing that is going on. It would be hard to say that it’s not a movement. I have been critical of Juxtapoz magazine for devoting too much space to these things, and not enough to the other art that they built the magazine on, but since they have gone to monthly issues, it seems like they have eased down on the toy focus. Maybe.

I admit to being curious about the whole toy thing, and have been going to toy sites for several months, trying to feel out the pulse. It seems to go something like this:

1. There is a huge market of people who like to collect things. These people are “hip” and don’t want to collect crap porcelain figurines. These people have money to spend to continue being “hip”.

2. Somehow some toy artists figured this out, probably based on the fact that thost weird Spawn figurines were selling. So, they made the opposite of highly detailed toys: like the Dunny, and the Qee. Toys that were so non-descript that anyone could customize them.

3. The toy guys got some “high profile” artists to do designs, they sold, the rest is history… on that end.

The thing I still don’t get is the seemingly unending amount of other toys that seem to be based on very obscure comics, wacky ideas, and ??? I don’t understand how or why they sell. There must be some kind of undercurrent to the whole thing, telling people what is cool, what is coming up, and really jamming the concept that everything is limited edition and therefore awesome. Maybe it’s more Beany-Baby Bullshit. Maybe not. I guess I’ll know when I get my prize.